Evangelism
Romans 1: 1 – 5 “This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.” – NLT
One of the five areas of our focused mission this year is to serve others. One of the ways in which we are willing to serve others is when we are willing to put others first and share the gift of the Good News in a form of evangelism. This is not an easy task in our current culture.
Evangelism is not a filthy four-letter word to be avoided. We have been made to feel uncomfortable sharing our faith, and even now our culture does not look fondly on people who “push their beliefs” onto them. Evangelism is not about force feeding a message about an angry God that is going to punish you if you do not believe the way I do. Evangelism, real evangelism, is about earning the trust of another human being, through our integrity and care for them as human beings, in order that we might have an opportunity to tell them about the God who loves them the same way that we have done through our relationship.
Evangelism will not likely take place in explosive, spectacular, laser light shows ways, even though who am I to limit what God can do. Evangelism takes place around a table, sharing a meal and a conversation. Evangelism takes place as we pick up boxes and load furniture into a truck for our friends. Evangelism takes place when we make a stranger feel welcome, without any idea of what lies in the background of this stranger. Evangelism takes place when we allow ourselves to become the physical embodiment of the one we follow. If we follow Jesus close enough, our life begins to look like His. Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ. It sounds simple, but it is so hard to get out of our own theological way at times. We do not always have to be right, but we should always be a shining light amid a dark world, just like Jesus was.
– Pastor Mike
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