“Evangelism” What comes to mind when you hear that word? Some of you grew up in the time of tent revivals. For a week, folk would gather from miles around underneath large tents to share a good meal, sing Gospel hymns, and listen to a fiery preacher bring the message that we all need Jesus Christ.
When I was growing up, the tent evangelist gave way to the televangelist. Men like Oral Roberts, Jim Baker, and Jimmy Swaggert were gaining momentum and flooding the airways. The message was the same; it was simply a different venue by which to deliver the message of Jesus Christ.
When I think of tent revivals, I think of community, warmth, friendship, and fried chicken with a loud and forceful preacher; but unfortunately, when I think of televangelists, I tend to think of trickery and deceit, as many leaders of these huge tele-ministries have been found guilty of misappropriating funds, misleading people, and immoral behavior.
Now it’s not my intention to paint all televangelists with the same broad brush. There are those who are promoting and leading their ministry with integrity, and in doing so, they provide a valuable ministry. I contrast the tent evangelist and the televangelist to illustrate the change and perception that has taken place in our world when it comes to evangelism.
Where people once would drop everything for a week to come to church and hear the outspoken evangelist, our culture doesn’t embrace evangelism as it once did, a large part of which can be attributed to a general mistrust. In days gone by, communities held the church and their ministers in high regard and most everyone supported them, but in our present-day culture, the church as an institution and ministers in general, are not trusted.
According to research in the early 90’s by George Barna, of the four major Protestant denominations in America: Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran, none had reputations that were rated “very favorable” by even one-third of the population. The same study showed that the percentage of adults expressing confidence in religious leaders dropped from 49% in 1974 to 22% by 1990. The problem is that some high profile religious leaders have made some very public blunders and outright criminal activity, which have caused many people to not trust the church and its leaders, and that mistrust impedes evangelistic efforts.
Webster’s defines evangelism as “the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ.” I’d agree. That’s evangelism, but listen to its second definition: “militant or crusading zeal.”
That’s a negative and pushy definition. That’s not how I choose to evangelize, but if that’s the overwhelming perception of evangelism, no wander it leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth.
Folks, evangelism is not a dirty word, but we’ve got to reclaim it. We’ve got to snatch it from the hands of those who made it an unpleasant, militant cause. We’ve got to rethink how we do it. That doesn’t mean the message is any different, only the means by which and the spirit within which we deliver it, is different.
Our scripture passage this morning gives a basic, tried-and-true, evangelistic example. Jesus has gone to Galilee and he finds Philip. I love the way John describes it saying, “Jesus found Philip.” In other words, Jesus selected him; Jesus called Philip into the ministry. Immediately, Philip goes and finds his friend Nathanael. He tells him, “I have found the one whom Moses and the prophets wrote about. Come and see.”
This is our first lesson in reclaiming evangelism: Invitation. Philip invited Nathanael to meet and experience Jesus Christ. He didn’t walk up to Nathanael, wave a scroll in his face, twist his arm, and ask him if he was an obedient, fearful, repentant follower of God. He invited him to share his experience. It’s that simple.
We issue invitations to people all the time. We invite friends into our homes for dinner. Our children invite friends over to play. When we go into town, sometimes we invite a friend to ride along. We do it without a second thought. Inviting people to church should be just as natural, but for some reason, it’s not. Look at how Philip issued his invitation.
I can hear the excitement in Phillip’s voice. “We have found him, the one whom Moses wrote about. I have met him, Nathanael.” Within Philip’s invitation, he explained what he was inviting Nathanael to do: meet the Messiah. Philip had met Jesus, and he wanted to share his experience with Nathanael. He didn’t try to convert him. He didn’t carry him down the road to salvation, he said, “Come and see.” In other words, come try it out, and experience what I’ve experienced.
We do this all the time, too. We eat at a new restaurant and have a great time. The service is good, the food is good, its reasonably priced, and we tell our friends, “You have to try this new restaurant. It was awesome. I had a great experience” We do the same thing with movies, “I saw a movie this past weekend, and it was great. You have got to go see it.” We’re not so much promoting the restaurant or movie as if we’ve got a financial stake in it, as we’re promoting the pleasure and joy we gained from the experience.
If you experience joy and friendship and pleasure from church and consider it important enough to come each week, why are we intimidated to issue the same enthusiastic invitation on behalf of our church? If we joined a civic organization like Kiwanis or Ruritans or Lion’s Club, we’d tell people, “Hey, I joined the Lion’s Club. It’s a great group of guys, they do good work, come out with me next week.” Why don’t we issue the same invitations on behalf of our church?
