:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

In my last post I wrote about allowing the love of God to motivate us as we share our faith. As we accept his love, he’ll start to change us. When we are shaped into his kind of people we’ll see things from his perspective.

Motivated by the love of the Father and guided by his Spirit, we are in much better shape to talk about the Good News of Jesus. In fact, once we’ve embraced it fully, we’ll be better prepared to talk about it.

Now, we have to figure out how we’re going to discuss Jesus with talkative Sally at the office, David the agnostic brother, or Butch your hunting buddy who has only been heard to speak of sports and killing animals. Thankfully we don’t all have to be like the gregarious and confident evangelism experts who tell us that we can steer every conversation to Christ—though some of us will be all over that approach.

For the rest of us, let me introduce you to Leslie.

Lesslie Newbigin served as a missionary in India for over thirty years, giving him some serious chops when it comes to saving sinners from the gates of hell. In his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society he offers a way forward in evangelism that may strike some folks as a surefire path to hell for most of the world. However, I encourage you to give it a shot. He suggests that the evangelism in the book of Acts often happened as a result of action and of the Holy Spirit’s work that prompted people to ask questions.

In other words, figure out what the Holy Spirit wants you to do, do it, and then answer the questions that come. Get out there and do what God sets before you, and then trust him to provide the opportunities and results.

Such a non-assertive approach feels so un-American, and of course, that’s true. Newbigin is British.

However, his experience and interpretation ring true to me. God places burdens on our hearts, leads us into situations, and brings up conversations that will enable us to speak about him, his love, and his saving work. In addition, as we face adversity with grace, accept scorn with humility, and repay evil with good, we’ll say quite a lot about the work God is doing in us. It’s not always up to us to make evangelistic situations happen, but we are responsible for listening to God’s lead, displaying the power of God daily, and then acting when opportunities arise.

Evangelism may in fact be more a matter of spending time with God to figure out what to do rather than necessarily doing something.

This means that we aren’t just evangelizing when we try to talk about Jesus. We are always on the clock. This is both a little less intimidating and infinitely more difficult. In other words, you are proclaiming the good news when you respond to a critic with kind words or allow yourself to be cheated. We can show that we are living for the rewards and praise that come from God by allowing the love of God to lift us above the smaller concerns of this world.

Anyone can do this, but no one can do it well without the Holy Spirit.