Evangelism gives me joy! But I recall how I used to struggle to
start a conversation. By the time I had planned my approach, my
little sermon and my plea for a decision, I was so uptight that
my surprised victim became embarrassed, too. But in a couple of
weeks I would try again because a few of my victims did find
God. Very few.
My problem–I was a hunter. A
hunter with a reaping mentality. But I became free to enjoy
evangelism when I shifted from hunting to fishing. Most
Christians dislike hunting, so they rarely evangelize. I rewrote
these pages after reading in two publications that even most
Christian workers do not evangelize! They do other ministries.
It confirmed my own observation. Most do not share their
faith–because they do not know how!
A major hurdle is initiating
conversations. We feel uncomfortable invading the privacy of
unsuspecting targets and surprising them with unwanted religious
information. So if hunting is the only approach we know, we will
not do it often.
But fishing evangelism is
different. It is selective. It draws out the seekers from a
mixed group of people and focuses on them instead of giving the
gospel to non-believers indiscriminately. Seekers are people who
have become hungry for God through their own deep need and
through observing the character and conduct of Christians and
hearing their casual references to God. Seekers nibble at this
bait. They ask questions. So you begin your evangelistic
conversations by answering the questions of people who want to
know about God!
Fishing is ideal for Christians
who see the same non-believers daily–in the workplace or on
campus. It is ideal for tentmakers who witness discreetly as
they support themselves in hostile countries, and for all of us
who try to win our own compatriots and the internationals around
us.
I will consider six subjects:
I.
Fishing out seekers–explanation, examples, benefits,
contexts, components of bait, and work and witness issues.
II.
Answering questions–attitudes, readiness, kinds of
questions.
III. Drawing seekers to Christ–focusing their
attention on God, tuning them in to God, using information and
people resources.
IV.
Encouraging commitment and caring for new believers.
V.
Noting kinds of seekers.
VI. Getting started.
I. Fishing out seekers
I stumbled onto this
2000-year-old fishing concept during my tentmaking years in
Brazil, and then found that some other Christians had discovered
it, too–from the Bible! This is how Paul and Peter teach us to
evangelize!
I was earning my living as head
of a secular international school in Sao Paulo. A teacher came
into my office and said, "Weren’t you lucky to find that money
you lost?" I almost agreed. But instead, without interrupting my
work, I turned my head toward her, and said, "Oh, it wasn’t
luck–I prayed like mad and God helped me to find it!" Then I
changed the subject. She left, surprised at my answer. But
because I did not push the matter she returned and asked, "You
don’t really think God cares about a little problem like this,
do you?" I told her about a prayer God answered the previous
week–and I changed the subject, leaving her free.
I wanted to explain the gospel
to her from the start, but she might then have avoided me,
fearing I was trying to convert her. She asked more questions on
successive days–because she felt she had the initiative. I let
her set the pace for our conversations as she was ready–and to
set the agenda. Her questions showed me what answers she was
ready for. It struck me that I should always act and speak in a
way that would cause people to ask the questions I longed to
answer! I should fish out seekers from among the indifferent or
resistant people around me.
Fishing can help Christians
share the good news more often, more joyfully and more
fruitfully. But let us examine both approaches.
1. Explanation and examples
Christians who fish focus on a
godly lifestyle where they work or study–a place where
non-believers can scrutinize their lives. They learn to insert
fitting comments about God casually and naturally into secular
conversations. This verbal and non-verbal bait causes
spiritually hungry people to ask questions. The Christians then
answer the seekers’ initial questions, win their friendship and
gradually lead them to put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christians who hunt are more
aggressive than those who fish, but they proceed in the dark.
Their hit-or-miss approach may lead them to a seeker, but more
likely to a non-believer who is indifferent or antagonistic. So
hunters often recite a one-size-fits-all sermonette to everyone
because they know little about these strangers. If their small
speech is memorized it also lacks the authenticity of
spontaneity. Many hunters also use a model of evangelism adapted
from selling. Their message is one-sided, psychologically
packaged to elicit a positive response. They present their sales
pitch without relating to
the person. They are intent on finishing the little sermon so
they can ask for a decision. They call for the deepest and most
profound realignment of people’s lives while ignoring the
reality of their personalities and circumstances.
Hunters do get people to make
decisions. But many who sign cards do not understand enough to
be born again. The slant of some stereotyped presentations leads
listeners to think, "What can I lose? It probably can’t hurt."
But it leaves many people mistaken or confused about their
spiritual state. Several victims told me they just signed to get
rid of the Christian. Others responded with anger. Some were
disillusioned–the decision had changed nothing–Christianity was
a hoax.
The hunting Christian tries to
reap a harvest without first planting and watering! A few people
in the U.S. may be ready for a decision because others have
sowed and watered, but this is rarely true here or in other
cultures.
When Jesus sent out the Twelve
he instructed them to speak only to the Jews, because he saw
that they were like fields white for harvest. (Mt. 9:37, 38, Jn.
4:35-38.) He sent the Twelve to reap. Although the Gentile towns
scattered throughout Galilee were needier, they were not ready
for reaping and the Twelve were not at all ready for
cross-cultural ministry. Only the Jews had had enough chance to
see Jesus.
As Paul evangelized the Roman
Empire, he had to begin near zero in each Gentile city, sowing
and watering. He was doing pioneer church planting. He had to
present God’s Word and demonstrate it before he could reap
converts and form house fellowships. He always started by
fishing out seekers in the synagogues–Jews, and Gentile
God-fearers–people who knew something about God from the Old
Testament.
For us today to
indiscriminately accost strangers with the gospel may be harmful
to them, but in hostile countries it can be dangerous also for
us. It can lead to job loss, arrest or expulsion, sometimes on
twenty-four hours notice.
Although most Christians feel
uncomfortable and even afraid to intrude into people’s lives and
to impose religious conversations on reluctant listeners, most
books on evangelism only tell us about better ways to hunt.
Yet even Jesus fished. He did
and said things to incite questions. In Jn. 4 he surprised an
immoral Samaritan woman by asking for a drink of water–something
no other Jewish man would have done! He saw past her promiscuity
to her deep spiritual need and led her to ask the right
questions. . . But in John 3 Jesus’ miracles were bait. They
brought Nicodemus on a night visit. Then Jesus’ puzzling
statements about birth elicited the right questions from this
Jewish theologian. Jesus fished!
Jesus referred to evangelism in
general as fishing for people (Mt. 4:19), so the term fishing
evangelism is redundant. But it is a helpful reminder that we
should fish out the seekers from the ponds of people around us –
our family circle, neighborhood, workplace, campus, club, etc.
We can call it workplace evangelism, or neighborhood or campus
evangelism, because it is ideal for those portions of this
planet’s great sea of people which God has assigned to each of
us–those people with whom we associate most often. Above all, it
is tentmaker evangelism–ideal for professional people employed
in hostile environments where hunting can have disastrous
consequences. It is ideal for all intercultural sharing of the
gospel.
So switching from a hunting to
a fishing model is one secret of effective evangelism anywhere.
It frees messenger and seeker. Your bait induces outsiders to
ask the crucial questions.
But bait varies in each
situation. On a layover in a Texas airport I could have talked
to 100 travelers in the boarding area. But which one should I
choose? What should I say to people I did not know? I broke the
ice with a friendly "hello" to everyone nearby as I sat down.
This freed one woman to ask me what work I do. An evasive answer
would have ended the conversation. Instead I said, "I assist
caring Christians to obtain salaried positions abroad, so they
can tell hurting people around them how Jesus Christ can help."
The woman grabbed both my hands
and said, "I’m so glad you are here – I am a hurting person!"
Her husband had just died. I was sorry when my plane was called,
and then realized we were on the same flight. She was assigned
to seat 12A and I to 12B! God had planned our encounter! On
takeoff she made the sign of the cross three times–so I knew she
was Catholic and that she was afraid to fly. After significant
conversation I gave her a Gospel of John. (Pocket-sized Gospels
and evangelistic booklets can continue your conversations, and
your address inside may lead to correspondence.)
On another flight I chatted
with a businessman about current events. An attendant brought
our meals and I said softly what I felt, all in one breath: "I
am hungry –t his looks good – Thank you God for good things to
eat! Now as you were saying. . ." By returning immediately to
our subject I was leaving him free. I had not closed my eyes. He
did not bat an eyelash. I decided he had not heard my little
one-sentence grace. After the meal we both returned to our
reading. A half hour later he put aside his book and began a
barrage of questions about God. He had needed time to decide if
he wanted to talk and then, what to ask. He chose when to speak.
If I had pressed a conversation after my prayer, he might have
been defensive.
So bait can be any casual thing
you do or say that discreetly announces, "I know about God and I
am willing to talk." In the workplace there may be no response
for several days. But when your colleague or client or patient
or student faces a crisis, he or she will know where to come for
help.
This happened to me one Monday
soon after my arrival in Sao Paulo to head up an international
elementary school. The principal of the adjacent secondary
school came to say that one of his teachers had drowned in a
storm at sea during the weekend. The high school teachers were
preparing a memorial service for the student body and parents.
(I agreed that the elementary school should participate.) The
Glee Club was learning a hymn. But no high school teacher was
willing to say the prayer. He said, "They suggested you would
know how to do that." Now what made my new acquaintances think
that I could pray? Had someone noticed me briefly bow my head in
the teachers’ lunchroom?
So in my short prayer at the
service I asked God to comfort the bereaved family and friends.
Then I added confidently, "Thank you, Lord, that we can know
about life after death!" My little prayer brought teachers and
students from both schools into my office for days, to ask
questions. It was also how I fished out several Christian high
school students and started a Bible club in my apartment to help
them win their friends. In this way I multiplied my own ministry
in both schools!
This event also speeded up my
ministry. It could have taken awhile for most people in the
elementary school to find out about my faith, and months before
I would have enough contact with the high school. But God used
the service to quickly inform everyone in both schools, and many
upper class Brazilian parents. Yet I was not imposing religious
conversations on anyone–I was answering their questions!
This chain of events occurred
because I had quietly put out bait at work where I was being
watched. If I had been hunting, most people around me would
already have become defensive. Fishing had proved advantageous.
2. The benefits of fishing
Note just 14 benefits of the
fishing approach to evangelism.
1) Fishing evangelism is
enjoyable! You look at the people around you and think, like
Jesus, "If you only knew what I have to give you, you would be
begging me!" (Jn. 4:10) When people ask, you enjoy telling them
the gospel because they want to know, and you want to tell them!
Their first questions are often
indirect, but Marta came straight to the point. I had just come
to Lima to teach in a secular school and I met this Peruvian
teacher at the school board’s reception for us newcomers. After
a bit of small talk, she asked, "Would you teach me the Bible?"
I was surprised! I did not know what I had said to make her ask.
But when I learned that her pilot husband had just been killed
in a crash, I knew how this hurting young widow had become so
open to Jesus Christ. After a few studies at my house she
invited him into her life. What joy that gave us both!
Then she brought her three sons
to learn about God–sons whom this doting mother had named
Miguel, Rafael and Gabriel! I soon learned they were not
angels–just three normally naughty teenagers whom God loved. A
year later Marta died in a car crash. I was so glad God had led
me to her in time!
2) Fishing evangelism is easy
since anyone can put out bait–a godly lifestyle and occasional
appropriate words about God. Bait is little. You need not
elaborate a sermon. You learn to drop tiny spiritual bombshells
in the most casual, natural way! Speak with confidence–as if
every thinking person would agree. But do not be dogmatic,
arrogant or preachy. Fishing is easy because you put out bait in
tiny bites.
3) Fishing evangelism is
kind–never rude, not imposing on someone who might become
defensive, embarrassed or angry. A graduate student at U.C.
Berkeley saw me with my Bible in a campus coffee shop and
thought I might help with her research paper on the Protestant
Reformation. I wanted to tell Daphne so much! But she assured me
she had no personal interest in religion. I soon suspected that
was not true. But she was prickly! So I let her questions guide
me. I answered each one briefly, adding bits of bait to keep
more questions coming. It became a long, substantial
conversation that let me say most of what I had longed to tell
her. Then I gave her the names of two pastor friends in a fine
church just off campus. She said goodbye and left. But then she
returned and said, "Thank you for not being pushy." This showed
me why she had been so sensitive to any initiative on my part.
She had been the victim of hunters! Hunting can make people very
difficult to win. Good evangelism is always kind.
4) Fishing evangelism is
patient, allowing seekers to pace the conversations with their
questions as they are ready. We can turn people off or confuse
them by saying too much too soon and using terms they do not yet
know. Speak briefly and then think, "The next move is up to
you." Seekers need time to process what we tell them and time
for the Holy Spirit to work on them.
That was true of Joao Olavo, a
medical student in Curitiba, Brazil, who had been attending an
investigative Bible study in my apartment for a couple of
months. Late one evening he asked me, "What does the death of
Jesus 2000 years ago have to do with me today?" I thought to
myself, "Dear Joao Olavo, where have you been these last three
weeks?" As I began to explain it again, tears filled his eyes
and a smile filled his face. He grasped the meaning for the
first time. A bad experience that week had shown this very
intelligent, self-sufficient, self-righteous young man that he
desperately needed God. It can take time for people to
understand spiritual truths even after hearing them several
times.
So we must be patient with
seekers because the Holy Spirit is patient with them and we must
not run ahead of him. We can let the seekers’ partial responses
encourage our faith and we can rejoice over each small step they
take toward God. I put small t’s after their names in my prayer
notebook for a small "Thank you, Lord," and then a big T when
they make their commitment. A whole row of t’s tells me God is
working, so I can be patient.
5) Fishing evangelism is
respectful of individuals. You treat people as persons, not
objects. You customize your approach for each one. When you get
a nibble, determine what kind of seeker your bait has drawn.
Listen to what that person says, making sure you understand. As
I started university fellowships in Brazil, I spoke differently
to Catholic philosophy student Ramon, to Marxist economics
professor Maria Eugenia, and to my maid, Benta, who panicked at
rainbows, fearing they could make her pregnant! Individuals are
as unique as their fingerprints.
6) Fishing evangelism shows you
what to say. It puts you right on target, with little
hit-or-miss. You will not be giving a lot of answers to
questions no one is asking. Seekers’ questions reveal their
spiritual history, the gospel truths they already understand,
their misconceptions, their felt needs, and obstacles that might
hinder their turning to the Lord. Listen to them. Build on what
God’s Spirit is doing with them. Do not fear their questions.
(See Section II.)
7) Fishing evangelism shows you
what to pray. None of your effort or expertise can bring anyone
to the Lord unless you pray. Hunters can only offer general
prayers. Fishers can be specific. You ask God to change Lucho’s
concept of him as a severe Judge, and the idea that he may get
by if he balances his sins with good deeds. You pray that he
will do well on his math exam, and won’t be distracted by the
soccer game or his girlfriend, and that Friday’s study on the
rich young ruler in Luke 18 will touch his heart. Our prayers
free the Holy Spirit to do what he is longing to do for us.
8) Fishing evangelism is wise
and discreet. It is not indiscriminate, but selective. You let
your light shine for everyone, because it can turn indifferent
and hostile people into seekers. You answer their questions,
too. But you focus on those whose questions show they are
seeking. You take them aside to talk without arousing the
opposition of the spiritually hostile people around them.
(Evangelism is so risky in non-Christian countries that I will
return to this subject later.)
9) Fishing evangelism is
versatile. If you do not get a nibble, wait for an appropriate
moment and try another kind of bait! There is a right kind of
bait for every kind of fish. Many Christians should cultivate
broader interests in order to have more in common with
non-believers. At least we should be able to ask intelligent
questions about current events, business, sports, literature,
art, music, TV, etc.
Scripture is versatile,
containing a variety of salvation metaphors to help people
respond to the Lord–terms like finding him, believing in him,
inviting him in, being born again, submitting to him, making a
commitment to him. As alienated from God, they can be reconciled
to him. As guilty and condemned they can come to the Judge for
acquittal. As disobedient children they can beg forgiveness from
the loving Father. As lost sheep they can let themselves be
found by the seeking Shepherd. As broken people they can be made
whole by the Great Physician. As slaves to sin they can let the
Redeemer buy them out of the slave market and set them free. As
rebels they can change sides and make an unconditional surrender
to the King of Kings! Use the metaphors and Bible passages best
suited to the seeker’s questions.
In a crowded but quiet hotel
elevator in Manila, a well-dressed Filipino man saw my Bible and
asked me if I was one of those people who believe Jesus is the
Good Shepherd. I said, "Yes–are you one, too?" He said, "No. My
brother is. But I value my freedom too much to give it up." So I
asked, using his metaphor, "Which lamb has the most freedom–the
one near the shepherd’s rod and staff, or the one in the dark
alone with the lions and bears?" He said, "You have just put a
whole new perspective on the subject!" (A captive elevator
audience listened.) I had no time to explain how Jesus can make
us truly free (Jn. 8:32). I did not have with me the booklet,
Becoming Free. I pray his brother has won him.
