How To Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy) - Let's Get Started!
How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy)
This blog is
designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking a pause to spend
time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob
Shaw, and as a result, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord on
your own as well. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or question, as long as it
is offered in respect and humility.
Today's
devotional is taken from: Chan, S. How to Talk About Jesus
(Without Being THAT Guy): Personal Evangelism In A Skeptical World,
Zondervan Reflective, 2020. Forward and Introduction
What The Text Brought To Mind: Reviewing the forward by Ed Stetzer and
introduction by Sam Chan, I felt myself in good company. I have, within my own
Christian denomination from time to time, felt alone in my ambition to share
the love of Jesus with others. Preaching as a minister may seem like a
difficult way of doing so, but in many ways, it is the safer and easier way.
When I walk into a church on Sunday, I am going into a place with
pre-established Christians and/or churched people. They expect I will share the
love of Christ with them, and there is somewhat of the same expectation that
they will be receptive to it, or at least try to make it look like they haven’t
fallen asleep during my sermon. However, evangelizing to people beyond the
inside of the church building is much more challenging, speaking to a
neighbor, a friend, or a co-worker could have also sorts of unknown factors, and
in addition to those, often it is a one-on-one interaction or many one-on-one
interactions over time. That level of engagement takes courage, confidence, and
humility because it is inherently vulnerable. One of the quickest ways to feel
alone is to find ourselves in a feeling of isolation, which can overtake us when we
are confronted with a moment of vulnerability without the necessary
understanding and/or tools to endure that feeling.
So,
reading the words of people who clearly believe in the value of evangelism, and proclaiming
hope in the face of their listed key reasons as to why evangelism is such a
challenge in our current era, gave me the comfort you feel when you realize you
are not alone. Having a reminder that there are other Christians out there
trying to live up to the commission that Christ gave to us gives me genuine
hope, it reminds me of the faith I have in Christ. Maybe, one of the first
steps to successful evangelism is to remember you are not alone.
Opening Prayer: Gracious and Loving God, one of Christ’s commands for us is to make
disciples of all nations. In our post-Christian world, we are more and more
faced with an uphill battle as we aim to win people for Christ. Lord, we
ask You to help us with the great commission, fill us with courage, humility,
wisdom, and ambition, and a willingness to be the lone voice, echoing your
eternal call welcoming all to Your love and grace! In that echo, we will know we are not alone, by Your Grace. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20 Then the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him,
they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go 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 I have
commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Reflection: Looking
at the word of Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew, we can clearly see we have
been tasked with this extremely important duty of bringing others to faith. There
is no way around it. So, where do we begin? First, we need to shine a light on the
darkness which aims to stop us from following Christ’s words? The first thing
to shine a light on is our anxiety about evangelism. Thinking back to the wise
words of Franklin D. Roosevelt when he said, “the only thing we have to fear is
fear itself”. Often it is the anticipation or swelling of the emotions around
a task that causes us to stop, not so much the task itself. We can get so
overwhelmed by the anxiety we expect to endure when evangelizing, so that alone
can stop us in our tracks. And as noted before, it is often the vulnerability required
to evangelize which may spark this whole spiral of doubt. We need to recognize our
anxieties and fears before we can move past them, it is when we shine a light
on the darkness, we often discover there is nothing there to be scared of. A
good way to start is by shifting our perspective on the nature of the vulnerability.
We tend to think of vulnerability as weakness, like a baby gazelle unknowingly
being watched by the lion. However, this is a form of vulnerability, not the full
spectrum of what vulnerability is, and is not the type of vulnerability we
encourage with evangelism. Rather, vulnerability can be recognized instead as 'genuineness'.
If you have genuine faith in Christ, the genuine thing to do is to share that
faith because, one, Jesus (the one you have faith in) commands us to make disciples,
and, two, we are communal creatures; we have a natural impulse to share what is
important to us with others. For example, if you are passionate about cooking, you might
make a meal for friends or family to share your gift for cooking, or you might
take some pictures of your food plate setting and share it online in enthusiasm for
what you have made. We are called to have that same ambition to share our love
of God with others too. It is a genuine desire to share what is beloved and
sacred to you with others.
Now,
the reason we may feel more like the baby gazelle rather than the genuine
person of faith is that there may be an overwhelming fear that one “does not
know how to evangelize” or that there is a “hidden knowledge” that one needs to
prepare them for the duty of evangelism. Often, I feel this misunderstanding leads
people to give up before ever trying, thinking they can just leave evangelism
to those who are gifted with the knowledge and skills to do so. However, as Stetzer
notes ‘evangelism’ is not one of the “gifts of the spirit”, meaning we cannot
just assume that God appoints some people with the gift and not others, and thus
those who do not feel instantly comfortable doing so can just give up on the
idea and work towards their own gifts. The truth is, that we are all called to
share the Gospel with other people, to be a Christian means a life with
evangelism as part of it. So, what do we do with that baby gazelle feeling, well
like all infantile creatures, we need to grow up. This book is a good step to equip
yourself with tools to help you grow; to help you live out your genuine faith. The baby gazelle
does not stay a baby, it becomes quicker with time, wiser, and stronger, it also
stays closely connected with its herd to give it time to grow. This is a good
metaphor to remind us that we do not need to evangelize alone, reach out to our
herd of Christian brothers and sisters, and learn from their strength in evangelism until you grow into your own.
