Exploring Evangelism MythsSample

Do you know that moment during a church service when silence falls over the crowd and the speaker asks everyone to bow their heads, close their eyes, and repeat a prayer line by line? 

We’ve been there plenty of times. Maybe you’ve raised your hand and prayed too.

Moments like this stick with you. 

But does all evangelism need to lead to a single, powerful moment of decision? Or could evangelism look more like a journey? 

Is it easier for you to view evangelism as a moment or as a journey? Both are necessary because without the other we can end up in some interesting situations…

Let me explain. You may lean toward viewing evangelism as a single moment. This can lead to feeling a lot more pressure about guiding people to that moment of decision. It can be more challenging to thoroughly walk people through what they’re really signing up for when they decide to follow Jesus. You sense an urgency around evangelism and want listeners to decide, pray the prayer, respond to the altar call, or raise their hand in response to the gospel. It can be hard to recognize there are many more opportunities to take baby steps in evangelism rather than a single leap from “What’s your name?” to “Do you want to follow Jesus for the rest of your life?”. Evangelism is any time the Gospel is proclaimed in the hope that listeners would be reconciled to God (whether people convert or not). 

But maybe you’re someone who views evangelism more as a journey. Your friends may know that you are nice to the grocers, tip well at restaurants and go to church every Sunday, but they may not know about your faith in Jesus. It’s easier to lack the urgency to invite people to follow Jesus (even if you’ve been friends for years or decades) or minimize what God can do in a single, powerful moment.

What does this mean for the way you think about evangelism? Jesus called his disciples to drop everything and follow him in a moment. Jesus also speaks to Nicodemus during a late-night conversation, but it takes a few years before Nicodemus chooses to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. So, is evangelism about a single moment or a journey? In scripture both the moment and the journey are emphasized. It’s a both/and kind of thing.