10) Fishing evangelism is
rightly motivated by a biblical definition. It is not
headhunting, chalking up numbers or filling a quota. Evangelism
is not even winning people to the Lord, although that is a
desired result. Evangelism is joyfully, reverently, tactfully
"declaring the glory of God" as we know him from Scripture and
personal experience. It is storytelling! It is the purpose for
which the church exists (1 Peter 2:9, Psalm 96:3)
A bad definition kept me
limping along for years. I feared starting a conversation that
would not result in a decision–I could not risk another failure.
But this biblical definition freed me to sow and water. God was
pleased whenever I spoke of him. Because I was no longer
uptight, seekers came to me. Even if I see no response in a
listener, I rejoice–God can make my words bear fruit in coming
days or weeks–for other Christians to reap.
11) Fishing evangelism is
biblical. It is not another gimmick. Both Paul and Peter
describe evangelism as answering the questions of seekers.
Listen to Paul in Col. 4:5, 6:
"Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of
each opportunity. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned
with salt, so you may know how you ought to answer every one." A
godly, non-judgmental, attractive lifestyle and tactful,
thirst-inducing comments elicit the questions we long to answer.
Listen to Peter in 1 Peter
3:14-16: "Have no fear of them (persecutors), nor be troubled.
But in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. (His presence gives
courage and wisdom and power!) Always be ready to make a defense
(an answer) to any one who asks you the reason for the hope that
is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your
conscience clear (lifestyle)." According to Peter, what most
attracted non-believers? The Christians’ hope! They puzzled over
what secret gave the Christians joy and peace and confidence
even as they suffered physical persecution, property
confiscation and economic discrimination.
In our hectic, anxiety-filled
world today, non-believers wonder what hope gives Christians
peace and patience in the daily grind of work and the
frustrations of life, and peace in spite of future
uncertainties.
But fishing evangelism cannot
work if no one asks questions. Three reasons they do not ask: a)
Too little contact. The Christians ignore non-believers, eating
meals and spending free time with each other. b) Seekers see
nothing different in the believers’ behavior–they gripe like all
the rest. c) Seekers admire the Christians’ conduct but do not
relate it to God because they rarely mention him. Christians
must put out bait, in a context they share with outsiders–the
neighborhood, workplace, campus or club. This is biblical
evangelism.
12) Fishing evangelism leads to
evangelistic Bible studies. After a few questions, even if you
could answer, say, "I’m not an authority on this subject–I’m
still learning about my faith. (You are non-threatening.) But
would you like to see what Jesus said?" Pull out a New Testament
or Gospel and do a one-on-one study of a few relevant verses.
Ask questions and let the seeker find answers in the text. These
will raise new questions. Agree when to meet for a longer
passage. This kind of study usually grows into weekly encounters
with several seekers. (Say investigative Bible study–IBS,
because an outsider could be offended or put on guard if you say
evangelistic.)
IBS’s are not a new idea.
Remember Philip, the social services administrator who fled
Saul’s persecution and evangelized in Samaria and the Gaza
Strip. He hitchhiked south along the international highway and
hooked a ride in the luxurious chariot of a foreign dignitary,
who turned out to be the treasurer of Queen Candace of Ethiopia!
Philip knew he was a seeker because he was reading aloud from an
Isaiah scroll! He got the man to ask him to explain Isaiah 53,
then led him in an IBS of this wonderful passage. He helped him
to trust in Jesus and then baptized him by a roadside pool!
I have seen more people find
God through IBS’s than any other means. It is a patient way to
provide the background seekers need to make an intelligent
decision. Each one discovers truth as he or she is ready for it.
You study gospel narratives. Stories have always been the main
conduit for truth, especially in non-Western cultures. Stories
link mind, heart and emotions in a way that abstract teaching
and linear arguments do not. In the Bible, the gospel stories
are the main evangelistic literature. John 20:31 says, "These
things were written that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ. . . and that you might have life in his name."
Most important, the stories are
about Jesus, who is always the shortcut in evangelism. You watch
him in action, listen to his words and to the testimony of his
friends and enemies. As you stress his humanity–he is tired,
hungry, thirsty, sleepy, lonely or sad–his deity stands out in
sharp contrast. Ask questions that help participants interact
vicariously with him through the characters in the story.
IBS discussions are quite
different from the usual Bible study. The majority of the
participants should be non-believers. They share more honestly
and spontaneously when there is no psychological pressure from a
Christian majority. But emphasize the ground rules–to answer the
questions from the text–to discover what the passage means, not
to exchange religious opinions. This avoids arguments and makes
sure the participants will not leave with wrong conclusions.
(But note the opinions they present and discuss them privately
between studies.)
IBS’s enable you to rejoice as
seekers take small steps toward God. Their comments and
questions show when you should ask for commitment. It produces
converts who are lay evangelists, because the new Christians can
immediately win others, as they were won–leading an IBS with a
question guide on the gospel stories! In Spain, Marisa had not
yet made a verbal commitment herself when she took a page of
questions to lead that week’s study with her non-believing
father and sister! See GO Paper: Investigative Bible Studies.
13) Fishing evangelism
facilitates follow-up, because it quickly leads to an IBS, which
not only helps seekers find God, but provides the matrix in
which the converts are taught and nurtured. The IBS turns into a
DBS–a discipleship Bible study. You also begin new IBS’s, with
the converts inviting their friends and leading them to God.
14) Fishing evangelism
facilitates church planting, because it quickly leads to an IBS
which soon turns into a DBS–and that soon becomes a house
church! A larger congregation can be formed if tentmakers bring
two or three DBS groups together. But in Muslim countries they
may have to wait until the converts learn to trust each other,
since they fear infiltration by spies (phony converts) seeking
to report them to authorities.
The above 14 benefits of
fishing can be experienced in different situations.
3. Fishing contexts
Fishing evangelism is useful in
our travel, our nuclear and extended families, our
neighborhoods, our places of work or study and in our social
activities. We will consider first where Paul evangelized, then
our contemporary workplaces or campuses, and then hostile
environments.
1) Paul’s contexts for
evangelism.
Intellectual Paul, who
supported himself by making animal skin tents, integrated work
and witness in the workshop. There he probably saw some fellow
laborers, customers, suppliers, and artisan guild members with
shops on the same narrow street. He may have worked for an
employer or hired his own employees, managed a workshop or
trained apprentices. In the streets of Corinth he talked to
drunks, thieves, idlers and other bums–and won many to the Lord!
(1 Cor. 6:9-11) Conversations would have spilled over into his
residence–maybe above or behind the workshop, especially when he
lived with Priscilla and Aquila. He talked to people in the
market squares and was invited to lecture to the philosophers in
the Aeropagus council in Athens and to the Asiarchs in Ephesus
(Acts 17,18). But he always taught first in synagogues to fish
out seekers, until Jewish hostility forced him to move meetings
to a convert’s home–like that of Jason in Corinth. In Philippi
there was no synagogue so he looked for worshipping Jews along
the riverbanks, and found the Gentile God-fearer, Lydia. (Acts
16) In Ephesus Paul taught during the long noontime siesta hours
in a borrowed lecture hall and evenings in large local
households. (Acts 19:8, 9, 20:20.) He evangelized on board ship
and on long journeys on foot (Acts 27, 28, 19:1ff). He witnessed
in several jails (Acts 16) and won converts under Nero’s very
nose–in his palace prison! (Phil. 1:12-15, 4:21,22.) He turned
his arrests and trials into evangelistic outreach! (Acts 21-26.)
Although theologically
educated, he served as a working man, not clergy–because it
gained him credibility with the skeptical, suspicious Gentiles.
He was erudite and upper class but he identified with artisans.
He modeled and taught fishing evangelism in all these contexts.
(Col.4:5, 6).
2) Today’s workplace and
campus.
What makes fishing evangelism
so necessary where we work or study is that we see the same
people over and over. We must not turn them off by saying too
much at the beginning.
Maria Celia learned this in her
first year of medical school in Curitiba, Brazil. When she came
to share my apartment, she said, "Don’t expect me to evangelize.
Last year I talked about God so much that when I walked down the
hall everyone disappeared into classrooms!" She was right. More
talk would be counterproductive. I said, "Let’s not talk to them
about God unless they ask." I knew they would ask if we used the
right bait in a context of caring about them as whole people–not
just religious souls.)
Students came to our little
apartment mainly from the Catholic medical faculty next door and
the federal medical school a block away. Once we had 60 people!
Sometimes groups studied all night for exams, with human hearts
and lungs on the table exuding formaldehyde! We provided coffee,
Brazilian mate tea and cookies. Students dropped by almost any
time of day, and some asked about God. When they started working
on cadavers Orlandina had trouble sleeping, so she asked me what
happens when we die. As we sat down to study 1 Cor. 15 others
came in, and she called them to join us. We had these
spontaneous Bible studies almost any hour of the day, and a
scheduled study each Saturday. We ended these studies in an
hour, but discussion continued for another hour or two. When we
divided into three groups, some came three times a week! Maria
Celia became popular and wisely used her evangelistic gift.
This discreet approach is even
more important in antagonistic milieus.
3) Hostile environments.
Fishing evangelism is ideal among that 80% of the world’s people
that is off-limits to missionaries. China comprises about 22% of
the world and India 20%. Muslim countries add another 20%. Even
some fairly open countries no longer issue missionary visas. Yet
all governments welcome expatriates with expertise they need.
But fanatics can get you dismissed, arrested or expelled. Yet
how could you face God if you did not tell the gospel to local
people who had never had a chance to hear it?
Solution: You fish! You do
selective evangelism, finding the spiritually hungry people in
any group and taking them aside to talk. Genuine seekers are not
likely to report you to authorities. Non-seekers may not even
notice your subtle bait. But your godly lifestyle can turn even
them into seekers.
Jesus evangelized in an
extremely hostile situation, not unlike Muslim cultures today.
Jewish society was characterized by the same fanatical
monotheism of people who do not believe in a triune God. As
opposition to Jesus grew, he used parables to fish out seekers.
The crowds could react with curiosity, indifference, anger,
sentimental approval, mockery or perplexity, but only those who
stayed and asked, discovered the meaning of his stories (Mk.
4:12). He did not "cast pearls before swine" (Mt. 7:6). He did
not speak precious truths to the hostile crowds who would
trample and mock. They would discourage timid seekers. Jesus
fished out hungry people and explained the life-giving,
spiritual meaning of his stories to them in private.
A similar tactic would have
helped Dick, a music teacher in Kuwait. He related warmly to the
local people, and the Muslim men in his neighborhood invited him
to join their evening chats outdoors or in their homes. It was
an honor to be invited to a diwaniya and Dick courageously
talked to the men about Jesus Christ. Once they even asked him
to bring his Injil (N.T.) But soon they were fiercely arguing
among themselves in Arabic. If a hesitant seeker was present, he
was probably discouraged by the majority. Dick needed to fish
out the seekers and talk with them elsewhere.
Engineers Roy and Carol,
working in a sensitive Muslim country, became discouraged when
she and the children fell ill with hepatitis and he injured his
back. The Arab employers were never happy with his work–it is
how they control employees. The two bosses lied to each other
and Roy would get caught in the middle. The couple asked for
thirty days vacation leave in the U.S. They wanted to reconsider
if God expected them to stay in this hard place.
The bosses protested. If Roy
left for a month the whole factory would fall apart! For the
first time he saw how pleased they were with him. Just before
the couple left, one boss came with a little suitcase, asking
for books about Jesus! Roy thought he was entrapping him–to get
him arrested. He would not have dared to bring a whole suitcase
full of Christian books into this country! But Roy gave him an
Arabic New Testament and a book about Jesus.
The boss proved to be sincere
and the couple returned. The boss had been made hungry for the
gospel, first by Christian radio, then by how Roy related to
them at work and how the couple faced their multiple problems.
Anyone can do right when all goes well. But suffering enhances
our testimony.
However, even tentmakers who
are discreet can be expelled. It had taken us only two weeks to
get Tom a civil engineering job in Saudi Arabia. He was helping
a small fellowship of mainly Asian Christians. He returned to
his job after a four-week break outside the country, and found
the whole group being expelled, because of the exuberance of a
few new believers. In a week or two Tom was also ordered to
leave. But in a short time all had jobs elsewhere in Muslim
countries and their ministries continued.
Tentmakers should not flaunt
their religious activity before authorities. But if arrested,
they should see God’s hand in it, since no one can touch them
without God’s permission! Jesus said his followers should expect
arrests so they could witness to authorities. (Mt. 10:16-20).
The first tentmaker ever has assured us that God "makes all
things work together for good for those who love him, and for
their families!" (Rom. 8:23-28)
So Christians must be in a
context where they can be regularly observed by the same
outsiders, and they must put out bait that will draw seekers.
4. Components of bait
Note first what is not bait.
Bumper stickers and Christian motto shirts are not witnessing,
but advertising. These turn off most non-believers. But as I
traveled in Asia, my tiny cross or fish lapel pins fished out a
surprising number of seekers. But effective bait where we live,
work or study must contain these four characteristics.
1) Personal integrity. The
first component is moral integrity. Our relationships with the
opposite sex must be above reproach. Our lives must be
characterized by honesty, truthfulness and transparency. In most
cultures people ask personal questions, like how much money we
earn, what rent we pay, the price of our car, why we are in
their country. If you are single, they ask why. If married, they
ask why you have no children, etc. It is good to have nothing to
hide. Openness gains trust.
As tentmakers in sensitive
countries we must be who we say we are, with no pretense. A math
teacher who knows Jesus Christ must be just that. Christians who
see themselves as regular missionaries with a job as a cover or
a front, often develop a clandestine mentality which sooner or
later destroys their credibility. Fear may lead them to evade
questions, to speak half-truths or use code words. Each small
deception requires others. Local people catch on quickly. The
believer’s evasions and inconsistencies puzzle them and
undermine trust. Their actions can result in the very detection
they fear.
No passage of Scripture permits
half-truths or other deceptions. The end does not justify the
means. Truth and righteousness are major parts of our spiritual
armor that we must consciously put on–daily, as we dress. (Eph.
6: 10ff.) In this cosmic war we dare not risk holes! An untruth
gives Satan a foothold. He can turn us into perpetual liars by
keeping us in hot water. The problem is not only that people
will find us out, but Satan knows, and our lack of trust
dishonors God!
Jesus said our evangelism would
bring us before authorities. (How else would they ever hear the
gospel?) He promised that the Holy Spirit would tell us what to
say. Does the Spirit of Truth ever coach us to lie? Don’t
short-circuit what God is trying to do when you are face to face
with potentially dangerous authorities. It is how God turned the
chief persecutor of the church, Saul of Tarsus, into Paul, the
beloved apostle! (See GO Paper on Tentmaker Ethics.)
Tentmakers who genuinely earn
their living in substantial positions for which they are
qualified, have more freedom in almost every way to live out the
gospel in the workplace and to answer the questions that
invariably arise. Tentmaking is not regular missionary work, but
a unique approach to spiritual ministry. To abstract Paul’s
model of secular work but ignore his instructions for workplace
evangelism is to forfeit most of the benefits of tentmaking.
The Christian professional must
live out the Christian life under the unrelenting scrutiny of
non-believers. Personal integrity is seen in small things. We
all fail under stress so it matters how we deal with failure. We
must be willing to apologize, to say we are still learning. We
do not claim perfection, but we long to please God in all that
we do.
Paul’s manual labor enabled him
to model the Christian life for converts (2 Thess.3:8ff). They
had never seen a Christian! It was not enough to tell them how
to live holy lives. It was not enough to show godliness in
church. Paul demonstrated holy living in the same seductive,
idolatrous, immoral cesspool of Roman society in which the
seekers lived and worked.
Paul lived out honesty, truth,
holiness and love in the same atmosphere of persecution that
tempted new believers to lie and compromise their faith. But he
did not let fear short-circuit what God was doing in people
around him.
Two thousand years after Paul,
it is equally important for us to live out Christ in the world’s
diverse marketplaces, to speak the truth, to refrain from
bribery, to avoid illegal monetary exchange, to respect
authority, to deal kindly with everyone, to be irreproachable in
our relationships to the opposite sex–according to the Bible and
local customs. Our integrity matters!
And so does our work. Note some
of Paul’s most astonishing instructions!
2) Quality work. The second
component of bait is honest work for our employer. Paul also
taught and modeled a biblical work ethic in a society that had
none. A contract with an employer was a contract with the Lord.
Slaves made up 90% of the
population in Rome and the Italian peninsula and 70% in the
provinces! The basic social unit of Greco-Roman society was the
wealthy household. It consisted of the owner’s extended family,
slaves who did house chores, slaves who did farm labor, and
slaves who were artisans and managers who ran the family
businesses. A household also had teachers, and often a doctor
and a lawyer. Who were all these slaves? Some had been born to
slave parents and were the master’s property. Some were picked
up as abandoned babies. Some were freeborn people who fell into
debt. The majority were foreign captives, taken in war or peace
and sold in slave markets. These households were multicultural!
