Ok this blog is going to be all over the place, so follow
along if you wish…haha and PLEASE, don’t be offended or take this the wrong
way…
*disclaimer* I think
door-to-door evangelism is amazing! I have seen AMAZING things happen through
them!! Please don’t misunderstand me!
visits and some door-to-door ministry. It’s nice, especially when we go to a
person’s house that is from the church, because we are going there to encourage them. Other times, we go to
families houses that do not go to church, or they go to a different church.
Then we are expected to convert them over to Christianity and to go to our
church. This is so tough, because where is the conversations supposed to go if
we are just trying to convert them or bring them to the church we go to? The
guy we went with today was set on reading from a tract. The people at the door
said they were Catholic and believed that Jesus was their savior, yet we still
read off the tract. Why can’t we just LOVE on them?
Let’s take Jesus for example.
Luke 19: 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus,
come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came
down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to
mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the
Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and
if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the
amount.”9 Jesus
said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For
the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Now for this EXACT
situation did:
1. Jesus going from door to door? No, He was just walking
through town.
2. Jesus go to EVERY person? No, He only did what God told Him to do (John
5:19- “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by
himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the
Father does the Son also does.)
3. Jesus read a tract, rebuke, or tell him what to do? No, JESUS LOVED ON HIM and that is what brought Zaccheaus to salvation. He was
building RELATIONSHIP.
Now please hear me out! I don’t think door-to-door
evangelism is wrong, it just needs to be done out of love and a desire to build
a genuine RELATIONSHIP with them. Tracts are not wrong either, but instead of
just giving someone a tract and walking off, how about we BUILD A RELATIONSHIP
WITH THEM!! Yes, you will not see hundreds ‘won to Christ’ in one day, you will
probably see one or two, but then you will have the opportunity do DISCIPLE them.
The Great Commission…Matthew 28 18 Then
Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.”
That said make disciples, not just converts. Again, hear me
out! Converts are not ‘bad’…it’s just that we cannot leave it at that, we need
to disciple (teach/train) them what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. And
a little heads up: being a disciple of Jesus is NOT
EASY! For the first disciples of Jesus, most of them were killed by
other people because of loving Jesus. Stephen was killed by people throwing
massive stones at him. (Acts 7:58) He was the first martyr for believing in
Jesus Christ. Is that easy? No way. Check out this site to find out more: http://www.persecution.com/ (the voice
of the martyrs)
Please hear me out, I don’t think evangelism to random
people is wrong; they just need to be plugged into somewhere (a church) or someone,
so that they can be discipled (trained) and taught about Jesus. Does this make
sense? If you have questions or anything, please ask away. This is just one
perspective of this ‘topic.’ Ugh, please don’t be offended by what I said. This
is what I’m learning and how I
understand it right now.
