Just Cross the Room?
I’ve been thinking about outreach and that “E” word, evangelism. I know, it conjures up all kinds of thoughts, mostly fearful ones, and include an image of guys standing on the street corner with bullhorns, shouting at passerbys. Is that really what we should be thinking about when it comes to reaching beyond ourselves to those who don’t know Him? Do we fall into the same category as the folks who knock on your door and try to engage you in religious conversation with no relationship? No, but we do cringe at the thought of becoming like that. And rightly so, I think.
Jesus told us to go and tell the world about Him, beginning with those closest to us geographically. But how do we do that? By being real. And by honestly caring about someone else, anyone else, enough that we would just ”cross the room” as Bill Hybels puts it, and say hello. Jesus cared with compassion that few of us have. His compassion drove Him to obedience on the Cross. Is is possible that with a measure of His compassion that we could care enough about others to the point that we would temporarily leave our friends and find a way to establish a friendship that could lead to that person’s changed eternity? How I would love for that to be all of our lifestyles. PB
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October 26th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
To expand upon that a little: To me, evangelism is not something you “do,” it’s part of being who you are. I’ve led 30+ people to the Lord, yet I don’t recall setting out to do so with any of them. I just interacted as seemed fit and as led by the Spirit. That anointing is essential, because only the Spirit knows what each person needs and where their heart is “at”!
So this is part of being real: sharing the abundance of what’s in our hearts. “From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)