But in Eph. 6:5-8, Paul speaks
not only to slaves but to wage earners–to free citizens, to
ex-slaves, to small business proprietors, to day laborers. He
says, "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly
masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to
Christ, not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as servants
of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering
service with good will as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing
that whatever good any one does, he will receive the same again
from the Lord, whether he is slave or free." See also Col.
3:23-25.
Regardless of the Christian’s
social status or the work done, Jesus was the real boss–rather
than the person who gave the orders or authorized the paycheck.
Quality work might even win the employer to the Lord, improving
life for many! To win a householder could result in a new house
church! The households became the main social unit of the
church!
Paul gives us a new perspective
on secular work. Jesus observes us and evaluates the quality of
our work. We are to serve our human employers as though they
were Jesus Christ! Even if they are cruel slave masters. If we
do it consciously for Jesus Christ it is no longer secular work.
Even a hard job, or a boring one, is transformed into sacred
ministry and worship!
So architect Don served God, in
the Arabian Gulf, not only by his evangel ism, but also by the
Arab style houses he designed for Muslim extended families!
Engineer Stan pleased God by providing water resources for rural
southeast Asians. Tim did surgery in Turkey, and Norma played
violin in Portugal’s national symphony orchestra. Brian managed
a supermarket in Saudi Arabia. Keith taught high school math in
Kenya. The Ponds taught children in Belarus. The 70-year old
Johnsons taught English in China. But all had the same
employer–Jesus Christ.
Work is part of our cultural
mandate (Gen.1:28). It is one of the ways in which we reflect
the image of God. It is how we care for the resources God has
entrusted to us. It is how we "bless" our new host country. It
is how we let God love people through us. That God "so loved the
world" means he loves the rebels everywhere. He wants his
followers to make life better for them. God told his exiled
people in idolatrous, pagan Babylon, "Seek the welfare of the
city where I have sent you, for in its welfare is your welfare."
(Jer. 29:7) We must integrate our cultural mandate and our
missionary mandate (Mt.28:18-20). Daily work done for God is
spiritual ministry.
But the witness of our work can
never take the place of the witness of our character and words.
Both verbal and non-verbal testimony are as necessary in
evangelism as both wings are to a superjet! All the tentmakers
above also shared the good news on their jobs as well as in free
time. Their quality work opened doors for verbal witness and
gave credibility to their words.
3) Caring relationships. The
third component of bait is how Christians relate to people in
the workplace or on campus. They must be pleasant to all around
them and give comfort, encouragement and practical help where
they can. They may help a colleague at work, help a family move,
take meals to the sick, do the shopping, babysit the children,
prepare a fellow student for an exam, find him part-time work or
a place to live. They may invite their neighbors or colleagues
for meals.
Carlos Garcia, fourth year law
student, came to our Bible study group in my apartment in Lima,
Peru. The next Saturday was his birthday so I baked a cake. I
should have guessed he would spend that day with his family. So
the next Saturday I baked another cake for a late celebration.
After he found the Lord and became a pastor he told his
congregation that no one had ever baked him a birthday cake–and
it had touched him that I had baked two! More recently this
godly leader was elected Vice President of Peru.
For Paul’s converts,
hospitality and generosity were part of life and witness. (Gal.
6:9, 10, 1 Tim. 3:2) He wrote in 1 Thess. 2:8: "We shared with
you not only the gospel of God but our very own selves, because
you had become very dear to us."
Americans are judged by
foreigners to be friendly, but unavailable when needed. Most
cultures make a big distinction between friends and
acquaintances. People test your friendship by requesting favors,
but they expect you to request favors, too. You cannot have many
real friends at once. Find a few seekers and focus on them and
their families.
When Bob and Betty taught
English in China, the government did not want students to
associate with foreign faculty outside the classroom. But this
couple loved the students and knew how boring their lives were.
So they found a way to invite a few at a time for meals in their
pleasant apartment. They designed a course on how to be a guest
in an American home. These students saw a Christian book or two
on the coffee table and a Bible verse on the wall. On one visit,
a young engineer said, "I want to know about God. Is there any
kind of a book about him?"
In another city a young Chinese
woman expressed surprise that her English teachers were
volunteering their free time to provide sacrificial service to
children in one of China’s desperate orphanages. (People abandon
girl babies at these institutions almost daily.) She protested
that orphans are the government’s job! But she became ashamed
that it was foreigners, not her own people, who gave loving care
to these abandoned little ones. She said, "Soon I begin to
suspicion that these teachers are Christians. I ask, and they
say to me ‘yes.’"
Christian groups can show
caring on an even larger scale. An IFES-related student group in
Peru painted the filthy restrooms on campus as a service to the
student body! A few years ago in Communist Hungary the
persecuted churches canceled a Sunday morning’s services so
members could help clear away flood debris for their neighbors.
Their labor became worship.
Whenever possible, our personal
help to people should be reciprocal, not paternalistic. In
Yemen, Clare, who is an engineer, stays home to care for her
children and to befriend her Muslim neighbors. But the local
women were not friendly until her first baby was born. Then they
came to help this young mother whose own mother lived so far
away. After that Clare could go to market with the women–her
hair wholly covered, like theirs. She adjusted their sewing
machines and they taught her to sew their long colorful gowns.
Give-and-take allays suspicions that a one-sided relationship
creates.
In every conversation we must
play the role of either host or guest. Shy people are often
guests–passive. We must learn to be hosts. Take the initiative
to make others comfortable, instill confidence, free them to
confide. Make yourself vulnerable by sharing personal
experiences. Being the host takes your mind off yourself,
reducing your shyness and freeing you to love others.
So we must live out the gospel
in a non-judgmental, non-compromising, attractive way. We must
maintain personal integrity even in the most difficult
situations, with quality work and caring relationships–and watch
for openings to talk about the Lord.
4) Verbal witness. This is the
fourth component of bait. If you do not speak of God, an
exemplary life may merely confuse people. So you must casually,
naturally and confidently insert fitting comments about God into
secular conversations. Do not overdo. Avoid being preachy. But
watch for openings. Your informed, pleasant conversations on
non-religious topics make your occasional religious comments
acceptable.
Section II gives more help on
verbal witness. But first, consider mission issues in
integrating work and witness.
5. Work and witness issues
Quality work is basic to
tentmaker witness everywhere, along with integrity, caring
relationships and speaking. But the following problems are due
to cultural factors or to an undervaluation of secular work in
evangelical circles.
1) Social barriers that inhibit
witness. It bothers Christian faculty in some countries that
they may not socialize with their students without losing
respect. Students will expect favors and good grades without
effort. Usually tentmakers find ways to converse with them. But
they have more freedom to evangelize colleagues, former students
and students in other people’s classes.
In many countries, business
people also may not associate freely with subordinates. But even
in this situation, God helps you fish out the seekers.
2) Little appreciation for
efficiency. Many countries have no work ethic and quality work
may be resented. Your efficiency may mean fewer employees are
needed. You do not want to jeopardize the job of a friend who
needs to support his family. How do you reconcile biblical
teaching on work and your responsibility to your employer, with
problems you could cause coworkers?
Paul faced a similar dilemma.
The Jews had a work ethic from the O.T., but the Gentiles had
none. Paul made a big issue of work. He taught and modeled a
biblical work ethic for his converts. Why? Many had been idlers
and thieves, and even after their conversion Paul had to exhort
them to quit stealing! (1 Cor. 6:9-11, Eph. 4:28). He said that
idlers unwilling to work were not to eat. Without a biblical
work ethic there could not be godly, respectable church members,
nor well-supported families, nor indigenous, independent
churches. Converts could not give to the needy, nor have any
positive effect on their community. In many countries today a
small Christian minority has great influence partly because of
its work ethic.
In spite of initial
disadvantage, in the long run the work ethic is better for
everyone. But rather than compete with coworkers, earning their
enmity and threatening their jobs, help them all to do better.
Help your superior to raise the productivity of the whole
department in a way that gets him the credit. Gain both the
short- and long-term benefits of a biblical work ethic.
3) The myth of the Christian
presence. Some expatriates who go to China are persuaded not to
evangelize. If they just show what good people Christians are,
it is said, the government will give permission to evangelize a
few years from now. But it is doubtful that any country ever
gained religious freedom this way. How can Christians refrain
from giving the gospel to the Chinese around them who have never
had a chance to hear it? They must do low key evangelism now,
eliciting questions to answer.
4) Evangelizing elsewhere but
not on the job. It is easy to understand why some tentmakers do
not want to risk their jobs and work permits by evangelizing in
the workplace. They wish to avoid the cost and hassle of moving
their family to another country. But the people we see daily are
our main responsibility before God. Biblical evangelism is a
lifestyle, not an activity to switch on or off. The solution?
Quit hunting. Fish! God provides a particular job so the
tentmaker can witness specifically in that context. They must
trust him to care for them and their families. No one dare touch
them without his permission!
5) A supposed conflict of
interest between job and ministry. Many tentmakers are told by
their Christian superiors, "Do not put so much effort into your
job because that is not what you are here for." This puts stress
on the workers. The job is viewed as a necessary nuisance to
permit residence in the restricted country. But it is wrong to
use an employer for a visa unless one intends to give
wholehearted service.
Tentmaking and regular
missionary work are not just two different means of financial
support, but two quite different mission strategies for
different people in different situations.
Scripture gives us examples of
both approaches. God called Peter to leave his two-family
fishing business forever and to fish for men, as a regular
missionary, on donor support. Years later Paul reports
approvingly that Peter and his wife still traveled and
ministered on church support. (Luke 5:1-11, John 21, 1 Cor. 9:5)
Paul then gives a long list of arguments to establish his own
right as an apostle to church support. But then in the same
chapter Paul says three times that he has never made use of this
right! Three times! (1 Cor. 9:12, 15, 18) He writes near the end
of his third missionary journey, so all his journeys are
included. God called him to a self-supporting, tentmaking
ministry. His pioneer church planting among Gentile unreached
peoples required a different strategy from the work of Peter,
which was mainly among Jews.
Paul says the Christian’s job
is important. He tells slaves and paid workers that they must
serve their human employers with the same dedication that they
would give to Jesus Christ! Col. 3:23-25: "Whatever your task,
work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that
from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward;
you are serving the Lord Christ." See also Eph. 6:5,6. We dare
not minimize tentmakers’ jobs, because they are an integral part
of their spiritual ministry, and can produce more churches than
any other approaches.
The incompatibility of job and
ministry is exaggerated in mission circles for three reasons: a)
A failure to heed Paul–his considerable teaching on work and
witness, and his marketplace example. b) Leaders’ inexperience.
Few mission leaders have done self-supporting ministry. Many
have not held secular jobs! Even most tentmakers did little or
no workplace evangelism in their previous jobs at home. c) The
problem of hybrid ministries. All combinations of self-support
and donor support are legitimate if they are honest. But people
who depend mainly on donor support are not tentmakers, but
regular missionaries, pretending self-support, using a minimal
job as a front or a cover. Each finds "a secular identity"
behind which to hide his or her true identity. But they tend to
develop a clandestine mentality that can lead to deceitfulness
and loss of credibility. It predisposes them to do the very
things which can make them suspect.
Tentmaking is not regular
missionary work. But it is full-time ministry, since work and
witness are integrated on the job. In their free time tentmakers
have additional ministries. A linguistics instructor translated
the New Testament into the language of five million Muslims as
he supported himself in the local university! Paul considered
tentmaking better for pioneer church planting in hostile regions
than the donor-support approach of Peter. (See GO Paper: Why did
Paul Make Tents? A Biblical Basis for Tentmaking.)
6) The problem of an unethical
employer. Deal with the situation with prayer and patience.
Daniel’s bosses were no saints! Yet he won Nebuchadnezzar to the
Lord ! But if an employer’s reputation compromises your
testimony you must take the proper steps to resign. We know of
no tentmakers who have had to do this.
7) The danger of jeopardizing
the employer. All vocations have occupational hazards.
Tentmaking in sensitive countries adds another–persecution. A
Christian expatriate in Saudi Arabia may be willing to take
risks for Jesus Christ, but what if he jeopardizes his employer?
What if his firm loses its contract because of his indiscretion?
a) The firm risks more by hiring non-believers who are immoral,
or use drugs, or home-brew their own liquor. Most Christians
share Muslims’ objection to alcohol and their other scruples. b)
Tentmakers may not remain silent in any country. It is usually
legitimate to answer the questions of local people, so fishing
evangelism reduces the risks. c) They must trust that God
brought them there to witness and he cares for them, their
families and their employers.
But tentmakers must fish, not
hunt! Bait is similar everywhere: personal integrity, quality
work, caring relationships and fitting words about God.
But there is more to evangelism
than fishing out the seekers. Fishing helps you to get started.
It helps you over a major hurdle. Your lifestyle evangelism
draws seekers into your friendship evangelism. As the
relationship develops you can take more initiative in the
conversations. But how do you proceed? How do you handle the
seeker’s questions?
II Answering questions
1. Basic attitudes
Confidence and humility. Do not
fear the questions! The key is to evangelize as a learner, not
as an authority. It is less threatening to the seeker and it
takes the pressure off of you. You never claimed to have all the
answers. The Christian faith is not going to be hurt because you
haven’t yet learned everything. After 2000 years no one is going
to think up a question that no Christian can answer! But we must
share our certainties, not our doubts. Be honest. Rather than
bluff or answer poorly, say, "Let me have until tomorrow so I
can give you a clear explanation." Then work on the answer.
2. Preparedness
1) How do you find the answers?
Consult books like Josh McDowell’s Evidences that Demand a
Verdict (CCC) or Cliff Knechtle’s Give me an Answer (IVP). (See
Bibliography.) Do you have access to a church library? Talk with
fellow Christians–a pastor or campus staff worker. Organize your
data. Make a simple outline of your best arguments and related
Scriptures. Find a relevant booklet to lend. We should not be
unprepared twice for the same question.
2) How can you prepare
beforehand? Both Peter and Paul tell us to be ready for the
questions. I found the following helpful.
a) I started a question file in
a shoe-box. On divider tabs I wrote the questions people asked
or that I feared they might ask. Then I filed outlines of my
best answers, with Bible verses. I kept adding scraps of paper
with notes from books, magazines and sermons–as I found them.
b) I prepared inductive Bible
study guides on several passages for IBS’s like: the woman at
the well (Jn.4) the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mt. 15), blind
Bartimaeus (Lk.18), the rich young ruler (Lk. 19), Zacchaeus
(Lk. 19, the Roman centurion, the widow of Nain, Simon and the
sinful woman (all in Luke 5). These simple stories have
tremendous theological and evangelistic content. 7). I also did
mini-studies on even shorter passages, like Jesus’ promise of
freedom in John 8:31-36; Jesus at the door in Rev.3:20, 21 and
on the cross in 1 Peter 2:18-25, etc. (See Bibliography and GO
Paper on Inductive Bible Study: Preparing a Passage.)
c) I memorized evangelism Bible
verses–and their addresses, so I could find and use them
quickly. I started with salvation verses like John 1:12,
3:16-21, 5:24, 1 John 5:11, 12, Rev. 3:20,21. (The Navigators
memory system and packet are helpful.)
These three steps should
prepare you, as they did me, to answer questions with more
confidence. You must depend on God’s Spirit to bring to
remembrance what you should say in each case. But the Holy
Spirit cannot retrieve data from your memory bank that you have
never stored there!
3. The questions
People ask three main kinds of
questions–all of them important. Understanding them can give
balance and keep us from spinning our wheels. They relate to
apologetics, personal testimony and gospel proclamation.
Consider samples of each.
1) Apologetics–that is, defense
of our faith. Peter’s Greek word for answer is apologia, reason,
defense. It divides into two kinds of questions. a)
Philosophical: If God is good how can he allow evil? How can he
allow a hell? How can he let the innocent suffer? Is there
absolute truth? Where do we get our feelings of right and wrong?
Are human beings more than biochemical machines? What is death?
Is incarnation a reality? b) Historical: How can we know that
Jesus existed? Why not regard him merely as a great teacher? Why
not regard him merely as an impersonal Christ principle or
Christ consciousness? Why should we believe he is God in a
unique sense? Why believe that he arose bodily from the grave,
never to die again? Why believe that the Bible is true? Why is
it more valid than the The Gospel of Thomas, The Unknown Life of
Jesus or extra-sensory messages? Why believe that biblical,
historical Christianity is uniquely different from and superior
to all other religions?
It is permissible to argue, to
give reasons, to persuade–as Paul did. But he said to do it
gently and courteously (2 Tim. 2:23-26, Eph. 6:10ff). The
non-believers are not the enemy, but victims of the enemy,
blinded and held captive by him. It is possible to win all the
arguments but to lose the seeker.
Some years ago, Paul Little
pointed out in his book How to Give Away Your Faith (IVP) that
only a few intellectual questions occurred repeatedly, even when
you worked with students and professional people. Today, in our
much more complex society, his observation is still true. Most
people are not well informed nor interested in religious and
philosophical issues. Most have little understanding of the
Christian faith and have accepted popular objections with little
thought. We can confidently undermine their shaky foundations.
