Can We Point Our Friends to Jesus?
I’ve been thinking a lot about evangelism lately. As I think about the long-term health, and even viability, of our congregation, it is essential that we see people who do not yet know Jesus, or people with Christian backgrounds but not currently attending a church, come to a personal faith in Christ. Of course Jesus, after his resurrection, commanded his disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a), and the story of the Acts of the Apostles is the story of the missionary expansion of the church. So, evangelism and discipleship are at the heart of a healthy church.
Since the 1960s we’ve witnessed a dramatic cultural shift in our country, from a time in which it could be safely assumed that most of our neighbors and co-workers were at least nominally Christian, to our current day, when that cannot be safely assumed. In fact, Phoenix has been ranked as the 18th most “post-Christian” metro area in the country. Our friends, families, and neighbors are largely without a personal faith in Christ lived out in the context of a worshipping, serving community, and that isn’t God’s intention.
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Image title: “Jesus?” By Isaac Torrontera sourced from Flicker and used under a Creative Commons License.[/caption]
Once we’re convinced of the need for evangelism, the question becomes “how.” I’d like to give three brief examples of how we might think of evangelism that might be helpful as we seek to reach out to our friends, families, and neighbors for the sake of the gospel.
First, in his book, Unapologetic, British writer Francis Spufford suggests that, rather than seeking to provide rational arguments for God’s existence, we instead should simply tell the story of Jesus. He writes that Christians “don’t have an argument that solves the problem of the cruel world, but we have a story.” He goes on to tell the story of Jesus as the most compelling story ever told, one that makes sense of the world, even the senseless parts. He concludes the story with Mary Magdalene standing at the tomb, and the risen Jesus saying to her, “Don’t be afraid, far more can be mended than you know.” Simply telling the story of Jesus, then, might be our best bet as we seek to reach those around us with the good news.
Second, in this month’s Christianity Today, a woman writes of her conversion with another insight related to the person of Jesus. In her exploration of Christian faith she and a Christian friend talked about the Gospel of John. She writes that, “After many debates in which he tried to convince me of the divinity of Jesus, he said that if I would just read the Bible, God would do the convincing.” In reading the Gospel of John herself, she came across the story of Lazarus in chapter 11, she met “a man who behaved as though death was not natural. As though everything was broken, and that the sane response was to snort and weep. I loved that man.” Simply encountering Jesus in the text led her to love Jesus. Again, as we tell the story of Jesus, encouraging our friends to read Scripture for themselves is a powerful means of introduction – we, like the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, have simply brought our friend to Jesus, allowing him to speak for himself.
Finally, I listened to a discussion recently between two academics, one a philosopher of science and another a mathematician who works on “game theory,” a highly sophisticated and abstract realm of philosophy. The “game theorist” is a Christian, the philosopher of science is an atheist. At one point in the discussion, the philosopher of science, who often defends Christians from attacks by the “new atheists” (for example, he likens Richard Dawkins to a “first-year undergraduate in philosophy”), said that he is perfectly content in his life without faith. The mathematician responded, “the problem is, you just haven’t fallen in love with Jesus Christ . . . you say you’re pretty comfortable with the way it is right now, and that’s fine, but I think the fact is that that love relationship just hasn’t developed.” A lot of evangelistic techniques focus on convincing people of a deep need that they have, but, honestly, I meet people fairly regularly who seem just fine with their life apart from Christian faith. What they need is not being convinced of a deep need, but rather to encounter a person who will appear so compelling that, like in a good love story, once he arrives on the scene things can’t ever be the same.
As we think and pray about how to reach out to our friends, families, and neighbors (among others) with the gospel, it seems to me that, in the context of prayer, inviting someone to meet Jesus is our best approach. This, of course, assumes that we know Jesus well ourselves.
If we want to be a church that is centered on evangelism and discipleship, we need to fall in love with Jesus ourselves and then prayerfully invite others to get to know him as well. That’s my hope and prayer for us, that we would be people who have fallen in love with Jesus and are seeking to invite others to love him as well.