Doing Personal Evangelism During the Coronavirus Crisis.
Following on from Dave Bennett's last post where he asks the group how we are doing evangelism at the present time- along with giving some of his experiences and ideas.
For myself, I've always maintained that unless we desire or are motivated to witness, no matter how good we are at talking to people, or no matter how many opportunities come across our way, we will not evangelise. The reverse of that is also true: if we are motivated to evangelise and witness, no matter what the situation, if we are proactively waiting and listening to the Lord, God will open up the doors of opportunity for us to witness. I speak from experience and know that at times when I have NOT actively sought to evangelise, as a result, no opportunity opened up for me - and vice versa.
Our 'old man' is lazy and is quite content to stay in its little comfort zone, especially when it involves God's work. As believers we should be I.C.E. Christians, as opposed to NICE Christians- though of course, we should be both. By an I.C.E. Christian I mean that we should wake up in the morning and first of all know that we are called to INTIMACY (I.) with God. That we are in Him and He is in us. 'If you love me and obey my commands my Father and I will come and make our abode in you.' that Jesus wants us to abide in him and him in us. Wow!
Secondly, not only are we called to intimacy, but also we have been (C.) COMMISSIONED to serve. Christ said to his disciples 'As the father has sent me, so I send you'- what joy is that.
Thirdly, we are also (E.) EMPOWERED by the Holy Spirit.' You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. This takes the pressure off us to minister and witness in our own strength- a most important lesson to learn.
If we open our eyes we will then begin to see people coming across our path, whether we are walking the dog, going shopping, making a phone call, using Facebook, etc. For instance, I had a 'suggested friend' on FB the other night. I had not spoken to the gentleman in 24 years. I sent him a friend request which he accepted. It resulted in quite a long personal conversation about what we had done in the past years and what we were doing now. Did he become a Christian as a result of the conversation? I would doubt it because I never made an appeal or gave him a challenge- at that time. I would have done so if the door had opened at that time. He did ask me what I worked at, so I was able to tell him that I do men's ministry for a church. Which then said I suited to it! Do I desire that he will become a Christian? Of course, I do. Will I seek opportunities to develop our friendship. Of course, I will.
The truth is: personal evangelism takes a lot of time. The Engel Scale ( see diagram) is a useful tool, in that, as we reach out to people, it shows that we are hopefully bringing them closer to making a commitment to Christ. We may meet them when they are at -10, but through our friendship, we may bring them to -4. When reaching out to people we very much need the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as well as the illuminating power of the Spirit to open up the eyes of the spiritually blind. We don't need to see them converted at the first conversation, though sometimes it may happen. If we can' get a conversion, let's aim to keep the conversation going- maybe during the 30th conversation, the penny will drop and the scales will fall from their eyes!
One further important point worth mentioning. If we have failed in evangelism- do not let it prevent us from taking a stand for Christ again. All the great saints failed at one time or another, including the great apostle Peter. Satan would love us to just give up-don't let Satan get the better of you, don't let Satan steal the ministry God wants you to have!
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