But we hear more varied
questions today than two decades ago, for two reasons. a) Our
increasingly pluralistic society brings new questions from
eastern religions. (See Section V.) b) We are undergoing a shift
from modernity to post-modernity all over the world among
urbanized people. This is a major shift from three centuries of
culture dominated by science and rationalism–to a new
anti-rational, metaphysical, neo-pagan era. People are less
likely to ask, "Is it true?" and more likely to ask, "What does
it do for me? How does it make me feel?" Post-modernity consists
of a variety of cults, under the loose term New Age. They claim
Jesus as an enlightened guru, but deny his deity, distorting all
that we know of him. They use spurious books about Jesus and
turn to the mystical, the magical, to channeling, to supposed
contact with the dead and with spirit beings. Angels are
popular. Many believe in reincarnation. For them the Bible is
not more valid than any other writings or extra-sensory
messages.
There is no need to panic. The
devil is not very creative. Many of these false teachings are
like those of the Docetists and Gnostics in the ancient Greek
world–the same heresies the apostles confronted! Some New Agers
today even use old Gnostic texts found in Egypt. So the tactics
and the answers the apostles used are valid also for today. Just
because non-believers’ first concern is not truth does not mean
they have no interest in it, nor that we must discard this
weapon. God’s absolute truth is our sword, which remains as
powerful as ever! (Eph. 6:17, Heb. 4:12,13). This great cosmic
war is still a war of ideas–between God’s absolute truth and
human lies, which we must demolish with his Word (2 Cor. 1::3-5)
How can we tell if we are speaking to a modern or a post-modern
person? By their questions! (We will continue to deal with basic
evangelism and discuss special kinds of seekers, like
post-modern ones, in Section V.)
The Christian faith is on
trial, but so is every belief system! Not a single one begins to
have the vast amount of evidences that we have! Many will see
that the overwhelming evidences for the New Testament make it
more credible than exotic books with not a shred of evidence, or
the extrasensory messages of strange gurus.
God’s truth makes sense of
God’s world and everything in it. No religious system that
rejects the existence of our Creator God can present an
alternative view of the world that people can live with. If God
is dead: a) Then there can be no supernatural. Yet in a recent
jet crash everyone on board prayed. b) If there is no God, then
human beings are only chemicals, elusive atoms–yet people know
their loved ones are more than that. c) Without God, morality
and sexual ethics are just a matter of taste, yet these same
skeptics are rigid moralists concerning child abuse or racial
prejudice. d) Without God, everything is meaningless. But people
have to live their lives as God’s creatures in God’s rational
world, so they constantly butt their heads on this objective
reality.
Most important, no matter what
people in any era or any culture say they believe, we know they
have that same inner emptiness–that God-shaped vacuum which only
God can fill–as the French mathematician-philosopher, Blaise
Pascal, said in the mid-1600's.
We also have the Holy Spirit
coaching us and reinforcing what we say!
We also have God’s Word which
is self-authenticating and powerful. Defend the Bible as you
would a lion–let it out of its cage! Get seekers into Bible
study. They do not need to believe the Bible is true, but only
that it is worth investigating. Do not raise the issue of
credibility–assume they have that much confidence in it. Even
Muslims consider it a holy book. It has the "ring of truth." It
speaks to people’s hearts whether they believe it is from God or
not, because it agrees with the reality they experience as God’s
creatures in the world God designed. While their mouths argue
against God’s Word, their hearts and consciences are saying "You
know it’s true!"
If people want evidences for
the truth of Scripture, begin with The New Testament Documents:
Are they Reliable? by F. F. Bruce. Once they accept this
verification of the New Testament, they must accept Jesus’
authentication of the Old Testament.
Some Christians consider all
intellectual questions insincere. But many questions come from
doubters wanting to believe. Paul made a distinction between
unbelievers in the synagogues who rejected the gospel, and
outsiders who had never heard it. (1 Cor. 14)
You can discover if a person’s
questions are only excuses to reject the gospel. After a few
answers, ask if they would be willing to receive Jesus if all
their questions were resolved. If they say No, try to determine
their real obstacle to faith. An immoral life? Fear of losing
freedom? Fear of persecution? Fear of family opposition? (A
Jewish convert can be disowned and a Muslim one put to death!)
But watch for people like Jean
Louis, a student I met in France. He had never met an
evangelical until he came by accident to a French GBU (IFES)
leadership conference at Valbonne. His girlfriend, Armelle, a
seeker, somehow heard about this student activity, and came,
bringing him along. He asked me many questions between classes,
until the last day, when he said he had no more questions and he
was satisfied with all my answers.
So I asked, "Then are you ready
to invite Jesus Christ into your life?" He said, "It is all so
new to me–I need to think it over." So I said, "Yes. You must
not make such an important commitment lightly. " I explained
again how he could do it. Two weeks later he wrote that he and
Armelle had both invited Jesus Christ and were being helped by
the local GBU group.
If your evangelism is of the
Holy Spirit, you can trust him to continue the convicting work
he has begun in seekers’ hearts. Often we are one link in a
chain of people God uses to win someone to himself. Your answer
to a single question may be such a link.
2) Personal testimony. Another
kind of question relates to your experience of God. How did you
find God? How do you know he accepted you? How do you hear him
speak? Could your experience be self-suggestion? What difference
does Jesus Christ make in your life? On your job? In your
marriage? In other relationships? Could your answers to prayers
be mere coincidences? (Someone said, "When I pray much my life
is full of coincidences and when I pray little, there aren’t
any!")
Post-modern seekers and people
from non-Christian religions may be more interested in evidences
of God’s presence and power in us than in our apologetics. Both
are needed. (See more below on spiritual power in evangelism.)
But talk about your spiritual
experience in ordinary English. Avoid evangelical cliches,
because most outsiders will not understand them or will think
you quaint. Spiritual language or a shift to a religious voice
or facial expression are bad habits some Christians learn in
church, but they turn outsiders off. So be casual and be
yourself.
Answer experience questions
with honesty and humility–not how Christians should be, but how
we are. We are God’s children, saved for eternity, but we are
still sinners, constantly learning and growing and needing
forgiveness.
I recall a dark stormy night in
southern Brazil, when I finally boarded a little prop plane that
was two hours late. The businessman next to me had asked what I
was reading and I said it was a book on how God accepts us as we
are and cares for us. But as the little plane lurched into the
air for a very bumpy flight, I dug my fingernails into the
armrests. I didn’t pray, "God, protect us," but rather, "Don’t
let this man see that I am afraid because I just told him you
protect us!" Christians should not be afraid, should they? But
we are human, and the fear instinct is God’s gift for our
protection. I had caught myself being phony! So I turned to the
man and said, "I really believe God protects us, but on a rough
flight I am still afraid." He said, "I’m afraid, too, because if
this plane goes down I’ll go straight to hell. God could never
accept such a wicked man as I have been."
My honest admission of fear
gave me the chance to tell this man about God’s grace and
forgiveness, as tears filled his eyes. On debarking, I gave him
the little book I had been reading, because I knew God had
intended it for him.
Seekers will sense phoniness
and an attitude of superiority. Even when God’s Spirit has
helped us grow spiritually and to pray effectively, we are still
learners. It is wise to give out the good news "the way beggars
tell other beggars where they have found bread." Bread is the
gospel–the third kind of question people ask.
3) Gospel truths. Seekers
cannot be born again through apologetics or personal testimony
alone. They need the facts of the gospel. The minimum the seeker
must understand fits a three-point outline, and a fourth for
response. You would not usually explain these points in order,
like a sermon. Rather, they are your mental checklist to
evaluate how much the seeker knows and what still needs to be
clarified. Remember four words: God, people, Jesus, and
response.
The first word is GOD–Creator
of everything, including ourselves. So we owe him all that we
are and have. We should respond with worship, thanksgiving,
love, trust, obedience, loyalty and willing service. Sin is the
insult of withholding this response. If there were no Creator,
there would be no sin. (Rom. 1:18-32)
But do not get sidetracked into
a discussion of: Evolution or Creation? A bad question cannot
have a good answer. What matters is a prior question: Does
everything owe its existence to God or to blind fate or chance?
If to God, then it becomes secondary how he chose to create–over
a long period, in six literal days or in six seconds. The how is
not essential to salvation and the Bible is silent on the
subject. Genesis answers the far more important questions of who
created, what he created and why he did it.
Do not argue about the
existence of God unless seekers ask. Assume they believe in a
supreme Being. In America 90% do. (See Section V for those who
do not.) But what kind of God?
God is love. "He so loved the
world that he gave his only Son." But love is not just a
sentimental feeling. It seeks the beloved’s highest good. God’s
love is limitless, unfathomable, undeserved and unconditional.
"He does not love us because we are valuable, but we have
infinite value because he has set his love upon us." (Thielicke)
God is holy. (Hab.1:13, Dt.
4:24) His love makes him hate everything that could harm us. His
love keeps us away from the fire of his holiness until we allow
him to enter by his Spirit and give us life. His Spirit cannot
die. So we become eternal beings, able to be in God’s presence.
He wants to reproduce his holy character in the diverse
personalities of his children. His laws are valid for all time.
They are not arbitrary. They are not to fence us in but to keep
danger out. They are the Manufacturer’s instructions for how we
can function best physically, mentally, socially and
spiritually. Emphasize God’s holiness to the self-righteous and
complacent, and his love to the guilt-ridden.
The second word is PEOPLE. They
were created by God in his image, so they have worth, dignity
and meaning. They were created for himself to find their purpose
in fellowship with him (Col. 1:16). But they rebelled (Rom.
5:12, Is. 53:6). The result is separation from God–spiritual
death. They are cut off from their only source of life–the
living God. A sawed-off, toppled apple tree may look as green
and fruit-laden as the upright one growing next to it. But it is
only a matter of time before the toppled tree will reveal its
deadness.
So human beings are not just
spiritually needy, but spiritually dead, unless God makes them
alive (John 5:24). Their deadness shows itself in active or
passive rebellion against God. Sins are the symptoms of sin–the
fatal disease of independence from God. Legally all people are
already under God’s condemnation (Rom. 3:23, 6:23). There is no
neutral place from which to make a decision. Even kind, moral
people need conversion. The question is not Are they good or
bad? but Are they dead or alive? Is God’s Spirit in them?
The third word is JESUS. He is
both God and man. He is the second Person of the Trinity who was
active throughout the Old Testament era, sometimes as "the Angel
of the Lord." He became man as Jesus Christ, to restore the
broken fellowship and give us new life. (Col. 1:19-20, John
5:24, 1 John 5:10, 11). He lived a sinless life as his friends
and his enemies attested (1 Pet. 2:22). He died a voluntary
death–he could have called 12,000 angels! (Mt. 26:53, 54) He
chose the moment for his arrest and his crucifixion and the
moment to give up his spirit to the Father. He died as our
substitute, paying our penalty (Rom. 5:8). He was buried.
Muslims claim that Jesus never died because at the last moment
God provided someone else who just looked like him.We must
insist that he died and was buried.)
Jesus arose bodily to live
forever (1 Cor. 15:3,4)–a resurrection, not a mere
resuscitation. His followers became convinced by the empty tomb
and by his personal appearances during forty days. (See The
Evidence for the Resurrection, J.N.D. Anderson.) That Jesus
lives today we know from his Word, from history and from our
constant personal and collective experience with him. (Rom.
5:1ff.)
The resurrection proved God was
just in saving the O.T. saints on credit (and the N.T. saints
prepaid. Rom. 3:25,26) It signified Jesus’ triumph over all his
enemies, human and non-human! (Col. 2: 13-15). He sat down on
the throne at the Father’s right hand and received all power and
authority! Now he enters his followers by his Spirit,
multiplying himself many times over, and goes into the world
through them, to win rebels in every tribe and nation to
himself. He will return to judge the world, to sentence many and
to reward the faithful.
These three terms–God, people
and Jesus, indicate the minimum to believe. But math student
Jose Manoel in Portugal made a commitment the day he learned
Jesus would return to earth! Two Vietnamese girls asked me about
"the Christian heaven." The best Bud-dhism offers is total loss
of identity in a nebulous Nirvana. I told them Jesus will
reunite us forever with all our departed family members who
loved God! Our new bodies will never be less than those we have
now, but more, and our planet will never be less than it is now,
but it will be transformed into much more. Even the plants and
ani-mals groan, waiting for their transfor-mation when we are
glorified! (Rom. 8:18-24)
Belligerent Bob at the
University of Oregon responded to the kingship of Jesus Christ.
He heard I was on cam-pus and asked me to debate him before a
large roomful of fellow athletes. They came to ridicule. So I
gave an overview of history as a cosmic war for control of the
world, beginning with the devil’s coup in Eden. I told how Adam
and Eve betrayed God’s world into the hands of his archenemy,
how death entered the human race, how God then visited our
enemy-occupied planet, in Jesus, to reconcile everything again
to himself–to undo all the damage of the coup. (Eph. 1:9, 10,
Col. 1:19, 20).
I told how Jesus’ death and
resurrec-tion were the decisive battle in this cos-mic war–that
Jesus triumphed over all his enemies, human and non-human (Col.
2:13-15). But it is useless to take enemy territory unless there
are troops to occupy it. So till the King returns, we are
commissioned to occupy every nation. But not by force. We
lovingly persuade rebels to change sides–to turn against the
imposter and pledge their allegiance to the only rightful King.
He is patient because he loves the rebels, as he loved us while
we were still his enemies. He is not willing any should perish
(Rom. 5:8, 2 Pet. 3:9). He will save all that he can!
Instead of presenting his
arguments, Bob said quietly to the men, "For the first time it
all makes sense!" After many questions, I had to leave. I do not
know what happened to them all, but rebel Bob surrendered to his
new King a few days later.
The fourth word is RESPONSE. We
must act upon what we believe. Con-version requires three steps:
a) To believe the gospel facts about God, people and Jesus. b)
To repent of our passive or active rebellion toward God and our
resultant sins. c) To invite Jesus Christ into our innermost
being, to be Lord of our lives, to manage us, our relationsips
and activities. To deny him this would be an insult.
We respond with faith. But this
word needs clarification–even Christians are influenced by
popular misconceptions. So before proceeding, I want to deal
with the question: What is faith?
4. What is faith?
Faith has no saving power in
itself. People say faith can save (or heal) if you have enough
of it–like a magic substance. Some years ago, my driving
instructor said he believed God would accept him as long as he
had faith–in something. I said, "Now Mr. Dixon, my faith could
kill us both if I believe I can race through the busy
intersection ahead." He said, "Slow down–I get your point!"
Faith can bring death as well as life. It is good only if its
object is worthy of our trust.
Faith has no value without
action. Eternal life depends on how we act on the facts we
believe. "Even the demons believe and they shudder!" (James 2:
17-24) We can believe the identity of a person at our front
door, yet not ask him in, especially if he will stay forever and
take charge! (Luke 6:46). But if we really believe that Jesus
loves us more than we love ourselves, we will invite him in to
take over. To ask seekers only for mental assent to a few facts
and a signature, is to delude them, and to make them harder to
win.
Faith is not against reason.
People say if we can’t know, we must believe. But faith that is
not based on facts is superstition! It is pretense. God asks us
to believe what we cannot see, but not what is against reason.
He made our minds and renews them and wants us to use them. He
doesn’t manipulate our minds with proofs, but gives evi-dences
so it is more logical to believe than disbelieve. Faith is a
gift–created in us by gospel facts. (Rm.10: 17, Eph. 2:8-10).
It is logical to believe what
God says because of who God is! Saving faith is trusting
God–acting on God’s word.
So we must be prepared to
answer seekers’ questions about apologetics, our personal
experience and the gospel facts, under the key words: God,
peo-ple, Jesus and response. We will consi-der response further
in IV. But first, how do we bring seekers to that point?
III. Drawing seekers to
God
The fishing approach we have
de-scribed solves major obstacles in evan-gelism by helping us
fish out hungry people and initiate conversations. But once we
have begun a friendship with a seeker and we know where he or
she is spiritually, we can take more initiative. We can ask our
own questions to draw them to Jesus Christ.
The most important activity by
far is the investigative Bible study. But consider four
additional suggestions: Focusing them on God; tuning them in to
God; using information resources and people resources.
1. Use a God-centered approach
Focus on who God is and what we
owe him. The popular man-centered approach focuses on people’s
felt needs–how to have a happy, fulfilled life. God’s love is
emphasized but his holiness neglected. Gospel facts are
selectively presented to attract buyers for quick sales. But the
gospel is no Band-Aid for personal or social inade-quacies, no
cheap insurance against problems, no guarantee of health or
wealth. Paul scorned the evangelists who packaged the gospel to
disguise its cost. He said, "For we are not, like so many,
peddlers of God’s word; but as men of sincerity, as commissioned
by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ." (2 Cor. 2:17)
To converts he wrote: "We told you beforehand that you would
suffer." (1 Thess. 3:1-4)
Jesus turned down volunteers
who came on false premises. They must put him first before
family, possessions and personal safety. If not, they would
nev-er endure. The dropout rate would da-mage Jesus’ movement.
