During the last half-century or
so, much has been made of the importance of personal evangelism. This emphasis,
no doubt, has had many positive effects. For example, whenever you gather
together a group of evangelical Christians and ask them to raise their hand,
indicating how they came to know Christ, almost invariably, the great majority
respond that the influence of a friend or family member who shared Christ with
them personally was of primary importance. In the overall scheme of things,
personal evangelism has proved more effective than crusade evangelism, mass
media evangelism, or many other similar methods. However, I think it is
possible that, at least in some circles, we have done an overkill on personal
evangelism.
As Americans, we have a cultural
tendency to be very individualistic.
We also have a tendency to be task-oriented as opposed to
relationship-oriented. There are certain individuals with a natural ability to
make cold turkey conversation with people, explain the gospel to them, and lead
them to make a decision to follow Christ. Many of these may also have an
authentic spiritual gifting as an evangelist. I believe it is very important
that these people be encouraged and empowered in the use of their gifts. In
church planting ministry, for example, a key factor in numerical growth early
on is having at least one person (preferably more) in the group who is gifted,
encouraged, and empowered as a personal evangelist. The problem, many times,
however, is when these people practice gift
projection and begin to insinuate that if everyone else were as spiritual
as they are, they would regularly share Christ in the same way as them and
likely have the same results.
I think a more balanced view is
to recognize that God made each of us differently and has given a different
combination of spiritual gifts to each one. And while it is true that some may
be more gifted than others at a certain style of evangelism, the Great
Commission was not given to us as individuals, but rather as fellow members of
the Body of Christ. This means that in order to truly carry out Jesus’ command,
we must learn to work together.
As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12,
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I
don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet ‘I don’t need you!’”
The Becoming a Contagious Christian
course, written by Mark Mittelberg, Lee Strobel, and Bill Hybels, does a great
job of driving home this point. It teaches that while each one of us as
individuals is called to play a part in the proclamation of the gospel to lost
souls, different members of the Body of Christ have different styles of
evangelism in which they operate most naturally. Some are more gifted at a more
direct, confrontational style. Others are better at building long-lasting
friendships with people that serve as a helpful platform for sharing Christ.
Some are especially talented at reaching out to others through acts of kindness
and service. Others find it very natural to invite their friends and neighbors
to special activities at which they know the gospel will be shared in an
appropriate manner. Still others are best equipped to answer difficult
questions and help unsaved people work through intellectual doubts. The most
effective evangelism, though, is when each one of these works together as a
team with others who may have different gifts and preferred styles.
One very practical point in
relation to this is that it is very often quite strategic, whenever we have a
spiritual burden for a lost friend, to introduce them as soon as possible to
other members of the Body of Christ. It has been noted, for example, that the
average person, before coming to faith in Christ, has around seven different
meaningful encounters in which the gospel is shared in one way or another with
them. Many times, where we ourselves may not be successful at helping our
unsaved friend to cross the line of faith, another member of the Body of Christ
may be able to follow up our witness and bring them to this point. It has also
been demonstrated that the probability of new converts leaving out the back
door of the church within the first year after making a decision is directly
inverse to the number of meaningful relationships they had within the church
before making that decision.
On a similar note, I believe that
God has especially designed it so that the Great Commission and the task of
world evangelism cannot be successfully accomplished by the efforts of any one
segment of the Body of Christ working in isolation from the rest. As Southern
Baptists, God has used us greatly in world missions and evangelism. But we
cannot say we do not have need of the other parts of Christ’s Body, whether in
our own backyard or around the world. As American Christians in general, we
have the same need of working together with our brothers and sisters in Christ
from other countries and people groups.
On a baseball team, each team
member has a unique role to fulfill. The leadoff hitter is normally gifted at
getting on base and stealing bases. The clean-up hitter, though, is normally
more gifted at driving in runs and hitting the ball out of the ballpark. In the
same way, the pitcher, and each of the various fielders, has a unique role to
play that contributes in a special way to the overall success of the team
effort. In our local evangelistic efforts, some are great leadoff hitters. They
are able to meet new people with ease and first introduce them to the Body of
Christ. Others may be more gifted as clean-up hitters, able to tackle the difficult
questions some of the leadoff hitters may be baffled by.
In world missions, some
organizations may be great at translating the Bible into new languages. Others
may specialize at reaching university students and intellectuals. Certain
denominations, for one reason or another, seem better suited than others for
reaching people of certain socio-economic groups. In the past, God has allowed
the American church to be especially used in sending out cross-cultural workers
from amongst themselves to the far corners of the earth. In recent years,
though, it seems like a good part of the gifting and anointing as foot-soldiers
in the task of fulfilling the Great Commission is being sovereignly distributed
by God to believers in the two-thirds world. At the same time, the relative
priority responsibility of the American church to financially underwrite the
world missions enterprise does not seem to be diminishing. That is not to
imply, though, that the American church should intentionally send out fewer
cross-cultural workers. It is
generally not a bad thing for
your leadoff hitter to hit home runs.
The implications of this are far
too broad to discuss them all here. The important point to remember is that God
especially delights in using all
of the various members of Christ’s Body to accomplish the tasks He has given
us. “There are different kinds of
gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same
Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them
to all men” (1 Cor. 12:4–6). In our positive and necessary emphasis on personal
evangelism, may we not at the same time fall into an overly individualistic
approach to evangelism and world missions.
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