“Hey, I go to a really great church. The people are nice, they do good work, and you should come try it out.” If you like the people who are here, and I assume you do, because you’re here; if you believe in what’s going on, and I assume you do, because you’re here; if you think we’re following God’s will and headed in the right direction, and I assume you do, because you’re here; then why wouldn’t you extend the invitation so that others might experience what you’re experiencing? When it comes to church and fellowship with Jesus Christ, evangelism is all about sharing your experience.
I witnessed this very thing a few months ago, and I shared it on a Wednesday night, but I think it’s worth sharing again. I was driving my daughter Kari and a friend of her’s home from gymnastics, and those two eight-year olds were chatting away. Kari then asked her friend, “Are you a Christian?” Her friend said, “I’m not sure.” Kari then asked, “Why don’t you go to church?” Her friend gave various reasons why she didn’t go, and then Kari said, “You need to come to my church. We have a lot of fun. First, I eat doughnuts and drink juice, and then I go to Sunday School, where Mrs. Williams has us read stories out of the Bible, and we talk about them. Then we go into big church for a little while, where Bert tells us another story from the Bible. Then we go upstairs to our own church, where we have another lesson and make a craft or do something else fun. You’ll have to spend the night with me one Saturday, so you can go to church with me the next morning.” The little girl said, “Okay,” and then they moved on to their next topic of conversation.
I smiled to myself and thought, “It should be that easy and natural for each of us, because that’s how it’s supposed to be done.” You tell someone what you’ve experienced, what you enjoy and you invite them to join you. This is exactly what Philip has done in today’s scripture. He’s met Christ. He’s experienced him first-hand, and he wants to share that with his friend, Nathanael.
And this is the second lesson in reclaiming evangelism: issuing that invitation to a friend. Philip didn’t go to a stranger on a street corner. Philip didn’t go pass out tracts at Wal*Mart. Philip went to a friend of his; someone he knew and someone he cared about.
We’ve all got friends we care about, who aren’t in church on Sundays. We’ve all got friends we’d love to share a pew with here at Chestnut Grove. We’ve all got friends we’d like to share this experience with, but we don’t invite them. Why?
There are many reasons. We’re afraid of what they might think of us if we invite them to church; they might ridicule us and make fun of us. They might ask a question we don’t know the answer to. They might not share our point of view and argue with us.
When Philip invited his friend, Nathanael, he told him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” I can’t imagine an invitation that presented the possibility of more ridicule than this one. Philip wasn’t inviting him to the synagogue, he was inviting him to meet the Messiah; the one they were waiting for, the one whom Moses spoke about.
Nathanael’s response is one we might anticipate today. He was sarcastic and argued with Philip a little bit: “You can’t be serious. Nothing good can come out of Nazareth.” Philip then presents us with our third lesson in reclaiming evangelism, more by what he didn’t say. He didn’t argue with him. I imagine Nathanael’s tone wasn’t very pleasant, but Philip’s response isn’t one of defense, it’s “Oh, Nathanael, just come and see,” much like if someone didn’t want to go eat a particular restaurant, we’d say, “Oh, just come and try it,” and that’s the advantage of inviting friends. You can provide that type of response, “Oh, just come and try it.”
Philip started with an invitation, which he issued to a friend, sharing his experience; and he didn’t argue with him. That is the evangelistic three-step, and this is the type of evangelism we should be about, and this type of evangelism is not a dirty word, but before we close this morning, let’s look at the results of Philip’s invitation.
Nathanael went to meet Jesus, and he went with a “show me” attitude, not believing that anything good could come out of Nazareth, but look what he walked away with. He walked away with a faith and belief in Jesus Christ, proclaiming him the King of Israel and the Son of God. That’s the evangelistic experience we’re after. We’re not looking to brow beat anyone into submission. We’re not twisting arms.
We’re trying to create an atmosphere in this place, where all who come can worship and experience God for themselves, because we come from different points of view: disbelief, mistrust, pain, regret, joy, expectation, but no matter the point of view, when someone has that type of life-changing experience, as Nathanael did, it truly changes every aspect of one’s life. It affects the past, because past sins and transgressions have been forgiven, and it affects the future, because there is now a clear direction and purpose.
Evangelism is not a dirty word, but the only way for us to change that perception, is to reclaim it and practice it. Issue an invitation to a friend in which you share your experience, but don’t argue about it. Who knows, they may walk away having met the King of Israel and the Son of God. Amen.