(Lk. 9:50ff, 14:25-35) His conditions for disciple-ship do not
contradict grace–undeserv-ed merit. Salvation would be forever
impossible except that God offers it to us freely. How could
anyone presume to buy what it cost God his own Son to provide
for us? God’s love is uncondi-tional, but our acceptance by God
is not. No one has to receive God’s gift of salvation, but
whoever does, must accept its obligations with its privi-leges.
It is like marriage. Two people freely enter into the
relationship, but both have rightful expectations of each other.
So we aim to please God by our
love-motivated obedience (Jn. 14:21, 23, Lk. 6:46). Paul defines
evangelism as bringing people "to the obedience of faith." We do
not obey to gain life, but because we have it. We do not focus
on a legal code. But in pleasing God we inadvertently fulfil his
law (Rom. 1:5, 16:26). Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments as
loving God wholly and loving people as ourselves (Mk. 12:29-31).
(This verse has nothing to do with self-esteem, but with
unself-ishness.)
To invite Jesus Christ is to
put our lives under new management (Rev. 3: 20, 21). To eat
together depicts a shar-ed life–confiding, seeking the other’s
highest good, sharing common goals.
Although people’s felt needs
matter, a God-centered approach begins with God as our Creator,
to whom we owe all we are and have, and whom we have offended
and insulted by our active or passive rejection. He owes us
nothing.
Yet he has provided salvation
for us at great cost to himself. He gives his Son. The Son gives
his life. But many people have no chance to hear the good news.
Paul completes what is lacking in the sufferings of Jesus
Christ, by get-ting the word out–spreading the good news, or
else Jesus’ death would have been in vain! (Col. 1:24) Paul
cares about Jesus’ reputation in the world and for the salvation
of people.
God-centered evangelism
produces more disciples willing to endure hard-ship, than
converts who only care what they can get out of God. Jesus’
clear command is for us to make disciples.
2. Help seekers tune in to God
This is helpful because many
seekers in this post-modern period who dabble in cults and in
the occult, look for spiritual reality and fulfilment but they
value experience over beliefs. Here are four God-centered ways
to bring them into direct contact with God.
1. Turn the tables–remind
seekers God has the initiative. They think they do, so they
postpone decision to some day. But no one can come to the Lord
unless they have a chance to hear the good news (Rom. 10:17ff)
and unless the Father "draws them" (John 6: 44, 65). Rev. 3:20
says Jesus stands at the door of each person’s life, gently
knocking and calling. But he may not always do so. "Now is the
day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:2) God has no obligation to save
anyone. Let seekers begin to worry if God will receive them!
Two women students in Portugal
told me, "We invited Jesus in, but as we expected, nothing
happened." I said, "Rev. 3:21 shows that the person you have
ignored for many years is the King of Glory! He never rejects a
sincere invitation that is without reservation. If he sees that
you ean this more than anything else in the world he will hear
you." (John 6:37) A few days later they knew he had come into
their lives.
2) Explain how seekers can
recognize God’s overtures to them. Luke 19:1-10 shows that
Zacchaeus, the wealthy, extortionist tax administrator in
Jericho, had already repented and was busy cleaning up his act,
before Jesus arrives in his city. When Jesus comes, Zacchaeus
makes enormous effort just to get a glimpse of him, not
expecting more. But Jesus comes to his house, and this seeker
for Jesus learns that this Shepherd-King had come to Jericho
seeking him! All seekers, when they are found, discover Jesus
has been actively seeking and calling them.
How does Jesus gently knock on
the door and call to seekers? When their thoughts turn to
ultimate questions it is always God’s prompting. He also gives
good gifts, hoping they will thank him and repent (Rom. 2:4,
James 1:17). He allows suffering, hoping they will call for his
help (Psa. 119:67, 71). He sends the good news via literature,
TV, radio, even Internet! He sends his people. Since he indwells
his messengers, these are his own personal visits to them–more
important than visits from angels. (2 Cor. 3) None of these
messages are accidental, but are special signs of God’s love!
Last week in southern
California an auto mechanic named Mike realized that. My car
battery died on Saturday and my repair shop was closed. I found
another one–and Mike. We chatted. I said, No, I had never been
to Hawaii, but I lived overseas for 21 years. He asked what I
did there and I said, "Missionary work." He made no comment and
I did not intend to reopen the conversation. But he came back
full of questions. (He had needed a bit of time.) When I left he
said, "I know God let your battery die today so you would come
here to talk with me."
Have seekers ask themselves
about daily events, "What may God be saying through this?" In
Sao Paulo, a few days after a Zacchaeus study, a Jewish atheist
student came to say he had an awed feeling as he played violin.
Was it God? I said, "It could be. He loves you and wants your
attention." People begin to suspect God speaking everywhere.
Be-cause they are listening for God, he speaks to them!
3) Get seekers to converse with
God over the texts of the Bible, to tune in to God through Bible
reading. Encourage even atheists to read Mark or Luke, a few
paragraphs a day, and to assume God is speaking through them.
They must interact honestly with him. They may say: "I want You
to know I cannot believe this verse. Why does this story make me
uncomfortable? This story is beautiful–but is it true? What does
this verse mean?"
God begins answering, often
from the Bible–maybe a few verses down. This can be startling!
He answers through circumstances, people or books. Invite the
seekers to bring you their questions on what they do not
understand.
Becky Pippert adds a step. She
asks seekers to try to obey every instruction as soon as they
can. Obeying predisposes them to more light. It is a good
tactic–post-modern seekers are concerned about doing. An
agnostic friend, whom Becky led to the Lord in my apartment
later called these exercises her former "pagan Quiet Times!"
4) Show seekers how God answers
prayer. This fourth way to tune seekers in to God works best if
they mention problems. Ask if you may pray for them. Pray aloud
briefly. Even skeptics are touched. God may give an
un-mistakeable answer. Tell seekers that God may answer Yes or
No or Wait awhile, but he always hears and cares. Seekers in
this post-modern period, and especially adherents of
non-Christian religions often show more interest in a
demonstration of Jesus’ presence and power than in the truth
claims of Christianity. Prayer shows God in action.
You can pray briefly for
friends as you give thanks before a meal. I tell guests it is my
custom and would they mind. Then I say, "Thank you Jesus for
this food and for my new friends, Yusef and Sulema. Amen." Or
"Help Gudrun prepare for her anatomy exam." The guests are often
visibly moved. I pray also in restaurants if it will not
embarrass my friends. (Muslims pray in pub-lic on prayer rugs
five times a day!)
You can pray for God to heal
some-one’s cold or headache, or reduce pain or give sleep. You
will know that all healing is ultimately from God. But the
healing may occur in a way that convinces the seeker God has
intervened. You do not have to be a healer, nor use a healer’s
methods. Simply pray. But it would be counterproductive to ask
God to give instantaneous sight to a blind person. Pray what you
can believe. Use prayer wisely in your evangelism.
In addition to these four
tactics, we must use Christian materials.
3. Use information resources
Make sure each seeker has a
modern language Bible, or N.T. with Psalms. In a hostile country
start with a tiny pock-et gospel they can hide in a pocket or
purse. Or a magazine format gospel with pictures. An excellent
N.T. in easy English is Good News for Modern Man (TIV).
Bilingual N.T.s–with English opposite the local language– are
popular even with non-believers, as an English-learning aid.
My favorite book for seekers is
John Stott’s Basic Christianity (125 pages), now in 50
languages, with translations in progress in 22 more!
Evangelistic Bible study guides are available in quite a few
languages. Look for attractive evangelistic booklets for various
kinds of seekers. In other countries make sure the literature is
culturally and spiritually appropriate. If you cannot read the
language, ask someone you trust to evaluate the material you
wish to give out. Ask missionaries, or the leaders of the
Christian campus ministries in your new host country. Avoid
tracts that look like cheap pro-paganda. (See Bibliography.)
People more readily read a book
if it is small and you lend it. They know you will ask their
opinion when they return it. You can give it to them then.
Many tentmakers use videos.
English teachers find that even secular videos raise issues for
evangelism. An English teacher in China used Fiddler on the
Roof. Christian videos are available, too. The excellent Jesus
Film (and video) is dubbed into 394 languages, with 200 more in
progress! In a North African country, an enterprising Muslim
discovered it could also be lucrative. He made illegal copies
and sold them all over the city! He inadvertently did for the
gospel what no tentmaker at that time dared to risk!
Thousands of sermons are
available on audio-cassettes in English and in other languages.
Gospel Recordings makes cassettes in tribal languages,
especially for the illiterate.
Young people learn English
through popular music cassettes. A tentmaker in a strict Muslim
city could hardly believe his ears, when the music blaring from
the public square loudspeakers gave way to "Jesus loves me, this
I know, for the Bible tells me so!" It could be played only
because it was part of a Whitney Houston album!
Discover when Christian radio
and TV programs transmit in your new host country, and encourage
people to tune in. Then discuss the content with them. TWR has
announced that TV satellite transmissions have now begun in the
Middle East from the new Christian Sat-07! Ninety percent of
Middle Easterners have TV!
In sensitive countries
tentmakers find seekers who have been made thirsty for the Lord
by Christian radio. Then they see the gospel lived out by the
tentmaker. So our Christian aerial forces and our ground troops
work together in this cosmic war for human hearts.
The gospel is already being
transmitted all over the world through the Internet! Even
backward cultures leap directly into the 21st century, so learn
how to make the best use of this new resource.
Just as important as using
media resources is involving your Christian friends in your
evangelism.
4. Use people resources
Introduce seekers to your
Christian friends. Take them to larger group activities. Note
four of the benefits:
1) The larger group more fully
demonstrates the gospel. Francis Schaeffer said true Christian
fellowship is our most compelling evidence for the truth of the
gospel, because everyone longs for it and the devil cannot
duplicate it. In John 13:34, 35, 17:18ff, Jesus prayed for unity
and love among his future disciples, because it would guarantee
their survival, and compel the belief of outsiders. An
individual cannot demonstrate Christian interrelationships. To
see Christians love one another (1 John), be patient and forgive
one another (Col.3:9), help and comfort one another (1 Thess.
4:18), or trust one another (Rom. 12:10)–you must have a minimum
of two together!
Larger group contact is
important, because post-modern seekers yearn for community,
because many come from dysfunctional families, where there is
little understanding and security. But people from almost any
background seek love and acceptance.
Take Marisa, in Barcelona. She
finally agreed to come to a meeting in my apartment so Ana Maria
would quit bugging her. But she was surprised that the GBU
students seemed to love each other and seemed to care about
her–a stranger. She had to find out why. It was the love she
sensed that kept her coming to Bible studies until she
understood the gospel and received Jesus Christ. She became our
first IFES staff worker in Spain.
Rodolfo, from Madrid, was
amazed at the mutual trust of Christian students. His first
contact with them was a week-end camp on a Spanish beach. He
said he could hardly believe his eyes when they left their books
and clothes and even their handbags and wallets out in the
open–unguarded! A group can demonstrate Christ in a way
individuals cannot.
2) The larger group exposes
seekers to more Christians. The Lord ex-presses his character
through our diverse personalities. A seeker may ex-plain away
one believer, but not a dozen! A seeker may relate more
comfortably to someone other than you. I could not win my
college friend, Lois, because I knew nothing about Catholicism,
but my ex-Catholic friend, Marie, won her quickly.
In the larger group, Christian
men can refer female seekers to women members and take over the
evangelism of the men–while all remain friends. The spiritual
and the emotional are easily confused. It can be devastating if
a seeker and a believer of the opposite sex have different
expectations for their friendship. Some seekers cannot sort out
the spiritual from the emotional in their decision. Christians
should refrain from any romantic involvement with a seeker or
new convert, since seekers should be free for a time to focus
only on their relationship to the Lord. (To use a romantic
relationship to lure someone into God’s kingdom is despicable,
and usually backfires.)
3) The larger group may help
you reap. If six Bible study leaders bring eight non-believers
each from their small groups to hear an evangelistic speaker,
expect good response. This is not the typical meeting of mainly
Christians with a handful of merely curious, first-time
visitors. Your audience contains 48 prepared, partly evangelized
seekers! It will be easier for some to commit to Christ in a
large meeting where others are doing it, too.
4) The larger group helps you
fish out new seekers. In this case, advertise widely. It is like
casting a net. Your audience may include some who are
indifferent, curious, hostile or intensely interested. At the
end of the meeting offer a printed copy or audiocassette of the
lecture. Have people leave name and address so Christians can
take the items personally, to gauge their interest, and maybe
invite them to an IBS.
(You should charge a little. To
give things free arouses suspicion. Students in Latin America
suspected subversive foreign organizations to be behind high
quality color handouts, so we used poor campus quality paper and
printing. )
Large group activities can take
many forms. When Billy Graham came to Sao Paulo, our ABUB
student movement had him speak in a rented auditorium on Peace
with God–based on his book in Portuguese . Hans Burki lectured
on topics like Human Dignity and Sexual Ethics and Samuel
Escobar on Dialogue between Jesus and Marx. Dr. Ross Douglas
spoke on Bible and Science. We did a book discussion on Bertrand
Russell’s Why I am Not a Christian, when it was hot in campus
bookstores. In Barcelona, Os Guinness led us in a discussion of
the Ingmar Bergman movie Seventh Seal. We went to see Jesus
Christ Superstar and discussed it. At Christmas we listened to
Handel’s Messiah and explained the words.
We took seekers to concerts,
fun nights, picnic outings, camps and one-day social work
projects in the slums, like getting sick people to free clinics,
and children registered in schools. Some students started
literacy pro-grams for campus hired help.
Today social work projects
appeal to post-modern young people, many of whom genuinely wish
to do good–to help solve social problems.
So larger group activities can
give a fuller demonstration of the gospel, ex-pose seekers to
other Christians, fish out new seekers, and facilitate decisions
for Jesus Christ.
IV Encouraging commitment
How can you know a seeker is
ready to invite the Lord? You can damage a harvest if you reap
too soon or too late.
1. Helping seekers to decision
A few people will invite the
Lord the first time you meet–if others have sowed and watered.
When I told Dutch folk dance star, Lientje, to think it over for
a few days, she said, "Oh, can’t I do it today?" Other people
need months.
Why do I not pressure people
for a decision? For a time I did, and my converts did not stick.
I want to be sure the Holy Spirit has them ready. But if I think
someone has understood and is delaying for wrong reasons, I
stress that postponement can be dangerous.
Seekers’ questions, comments
and even body language show when they are ready. GBU students,
leading Bible studies on a beach in Spain, were finishing a
section in Romans. As I passed by one group I saw first-time
visitor Pilar lean forward, her perplexed face suddenly
brightening. The study ended and I asked, "Pilar, did you
understand what St. Paul said about justification by faith?" She
said, "Oh, yes!" I had her explain it to me, and then asked, "Do
you think Jesus’ death provides this justification also for
you?" She said Yes, so I asked if she had thanked God for this.
She said, "No–I never heard about it until today–but I would
like to thank him." We prayed, and two hours later she was in a
sidewalk cafe answering the questions of strangers!
You can also test readiness by
asking key questions. Often when I visit a campus a Christian
introduces me to a friend from his IBS group. I ask, "How are
you enjoying the Bible studies?" And then, "At this stage of
things, what do you think is the most important rea-son why
Jesus died?" My question allows for several correct answers–I am
not giving an exam.
If the student says, "Jesus
died for my sins," I ask if he has invited him into his life. If
he says Yes, I ask for details. We pray, thanking God, affirming
his new life, and then make sure the group welcomes and
disciples him. It is damaging to be left out because no one
knows about the conversion.
But when I asked Karl about the
crucifixion he said, "Jesus died to give us an example of love."
I agreed, showing him where Peter says Jesus left us an example
so we should follow in his footsteps. (1 Pet. 2:18-25) But then
we concluded that the footsteps were so big no one could ever
follow them. I said I was glad Peter added v. 25–that Jesus also
died as our substitute, to pay for our sins. No other passage
com-bines these two ideas so well.
When seekers understand Jesus’
death I urge them to invite him in. But if they are reluctant, I
explain how they can do it later. Catholics often feel insincere
unless the atmosphere is right and the moment deeply felt. I ask
them to tell me when they have made this commitment. I want to
affirm them.
If seekers are willing to make
a decision, I explain a promise like Rev. 3:20, 21 or 1 John
1:11, 12. I do not say a prayer for them to repeat since I do
not want to put words into their mouths. The Lord will
understand their hearts. But the seeker may ask, "What shall I
say?" Suggest the 3-part response–what he believes, and his
desire for forgiveness and his invitation to the Lord. A
sentence is enough. But a good prayer would be:
Lord Jesus, I thank you for
dying on the cross in my place to pay for my sins. I am sorry
for my rebellion against you and for my sins. I invite you to
come into my life to forgive and cleanse me and be my Lord
forever. Help me obey you. Amen.
When they have prayed
aloud–usually a shorter prayer–I pray, thanking God that he
keeps his promises. I ask him to receive and reassure the
seeker.
