Evangelism Tip # 1: Merge Your Universes

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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: The subtitle to this first chapter is, Evangelism Is A Lifestyle Change, and I believe Chan’s subtitle here is completely correct. It takes a recalibrating of one’s priority to ensure that any ambitions to evangelize are carried through, as evangelization is an outward and vulnerable practice. Since evangelism is something that we are called by Christ to do, we must take on this challenge as a people of faith to figure out how we do a lifestyle change, both for ourselves and our church communities.

Now one thing I want to address right out of the gate this month is that Chan’s book is definitely written for an audience that is pro-evangelism in some way already, even if that audience is not practicing evangelism currently. I say this because Chan often dichotomizes people into “Christian Friends and Non-Christian Friends”. Now, this is likely for easement’s sake, I don’t believe Chan to be a foolish writer, but the unintentional result of this dichotomizing is that it assumes that all Christians are pro-evangelism. However, there are many Christian churches where there is no evangelistic pulse at all; no ambition to bring people to Jesus, and no moral wrestling on whether that is appropriate for a Christian church. There are also many churches and Christians which may believe evangelism to be archaic, (possibly as a result of adopting a more moral, spiritual, or religious relativistic philosophy, knowingly or unknowingly), and as a result, they shy away from the notion of evangelism altogether. Other Christians may have had bad experiences with other churches or Christians trying to evangelize them, thus they have gravitated towards church communities that lack this element of the Christian definition. I say all this because some people who may pick up Sam Chan’s book, or who may be reviewing this blog, they might not want to evangelize, they may just want to "want to evangelize", but they have a chasm between them and what Christ is calling them to do, and they are unsure as to how to cross it, especially because it might be littered with baggage or misinformation about the true nature of evangelism.

No matter where you sit on the call to evangelize, I will say this, it is something we are each as Christians called to do. Jesus said to make disciples of all nations teaching them to obey what he commanded, it makes no sense to put your faith in Jesus, taking on the life as a disciple, and not at least wrestle with the commands he shares with us. So, if you are unsure, educate yourself, learn as much as you can about evangelism, why it is a crucial element of the faith, and try to figure out how to do it respectfully and honorably – so you are the Christian who can talk about Jesus, without being THAT guy!

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to clear our minds about what we think we know about evangelism, and about Your call to us to support Your work in bringing people to faith. We know that this commission is a challenging task, but if we trust in You to send the fire, we will go out and start building the alters in people's hearts, knowing that, we should begin to hope and long to see others welcome the gift of your grace, as they will have new hope and peace, like no other. They too will come alive with the flames of Pentecost, Amen.

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.  You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

Reflection: There are a few stellar things in this first chapter that I wish to cover. The first thing is Chan’s use of two stories, one being a story of him and his wife being abducted by aliens, and the second being a quick summary of the Gospel message. The two are shown together to make the point that to a non-Christian the story of Jesus might seem just as implausible as the alien abduction story. This point is used as a springboard to the large point of the chapter which is social dynamics and how they affect evangelistic efforts. But, before we get to this larger point, I would like to spend a few minutes on the “believability” of the Gospels.

There is a big point that is often overlooked point when it comes to the challenge of evangelism, which is that people are only willing to share something with others if they see value in it. If you see value in gardening, you will make a nice garden yourself for yourself and your neighborhood to see, and you might talk to other gardeners about the best ways to garden, you will purchase and invest in gardening equipment, and you might even encourage others to garden, explaining the benefit you get from it, and the benefits other get from enjoying it. (I would continue this reference even more if I knew anything about gardening.) Now, our Christian faith is the same, you have to see value in it to want to share it, however, there is a lynchpin for Christianity that gardening doesn’t have. If you don’t believe the Gospel to be true, then the whole of the bible and the church is just an archaic remnant of an ancient fairy tale. Sure there are other benefits of church life, but the backbone of the church life is the Gospel message, and if one doesn't believe in Jesus and the Gospel message, then your house of cards begins to crumble. It is hard to share a faith if it is not whole. So the person looking to evangelize needs to feel confident in their faith, what they believe and why it is fundamental. 

Now, I have gone down this rabbit hole myself, when I was in my youth I began to look into “proofs” for Christianity and the existence of God, historical evidence for Jesus and the resurrection, and so on. At the end of a very long journey, I came to believe the events of the Gospels and the claims they ultimately make about Jesus are real. I came to this conclusion by studying many different avenues: moral philosophy, philosophical theology, history, and Christian apologetics, to name a few. I tried to look at the Christian story like a detective, could I find consistent evidence against the Christian claim, I could not. Now, this does not mean that each evangelist and/or convert needs to dive into the level of study of Christian apologetics trying to answer every objection to the Christian story, but rather the contrary as Chan’s first chapter notes so well. However, I say all this because there will be some people out there that want to review the evidence and the debates of Christianity, that is just how their mind works, and if you are one of those people or you encounter one of these people, know you are not alone, many Christians have spent lifetimes reviewing the abundant volume of evidence for Christianity, you just have to be willing to seek their wisdom.

