One reason we refrain from sharing our faith is that we really don’t feel we have much of a faith to share. And we might be right about that. Few know where to turn in Scripture to share salvation outside of John 3:16. And when we evaluate our relationship with Christ, we don’t feel like we have much to say. What can we discuss about Jesus and who He means to us? What personal witness of Jesus’ message do I have? Even if someone was eager to learn about becoming a Christian and wasn’t argumentative…do I even know what the Gospel is?<\/p>\n
As a result, we leave the responsibility for spreading the faith to the marketing efforts of our church to the unchurched so that they can hopefully hear something about God Sunday morning from an educated preacher or teacher. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with distributing promotional materials about our church. Or people hearing about God from the preacher. But we have almost made this the primary way to share our faith–hoping that unchurched people will come. That is why Sunday morning worship at church has become so targeted at seekers today–everything is catered to the unchurched. Is this God’s intent for our time of corporate worship of Him?<\/p>\n
What many are starting to realize is that this model continues to perpetuate weak Christianity in the lives of the average church-goer. They do not know how to do anything else but come to church, hear a message, and leave. They think this is what Christianity is largely all about! To be fair, some churches who follow this model also heavily emphasize small groups to facilitate discipleship. For those churches who successfully plug people into truly effective small groups, this indeed can make a big difference.But largely, many Christians remain ignorant of the faith.<\/p>\n
Case in point: I went to a conference held by the North Alabama United Methodist Church last year. I was eager to attend one of the sessions entitled “Living Out Your Faith In The Workplace.” As a youth pastor, I wasn’t accustomed to sharing my faith in the workplace, because I work in a church. I had just dropped down to working part-time at the church and was now doing freelance work as a videographer for attorneys. I struggled (and still do struggle) with knowing how to share Jesus with those I work with, even though I was teaching students every week to share Christ with their school-friends. The session was formatted as a panel discussion. When one of the panel introduced themselves as a Christian attorney, I got excited. I was the first person to ask a question, and I directed it at the attorney. I asked him what ways he has found to share Christ with fellow attorneys, because in his own words, it’s hard to be a Christian around attorneys. I explained my story about being a youth pastor, and now in the workplace, and stated I could relate with his struggle! I couldn’t seem to find any way to reach out to attorneys to talk with them about Jesus. But maybe it was because my fear was standing in the way? His answer shot down all my expectations for the session. He basically said that he didn’t feel it was necessary or helpful to talk about Jesus to others in the workplace, because it just makes them defensive. He’d rather treat other attorneys with respect and honesty, instead of being under-handed like many are. He felt this was what it means to be a witness for Christ in the workplace, and this was sufficient in sharing Christ. Treating others as you would want them to treat you is how we share Christ. The rest of the panel weighed in and all agreed. The Christian doctor on the panel said he didn’t appreciate it when nurses or other staff ask him or others question about whether they believe in Christ or not. It made him uncomfortable having such conversations, as he felt faith was a private matter. He said he didn’t feel comfortable telling people he was a Christian. He equated it to talking politics. He just wanted to live like a Christan. The Christian psychologist chimed in that when he gave advice to an angry mother to instead love her deeply troubled son regardless of what he does–and that if she didn’t love him, who would–that this was how he saw it appropriate to share our faith in Christ. After all, he commented to the audience, this is the type of love that Christ shows to us. He explained that he was implicitly telling her to love her son with Jesus’ kind of love–and he boasted to us how he didn’t even have to mention that he was a Christian or mention Jesus in doing so! He also stated that we shouldn’t be trying to convert people, but rather show them how to live their life according to Jesus’ principles. The UMC pastor who was overseeing the panel agreed with everyone’s take, and then said that St. Francis taught this when he said “we should preach Christ wherever we go, and when necessary use words.” I believe that statement (even though he wrongfully attributed it to St. Francis).<\/p>\n
The problem is that we have decided it’s no longer necessary to use words. Ever. Just live your life according to Jesus’ principles, and you are being a witness. How does any of this lead someone to Christ? First of all, they don’t even know<\/strong> you’re a Christian, because you’re afraid to tell them–so they are simply going to praise you for being such a great person–they will NOT<\/strong> be praising Jesus or attributing any of your actions to Christ. Seems to me using words is necessary. Second of all, even if they do know we are Christians, we are doing little more than living as decent human beings in these scenarios. Plenty of people live this way and aren’t Christians. While it is important to live out what we preach–what exactly are we preaching these days? That being a Christian means being a good person? Is that the Gospel? In fact, we are spreading a message that is CONTRARY to the gospel–the gospel says that I’m a sinner, not a good person. Such a sinner that is destined to hell. It says that God is merciful and has forgiven me when I repent and place my faith in the only Righteous One. It is only by His death and resurrection that I am saved. And it says that you too can be forgiven if you will trust your life to Jesus too. How do we expect to communicate any of that without words?<\/p>\n This post is about challenging us<\/em> to go out there and share our faith ourselves. Not our pastor. If the average believer is unable to do this, our churches will not be impacting our communities and the world like Jesus called us to. He called each of us to go out and preach the Gospel. That’s how it started spreading, and how it needs to continue spreading today. The Apostles shared the Gospel boldly, for sure. And they did it out of love for God and fellow man–even giving up their lives for the cause. They weren’t just “nice people” trying to live nicely. They had a message. And it wasn’t ‘Come to our church, so you can hear a message about how to live better.’<\/p>\n Please listen to this two-minute audio clip I excerpted from a sermon I heard on the radio yesterday (Harry Reeder, pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian in Birmingham, AL), which illustrates what I am trying to say here. Please pray for me as I continue to seek out ways to share the Gospel boldly in love to the people I come in contact with!<\/p>\n