Evangelism Tip #7 Become Their Unofficial Chaplain

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, 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. Evangelism Tip 7

What The Text Brought To Mind:  I feel Chan has done a really great job building the simple strategies for Evangelism on top of each other, one chapter at a time, so that the sum of the skill set is not overwhelming. He has also done a great job in demonstrating that these tips are merely pragmatic interpersonal skills that any person ought to try to incorporate into their daily lives because they function to serve truth, kindness, consideration, and compassion. In essence, Chan has been teaching hospitality, manners, charity, and mercy – skills we all have to some degree, we just need to exercise them with more intentionality in showing that this way of living life corresponds with the teachings of Jesus.

However, what Chan offers today takes what we have learned to the next step. Because much of what Chan has taught so far could imply that Jesus was merely a great moral teacher, but Jesus is much more than that, Jesus is the divine source of all that is moral and true. So yes, Jesus is a great moral teacher, but the relationship we have with Jesus extends into other areas as well, and those other areas have an impact on our living and how we ought to evangelize.

So today we build the evangelism skills to a wider base. Like all the skills and tips covered so far, these are not rocket science, they are ideas that in many ways are very simple, it just takes some intentional practice to integrate them into our outward offering to the wider world.

These tips are: be wise, take an interest, be a calm non-anxious presence, offer to pray, and be like Jesus.

Now you can see why Chan built up these tips because if these were on page one, most people would give up on the book right away. The road to these develop these skills is not as bumpy as one might think, and that is because God has interwoven his law, his wisdom, and his image into us. Our true selves fulfilled by Christ can produce what these tips are offering, we just need to learn how to live out Jesus' way, truth, and life, in our actions.

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, we seek to be like You in our efforts to invite new people to Your Kingdom. We know we fall short of Your glory but if we humble ourselves, and invite all that You are into our hearts, we trust that You will make us into our best selves and that You will equip us with all we need to make disciples. Amen.

Scripture: Titus 2:5-8

[Be] self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Reflection: The more we come to know Jesus, and the more we wish to follow him, the more we should want to be like him. The more we are like him the more our actions “share” or “tell” others about Jesus. However, we must be aware that people are more sensitive to hypocrisy than most negative traits. Clergy become aware of this really quick because we are always supposed to be representing Christ, and if people see you doing something or saying something they feel is out of step from what you "ought" to be, they will hear about it. Now, no one is perfect, clergy or laity, but we should all minister and evangelize to the best of our ability, and of course, own up to any mistakes along the way. It is better to apologize for a mistake than live out hypocrisy.

Now, the attributes/tips that Chan notes in this chapter are ones that, if done well, will show people Jesus. However, if we do them poorly, will make people either get the wrong impression about Jesus or see us as hypocrites. I don’t warn the hypocrisy concern to drive anxiety in anyone who is trying to evangelize, but rather a humble conscience. We have to be willing to healthily critique ourselves with Christ as our rubric, in order to ensure what we are offering is ‘wise’ or is ‘non-anxious’, etc. And, we want this clarity, because another person finding Jesus is such a reward that we would take on that self-discipline to help facilitate that unity between our brother or sister and God.  

Now out of all the tips that were within this chapter, the one I want to focus on is special because this tip will help support all others spoken about, both in this chapter and the entirety of tips for this book. That tip is to have a calm and non-anxious presence.

Jesus is always depicted as calm and non-anxious. Even when he is in conversation with the authorities who would seek to do him harm, Jesus remains calm and non-anxious. This calm nature has to do with Jesus’ perfect trust in the will and authority of God. It is God’s will that Christ pursues in all things, so all he faces, including the cross, is met with a calm presence.  We too can find a great capacity for being calm and non-anxious by trusting in the promise of Jesus. By the event of the cross, we trust that God has offered salvation to the world, and will restore the world in the end. We trust in God through Jesus Christ, in all we do and say, including our evangelism. In all things God is in control, and that knowledge means we do not have to be anxious in our duty to evangelize, rather we can seek to bring glory to God to the best of our ability and for the well-being of those we are trying to minister to. This also means, that if I make little mistakes and errors along the way, we can repent and own up without fear, knowing God will continue to work with us, and God will continually seek those we are evangelizing. And, ultimately, the one that will ignite the flames of faith in people is God, we are just helping to build the alters. So, we can trust in that, we can lean into that, and we can pray for that.

And I will say this too, as a Reverand, I find myself more drawn to sit and learn from other clergy and Christians who have a non-anxious presence. I feel like I can relax and open up because the other person is calm and non-anxious. The flip side to this is that I have come to realize that if I’m looking to evangelize or offer pastoral care, if able, I will do a self-critique, asking myself, am I going into this conversation with a calm and non-anxious presence? If my answer is no, I might have to stop and pray, taking a moment to recenter myself and rest more full-heartedly into God's will. And, I might even decide to evangelize in a different way. For example, if I am unrested and someone asks me a theological and/or biblical question if my mind is not up for the task of articulating a thought on God, I might offer a video option to explain an idea or lean into sitting a reading the Bible with someone. I might even just be transparent, and say, ‘that is a great question, and I would love to discuss it, but I’m a bit worn today, let’s grab a coffee next week and we can walk through that together.’ The non-calm and anxious person would try to force an answer or be seen as smart or wise, but the calm and non-anxious person will go where they need to in order to serve God in a manner that speaks to the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus – resting in the fact that God is in control.  

The challenge for the Month: Skim through some of your favorite passages in the Gospels, and review Jesus’ calm and non-anxious presence. How do you feel trusting more into the will of God and the authority of God will help you to better evangelize to people?

Prayer for your Month: God, help us to be like Your Son Jesus in all we do and say. Amen.

Final Thought and Picture: Have you ever found yourself standing at a lake or in the forest, and the wind is still and the sunshine is just right; all is calm. It becomes so tempting to just breathe and take in a little bit of that calm for yourself. In a way, calm can be contagious. However, in our current climate, for many people, there is not a lot of 'calm' in their hearts. So, give them an opportunity to catch some calm from you, and they will want to know where you get it from?