Maybe I’m not clear, “I’m a pastor, I lead churches, people worship and I help!” This is the thought that feels my mind as kind, thoughtful people hand me their church invitation. I don’t understand why but I routinely get invited to visit people’s churches. These same people often talk with me about God and church. They are curious how I start a church, where do the people come from, and why do I work bi-vocationally if I’m a pastor. But they still feel the need to invite me to come attend their church. I find this very strange because they feel they are evangelist.
They either consider my faith unequal, alluring, or it’s easier to invite me to their church – I’m a believer. I think this type of evangelism is easier. Evangelism for much of the church has not been among unbelievers but focused on receivers – people who already accepted our worldview (~ Erwin McManus).
Honestly, the gospel at least in America has been made into a message that would only win Christians to Christ. Our religious diversity has tended to exist within the confines of a Christian worldview. People who respond to our mail market piece, visit our churches on Sunday, and so often heed our preaching are convert sinners who already believe in the God of the Bible. Perhaps our most extreme opposition comes from “Christian” atheists who reject the existence of God.
Our most basic presentations of the good news of Jesus have been built and filled on the assumed authority of the Scriptures. We know that when we tell the unchurched that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life, the word “God” evokes the same image that we have. When asking an unbeliever about the destination of their soul after death, we know it is unnecessary to build an argument for the existence of heaven.
But we have been wrong.
It’s easier to convince someone that already agrees with you. It’s daunting to convert a stranger. There are two dangerous temptations each of us face when confronted by a stranger (someone who thinks and acts in a way that is foreign to our religious practices). The first is a desire to transform that stranger into our own image, trying to obscure and replace their cultural and religious practices with our own. The second is to exclude and reject the stranger entirely, viewing them as a threat which must be guarded against. In one the stranger is rendered into a clone while in the other they are made into an enemy.
Jesus instructions were to go and as you go tell others, train everyone you meet in this Jesus way of living (Matt 28.19). So how do you “evangelize” unbelievers – make disciples? I believe we endeavor to demonstrate how one can faithfully ask, seek, and knock (Matt 7.6-9; Luke 11.8-11) by making this a necessary part of our lives. Augustine once wrote, ‘God is He who gives God’, so we must realize that we cannot give God but rather, by demonstrating openness and humility, creating a space where God can give God. In this way an evangelist can be understood as one who is open to God at all times and encourages others in this way of being – helping to produce a clearing where God is free to give God.
