Evangelism, the word that fills people with anxiety and fear. And this World Racer turned evangelist is no different. I had made it through 10 months of The World Race without having to evangelize. This month the time has finally come to face the music. To my surprise the music, or fruit, has been incredible, and dare I say I have actually enjoyed it.
When you say the word Evangelist we all immediately get a picture of what that means. For some it may be Billy Graham, one of the biggest evangelists, outside of Jesus, in history. And for others we think of hateful signs held by people who are trying to scare people into heaven. I found myself leaning more towards the idea of signs and megaphones than I did loving men of God. I hated evangelism for that exact reason that so many others do. It is because of an unfair, and unjust idea of what the media and my mind has painted evangelists out to be. I came into this month with the idea that Evangelists are selfish and prideful people, who only care about filling a church rather than filling peoples souls. Thank you God, I was wrong!
My team of 7 is working with a Pastor, his family, and men from the church this month. We are traveling into the surrounding villages around Mzuzu, Malawi to share the love of God. I was pretty hesitant at the beginning of the month but it has been a huge blessing, and it is all because of the people around me. I imagined the people we were evangelizing with to be insensitive, angry, and aggressive, but that is not the case at all. The people that are around me this month are some of the kindest, gentlest, most compassionate people I may have ever met, and they love to mess around and laugh. They start off by asking if it is ok that we talk about Jesus and only when they have agreed do we share anything with them.
When we are sitting on the porches and the chairs talking to the people of these communities you can feel love. The way we share with them about what God has done in our lives is evidence of that. I was very unsure of how to share with people about Jesus. I had never done it before and I didn’t want to anyway, then it hit me. The reason I dislike evangelists is because I always viewed them as really bad salesman. A salesman who is trying to fill a quota and could care less about who he is selling to. I decided to do the exact opposite and make people feel loved.
I start off by sharing about my story and the redemption and forgiveness of God. I don’t want people to feel like I am above them. Instead, I want people to realize we are all equal and one family under God. In order to do this I had to share with them some pretty horrible things about my story. I had to share about my struggles with anger and lust. And I even went as far sharing about my battle with depression and suicide.
It was incredibly difficult, but by the end of it they saw me as a person. A person who has made a lot of mistakes and is a new person now because of Jesus. When I accepted Jesus things didn’t just change over night, or over a year for that matter. But I now had a friend to walk along side me in it. And through that friendship and counseling in his love, I was able to walk away from a lot of those things.
Being vulnerable is one of the hardest things to do in life, but for me it is the key to proper evangelism.
I don’t want people to feel like I don’t understand the struggle of, well, struggling. I wrote the book on discouragement and inadequacy. But Jesus illustrated it in a way that it could still be used for his glory.
Evangelism is a scary thing and it is a big responsibility. We are sharing with people about Jesus and than allowing ourselves to be there first glimpse of what this new life looks like. We can show them that it is full of love, peace, and joy. Or we can show them that it is full of condemnation, hierarchy, and assertiveness. There is a time and place for evangelism. When it is done right you are literally delivering a new life, and the love, joy, and peace that comes along with that, to someones door in the form of an example. No sermon or podcast has the ability to do that. Evangelism is a scary responsibility, but it is a responsibility that God has equipped each of us to do.
