Final Review - Conclusion: Black Swan Moments

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. Conclusion: Looking for Black Swan Moments

What The Text Brought To Mind: Trying to find the Black Swan; the outlying or even ideal moment or situation for evangelism, might seem like searching for a needle in a haystack, and in a way, it can be. Often when we look at the sea of diverse people and circumstances in front of us, it can all feel like either chaos or mundane normality, both of which can act as that endless sea of hay cascading in front of our searching eyes. But the good news about the whole needle-hay analogy is that there is a quick fix. If you have a powerful enough magnet, the needle will come to you. Chan’s book has been teaching us how to be magnetic in our evangelism by reminding us to act like Jesus in our pursuit of bringing people to Jesus. Acting like Jesus to bring people to Jesus, might seem like a no-brainer but with all the elements of life circling around in our minds, we can often forget that the main point of evangelism is to bring people to Jesus. It is not about filling the pews, it is not about balancing the church's budgets, it is not about building your social groups, or even making friends – the point is we are bringing people to Christ, and the best way to do that is be Christ-like for those people. When we act like Christ, we open ourselves up for the “Black Swan” moments to happen, our Christ-like magnetism will pull people through the hay towards us, and the hay will begin to part like the Red Sea.

Now just because the sea part, doesn’t mean our evangelism efforts are effortless, we still need to be intentional with our evangelism, and with our effort to act Christ-like, because if acting Christ-like was easy in itself we wouldn’t need a saviour would we.     

Opening Prayer:  Our God in Heaven, we thank you for this study, as we wrap up our review of Chan’s book, we ask that you help us to remember the wisdom learned throughout all the chapters and tips for evangelism, and may this wisdom enrich our lives and help us to welcome others to the faith. In Your Son’s name. Amen.

Scripture: Daniel 3:19-26

Nebuchadnezzar, his face purple with anger, cut off Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace fired up seven times hotter than usual. He ordered some strong men from the army to tie them up, hands and feet, and throw them into the roaring furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, bound hand and foot, fully dressed from head to toe, were pitched into the roaring fire. Because the king was in such a hurry and the furnace was so hot, flames from the furnace killed the men who carried Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to it, while the fire raged around Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Suddenly King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm and said, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound hand and foot, into the fire?”

“That’s right, O king,” they said.

“But look!” he said. “I see four men, walking around freely in the fire, completely unharmed! And the fourth man looks like a son of the gods!”

Nebuchadnezzar went to the door of the roaring furnace and called in, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the High God, come out here!”

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked out of the fire.

Reflection: Often when we read the bible and we hear the story of the miraculous we are in awe at God’s divine ability to make a miracle. When we evangelize, we also often want those miraculous moments for evangelism to happen for us; God put us in the exact right moment to bring it all together, and conversion happens. However, the challenge of seeking miracles is we often overlook the general principle that miracles teach us – which when this seeking of miracles is applied to evangelism can short-circuit our efforts. When the fires in the furnace do not burn Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego it does show us God can perform miracles yes, but a miracle is not God manipulating reality, rather it is God showing us that reality is only what it is because God wills it to be. Fire only burns normally because God wills it to, if God does not what fire to burn, it won't. The consistent burning of fire is much a miracle, and the not burning, the outlying necessity of it not burning to save the three men in the book of Daniel is a product of the necessity of God’s will to be done. If the outlying reaction of fire was the qualification of a miracle, then when God set ablaze Elijah’s alter, then that would not be much of a miracle.   

We need to understand when we are evangelizing, that every step of the process, whether it be an outlying moment that just clicks, or it is that steady investment into a person over a lifetime. If you recognize that all of it falls under God’s authority, the instant conversion and the lifelong struggle toward a conversion are equally miraculous because they ultimately come from God.

I think this recognition of God’s authority and power in all moments of evangelism, with the added wisdom of trying our best to live like Jesus, will remove so much of the pressure we feel to evangelize that we will be less likely to fall into less-than-ideal methods of evangelism, and we will be able to avoid being “that guy”.

The challenge for the Month: Begin to see all moments as a time to share the Good News about Jesus, and remember that you don’t need to be “that guy” to do so.  

Prayer for your Month: God, we are in a perpetual season of Pentecost, Your son has commissioned us to go and made disciples. Send Your Spirit to dwell in our hearts as we prepare and make ready to do the work You have entrusted to us. We thank you for resources like the book we have reviewed, and we ask you to keep our minds sharp and our hearts open so we can continue to exercise all we have learned, so we too can participate in this wonderful gift of sharing the Gospel and the Love of Jesus with all who will welcome it. Amen

Final Thought and Picture: For anyone who has been reading this blog, if you have the means, I highly recommend this book as a study guide for your church or fellowship to begin to develop best practices for evangelism. Blessings on your efforts to share the Good News. Rev. Jacob Shaw 

P.S. we will now take a short Summer break from this blog, it will return in the fall as we will be starting a blog response to the Television Series The Chosen, this coming blog will move to the emotional responses we can have from witnessing the Gospel history played out for us cinematically. 

See you in September.