I admit it. I listen to National Public Radio. I enjoy Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, Whad'ya Know? and, of course, This American Life. Last week, I was listening to the This American Life podcast entitled "Bait & Switch" (#233). Around the 33:30 mark, Ira Glass (the host), introduces the topic of what he calls "Bait & Switch for Jesus". It begins with an interview with Dave Dickerson, who grew up in an evangelical Christian home and was involved in Campus Crusade for Christ as a college student. Dickerson recounts an experience on Spring Break in California with Campus Crusade and an outreach event that he participated in. He also discussed the use of surveys to generate evangelistic conversations. Dickerson's description of these experiences may be somewhat characteristic of how people perceive initiative evangelism, but I don't necessarily think that it's the best picture of what we do within our ministries with Campus Crusade. But, I'll get back to that in just a second.
The second half of this segment was an interview with a guy named Jim Henderson who is helping forge a movement called "Doable Evangelism" which he describes as teaching Christians how to interact more normally with others and to stop being jerks. Much of what he shared about being in relationships with people who are not Christians, listening to people, watching them, asking engaging questions, etc are things I can agree with. He even says at one point that the Great Commission is a command to make disciples, not just converts. I agree with that too. What I'm concerned about is the turn from bold proclamation of the gospel to "letting our lives speak for themselves". Ira Glass even suggests that what Jim Henderson is advocating is "all bait and no switch".
Now, back to my original thought and how this all ties together for me in my personal experience with evangelism. I didn't grow up in the church. I did grow up in the Bible belt. When I was in 5th and 6th grade, there were lots of kids coming to school talking about how they "walked the aisle, prayed the prayer and got saved". None of this really made sense to me. I didn't understand what they were being saved from and no one really explained it to me when I asked. Besides, I was a good kid, an excellent student and assumed that all was well with me and my life. I didn't need to be "saved". At some point for me, this developed into the belief that there must not really be a God and if there is, he's just there on the periphery doing his own thing. I was surrounded by people who were Christians, who may have been witnessing to me by simply living their lives for God, but all I saw in their lives was the works they were doing to be accepted. How were they really any different than me?
My sophomore year in high school, I was working on a project for the Foreign Language Club (yes, I was that kid) with a new friend named Amanda. Her life seemed genuinely different. She engaged me in conversations, asked me questions about my background, dug in to get to know me well. She listened to me and what was going on in my life and made a genuine effort to be a good friend. I met her family, saw how they interacted with one another and thought they were all great people. I had boiled Christians down to just being people who went to church and followed what they thought was the right list of rules. I had also met my fair share of hypocritical people who went to church on Sunday but didn't give a second thought to God the rest of the week and were some of the meanest kids in school, doing the worst stuff, breaking the most rules. It seemed like Amanda's God was different than the one I had perceived and that these other kids at school were experiencing. But I would never have understood that if Amanda had never given voice to the truth of the gospel. I would have always assumed that she was just being "good" and holding to a standard that we might all try to achieve but never could. My understanding of God changed when Amanda took the time to actually explain the message of the gospel to me. As Amanda shared with me that God wants to have a relationship with us as His children and that Jesus Christ came to die for my sins so that I could experience that, it seemed plausible because of the way I had seen it fleshed out in her life. The vocalization of the gospel made sense because I saw first hand, in the context of a relationship, how God had worked in Amanda's life.
I often hear people spout off the quote that is credited to St. Francis of Assisi, "Preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words." In relation to evangelism these people want to believe that it's enough to just live out their faith in front of other people. I don't think that's true. I know for me, it wasn't. In Romans 10:14-15 (ESV), Paul says this:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"The implication here is obvious to me. People need to hear the gospel. We need to be willing to share it. Will it at times create discomfort in our relationships? Yes. Will it at times cause us to feel alienated and awkward? Yes. But are we, as Christians, called by God to do it? Yes. And will God supply our every need through it through the Holy Spirit? Yes.
Campus Crusade for Christ's definition of successful evangelism is "taking the initiative to share the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God." I want to be obedient to Jesus' command to go and make disciples of all the nations. I want to have beautiful feet. I do want to live out my faith in front of those who are not Christians, I do want to have friendships with those people, but I want to give voice to why my life is different and not just leave it to them to figure it out on their own.
I want to close this post with a few thoughts about how Jesus did evangelism. I'm studying the book of John this year in Bible Study Fellowship and so far we've seen several examples of Jesus' interactions with people. Jesus felt compassion for people. Jesus initiated with people. Jesus engaged with people. He wasn't just concerned about meeting their spiritual need, He also showed concern for their emotional and physical well being. John 4:1-30 is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well whom Jesus chose to address (which was completely counter cultural and shocking to even his disciples). He saw her and understood her need and acted in compassion by initiating a conversation with her in which He engaged her understanding of the Messiah and of God. He asked open ended questions, but He led the conversation. Finally, He shared with her that He had the source of life (living waters) that would quench her thirst and meet her needs. She asked how she could have this water so that she wouldn't have to draw from the well anymore indicating she didn't quite get it, so he continued to engage with her. He showed great patience in his conversation with her. And he explained again and revealed Himself as the Messiah she sought.
I pray that as I pursue this calling to full time ministry that God would give me a heart that feels compassion, initiates with the lost and engages in conversations that allow people to hear the truth of the Gospel.
***Disclaimer - Additionally, although I work for Campus Crusade for Christ and love it, this blog and it's contents do not necessarily reflect the corporate views of CCC, and are not intended to. ***
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