This sermon introduction discusses the anxiety some people feel towards evangelism, questioning if faith-sharing should be anxiety-inducing, and referencing Michael Frost's book "Surprise the World" which suggests that not everyone should be expected to evangelize in the same way.
Why does the word ‘evangelism’ cause some people so much anxiety? Do you get images of door-knocking or approaching strangers in shopping malls? Does it make you feel like you’re being turned into a reluctant recruitment officer for the church? Should faith-sharing really be anxiety producing?
In his book Surprise the World, Michael Frost puts it this way: “When gifted evangelists tell the rest of us that we should behave like gifted evangelists too it has a debilitating effect. We look at confident, articulate, theologically trained evangelists preaching in our churches and hear their stories of sharing the gospel on the back of a napkin in a restaurant or on a plane, and then we hear them tell us that we too can (and indeed, should) do what they do and we freeze! We know we can’t do what they do.” (p.6-7)
Do you feel that way? Are we all meant to be little Billy Grahams? Or have we been getting it wrong? What exactly does the Bible say about evangelism? Let’s see what both Paul and Peter say as they encourage their churches to share their faith. (Re)read Colossians 4:2-6 and 1 Peter 3:15- 16
Should faith-sharing really be anxiety producing?
You’ll note in these passages there’s a kind of two-pronged approach to evangelism assumed. Let’s look at those two prongs: Evangelists Should be Bold and The Rest of us should be Questionable.
Firstly, Paul clearly seems to think that there are certain people in the church who are gifted evangelists. And obviously Paul places himself in that category in the Colossians passage we read. It seems Paul thinks gifted evangelists could be either: local (like Timothy – see 2 Tim. 4:5) or trans-local (like himself). leaders in local churches (see Eph 4:11) or just members of churches.
For these people Paul asks his churches to pray for two things: opportunities (“pray... that God may open a door for our message...”) and clarity (“Pray that I may proclaim it clearly...”).
And here is a challenge for our church. Have we identified the gifted evangelists in our midst? Are we praying that our evangelistic leaders will have opportunities to share Christ? And are we praying that those evangelists will be clear in the way they talk about Jesus?
But it doesn’t appear that Paul believes all Christians bear the responsibility for that kind of bold proclamation to which he is called. While evangelism is an essential gifting for all churches, it isn’t a gifting given to every believer. Otherwise, he would have encouraged the Colossians to pray for opportunities and clarity for themselves as well. He doesn’t. He asks something slightly different from them.
This leads us to look at Paul’s second prong of evangelism. What does he think the rest of us should be doing to share Christ with others?
Firstly, Paul calls on evangelists to be bold, and secondly... The Rest of us should be Questionable.
Yep, I said questionable! Well, I didn’t say it, Paul did ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
When we live unexpected lives (which clearly includes the blessing of strangers), we find ourselves being questioned by others. Then, we have the best opportunity for sharing the hope of Christ within us.
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