Most often, new believers are
filled with joy and wonder. But not always. I do not tell
seekers, "Now you are a Christian." A decision is not a new
birth–though they may coincide. Only God’s Spirit knows if they
have under-stood and are sincere. It is he who must give
assurance. But I repeat Jesus’ promises and remind them he keeps
his word regardless of our feelings.
Watch the people in your Bible
study groups. When I see a new glow on a participant’s face and
a hunger for God’s word, I suspect we have discipled one more
seeker into the Kingdom. I ask a few questions to verify this
and to affirm the person. In Sao Paulo, after a John 3 study,
Isabel prayed aloud for the first time, "Oh, thank you, God, for
showing me today that I can be born again!" In Barcelona,
medical student Pablo mistakenly invited class-mate Juan, to a
meeting on how to help seekers take this crucial step. But at
the end, Juan prayed for the first time, saying, "Thank you,
God, for finally showing me how to receive you!"
Should you ask new converts at
the same time to take a second step and invite the Holy Spirit?
Many Christians do this regularly in conjunction with the Four
Spiritual Laws. It is very bad theology and confusing to the
converts. When they receive Jesus Christ they have received the
Holy Spirit because he is the Spirit of Jesus! If any do not
have the Spirit, they have not received Jesus. (Rom. 8:8, 9, 1
Jn. 5:11, 12)
In fact, genuine new converts
are filled with the Holy Spirit! He pours the love of God into
their hearts! They often feel great joy and peace and purity.
After that, the Spirit will never leave them, but he can be
grieved. They must daily confess their sins and be-come filled
again. New believers need instruction on the Christian life.
2. Caring for new believers
How can you know if a seeker
has been really born again? Good signs are peace and joy and a
hunger for God’s Word. But Jesus said initial peace and joy can
be snatched away by the evil one or crowded out by cares or
pleasures. When this happens you know the decision was based on
an inadequate understanding of the gospel (Mt. 13: 18-23). Jesus
said the mind is important in conversion. Spiritual birth, like
physical birth, is a process, which may begin with a decision,
but may need completing during follow-up.
1) Meet the convert regularly.
De-sign a good plan of prayer, counseling and Bible study. Give
immediate first aid–verses on assurance, with varied metaphors,
like John 3:16, 5:34, Rom. 10:9.10, Phil. 1:6, John 10:28, 1
John 3:1-3. Tell them sins may take away their joy but not their
salvation. Ex-plain how to receive daily forgiveness–1 John 1:9,
Psalm 51, 32, 103.
Tell them God will speak to
them mainly through their Bible reading, as it relates to their
thoughts, prayers and circumstances. (Psalm 1; 119:11, 24,
103-105; Acts 20:32; 1 Pet. 3:18; 2 Tim. 2:15.) Prayer is how
they talk to God. (John 16:24, 15:7, James 1:6,7, 1 Pet. 5:7, 1
John 5:14, 15, Heb. 4:15, 16.) Pray with them. Help them start a
small prayer notebook.
Their faith and love must be
shown by their obedience to the Lord (Lk. 6:46, John 14:21, 23)
and by their witnessing to others. (John 15, Mt. 10:32, 33, Col.
4:5,6, 1 Pet. 3:14-16.)
I like to give them a copy of
Quiet Time to read, and then take them through the study guide,
Christ in You (both IVP). Navigators who popularized the
follow-up concept, have a 13-week Bible study guide–Growing in
Christ, complete with perforated pages of memory verse cards.
New converts may not
immediately look and act like Christians. We should resist
giving them a list of do’s and dont's. Study passages that teach
Christian conduct, so their changes are inner-motivated and for
right reasons.
2) Should converts tell friends
and family? They should tell a few Christian friends. But
parents may interpret their child’s words as judgmental. They
can be hurt or offended by the implication that in the most
important area of life they have failed their child. Too often a
great wall builds between the new believer and the parents,
which makes it exceedingly difficult ever to win them. Parents
may even ridicule the new Christian for any lapse in conduct. It
is usually better to wait a few days or weeks until the parents
see a difference in the son or daughter and ask about it. By
then the new believer will have a better idea how to lovingly
answer. Rosa said to her parents, "Thank you for bringing me up
Catholic, or I might never have loved God, and I would not have
been open to this wonderful new experience." Her gratitude freed
her parents to want to share her new life instead of feeling
guilty and judged.
3) Continue to nurture the new
converts in a Bible study group. Re-mind them that Heb. 10:23-25
says fellowship with Bible-studying, praying believers is not
optional. When they are willing, invite them to church.
4) Baptism is an important
public declaration of new life. Apart from its deep meaning, the
fact that it is a ritual makes it attractive to many converts.
But if parents object, it is usually wise to honor them by
waiting awhile. When Juan told his mother he wanted to be
baptized in an evangelical church, she became physically ill,
even though she had not been a practising Catholic for some
years. But his postponement of the baptism let her know he loved
her and gave her several months to under-stand and appreciate
his new life.
On the other hand, a dear,
illiterate old woman in my church Bible class in Spain said that
when she went ahead with baptism, her husband and grown sons
mistreated her. But in the end it was her costly obedience that
brought them all to Jesus Christ.
5) Encourage converts to share
their experience with non-believing friends. They can invite
them to the IBS. It is ideal if new believers win and then
disciple their own converts exactly as they are being discipled.
Spiritual parenting hastens spiritual maturity–our goal for
every convert (Col.1:28).
Of course, what you do will
depend partly on the seeker’s background, and this may vary
greatly.
V. Noting kinds of seekers
Seekers are as different as
their finger-prints! Millions of immigrants with non-Christian
religions present us at home with many of the same challenges
missionaries and tentmakers face abroad. Expect
superstition–maybe even some demonism. Whoever you seek to
evangelize will have a spiritual history–some kind of religion
or cult, or the absence of them.
Remember that nothing–no
religion– can ever satisfy a person’s deepest need, except Jesus
Christ!
We will consider only a few
kinds of seekers you may fish out, and there may be overlap
among them. (See GO Papers and bibliography.)
1. Nominal Protestants
One in three American adults
claims to be born again and read the Bible and share their
faith, according to a Gallup poll. But the terms are used
loosely and even many cult adherents answer Yes. But a great
many who consider themselves Protestants, are Christians in name
only. Many were baptized as babies and sent to Sunday school,
but dropped out in their teens. Or they were from churches that
do not preach the gospel. Some made childhood decisions, which
are valid if reaffirmed as understanding grows. But many adults
who wandered away still count on their childhood decision and
the teaching of eternal security–that "once saved is always
saved." This reassuring doctrine is in the Bible. But so is its
opposite–that you can be lost. Which is true? Charles Simeon, a
godly professor in Cambrige University in the 1800's, gave a
satisfying answer. He said the truth is not in either extreme,
nor in the middle, but in both extremes at once. Congregations
usually have tares along with the wheat. (Mt. 13) All who live
in obedience and fellowship can rejoice in eternal salvation.
All others must consider if they are just out of fellow-ship
(dangerous) or if their early experiences were inadequate for
salvation.
Other nominal Christians are
the product of bad evangelism. They made a decison to receive
Jesus as Savior, but not Lord. They had wrong information or
wrong motivation. Some become socially conditioned by the
church, but have no life. They may not be worried because they
see others like themselves there. They may be called "carnal"
Christians. The Bible recognizes their existence, but does not
allow us this option. "He who refuses Jesus as Sovereign may not
have him as Savior." Many church members are rightly con-fused
about their spiritual state.
Two daughters of a pastor in
Sweden told me they did not know if they were born again, and
they wouldn’t dare ask their father. The idea that a pastor’s
daughter, baptized in infancy, might not be a Christian would be
scandalous. The sisters came separately, not revealing their
doubts even to each other. I said, "Why not tell the Lord you
are uncertain about the past, but today you invite him in for
sure?" Both did, and found new assurance and joy and began to
help each other.
Some find the Lord for the
first time when they attempt to rededicate their lives, or seek
the fulness of the Holy Spirit. Robert Munger’s My Heart,
Christ’s Home (IVP) can help.
Many nominal Christians who
leave the church in their teens return when they marry and have
children. I recently heard a prosperous businessman say that for
several years he and his wife dropped their children off at
Sunday school. But one Sunday, when they went to get them the
daughter came to the car, but the little son did not. Finally,
he arrived. His teacher had said that any who were not sure they
would go to heaven if they died, should stay and talk. He said,
"I wasn’t sure, so I had to stay. But now I am absolutely sure."
The father said, "You can’t be sure–you’re only 9 years old!"
But he was so deeply convicted that he drove home slowly,
fearful to risk a fatal crash. On Monday, he knew exactly where
to get help. He would talk to his co-worker Bill– whose life he
had long admired. Because Bill had been tactfully putting out
bait, he could now introduce his colleague to Jesus Christ.
But other nominal Christians
remain hostile and are exceedingly hard to win. Quite a few very
anti-Christian writers and philosophers grew up in church–like
Herman Hesse, Nietsche and John Paul Sartre.
2. Catholics and Orthodox
There are many Catholic and
Orthodox factions, so learn what each seeker believes. Not many
know God because most were forbidden to read the Bible, and few
are encouraged to do so today. Find out if the devout ones trust
Jesus, or if their devotion is to Mary or the Church. Some say
they have always loved Jesus. To question their claim can be
damaging. If they are moving toward God as their Bible knowledge
increases, you may be able to disciple them into the kingdom. In
a Bible study group in Spain, Mercedes said, "I told you I had
God in my heart, but I think I did not even know what that meant
until we studied John 3."
Bible study groups are
essential for drawing Catholic and Orthodox seekers to God. In
Bible study, many of us avoid cross-references because they can
confuse newcomers. But we must use them with Catholic and
Orthodox participants because their priests claim that we make
the Bible mean whatever we wish. We must show how we let Bible
passages interpret each other.
Many Evangelicals insist that
the seekers must renounce the Pope and Catholic beliefs about
the Virgin Mary before they invite Jesus into their lives. But
it is better not to attack their doctrines. You can win all the
arguments and lose the individuals. Do not take away their
beliefs, but give truth and more truth, and it will replace
doctrinal error. But if they ask what you think about one of
their teachings, show them what God’s Word says.
I had never argued with
Roberto, a young Spanish policeman who met God in my apartment.
After a few days he came to ask what I thought about praying to
the Virgen Mary. But almost immediately he said, "Of course, I
do not need Mary – I have Jesus." It reminded me of C.S. Lewis’s
answer to a Catholic couple he won: "If you do not have a lot of
extra time for praying, it is faster to go directly to the
Almighty."
When I lived in fascist Spain
it was illegal to proselytize–as in many countries. That is, to
get people to change religions (often with material inducement).
Good evangelism is not proselytizing. It was liberating for me
not to aim at getting Catholics out of their Church, but to help
them find God, as Catholics. Once they have his Spirit, he
guides them whether and when to leave. All but one eventually
left. But most needed time. Some attended both Catholic and
Evangelical services and soon felt more at home in the latter.
Don’t rush them.
The initial testimony of new
converts can be powerful in their Catholic families, churches
and social groups. Paul advised converts not to make hasty
changes in their situations (1 Cor. 7:17-24). God has
established new beach-heads on enemy territory. The convert
should not short-circuit God’s plan for the larger circle. (1
Cor. 7:17-24)
Christians in Spain told new
convert Josue that his old friends were not suit-able
companions, his job was unethical (advertising) and his
recreation was worldly (skiing). His family was distressed.
Later he longed to win the old friends but found himself cut
off.
In Portugal, engineering
student Cesar, found God and started a Bible study in his
Catholic church, using our study guides. The parish priest was
de-lighted to see so many young people! Then he began listening
in and stopped it. Cesar joined an evangelical group.
Meanwhile, in this intermediate
period, continue to nurture the new converts in your group. Show
them Heb. 10:23-25. Oddly, Catholics interpret this passage to
mean you must never leave the Catholic Church. But show them it
really says that fellowship with other praying, witnessing
Christians is not optional. We need each other. (See GO Paper:
Evangelizing Catholics and Orthodox.)
3. Atheists and agnostics
Most secularists have given
their dogmatic positions little thought so we can evangelize
them with confidence. A former chaplain at Harvard, George
Buttrick, said students would come into his office and announce
they no longer believed in God. He would say, "Sit down and tell
me what kind of a God you no longer believe in." He then said he
could not believe in such caricatures either, and proceeded to
tell them how God really is.
Some secularists raise the God
of the gaps argument, that science is pushing God into a corner.
As remaining miracles are explained he will become obsolete. But
informed Christians know God is just as active in the phenomena
that can be explained as in those not yet understood. Jesus
Christ who made everything sustains everything! (Col. 1:15-17,
John 1:1-4.)
Some explain away miracles,
like the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea. The parting of the waters
was no big deal–there are plausible explanations. True. But none
explain why the waters part-ed the moment Moses lifted his rod
and rolled in again when he put it down! (Ex. 14:21-29.) Many
Bible miracles are in the timing, not the mechanisms. It would
seem strange indeed if God never used forces he invented–as
though he did not know about them!
Here are three tactics to try.
1) Have them defend their
position. Show the devastating implications of their beliefs. If
there is no personal Creator, then people result from chance and
have no meaning, right and wrong become a matter of preference
and this world is an illusion. Becky Pippert relates that her
biology professor insisted human beings are just protoplasm. But
then he confided that his 13-year old daughter had run off with
an older man and would be forever scarred. Becky reminded him
quietly that according to his belief system protoplasm could not
scar. He said, "Touche. But I could never regard my daughter as
mere protoplasm. I can’t push my beliefs that far."
2) Back them into a corner.
Gently. If people say they are atheists, I can hardly resist the
urge to pounce! I talk about something else and then say calmly,
"It is hard for me to believe that an open-minded, thinking
person like you could say there is no God–it seems a bit
arrogant." I respond to their surprise by saying, "To assert
there is no God, you would have to know every fact there is and
ever will be. Or else some fact out there could be God."
Then they always say, "I guess
I am an agnostic." I say, "Oh, that’s better." And I squelch
another urge to pounce. After a bit I say, "I think "agnostic"
is a word Huxley invented for someone who believes it is
impossible to know if there is a God nor not. Isn’t that
correct?" (Be sure to repeat Huxley’s definition.) Then I say to
the now wary new agnostic, "This is also a difficult position.
To assert honestly that God cannot be known, you would first
have to make every effort to find him–do Bible study, read
books, interview Christians, etc. Besides, there is a Catch 22.
God says, ‘When you seek me with your whole heart, you will find
me.’ (Jer.29:13) But unless you make this risky search, you can
only say that you don’t know because you don’t want to."
Backed into a corner, you can
get some to start this search. Martin, from Scotland (whose
mother held seances in their home) was studying in Spain. I
finally got him to read Stott’s Basic Christianity. That is, 40
pages. Then he held the book out to me, saying, "Here. I am now
convinced there is a God. Some day I’ll read the rest." I said
soft-ly, "Martin, you coward!" So he read the rest. A few days
later, Junior Year Abroad student, Becky Manley (Pip-pert), who
lived with me, helped him make a commitment to Christ. (See her
excellent books in the bibliography.)
3) Take the shortcut to
God–Jesus Christ! Jesus tells us he is the way–the only way to
the Father! (John 14:6) He is both God and man, teaching and
demonstrating what God is like, how he would act in our
situations. As seekers accompany the man Jesus in the gospel
narratives they realize he could not have been just a good man.
He claimed to be God! So either he was a liar or a lunatic (both
highly implausible), or he was, and is, the Lord of the
universe!
Remember the three
L-words–liar, lunatic or Lord. There is a fourth L–for legend.
Is the record true? Credible legends cannot form while
eye-witnesses are still alive (1 Cor. 15:3ff). But do not raise
the issue of a fourth L unless the seekers do. Assume they
accept the gospel records. No ancient literature has nearly so
much attestation as the New Testament! There are more than 5000
partial manuscripts and a few complete ones! A few fragments
date to the time of the apostles! Also, Jesus was so far beyond
human imagination that it would take a Jesus Christ to in-vent a
Jesus Christ!
But remember that secular
atheism is not irreligious. Secularism is a religion, complete
with its set of beliefs, its literature, and its resulting
secular humanism. Some even have meetings and their own hymns.
Several of my college profs repeatedly argued against Christian
beliefs. I know now that it is a sure sign they are not
comfortable in their professed atheism. Those who really do not
believe in God tend to be indifferent to the subject.
Do not fear secular atheists or
agnostics, nor their post-modern counter-parts, who seek
spirituality, but with-out Jesus Christ.
4. Post-modern, New Age cults
God made human beings as
religious creatures, and when they reject him and his truth (to
be free to sin), delusions rush in to fill the vacuum. God gives
them up to believe what is false. (2 Thess. 2:9-12, Rom.
