Thinking about evangelism

From my perspective, the place to start for evangelism is to think about the difference Jesus Christ makes in my own life. I know that doesn’t sound much like a program or a method, and it isn’t. What does Jesus mean to me? Who is Jesus Christ to me? That’s not as easy to put into words as some might think, I expect, but I believe it is really the basis for our own capacity to share a personal faith with someone else. One of the great things about this emphasis is, each Christian is already an authority on what that relationship is like for him/herself.

A second thought (and I’m leaning heavily on Jim Henderson’s book Evangelism Without Additives for this) is that since God calls us individually, we’re expected to be ourselves, not somebody else. We each have gifts for ministry – some can talk about their faith freely, while others are better at making a covered dish for a bereaved family. Henderson talks about “ordinary attempts” at giving witness, in other words, simply making time for other people, especially those who have no apparent relationship with Christ or the church. It’s not about what we say as much as it is about paying attention to folks and being ourselves (as Christ’s disciples).

Another related idea is that faith-sharing occurs most effectively in the context of a genuine relationship . We don’t make friends with the ulterior motive of “winning them for Jesus,” but we make friends (as Jesus himself did) in order to be friends, and to demonstrate the Christian life in the context of that friendship. It’s rare that we can argue or debate people into Christianity; but we do have a chance to love them into it.