Matthew Ch28 v19-20: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

When I was younger I use to think evangelism was to stand on street corners and be ‘singing happy clappy songs’ in your face ‘end is nigh’ and ‘you’re going to hell’ talk.

In reality evangelism is living our lives for God proclaiming the good news to the World, but with gentleness and respect as we need to remember that people are not a ‘evangelistic project’ and we need to see people from God’s point of view and not ours.

I personally don’t have an issue sharing my faith but I am wary in how I start a conversation about my faith / the Gospel, as I don’t want to be seen as ‘David the Bible basher’. We are not to impose the Gospel on people as this could be labeled as indoctrination but we are to expose the Gospel to people in how we live our lives.

I have a number of tattoos with Bible verses part of the art work, the idea being that people if interested will ask me about the Bible verses which opens the proverbial door for me to share the Gospel. We are called to be fishers of men not hunters of men, we need to throw the bait and nets out and let people come to us with their questions (see last week’s blog on answering questions).

Another method of evangelism is to speak out in situations at work, in the pub, at family events and not let the main characters hold court with their views, as 2 Timothy Ch4 v1-5: Urges us to witness the good news at all times as society is being drawn to unsound teachings and lifestyles. And we can sometimes be wary, scared of speaking out.

Paul’s letter to Galatians is relevant today as it was then, in today’s society if you disagree with the majority you run the risk of being labeled out of touch, intolerant, bigot etc. In some cases Church leaders who do speak out lack the conviction, authority as they are afraid of a congregational, local community backlash but feel they have to say something.

We need to pray that God gives the leaders of the Church, Christian MPs, leaders within the community the wisdom in how to effectively combat the organised attack on religion by today’s media, governments, public sector organisations, left-wing institutions as they are becoming more and more anti-religion especially towards the Church with their negative reporting, making mountains out of mole hills, liberal and unbiblical views on issues like homosexuality, poverty, taxation on the needy and their unwillingness to help the refugees who have witnessed horrendous acts against humanity as the media has lumped refugees into the same group as ‘benefit immigrants’ who in the grand scheme are a minority.

Thought for the week

Has God put a group of people on our hearts who he wants us to  pray for and be sharing our faith with. If we don’t evangelise because we are to scared; we’ll have a lot explaining to do in Heaven in front of the people who have died, been tortured for their faith.