Evangelism

Some time ago, I did one of those questionnaires which would then reveal things I might get involved in as a Christian. I was surprised that evangelism came quite high up in the list for me. I found this surprising, as my impression of evangelism had been one of standing on a street corner and sharing my faith with complete strangers. I had often shied away from doing that, as I had found it to be quite terrifying and difficult for me, given my particular nature. Thinking back on this, I had a somewhat narrow view as to what evangelism looks like.

For one thing our very lives should speak about God to others. If our focus is truly on the Lord, and our desire is to know Him better and to follow His ways, then a light will be displayed for others to see. This is not to be used as a cop-out for the above means of evangelism, as we may be called to do the above too. At school I had to be doing something right, as colleagues would quite often apologise to me for swearing in my presence.

I have found that wearing something Christian, such as a "four points" bracelet, (a wristband  whose message encapsulates the gospel using four symbols) leads very naturally to questions and conversation about our faith. When we were recently in a predominantly Muslim country, my wearing of such a wristband led to another Christian talking about his faith on a minibus journey with others who were not of the faith. Seeing that I was wearing the bracelet gave him the courage to step out in this way. As always, we must take the Holy Spirit's guidance and prompting on this, as we wouldn't want to be offensive or too pushy in our dealings with others.

I know someone who recently had the Greek for "Who do you say I am?" (Jesus' question of the disciples) tattooed on his forearm. This encouraged questions, it being in Greek script and led to openings. You may not agree with the idea of tattooing anything - a badge of some sort could be used instead.

When we used to have social functions at school and fellow teachers asked about the weekend, I was at one point apt to hide my activities by being vague, saying something like "We were doing things with our church". Again advisedly and even sensitively, why not just say something like "We were praying for people to be healed", or even "We saw someone healed". Why not? For people will talk about the films they have seen or the places they have been to with great excitement. And this is also something so very exciting.