So, let’s move on to the wider talking point of Chan’s first chapter, Chan uses this idea of the two stories to make the point that you are more open to belief if you are surrounded by people who believe. I’ll explain it like this if you are in a room of people who believe in bigfoot, and you didn’t believe in bigfoot before you entered the room, you will be more likely to believe in bigfoot, while surrounded by believers who are sharing in their belief about bigfoot, because of their very presence. This is because the believability of something comes from three main factors for people, 1) community, 2) experience 3) facts and evidence.  Community turns out to be the number one factor in “plausibility structures” for believability. I would add that this natural tendency to be open to the belief of many people when in close proximity has a number of reasonable social factors, (and people don’t do this because they are “sheep” or at least so much so if those people have been raised not to be sheep) but rather because we are a communal species which need to rely heavily on the knowledge and wisdom of others, so if we are in a room of atheists we will be more open to atheism, and if we are in a room full of Christians we will be more open to Christianity. This point about community and believability does not mean that what is believable is true or not, it speaks more to people's openness to other interpretations of truth.

Chan gives a number of insights into this simple strategy, which ultimately boils down to evangelizing with social circles, inviting non-Christian friends to socialize in groups of Christian friends, and as a result of being around groups of Christians their natural defensiveness will being to drop and we begin to build the alter in them which God will lite.

Now, if you're new to evangelism this may sound like social manipulation, and it is, but it is not a bad thing if done for the right reasons. Let me give an analogy. When I was in college I had a large group of friends, and the majority of them really enjoyed sushi. And sushi lovers, they love to make more sushi lovers. They want you to share in their joy. I never liked sushi before college, I don’t even think I had tried it. But being around a group that did enjoy sushi got me a little curious, “it can’t be all bad if all these people like it”. Now, it wasn’t that I didn’t know before trying sushi that people around the world ate sushi, so why didn’t that knowledge of a worldwide enjoyment of sushi spike my curiosity? It's because those people around the world were strangers, I didn’t know their humanity or spirit! However, I knew my friends: I laughed with them, studied with them, fought with them, I had seen them at their best and worst, I, in essence, trusted them. So, I tried sushi, it's okay, I liked some of it, didn’t like much of it, but I tried it, and from that point on I was much more willing to go with my sushi friends when they were hanging out without the non-sushi friends. The community of sushi opened me up to the experience of sushi. This is the same for evangelism, to have a dedicated social group of Christian friends, willing to invite non-Christians into their social groups is a huge strategy for winning people for Jesus. Something to note is that although my sushi friends had this inner desire to see me come to like sushi as they did, they did not introduce themselves to me the first time by saying, “Hi, I'm Mark, have you ever tried sushi.” That would have been awkward and weird. They befriended me because of common interests or share benefits in school, and over time, they shared what was important to them with me. And even though I never became a sushi vacuum myself, I now have a deeper appreciation for sushi and my friends.

So, this method, which Chan opens with, seems to me to be a genuine, social, organic invitation to faith. This organic social evangelism is just what we need in our modern world because many of the tactics of evangelism from the past no longer work. As Chan says, we “can’t just evangelize the same way Billy Graham did … with a simple twenty-minute Bible talk”. In short, the world has changed, and the tactic of re-selling Jesus to people by reminding them of the Gospel no longer works. Christianity is not something that is necessarily known to people anymore, it is about as foreign as sushi was to me, something other people did but nothing I would like. So now we need to adopt a new approach. Well, new to us, not the Church, we have to do as Paul and the early disciples did when Christianity was brand-new, we have to live openly and authentically amongst the people we hope to bring to faith. We need to walk the walk, talk the talk, and be genuine with others who may not understand the walk and talk yet. And we don’t need to do it alone, in fact, it is better if you do it with friends.

One final thing I will add if you don’t have a group of Christian friends yet, time to start thinking about intentional friendships. Friendships, as Chan also notes, are becoming rarer and rarer in the modern world. Friendship is a key part of good mental health for people, so do yourself and others a favor, start a social circle, befriend people of like mind, and once you have a good group of people to hang out with, laugh with, cry with, then seek the lost, invite them in – make them a friend, and share your genuine faith with them. You might just give them everything they never knew they were looking for.

Challenge for the Week: One of the mistakes that I believe churches often make is that the populous wants the pastor to be the center of all the religious social circles. However, the pastor is a little bit like a coach of a football team. The coach help instruct the team but is not a member of it. Thus, the players will have a different bond with each other than with their coach. Players will have friendships with other players, where players will have mentorship or discipleship with the coach. This is a long way of saying that the players need to socialize together as a unite without the coach, those bonds need to be built without the coach present because if a team is not strong without the coach there, they won’t have much luck on the field, because the coach is not on the field with them when they are trying to get that touchdown. 

So, think about your Christian social circle, how can you make strides in forming a social group, activity, or program to facilitate a small group of friends with a shared faith in Jesus. If you need support in figuring this out, ask a pastor, just don’t expect him or her to facilitate it.  

Prayer for your week:  Lord, we give thanks and praise to you as we continue to wrestle with this commission towards evangelism. We ask you to help us reframe our thinking, so we can best live out the faith, and welcome more to discover how wonderful your love is. Amen.  

Final Thought and Picture: Lions survive because of their pride. Their community gives them an edge for survival. Their pride gives them the ability to do amazing feats of strength, like hunting for prey many times their size.

Now, as Christians, in a way, we go “hunting” too, but we go hunting to bring people into our pride. We don’t go out looking to use our strengths, community, and gifts to consume, rather we go out to build up, restore, and nourish. Through Christ, we become peaceable lions, and God’s church is the pride of His Kingdom, and the King of that pride is Jesus.  And that pride is one which all should come to know and love.