The Power and Process of Evangelism

God had a plan when He sent Jesus Christ to earth to redeem the world. Now Christ lives in everyone who has received Him as Savior, and He has a plan for how to continue impacting the world through you.

His plan is for His followers to be just that: followers of His example of how to take the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ to others. This doesn't happen accidentally, but with intention, purpose, preparation. You could call it ‘living on purpose, with purpose.'

The example of Christ and instruction from the Word reveal that there are four things we must do in order to facilitate others coming to Christ. These things must be done whether our evangelistic effort is individual or corporate. They all start with ‘E' so that they are ‘E'asy to remember.

We Must E ngage The Lost

So obvious, yet done so little by so many Christians living in a ‘huddle' mentality.

Jesus Christ spent His life going places He wasn't supposed to go with people He wasn't supposed to be with saying things He wasn't supposed to say. He was soooooo irreligious. Just ask the Pharisees. While they were playing church, He was engaging lost people where they live!

He was in Samaria . He was eating with sinners. He was leaving the 99 to find the one!

A newly wed couple once moved to an apartment complex in the heart of Washington , D.C. , even though they could afford better, because it positioned them to minister to many lost people. Broken families were all around them. The woman – a schoolteacher – immediately noticed that latchkey children as young as first-graders abounded. She opened her apartment to them, baked goodies with the kids, and generally became a surrogate parent. Quickly, this couple's apartment was the place to hang out. Children loved them. Parents appreciated them. Through the relationships, this couple led many children and parents to Christ over a several year period. It wasn't simple or easy, but it never would have happened without the couple making the decision to intentionally be where lost people were.

That doesn't mean everyone has to move to a neighborhood where there are more ‘lost' people. It does mean we must intentionally cultivate relationships with people who do not know Christ.

“The paradigm shift the church needs to make is to be where the lost are,” says Alvin Reid, author or co-author of eight books on evangelism or related themes, and professor of evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. “In this post-modern era, people don't ask if you can prove it, they ask if you can live it, and can't see you live it if they don't see you!”

A key question: “How far do you go to engage the spiritually lost?”

Men, do you go into a strip bar to witness to other men? Of course not.

Women, do you engage in backbiting gossip with ladies just to be ‘one of the girls'? No.

Some Christians want to live in their supposedly sanitized world and not touch Christians, because they're ‘dirty.' How far can we go without getting dirty? Where's the line? The answer:

The line is past your comfort zone, but before sin .

That's it. You and I should go as far into the lost person's world as we can go – beyond what is comfortable – as long as we don't sin. That line is gray, thus walking it requires hearing from the Holy Spirit.

We Must E ndear The Lost

That means to serve them, to endear (to make beloved or well-liked) them to us by sincere actions of love. By showing people the love of Christ with our actions, we can earn the right to share the Gospel with them. The love of Christ can be the bridge from hardness to openness in the lost person's heart.

“Most people today still have respect for the name of Jesus,” Reid says. “Many don't have respect for the church or the institution of Christianity. So, we have to endear ourselves through simple acts of kindness, through love. Our culture is religious, but it's not righteous. We must be righteous. It's not that hard to endear.”

Jesus did it. People were drawn to Him because of His love, because of the way He met needs. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many,” He said (Matthew 20:28). When He had drawn them in, He shared the truth. When He had the world's attention, He lived the truth by dying for those He loved!

A man moved into an apartment complex in a new city . He didn't know anyone there, and on move-in day he was offered no help. A Christian, he vowed he wouldn't let that happen to others. A few weeks later, he saw a man moving in, seemingly alone. He offered to help, and befriended the new neighbor. They were very much unalike, but the Christian earned the neighbor's trust and led him to Christ after a few months.

You, too, can sincerely love people to whom you may not initially be attracted, and in so doing Christ can change their eternity through you!

We Must E ducate the Lost

  After we've engaged and endeared the lost, we must tell them the truth about who Jesus is and how He can make a difference in their lives. “No matter what people say about a post-modern culture, that they espouse that there is no truth, they don't live that way,” says Reid, whose most recent book is ‘Radically Unchurched – Who They Are and How to Reach Them.' “After 9/11, everyone believes there is some evil. The culture tells us its true. A popular secular music group is ‘Creed.' Every song in it is asking about truth. More than ever, we must unapologetically present the truth.”

We are told in 1 Peter 3:15 to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

Extending love to others will create interest in our life, and we must be prepared to speak the truth in love. One family – a mom, dad and two young children – shared the truth with their neighbors through a ‘Birthday Party for Jesus.' Lots of churches have birthday parties for Jesus every year – but many of them only invite the church; what a waste! This family had the party at their home. Mom and the children delivered invitations to the homes of neighborhood children. Mom was careful to tell the parents as she gave them the invitation “My husband or I will take a few minutes during the party to explain why Christmas is such an important holiday to us.” (This way, they were not ‘sneaking up on' someone with the Gospel, minimizing the chance of offending someone).

When the party day came, parents and kids filled their home. There was food, fun and a lot of laughter. The father stopped the proceedings for a very few minutes to welcome everyone, and to explain that they had the party to celebrate the life of Jesus Christ. He explained in a sentence or two why Jesus lived and died, and invited anyone who wanted to know more to ask he or his wife later.

This example actually fulfills three of the four principles for reaching the lost: engaging, endearing and educating.

We Must E xhort the Lost to Make a Decision About Jesus

“There is a move by some to give truth and let it lay where it is,” Reid says. “But Paul said, ‘Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.' (2 Cor. 5:11a) And Jesus consistently said, ‘Follow Me.' That sounds like exhorting the people.”

There comes a time after engaging, endearing and educating when it is necessary to say, in effect, “Wouldn't you like to have the abundant life – on this earth and eternally – that Jesus Christ came to give you?”

We must lead people to the throne of grace. We can't make decisions for them, but we can lovingly challenge them to decide what they are going to do about Jesus Christ. Don't leave out this part! If you love people enough, you'll challenge them.

Our church culture is accustomed to some form of ‘witnessing' process. Too often, how ever, it's hit-and-run evangelism. The church will regularly (though not necessarily frequently) ‘engage' and ‘exhort' the lost. That will have some limited success, because by the Holy Spirit's work we catch some people ready to receive. However, it is most often ineffective, in large part because the care and detail of ‘endearing' and ‘educating' are left out.

Attention to all four aspects of the process ensures an intentional, relational evangelism style. It enhances success by creating a bridge across which the Gospel travels. It is the harder road, but a Kingdom full of Christians living it would yield results that would amaze us and glorify God!

this article originally appeared in Home Life magazine