Exploding Evangelism Myths in the Local Church
Steve Sjogren
Myth “Only a very small percentage of believers have the gift of evangelism.”
“You don’t get it – I don’t have that gift!”
Those were the words of a guy who said he was an introvert and didn’t have it “in him” to reach out to anyone. I gave him a list that I have with me at all times of 10 practical projects any total introvert can do by simply showing some practical care and saying, “This is to show you God’s love in a practical way.” Still he wouldn’t hear of it. He had mentally and emotionally excused himself from ever again breaking free from his self-imposed handcuffs that kept him looking inward.
The idea that only a small percentage of people feel called to do evangelism has everything to do with the outlandish, complicated and often scary models of outreach / evangelism that have been put upon people in this generation and in the past couple of generations. This is tragic and even sinful. Why? Because something that is so close to the heart of Jesus – that those who don’t yet belong to Jesus’ family are being repelled, are not being invited, because the models that are being tossed out there for “us” to follow after are so non-reproducible – that we almost need to be of a high IQ, we need high verbal skills, we need to have the gift of arguing, we need to be theologically adept… on it goes.
Here’s a simple idea: What if we were to take the words of Jesus literally. When he said time after time, “Do as I do” and put them into practice. Instead of wearing on our wrists a WWJD bracelet we go a step further – we get a tattoo for permanency of “WIJD.”
… that is, “What IS Jesus Doing?”
That question is one that we can live around the rest of our days, every waking moment. It is not a call to mere discussion which leads no where, but a call to immediate action. It is a call to live differently by the directing of Spirit of God who dwells within us all our days.
As we say in our motto at CoastlandTampa, “See a need and meet it, feel a hurt and heal it!” Usually God will speak to us in profound ways as our spiritual radar is turned on and we simply “notice” what is going on around us. I went for years, to be honest, without noticing much of anything, or any needs around me. No longer! I was at a Starbucks recently on my way to speak at a church on a Sunday morning. I had just enough time to pick up a venti sized dark blend with two Splendas – just the way I like it! As their cashiers always ask, she said, “Would you like anything else?”
I smiled and said, “Why yes – I’m paying for these people’s drinks whatever they are getting…”
The two people behind me were looking down. Suddenly they looked up with a shocked look on their faces. They said as almost everyone does in that situation, “You don’t have to do that – we can pay for our own…”
“Of course you can – I want to buy your coffee drinks and something else from the pastry case on top of that as well to show you God’s love in a practical way. God’s love isn’t something that is read about any longer – it is something that is experienced… If Jesus were in town today I’m convinced he would be right here in Starbucks buying people coffee drinks.”
At that I was shocked at the response. Picture the scene here. ALL of the employees were listening intently. The next 5 people behind the couple were engrossed at my offer. But then… the woman began to weep profusely. I’m talking tears SHOOTING off of her face, snot running down – the whole nine yards… I spontaneously placed my hand on her back and asked, “Are you okay lady?” Between sobs she managed to get out the words, “Last night… my daughter … my only child… 21… went to a party … took some ecstasy … died on the spot.” “We’re here to plan here funeral…” By this time those who couldn’t quite hear all that she had told me perhaps thought I had done something horrible to her. I prayed a “ten second prayer” for her – anything more would have been overboard. If you had been there you would agree. I gave her the card of the very cool, friendly, outward-focused church I was speaking at. They gave me their phone number and email. I passed it on to the pastors there. Now, some time later, this couple is attending the church. They are very close to coming to Jesus.
The above is a picture of someone, even as think-skulled as me, picking up on an invitation, and going for it.
OBSERVATION:
There is no mention – anywhere – in the scriptures of the “gift of evangelism”.
I’ve mentioned this insight a few times while teaching. I’ve also had numbers of livid people come up afterwards waving their gigantic chain reference bibles in my face making “tisk tisk” sounds and saying, “Were you ever trained anywhere in biblical studies? Of course there is a gift of evangelism… EVERYONE knows that! I’ll show you right here…” Then they start flipping through pages. And they flip through more pages… on they continue. Finally they either slip away quietly or they actually admit to me that there are no such verses.
Granted, there is an office of evangelism, IE, there are bona fide “Evangelists” mentioned in scripture (Eph. 4). Those people speak and in so doing “equip the saints” – the regular non-office gifted people – to do the work of the ministry. As someone like Billy Graham, Luis Palau, etc. speak, a good part of the overflow of what they accomplish is that people in attendance begin to believe, “Hey, this stuff isn’t that difficult… I can do this.” I spent an hour on the phone yesterday with one of the above mentioned ministries planning as to how their group and my group could work together to simplify and encourage people in the concept of outreach when their group comes to various cities next year as workers are trained. They will walk away from these events convinced more deeply than ever that they can change the world by serving their way into other’s hearts.
As evangelists speak, tell stories, bring the authenticity of their own lives down to a realistic level, they cause people to believe that something significant is going to happen through “little ‘ol me” – that something very good is just around the corner. They build anticipation into people’s hearts on a large scale.
How do you spell faith? A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N!
