Sometimes inspiration for our devotions comes late in the day. Such was the case with this one late on a Monday night.
I was conversing with a great friend and we were talking about evangelism. One of the laments shared is the penchant for over the top, at times judgmental or harsh, in the face thumping that can leave the recipient feeling wounded. The kind of evangelism that starts from the premise of convincing someone they are horrible so that they realize they need a savior. The kind that, intentionally or not, wounds and breaks in an odd attempt to heal and restore.
Often proponents of this kind of evangelism shy away from or are critical of a softer, more relational evangelism. Fair play as I am being critical of them in this instance. There is the sense that it takes the sharpness and discomfort of no nonsense presentation of the gospel to penetrate hard and stubborn hearts. That people clearly aren’t aware of their own sinfulness and so we must make them aware so they can get about the business of repentance.
Here’s the thing, this style may resonate with a minority of people, but the majority seem to, from my experience, be shut down or repelled by it. I think I’ve figured out part of the reason.
Most folks don’t need us to hurt them in order to know they have hurt. They don’t need us to harangue them about their brokenness, because they already feel where they are broken. They don’t need us to guilt them, because they already feel guilty.
The folks in this situation don’t need someone piling on the already happening character assault they are leveling on themselves on the inside. Further getting beat up isn’t the cure, it’s more of the illness. Being judged isn’t a hopeful message because the judgment they feel inside is already eating away at them.
What they are looking for is hope.
They want someone to see that they are more than their hang ups and problems. They need someone to say “I see your brokenness and love you anyway.” They need someone who can come alongside them with a compassionate heart and love them into wholeness, inspiring the hope that there is more and there is better to this life than the hurt. They need the embodiment of forgiveness so they can forgive themselves.
They need to see Jesus in us.
Our words about Jesus mean very little if His spirit is absent from them.
The fear folks have is that if we don’t take the hard line of evangelism, people won’t hear the gospel and we won’t get them to change their ways.
The reality is that delivering the gospel with a hammer ensures they won’t hear it. Also, let me share that you or I will never get someone to change their ways. That’s going to be about Jesus and their hearts working it out.
So we love. We care. We build relationships. We tell them the gospel with our lives before we tell them with our voice. It’s not one or the other, it’s both/and. But get the order or the tone mixed up and our mission falls short.
If we want folks to know Jesus, we have to give them a reason. The best witness of that is the witness of a life transformed. Then they see Him. Then we’ve given them a reason to follow us to the cross and be changed along with us.
Kingdom Keys 