Click here to be an evangelist

Have you ever been approached by an evangelist? How did they seem to you? Were they friendly? Were they nice? Or were they only friendly and nice to you as long as you listened to what they had to say? If you politely told them you weren't interested were your ears then privvy to some of the most ill thoughts and curses you've heard in a while? Better yet, did they tell you to turn or burn?

I've been posting on a forum for quite a while now and I have heard that people that have been approached by evangelists regard the experience as a very negative one. It's seen as an intrusion upon them and the witnesses became the most rude people they had ever had the unfortunate luck of meeting. So you have to wonder, just who are we sending out to do the Lord's work?

Most evangelists are new Christians. They just became a Christian, and now wish to share the peace, security and joy they now have with the rest of the world. It's a good reason... on the surface. But what training are these people actually given? Very little I'm afraid.

In my last church we gave people exactly 4 hours of training. We gave them various items to give out. One was the Jesus movie on DVD. Another was a tract of their choosing, one was More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. The thinking was if we just walk up to a person and say "here take this and read it or watch it and your life will be changed." Very little effort involved. You could be done in 15 minutes depending on how many supplies you brought with you and how populated the place you've chosen to witness in is.

Then there was the "Share Jesus Without Fear" approach. Basically you highlight some basic verses in a new testament only bible, and have the person you're witnessing to read them and tell you what those verses mean to them. The appeal of this tactic is that the person you're witnessing to does most of the talking. A good approach if you're shy or have problems with open-air preaching.

Is this what Jesus had in mind when He gave us the Great Commission? I think not. Evangelism is a very serious endeavor. An evangelist is often the person that gives the unsaved person their first glimpse of what Christ has done in their lives. If the evangelist is truly a changed person it should be reflected in their behavior towards an unbeleiver and sadly it isn't. It can't be, they're too new. They're riding a euphoric high when they engage people with the gospel of Christ. They most likely don't know too much about it and they're not told how to defend it either. This has got to change. An atheist could destroy a new believer in about 10 minutes. A couple hard questions and the new convert who is witnessing can have a seed of doubt placed in them, that will fester and grow if left untreated. If we truly want to change the church we have to do it on all levels. We have to pull the new Christian evangelists off the streets and educate them first. We should have our solid Christians on the front lines engaging the public and fighting the good fight. In the weeks to come I will post ways on how I think we can do this.