I am heading in a new direction after realizing I am not a church planter or Lead Pastor. Thirteen years in the Hill Country of Texas, the modern equivalent of the backside of Midian, has shown me that my main gifting is Evangelism. So, I’m getting back to my roots. This blog focused on evangelism
On January 4, 2004, I made a commitment to share my faith everyday after hearing a New Year’s message from my Pastor, Zac Nazarian.
It’s now been 20 years!!!
I don’t even know why I chose to make that commitment on that particular weekend, but I do remember that there were 6 or 7 points to the message. One stuck with me: “In the New Year we should evangelize more.”
How many times have you heard that as a Christian? Easily, a million times. And what did you do about it? Same thing I did: you listened, nodded your head (probably pursed your lips), then you made a half-hearted commitment to start sharing your faith, somehow, somewhere, but ultimately let it pass by the wayside, along with your other vows, like reading through the Bible in a year, or losing twenty pounds. That morning, however, I chose to do something about it. I sat in my chair at church and said to myself, “I’m going to share my faith everyday.”
Mind you, I had no idea how I was going to do it. Like most Christians I only shared my faith when God “opened a door.” Evangelism, of course, was only for those who had the gift. Still, the next day I started my commitment. And wouldn’t you know it? The very first person I talked to—made a profession for Christ!
(There’s a lot more to the story. Click here.)
Flash forward to July 31, 2005. Ray Comfort was invited to speak at our church. I sat in the back of our sanctuary and listened intently to “Hell’s Best Kept Secret”—for about ten minutes.
How do feel about Christians who present the message of Jesus a little creatively? What is your first reaction to someone proclaiming the Gospel in what you perceive to be an unseemly or undignified manner? Are you happy and excited or embarrassed and ashamed that they are a brother or sister?
There are many different ways to reach people for the Kingdom of God, ways that we may think are kooky, ineffective or weird, but, can advance the cause of Christ further than we ever expected. You may not do it that way, I may not do it that way, but if the Good News is proclaimed accurately, then, it doesn’t matter what we think. We serve a creative God who uses creative people to get his saving agenda done.
What do you think about the cross-walkers? Our fellowship hosted Steve Epp a year ago who’s walking the cross throughout America. Why does he do it that way?
“I’m reaching out to the younger generation who’ve experienced drug abuse and home abuse,” he says. “I took to the street because they are sure not coming to our churches. I tell them that God loves them and I love them. I want to show that living for Jesus is a life of surrender, and I’m trying to show them that by example.”
In 2015 Mitchell Manning carried a 12-foot cross from Florida to California as a way to represent his faith because “the cross is the whole point.” In 2014 Arthur Hollands did it because “I just want to share that people are loved, and you can have peace in your heart.” But the most famous living cross carrier of all is Arthur Blessit, who began his cross-walk in 1969 and still continues to this day. He has been in 324 countries and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the “Longest Around-the-World
Ongoing Pilgrimage/Walk.”
I met a man named Skipper a few weeks ago in Johnson City as he was biking around the country for Jesus. He was just leaving to pedal back to Sacramento, California, his home.
The Starfish
Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.
He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young man paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”
“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”
The young man replied, “The sun is up, and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”
Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”
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