3/21/13 Cynthia about 25
One
year, my church had printed hundreds of invitations to our Easter
Sunday service to be handed out all around the neighborhood. I felt
reluctant and skeptical but agreed to give it a try. Outside our train
station during rush hour, a young lady named Cynthia helped me
understand why I felt this way...
My purpose was just to hand out
the invitations to the crowds getting off the trains, but between
trains the crowd had dispersed and she was left waiting for her ride, so
I struck up a conversation, asking about her beliefs.
She had
grown up as a Mormon in Kentucky but now has given up on organized
religion, saying she is comfortable with her own private beliefs. As we
talked it was clear she still holds to her Mormon beliefs, though she
isn’t currently following them.
Of course, with her Mormon
frame of reference, my efforts were seen as mere proselytizing – trying
to win converts to join my church – rather than truly caring for her as a
person. The fact that I had given her a church invitation before
talking with her probably didn’t help me to convince her otherwise.
By
contrast, in my normal witnessing efforts I usually begin with
questions about where the person is at spiritually and then I try to
help them take the next step of faith needed in their relationship with
God. I might try to help an atheist understand the foolishness of
claiming there is no Creator, or an agnostic to understand that although
we can’t know God by our own efforts, He can and does reveal Himself to
us.
By taking a little time to hear their stories, we can
tailor a personal and individual message to a wide range of people: the
disillusioned; the false converts; followers of works-based religions;
the sensual and worldly minded; those who imagine or cobble together
various ideas about God; the young believer in need of encouragement
and/or a church home; the more mature believer needing to be challenged
to share their faith....the list goes on and on.
We need to be
ministers of the Gospel, in the spirit of Paul’s admonition to “become
all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save
some.” (1 Cor. 9:22)
Cynthia didn’t respond as I might like –
at best I think I might have helped her question some of her unbiblical
presuppositions – and while we talked I probably could have handed out
50 church invitations instead.
God may very well use our
invitations to reach some people. I pray He does. But Jesus didn’t
command us just to go out and invite people to church to hear the pastor
share the Gospel – we need to share it ourselves! In fact, the job of
both pastors and evangelists is to “equip his people for works of
service”. (Eph.4)
Let’s not leave the task of ministering the
Gospel just to the “gifted” evangelists on the street or the
“professional” pastors at the church building – it’s a joy we can all be
a part of!
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