So,
we have looked at the darkness by casting a light on it, what’s next? Well, if we
are going to take on our responsibility as Christians to share the Gospel,
where do we begin? We should first understand this, it is true that evangelism
does not require any special knowledge or wisdom (outside of one’s faith and
knowledge of salvation by Grace through Faith in Christ), but it never hurts to
prepare yourself for the task. In essence, we must come to love preparation. If
you were about to take a hike through a new trail, it would be wise to look at
a map or hikers guide to the area to get foreknowledge of what you might
encounter, I.e., terrain, wildlife, possible dangers, and distance of the
journey, so that you could pack accordingly for your journey. It is possible to
hike a new trail without preparation, but you likely won’t get as far, and it
is possible the negative experience could discourage you from hiking again. So,
let’s consider the terrain of evangelism.
One
of the first things to note about the terrain of evangelism is that the world
has shifted into a post-Christian era. There was a time when the government,
schools, and general social discourse were rooted in an expectation of
Christendom. We have shifted away from this, and as a result as a Church often
feel like we are catching up. If you remember the 1950s, that was, in a way,
the last remnant of Christendom (though formally Christendom was dissolved much earlier). The world is now increasingly secular.
There is a wider variety of social influences, including other religions and
worldviews, some of which are similar to Christianity and others which are
diametrically opposed. The challenges of this new landscape are often underestimated
for new evangelists; one cannot assume anything about those they are evangelizing
to, and/or engaging with in genuine conversation. Even the very concept of God
can be offensive to some individuals, where just a hundred years ago it would have
been abnormal to be an outspoken atheist within the common populous. This does
not mean there is no hope it just means we have to be more willing to
understand the people we are evangelizing to; we cannot go into the
conversation like a steam roller.
A
second thing to consider is the reputation of the Church and Christians. As a
result of a variety of circumstances and unfortunate events, the Church has had
some strikes against it in the popularity contests. Many people in fact see the church as the enemy or at least an enemy to themselves or the wider well-being
of the world. However there are two things to remember, first, being a Christian
and sharing the Gospel is not about being liked, it is about the love of God and
sharing truth, also where the world can teach people to hate their enemies,
Christ taught us to love ours, so if someone has such a negative view about the
Christian faith that they see us as public enemy number one, we are then called
to love them and to reach out to them all the more.
Third,
the world is a lot more skeptical about everything. The other day my father and
I were talking about supernature experiences, and how when I was a child people
used to say things like, “well if ghosts or demons were real why don’t they ever
show themselves on camera.” Well at the time cameras were rudimentary and not
many people had them. As cameras developed and became more readily available, supernatural hunters began filming
and catching incredible footage of things that could not be explained. One
would think that would help the case for the supernatural, well no, because as
technology increased so did the ability for people to “fake” footage. Now there
is so much online of both clearly fake footage and footage that may or may not
be fake, now the skeptic has no choice but to disregard every bit of evidence
as possibly tampered with. This is a long way of saying the world tends to clutter
things. For every decent person trying to evangelize out of the goodness of
their heart and love for Jesus, there will be a thousand other ideas and people
trying their best to share their content, and because some of that content is
fake, false, or corrupt, it is easier for people just to assume everything
out there is false, and they should just be skeptical of all things. This may
be one of the reasons ‘science’ or at least the idea of science, has taken an
almost god-like position in the post-modern world, it would seem hard to dupe
someone with facts and stats, though not impossible. Again, this does not spell
hopelessness, it means that in our endeavor to bring people to know Christ we
must be willing to make a case for our beliefs, one that is logical, consistent, and which helps people make sense of this cluttered world.
One final point to raise, (though there are other points beyond these three), is that in the developing worldview of the secularist, many have come to believe that it is either rude, insensitive, or inappropriate to talk about religion and to share one’s faith with another. To me, this is the most revolting concept because the underlining argument is that there is nothing to be gained by the interpersonal exchange. Even from a biological standpoint, we are communal creatures, we thrive because of our complex social dynamics. We are hardwired to want to share thoughts and feelings with each other. Some might say, “Jacob you’re going too far, we only want the religious topics not to be shared”. The problem with that is almost every topic is religious in nature, religion is a broad term, it encompasses, spiritual belief as well as cultural identity, moral philosophy, social ethic, local custom, and culture, it is metaphysical, it is emotional, it is part of people’s identities, it can even encompass language. Plus, many things in the world that we wouldn’t normally identify as a “religion” hold religious elements. We cannot be authentic with each other well forcing one element of the human intensity to be excluded. Also, I believe that the more we encourage people to share respectfully about their beliefs the less radicalized people become because one of the gifts of genuine conversation (which is also deep and meaningful) is you see the personhood of the people you engage with, even the ones you may disagree with. It is harder to hate someone when you have engaged with them in such a vulnerable way.
Engaging
in evangelism is really about sharing the genuine faith you have with another by, first, recognizing them as a human-being; unique and wonderful but also flawed and broken, and then choosing
to share with them the truth about their creation and their creator. It is a
gift to meet people where they are and help them see the gift of Christ's salvation.
This may seem like a lot to take on, but don’t worry God is with you, and
really, He is the one leading this charge, we are just an echo of what He has
always been doing, working toward the salvation of His lost.
Challenge for the Week: Spend some time thinking about your fears and anxieties around
evangelism, write those down in a journal or something of that nature, and
share your concerns with another Christian your anxieties, begin practicing shining the
light on the darkness.
Prayer for your week: Lord, walk with us in our journey of
faith. Help us to find the courage, confidence, and humility to become genuine
in our pursuit of Your Will and Your command to evangelize to the world. Remind
us that You are in control and that our courage, confidence, and humility
really find their foundation in Your awesome power and love. We rest on Your foundation as our creator, redeemer, and sustainer, and with You, nothing can prevent
us from living to our greatest capacities through our faith. Amen.
Final Thought and
Picture: This
is not a gazelle, but rather a baby deer. When I see this youngling, I see a great
seed of potential. Trust in God and the genuine nature of evangelism (sharing
the good news of Christ) and you won’t be a baby deer or gazelle forever.
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