1:18-32). For example, the movie star and New Age guru, Shirley
MacClaine, grew up Southern Baptist. New Age is an eclectic
movement–a wide variety of cults lumped under that term. Most of
them promote Jesus, but falsely. They say he lived, but was not
uniquely God, but a spiritually evolved human being, an example
of spiritual advancement, a master or guru or yogi or
avatar–along with Buddha, Krishna or Lao Tze. Like the ancient
Gnostics, they separate Christ from the Jesus of history and
refer to him as an impersonal Christ Principle. They say we are
all "manifestations of Christ consciousness" and can tap into
cosmic power, as he did. They reject him as the supreme and
final revelation of God. He was only a son of God as anyone else
can be. They exploit, but do not worship him. If he died, it had
nothing to do with human need. They reject the idea of sin and
an ethically perfect God. They deny his resurrection and
ascension or spiritualize it. They also spiritualize his second
coming–all the enlightened are God and part of the Second
Coming. But Acts 1:11 says, "This same Jesus who you see going
into heaven will come back in the same way as you see him go. .
." New Agers believe in re-incarnation instead of final
judgment.
Doug Groothuis says, "In the
New Age, Jesus is understood apart from biblical moorings and
placed in an alien intellectual and spiritual atmosphere. Jesus,
the Christ-conscious Master, is hailed as our prototype for
spiritual discovery and power. He is a Christ without a cross or
physical resurrection, preaching a gospel without repentance or
forgiveness, before an audience of equals who have no sin and
are in no peril of perdition. Is this the genuine Jesus,
obscured by the church and orthodoxy? " (Unmasking the New Age,
p.10, IVP.)
New Agers make selective use of
Bible proof texts, but do not consider them better than
extra-biblical sources. They refer to Gnostic texts found in
Egypt, to a Gospel of Thomas, a Gospel of Peter, both banned by
orthodox Christians long ago. They refer to The Unknown Life of
Jesus, a fiction writ-ten by a Russian in 1894, about "the lost
years of Jesus" between the ages of 13 and 29. They identify
Jesus with the Essenes, but disregard what those ancient Jews
taught. They claim that a 3-volume set called A Course in
Miracles was written by Jesus himself, even though it denies
most of what he taught in the N.T. They accept mes-sages
supposedly from departed spirits through channeling. John wrote
to believers in his day, in a similar atmosphere, "Do not
believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they
are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the
world. . . " (1 Jn. 4:1). He says that all are false prophets
who reject the biblical Jesus, as the unique, divine-human Son
of God.
New Agers reject the Bible,
even though there are at least 5,300 partial or complete Gospel
manuscripts, several of them dating to the time of the apostles!
They reject 2000 years of field testing–the testimonies of
church fathers and many ordinary Christians who knew and loved
Jesus Christ.
But if you ask New Agers to
validate their sources, they cannot. Evidences do not exist.
But we can approach them on the
basis of their felt needs. William Dyrness, dean of Fuller
Seminary’s School of Theology, lists several of the main
concerns of New Agers. They seek spiritual reality, but value
experience over beliefs and distrust institutions and leaders.
They stress personal fulfilment yet yearn for community. They
want to see goodness done. They are apprehen-sive about the
future. ("Can Americans Still Hear the Good News?" in
Christianity Today, April 7, 1997, p. 33.)
We need not be afraid of New
Agers. They distort the concept of Jesus be-cause they are
biblically illiterate. Many do not know more about Jesus than a
little girl who was asked the meaning of Easter. After a pause,
she said, "Every year on Easter Jesus comes out of the grave,
but if he sees his shadow, he crawls back in again."
An investigative Bible study
group is an ideal way to evangelize New Agers. They do not need
to believe the Bible is true. But honesty requires that they at
least examine the Christian source books before rejecting them!
The IBS is the best way to introduce them to Jesus, allowing
them to observe him in action and hear him speak in the Gospels,
and then listen to his early followers testify about him in
their letters. Show how he fulfilled at least 60 clear O.T.
prophecies.
This association with
Christians gives New Agers a chance to see the reality of Christ
in our lives, and to find it themselves. In Jer. 29:13 God says:
"You will find me when you seek me with your whole heart."
Knowing him will allay their fear of the future. Their
association with Christians can give them a taste of genuine
community. As to their desire to see good done, most probably
have little idea how much individual Christians quietly do for
others, and the enormous social work evangelicals do in the U.S.
and around the world. (Our spiritually hostile press does not
report these things.) In our student work we sometimes included
seekers from our Bible study groups in our one-day social work
projects.
But in the Bible studies let
them note what Jesus says about himself and his deity and about
his Father. The impersonal New Age deity–an amoral Force, a
Principle or Vibration, appeals to no one. But we all yearn to
be accepted and loved by a heavenly Father.
Note that Jesus did not view
human beings as deities needing to discover themselves, but as
guilty, and spiritually dead. What good news that we can be
forgiven and made alive for all eternity!
Jesus said he was the only way
to the Father, the only truth, the only life–Jn. 14:6. Peter
said no other name under heaven can give salvation. Acts 4:12.
He said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest. . ." (Mt. 11:28).
Some Christians believe that in
this post-modern age with its dabbling in the occult, we should
be using more power encounter. What is power encounter?
It is demonstrating God’s power
in action. It is dealing directly with Satan and demons. His
tactics are much more overt in cultures where the gospel has
barely penetrated, or where demonic religions predominate, like
the voodoo in Haiti and Africa. It can be important to
demonstrate that God can heal and do greater miracles than the
witch doctors or spirit mediums. Where there are many
Christians, Satan more often presents himself as an angel of
light, and his tactics are more subtle. But today many
Christians in the U.S. are fascinated with power encounter
be-cause large immigrant communities have brought their pagan
religions with them and because our neo-pagan New Age groups are
fascinated with super-natural experience.
Eph. 6:10 says we must be aware
of the devil’s tactics. He takes advantage of even seemingly
innocent items to capture people–like ouija boards, horoscopes,
palm reading–even fortune cookies. Of course, all dabbling in
the occult is forbidden by Scripture.
A friend became concerned when
her family’s fun with a ouija board turned sinister. Some
neighbors could no longer make decisions without consulting the
board. So she walked in on one session, and asked, "Is Jesus
Christ the Son of God?" The answer was an emphatic No– and a
curse. They were all terrified and threw the board into the
trash.
But many Christians have
developed an unhealthy preoccupation with the demonic–another
fad. To attribute everything to Satan is to run the risk of
practising the presence of Satan, as we practise the presence of
Christ. They even speak to Satan. If I sense his presence, I
prefer to resist him by asking the Lord to oppose him for me.
(James 4:7-10)
Many Christians find it more
interesting to participate in a prayer walk, or a healing or
exorcism meeting than to do basic evangelism. I spoke to a
pastor’s wife who considered all her new neighbors
demon-possessed. Her attitude will make it impossible to develop
healthy friendships with them. Many American Christians may
never meet a possessed person in their lifetime.
It is important to distinguish
between ordinary physical and mental illness and that which
results from direct demonic activity. The N.T. makes that
distinction (Mt. 4:24). The victim often knows if the problem is
demonic. God heals and exorcises evil spirits through some
Christians. It may become a major part of their ministry. I have
a friend in Brazil who has seen remarkable breakthroughs that
have changed whole communities. If you become convinced a person
you are evangelizing is under demonic control, seek the help of
an experienced Christian. No Christians should ever do this
alone.
But we must not exaggerate the
value of healings, exorcisms and miracles for evangelism. Jesus
and the apostles used them to catch the initial attention of
crowds in a new area, and maybe to predispose some people to
believe the gospel. But all who did not want to believe just
explained away the super-natural!
The Jewish religious leaders
had to acknowledge Jesus’ power was super-natural, because he
did things no Jewish leader could do. But they did not want to
attribute his power to God, so they said he acted with the power
of the devil! Mt. 12.
Even people he healed did not
put their trust in him. He healed 10 lepers, but only one sought
a personal relation-ship with him, while the others did not even
stay to thank him.
Jesus’ story in Luke 16 is
significant. The rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, had both
died, and were in separate parts of Hades – the temporary place
of the dead. The rich man begged Jesus to send Lazarus to warn
his five unbelieving brothers about hell, because such a miracle
would convince them. Jesus says, "Even if some one goes to them
from the dead, they will not re-pent. . . . If they do not hear
Moses and the prophets [the Word of God], neither will they be
convinced if some one should rise from the dead."
The other problem is that all
healings and miracles and even resuscitations from the dead can
be counterfeited by the devil and his human accomplices.
Healings have long occurred in places like Lourdes in France,
and Fatima in Portugal, etc. Voodoo and other kinds of spiritism
are all-pervasive in Brazil, and I have seen massive, public
healing services conducted by spiritists–healing by satanic
power. How many non-evangelicals on TV talk shows, news-papers
and magazines today, claim to have died and returned to life!
They describe their out-of-body experiences. All this diminishes
the value of power encounter in evangelism.
But Dr. Francis Shaeffer said
rightly that in our post-modern day there are only two
supernatural evidences that Satan cannot counterfeit. The first
is a Spirit-filled believer, because God reveals his character
in our uniquely different personalities in the ordinary
activities of everyday life. It takes more spiritual power to
live a consistently attractive, caring, holy life than to do
healings and miracles. This is evident from all the
televangelists who claim exceptional powers, but whose moral
lives are bankrupt.
The second is a spirit-filled
community of believers. Jesus prayed just before his death that
succeeding generations of believers would demonstrate unity and
harmony, and love for each other–because this would convince
outsiders that the Christian faith is genuine and that Jesus is
the Son of God! (John 17:18-23.)
So we should know about power
encounter, but not allow it to distract us from basic
evangelism. It is no substitute for sharing the gospel.
Rick Love, U.S. director of
Frontiers, learned how valuable power encounter can be in
Indonesia. But he says that truth encounter and moral encounter
are more important. What matters is Christian character.
So winning seekers among New
Agers need not be much different from winning other people,
except that the bait may vary a little and some of their
questions will be different. In fishing evangelism you let their
initial questions show you what they feel and believe and what
you need to tell them.
But we must consider one other
factor. The influence of New Age and post-modern relativism is
seen in their strong social and political agenda–the politically
correct agenda they have sought to impose by force, especially
in educational institutions.
They have caused a dramatic
shift from the Judeo-Christian absolute moral system that
enabled Western Civilization to flourish, to a new moral code
that is rapidly eroding our society’s ethical consensus and
giving rise to our present culture wars. These new ortho-doxies
are epitomized by radical feminism, aberrationism, extreme
environmentalism (a religion), statism and historical
revisionism – the falsification of history. They are
pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, and pro-euthansia and assisted
suicide.
In our increasingly pluralistic
society, intolerance is considered the greatest of sins–that is,
intolerance of their views. They are highly intolerant of any
other views, using neo-fascist methods to impose their
politically correct agenda on both our public institutions and
our private consciences. They focus on schools, the government,
the media and the business world. They are openly
anti-Christian, aggressively seeking to eliminate from public
view any expression of Christian belief. In many ways we now
have less religious freedom than many countries in the world!
Many Christians who are
strongly feminist or environmentalist, actually advance New Age
agendas, and hurt the Christian cause. We must be sure that we
hold a biblical feminism and environmentalism, and that we
promote them in a godly way that makes clear that we
disassociate ourselves from the post-modern agenda.
This culture war is part of the
cosmic war for control of God’s world. Many public school
teachers must work and witness in an acrid environment, under
New Age restrictions. In some schools they can be fired for any
Christian reference, even at Easter or Christmas. Opting out of
neo-pagan milieus is not the answer. Christians must infiltrate,
participate in discussions, get into leadership, and reclaim
whole sectors for Christ. Veteran missionary to India, Leslie
Newbigin, says we must not forget that missions is not only
winning individuals to Christ, and planting churches, but also
engaging cultures!
But in this paper we must limit
our-selves to winning the individuals. We must fish out seekers
among New Agers, as with any other group, and lovingly let them
know there is a cosmic war on and they are on the wrong side,
but there is still time to unconditionally surrender to Jesus.
5. Other sects and cults
The two words mean essentially
the same thing, but some people refer to groups that distort
Christian truth as sects, while groups that have little or no
connection with Christianity as cults. The distinction is not
rigid.
But how do you spot them?
Detectives who go after counterfeiters, do not study every kind
of phony money, but they memorize genuine bills, so that they
can immediately spot a fake. The wide range of truly evangelical
traditions regard only the Bible as their supreme authority, so
all teach the same central apostolic doctrines. But groups may
vary on peripheral issues, like mode of baptism, gifts of the
Spirit, the end of history, etc. But if any group puts its
peripheral distinctives in the center, in place of the core
truths, it verges on being a sect.
Many Seventh Day Adventists are
true evangelicals, even when they worship on Saturday and hold
some dietary rules. But those who focus mainly on the writings
of Mrs. White, Saturday as sabbath, and dietary rules– are over
the edge.
Most charismatic groups are
genuine-ly evangelical, even though many other evangelicals do
not fully share their views. But those who make tongues the
central experience or who claim revelations contrary to the
written Scriptures, are borderline.
But the prosperity gospel–the
health and wealth gospel, is a heresy, even though some of its
proponents – TV evangelists – almost certainly know the Lord.
Some sects are subtle because they still contain much truth, but
they tend to become more extreme. Their basic assumptions (like
their dualism) are not biblical, but were deliberately taken
from Christian science. These are some of the same Gnostic
heresies of ancient Greece. The TV preachers use
proof-texts–only those Bible verses favorable to their beliefs –
and take them out of context.
The best antidote is to get
their followers into Bible study groups.
Sects are borderline Christian
groups, but cults are completely outside of historical
Christianity because the Bible is not their only authority.
Christian Scientists view Mary
Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures on
a par with the Bible. They have about 2000 reading rooms in the
U.S. and 1000 elsewhere, but no pastors. No one preaches
sermons. Each group has two readers, who read aloud from the
Bible and from Eddy’s book, but are forbidden to comment. In
this way the founder has protected her teachings from being
critiqued by members.
They deny materiality. Sin,
sickness and death are illusions. People are co-existent with
God. Jesus never died nor rose. Angels are important in their
beliefs. Think of their adherents as victims deceived by Satan
and a false teacher. True Christianity is materialistic, in a
healthy sense, because our Creator made a material universe and
then pronounced it good! He gives us all things richly to enjoy!
He promises new bodies forever and a transformed planet! Show
them Jesus’ unique deity. Use Hebrews to show Jesus and his
followers are superior to angels.
Jehovah’s Witnesses revised the
Bible to back up their teachings. They do not accept the
Trinity. They say Jesus is God’s son, only as his highest
created being. As mere man he died to ransom people from
physical death. There is no soul apart from the body. To be
saved one must believe their ransom doctrine, receive their
baptism, live a moral life and do many hours a week of
door-to-door proselytizing.
They proselytize in pairs–one a
leader, the other a learner. I engage them in conversation in
hope of persuading the novice. Even the veterans often cannot
continue their memorized spiel, if you interrupt. They call God
Jehovah (instead of Yahweh.) Show them John 12:39-41, where
Jesus says he was the eternal King that Isaiah saw in his
vision. But in Isaiah 6:5 this prophet says the figure he saw on
the throne was Jehovah. So Jesus was claiming that he and
Jehovah are one!
Mormons say that all
Christendom was apostate for centuries until 1830 when Joseph
Smith, and then Brigham Young, produced three new revelations.
These books are co-equal additions to the Bible. People are all
pre-existing spirits. When they are born as humans, they have a
chance to become gods by heeding Mormon teaching. So Mormons do
not believe in one God, but in a vast hierarchy of ex-human
deities. It is a polytheistic religion–idolatrous. Jesus is not
uniquely divine. He is higher than we are only because he had a
head start. The eternal state is an earthly millennium. Jesus
will return to rule from Jerusalem and from Independence,
Missouri! Most people will go to one of three eternal kingdoms,
depending on their level of divinity.
I lent one young Mormon a copy
of The Mormon Papers (Harry L. Ropp, IVP, 1977), which tells us
how to convert them. I asked him to read it and tell me if it is
a fair critique of Mormonism. I heard later that he found God
and left the cult.
To learn more about cults,
including newer ones like the Children of God and Rev. Moon’s
Universal Church, see bibliography for A Guide to Cults and New
Religions by Enroth, and books on specific cults–some you can
lend to cult adepts.
Regardless of the group, it
will contain hungry seekers, so fish them out and get them into
Bible study.
6. Non-Christian religions
You need some understanding of
each seeker’s religion, but it is more important to know how
they under-stand their own faith. They may not know as much
about it as you do! Find common ground. All religions contain
truth. Praise what is good. Criticize gently. Their basic
assumptions may impede their understanding of the gospel. That
was true also of pagans in the first century Roman empire. Paul
disparaged the idols. But mainly he spoke of Jesus Christ and
his crucifixion and resurrection, so that is the best course
also for us in our neo-pagan world.
Terminology is a problem. Do
not ask non-Christians to become Christians. They consider all
Westerners to be Christians because they were born into
Christendom. They think you want them to accept American
capitalism or the moral decadence in our movies! For one Saudi,
becoming a Christian meant freedom finally to drink whiskey!
Rather, talk about reading God’s book, believing God’s word and
becoming God’s child.
