In my last post, I explored our idea of Christian growth and how to free up our schedule to meet non-Christians.

Today we continue exploring what keeps us from modeling Paul’s activity in Athens — reach out, build relationships with folks, and then engage them with the gospel where they are on a daily basis.

4 Stumbling Blocks to Everyday Evangelism and How to Remove Them

(3) Our Idea of the Evangelistic Process 

At one extreme we may believe evangelism only happens during the Sunday Service. Those who believe that often think: If I can just get my non-believing friends to church, they will hear the gospel.

Thinking that way, however, severely hinders everyday evangelism because it leads us to believe that evangelism can only happen once a week by someone we believe to be a professional. As well as it is not true.

Jesus commissioned all of us to make disciples, not just the Pastor.

Or at another extreme we might believe evangelism only happens when we lead someone through a full on gospel presentation — something like The Romans Road or Two Ways to Live. None of which are bad. I actually think they can be helpful.

While helpful, these presentations can be hindrance if we believe they are the only way to share the gospel, or feel we have not shared the gospel unless we have walked someone through the entire presentation.

When we start thinking like that, we get into what I like to refer to as “checklist evangelism” — talking to someone about the gospel becomes more about us getting through the checklist than actually having a conversation.

When we are focused on our checklist rather than the person, our conversation becomes insensitive and awkward. Talking about the gospel, however, shouldn’t be insensitive, it shouldn’t be awkward.

It should be just as natural for us to talk about the gospel or what Jesus is doing in our life as it is for us to talk about the weather or our favorite sports team.

So instead of working off a checklist, we have to find ways to include Jesus in our conversation. If you are wondering how to naturally include Jesus in your conversation, let me recommend a good book for you. It is entitled Questioning Evangelism by Michael Newman

Question for Reflection

1. What hindrances do you see regarding the evangelistic process you have used or even been taught in the past?

Resources

Post adapted from the sermon: Spread the Gospel – Growth Through Discipleship – Week 5

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