Muslims focus on external
observance detailed performance of five duties. They must recite
the Creed, say rote prayers in Arabic five times daily as they
face Mecca, fast in the daytime during the month-long season of
Ramadan – even though they party all night. They must give alms
to the poor–but only one-fortieth of income. They must make a
pilgrimage to Mecca once in a life-time. But the only way to be
sure of Paradise is to die in a jihad–a holy war! (Hence, the
suicide bombers.) The rituals impose no moral obligation on the
people. For us heresy is wrong doctrine; for Muslims, it is
small deviations in the rituals.
Islam rejects the Trinity–God,
Mary and Jesus. It is blasphemy to call God "Father." Allah has
99 attributes, but love is not among them. Islam is fatalistic –
whatever happens is Allah’s will. Muslims accept Jesus as a
great human prophet, but Mohammad supercedes him as the Koran
supercedes the Bible. But their high regard for Jesus gives us
excellent common ground.
Muslims have the same deep
needs of all people. A tentmaker told us of a great-grandmother
in a hospital who asked, "Why am I so afraid to die? Why are my
people so afraid to die? It is because we have dirty hearts–we
cheat and lie and steal." He said, "Let me tell you how Jesus
cleaned up my dirty heart."
A fourth of the world has no
know-ledge of Jesus! On an Oregon campus I met a young Chinese
medical doctor, just arrived from China, before it open-ed up to
the world. She shared a dormitory room to improve her English.
Students had just given her a Jesus Book. She pointed to the
title and asked me, "Please–what is this word? Who is this
person?"
I could not start with Jesus’
deity. So I said, "This is a man who man lived 2000 years ago."
I patiently explained his claims and actions and how his
followers became convinced, against their wills, that he was
God! She looked skeptical. I explained how the Jewish political
and religious establishment then crucified him and how Jesus’
followers tried to deal with their disillusionment. How could
God die? But three days later, there he was again–very much
alive!
She said, "I am a doctor–I
cannot believe this." I said, "That is exactly how his closest
friends felt." Then I explained how they became convinced that
he really had risen to life!
Perplexed, she asked, "If he
really was God, why would he let people kill him?" Now I had to
begin over again at Genesis, to explain the one and only Creator
God, a tri-personal Being, who made the planet and entrusted it
to the creatures he had made in his image. But they were
tricked, and they betrayed God’s world into the hands of his
treacherous archenemy.
Death, already in the plant and
animal world (fossils), now entered the human pair. So all their
descendants inherited death! People were alienated from God,
from other people, from their environment and from them-selves.
We are all damaged people in a spoiled, enemy-occupied world.
I explained how God the Son
became man, died to pay for our sins and rose to life so our
Righteous Judge could forgive us and become our Father. Now he
restores us to life, and gives us new bodies to live forever on
our remade planet. I told her how we talk with the living Jesus
and the Father, and how they answer. With tears, she said, "It
is beautiful–I wish I could believe it." A few days later she
did believe!
After our first conversation, I
was surprised that her Jewish atheist room-mate, on a bed behind
us, had been listening for a couple of hours. She had brusquely
refused a copy of the Jesus Book, but now asked me for one. If I
could have talked more with her I might have shown her O.T.
prophecies about the Messiah, who would descend from David and
be born in Bethlehem. He would be more than man, would be
crucified by his own people, but would rise again. Daniel 9 says
all this would happen just before the destruction of Herod’s
temple in 70AD. Who could it be except Jesus? He fulfils 48
specific messianic prophecies! The odds are highly unlikely that
this could happen. I might have told her about a Jewish
professor in Israel who requires his students to read the New
Testament, because it is the best historical source of
information available about the Jews of that day.
I heard quite different
questions from two Hindu men from India who were sitting next to
me on an international flight. I told them that most people in
Christendom are not real Christians–that no one can be born a
Christian. They expressed surprise because the only way to
become a Hindu is to be born one. Converts can never rise to a
higher status than Hindu outcasts.
They asked, "How then can
anyone become a Christian?" I told them what people must believe
about Jesus and how they must respond to him because he lives!
They seemed touched when I said Jesus died for Hindus, too, and
loves them as much as he loves Westerners."
Hindus have no objection to
adding Jesus and the Father to their pantheon of 33 million
gods! One Indian who did this was hoping for forgiveness from
Jesus. A Christian asked what he would do if Jesus did not
forgive him. He said it was no problem because he would just
find himself another god who would do so. When Hindus decide for
Jesus, we must verify if they have "turned from their idols to
the living God"–or no new birth occurs. God does not share his
glory with any other deities. As Paul said, idols are
nothing–but behind them lurk demons.
Watch for Hindu seekers. During
my brief ten days in India, I looked up two IVCF students doing
a short term in Delhi. John and Ed had both been ill and were
discouraged. I suggested they take a day off and go with me to
Agra to see the Taj Mahal. As we sat down for the 2-hour train
ride, an Indian man came to occupy the fourth seat in our
compartment–a university Hindi language professor. He said the
advantage of 33 million deities is that you have so many from
which to choose a few favorites! But it became clear the
professor was critical of his religion and soon we were
answering his questions in a Bible study.
In the evening, after an
enjoyable and spiritually refreshing day, as we settled into the
same train seats–here came the professor! We felt we should not
push more religious conversation. But he was full of questions!
He said he had often tried to
read the Bible, but had trouble understanding the Old English of
the King James Version. (So he had been a seeker for some time!)
I bought him a Bible in modern English and a New Testament in
Hindi. After I left, John and Ed continued to study with him.
The professor has since written to say he has found God and is
evangelizing his family and students.
See bibliography for more on
each religion.
When you evangelize and
disciple people you set off ripples that never end, as new
converts win others and they win yet others! Many Christians
miss out on this joy because they do not know how to fish. Many
others do not even try to evangelize because they misunderstand
the three basics below.
VI. Getting started
1. WHO should fish? Many
Christians, including missionaries and tent-makers, think they
are off the hook be-cause they do not have the gift of
evangelism. Our GO application form asks, "How is God already
using you in evangelism?" A frequent answer is: "I am a good
discipler." It implies evangelism is not going well.
Witnessing has more to do with
our essence than with gifts. In Mt. 5 Jesus said we are light
and salt–although we can fail in these roles. In John 15 he says
we are his witnesses, like it or not. Once our names are linked
to his, we either ruin his reputation before our associates, or
we exalt him. He takes an enormous risk!
The New Testament contains few
exhortations to evangelize, but Jesus said, "Everyone who
acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my
Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I
also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." (Mt.
10:32,33. See John Stott’s Our Guilty Silence.) Jesus promises
to make us fishers of men if we let him (Mk. 1:19) We need
training, but we learn by doing.
Paul says God gave the church
pastors and teachers to equip every member to make Jesus Christ
known to outsiders (Eph. 4:10). Yet almost every book on
mobilizing lay Christians aims to get every member on a church
committee. Instead, a congregation with 300 members should have
300 ministers, all working and witnessing in the lost world
around them! A pyramid style each-one-teach-one program lets
experienced members encourage and teach others in the workplace.
Lesslie Newbigin says missions
is not only winning individuals and planting churches, but
engaging culture, challenging its wrong assumptions and giving
it truth. This must be done by lay people. Jacques Ellul says
the world is in desperate condition and the church has the
remedy, but it is silent. It is silent because it can speak to
the world only through its lay people. But few of them receive
any encouragement or training from the church, and the few who
are effective witnesses in the workplace find little recognition
or affirmation from church leaders.
Some people say the Great
Commission was just for the apostles. (Mt. 28:18-20) But look at
Jesus’ final promise: "And lo, I will be with you until the
close of the age!" That means us–2000 years later, when this age
of grace may be drawing to a close!
2. WHEN should we fish? Paul
tells Timothy to evangelize whether it is convenient or not. (2
Tim. 4:1, 2) Peter and Paul insist on evangelism as a
life-style, not an activity or project. There are no ON and OFF
switches, no vacations, no retirement. When I first went to
Peru, I made myself a daily schedule so I would use my time
wisely, but there were constant interruptions. Then I realized
the interruptions were my ministry! It was the people who
mattered! I learned to fit the rest of my life into the little
spaces around the people.
Satan will use every device to
keep us from evangelizing–making us too busy or even tempting us
to sin. But we can foil his attacks. In Spain a cab driver
mistook me for a tourist and began a circuitous route. I angrily
scolded him, then remembered I had come to Spain to win people
like him. But how could I now witness to him? Immediately, I
said to him, "Forgive me. I have Jesus Christ in my life and he
must be dis- pleased with how I just expressed my anger." The
driver asked, "What do you mean–you have Jesus Christ in your
life?" My apology began a significant conversation the devil
almost ruined.
We must be alert for
opportunities to witness. Jesus said, "As you go–about your life
and work–make disciples."
3. WHERE should we fish? In
this cosmic war for control of the world, every believer is
already assigned–to where he or she already is. Your Jerusalem
is your immediate family, your extended family, your
neighborhood, and your place of work or study–be-cause of the
hours you spend with many of those people. (Acts 1:8).
God cares about where you serve
and does not leave it to chance. (See Packer’s Evangelism and
the Sovereignty of God, IVP.) You did not get where you are by
accident. If you could map your community–every house, business,
factory and school, and draw an X for every Christian, you would
see God has chosen his own evangelism teams that cut across
national, racial, denominational, generational, social and other
affinity lines. He chooses your team with members who complement
each other. Round up the Christians at work and form them into a
team that meets for prayer, Bible study, and mutual help in
evangelizing your workplace. Form another team in your
neighbor-hood. Are there believers in your club? Many Christians
who do little individually become fruitful in a team.
Thousands of little student
teams meet regularly on secular campuses. I have spoken to
faculty groups that meet one noon a week, to engineers in an
aeronautical firm who bring lunches once a week, and to nurses
groups. Even Pizza Hut employees meet!
You are assigned to your
present spheres of influence until God moves you–to a new job in
your homeland, or maybe to Austria, Laos, Kazakhstan, Mali or
China! An ocean full of fish awaits! But in whatever location,
God will always assign you to a pond or two at a time, where you
can fish out seekers. Your faithfulness, not your success,
determines your next assignment! (Mt. 25: 23) Why promote
someone who is not faithful where he?
Conclusion
We must evangelize prayerfully,
tact-fully, honestly, confidently, humbly, patiently and
kindly–there is so much at stake. "Evangelism is no hobby!"
Whenever we speak to people about God they are forever
changed–drawn closer to God and closer to eternal damnation. In
each encounter we signify life to some and death to others. (2
Cor. 2:4-17)
We should speak with joyful
urgency and excitement. The gospel is so extra-ordinary that if
we talk in a mundane way, no one will believe we believe it!
Yet we take our salvation for
granted. How can we keep alive its wonder? Maintain worship,
fellowship and Bible study. Keep a diary of answered prayers –
things don’t "just happen." Re-cords remind us how constantly
God intervenes in our lives.
View the gospel from the
vantage of people who have never understood it. I watch their
eyes so I will not miss the moment they grasp the truth! I try
to imagine how a seeker will look and act after finding the
Lord. I recall Marisa’s hard little face and how it softened
soon after her conversion–how she radiated the love of Christ!
Evangelism itself renews our
awe and wonder, motivating and enabling us to win yet others. I
wish for you–a long life of joyful fishing!
–Ruth E. Siemens
Note: Global Opportunities
offers job search assistance, missions counseling and training
ser-vices to help missions-motivated Christians become
tentmakers in needy countries.
GO Papers by Ruth E. Siemens:
Why did Paul Make Tents?
Biblical Basis Investigative Bible Study Groups Inductive Bible
Study Preparation Evangelizing Catholics and Orthodox
Request a complete order list.
Bibliography: (* Good for some
seekers.)
J.N.D. Anderson, Christianity
and Com- parative Religions. Downers Grove: IVP, 1984, 126 pp.
J.N.D. Anderson, The Evidence
for the Resurrection. * Downers Grove: IVP, 1966. 28 pp.
Convincing!
J.N.D. Anderson, The World’s
Religions. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972. 208 pp. Explains the
major religions.
Mark Ashton, Absolute Truth? *
Downers Grove: IVP, 31 pp. About relativism.
Gordon Bridger, The Man from
Outside.*
London: IVP, 1969, 190 pp.
Evangelistic studies in the Gospel of John.
F. F. Bruce, The New Testament
Docu- ments: Are they Reliable? * Downers Grove: IVP, 1960, 118
pp.
Michael Cassidy, Christianity
for the Open Minded.* Downers Grove: IVP, 44 pp.
Kelly Clark, Quiet Times for
Christian Growth. Downers Grove: IVP, 48 pp. 40 studies for new
converts.
R. D. Clements. God and the
Gurus.Down- ners Grove: IVP. 64 pp. Hare Krishnas and
Transcendental Meditation.
Robert E. Coleman, Master Plan
of Evan- gelism. Old Tappan, NH: Fleming H. Re- vell, 1973, 126
pp. How Jesus trained his disciples.
Charles W. Colson, Why I
Believe in Christ.* Downers Grove: IVP, 32 pp. Excellent!
Douglas Connelly, Deceived by
the Light* Downers Grove: IVPm 32 pp. Popular New Age ideas
about death.
Robert Crossley, The Trinity.*
Downers Grove: IVP, 1977, 43 pp.
Michael Green, Evangelism and
the Early Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970, 280 pp.
Doug Groothuis, Are all
Relgions One?* Confronting the New Age,* Revealing the New Age
Jesus,* Unmasking the New Age.* All are 32 pp. Downers Grove:
IVP.
Charles E. Hummel, The
Prosperity Gos- pel: Health and Wealth and the Faith Movement.
Downers Grove: IVP. 1991. 32pp. Dangerous heresy mixed with
truth.
IVCF Staff, Christ in You.* 32
pp. First Mornings with God.* 30 studies. 23 pp. Downers Grove:
IVP. For converts.
Daniel C.Juster, Jewishness and
Jesus. Downers Grove: IVP. 35 pp.
Cliffe Knechtle, Give Me an
Answer. Downers Grove: IVP. 165 pp.
Ada Lum, How to Begin an
Evangelistic Bible Study, and Jesus the Life Changer. 8
evangelistic studies in the Gospel of John. Luke, 26 studies in
2 parts. Down- ers Grove: IVP.
Josh McDowell, Evidences that
Demand a Verdict, More Evidences that Demand a Verdict, and More
than a Carpenter.* Wheaton: Tyndale.
John Montgomery, History and
Christian- ity.* Downers Grove: IVP. 1965. 110 pp. Great
historical evidences!
Robert Munger, My
Heart–Christ’s Home. * Downers Grove: IVP. 32 pp. For nom- inal
Christians to deepen commitment.
Navigators, Growing in Christ.
Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1984. 71 pp. A study guide for
converts, with memory cards.
J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the
Sovereignty of God. Downers Grove: IVP. 1961. 126 pp.
Motivating!
Larry Peabody, Secular Work is
Full-Time Service. Ft. Washington: CLC, 142 pp.
Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of
the Salt- shaker and into the World. Downers Grove: IVP, 1979.
188 pp. Great!
Rebecca Manley Pippert, Pizza
Parlor Evangelism. Downers Grove: IVP, 1976. 29 pp. Be natural
and honest.
Rebecca Manley Pippert and Ruth
E. Siemens, Evangelism, a Way of Life: A Life-Guide Study.
Downers Grove: IVP, 1985. 30 pp.
Harry L. Ropp, The Mormon
Papers. Downer’s Grove: IVP, 1977.
Leith Samuel, The Impossibility
of Agnos- ticism.* Downers Grove: IVP, 30 pp.
Francis Schaeffer, The God Who
is There. Downers Grove: IVP. 191 pp. Philoso- phical questions
in evangelism.
Bruce L. Shelly, Why Baptize?
Downers Grove: IVP. 32 pp.
James Sire, Program for a New
Man,* Downers Grove: IVP, 1973. 32 pp.
James Sire, Scripture Twisting.
Down-
ers Grove: IVP. 180 pp. How
cults mis- read Scripture.
James Sire, Universe Next Door.
Downers Grove: IVP, 1976. 246 pp.
James Sire, Why Should Anyone
Believe Anything at All? Downers Grove: IVP. 220 pp.
John R. W. Stott, Basic
Christianity,* Downers Grove: IVP, 1971. 142 pp. I keep a
supply. The last 2 chapters are available also as
booklets–Becoming a Christian,* 15 pp., and Being a Christian.*
29 pp, In 50+ languages.
John R. W. Stott, Our Guilty
Silence. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 120 pp.
Ken Taylor, Can I Believe
Christianity?* Downers Grove: IVP. 32 pp.
Donald S. Tingle, Mormonism. 32
pp. Islam and Christianity. 32 pp. Downers Grove: IVP.
Masumi Toyotome, Three Kinds of
Love.* Downers Grove: IVP. 17 pp. God’s in- spite- of kind of
love.
(The IVP catalog lists many
other titles. Build your own mini-library!)
Copyright 1997 by Ruth E.
Siemens |