The Three R’s of Evangelism

My friend Amanda commented on my last post entitled “Compel Them” with a very good question…how? How do you compel them to come to the Master’s table?

I hope some others will respond to this as well, but here are my thoughts on the matter. I’m going to sum it up in the three R’s: relate, reveal, and restore. And for the sake of those of you who don’t have time to read an epistle, I’m going to do this in three parts.

Relate
The church is failing deeply in this area. Behind our “shiny plastic steeples” we hide ourselves away in cocoons of self-righteousness. The ‘world’ (pronounced with the proper inflection of impending doom) has no ability -nor desire, and can you blame them? – to relate to us and our facade of unreachability. What good is it to make the occasional foray into the wastelands of sin-saturated reality when our air of supperiority or, at best, pity keeps us utterly untouched by the grit of their suffering?

David had a calvinist friend explain evangelism this way: “We are searching for brothers and sisters that we know are out there, we just haven’t met them yet.” The problem is, those brothers and sisters are seldom looking for us in return. (This analogy evokes recently viewed episodes of The Locator…but I digress). We must relate to the unsaved. I think about churches who hold rallies for motorcycle riders, who go out into low income housing projects and pick up trash, fix screen doors, and plant flowers. On a personal level, I think about people who take groceries to families in need or give selflessly so that underprivledged kids can go to summer camp. To reach them we must go to where they are, not just physically but emotionally, and socially. We go to the place of their need…the place of their interest. We become relatable. It’s Jesus talking to the woman at the well about never being thirsty again. It’s all the parables He told. It’s when my husband does a few optical illusion type magic tricks when he witnesses to a group of people on the street. If we’re out to find our “missing family” we can’t be so unapproachable that they would never want to be a part of our “family” at all.

Part two – REVEAL – will follow shortly! Discussion is welcomed!

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Compel Them

My husband and I have been attending my moms church since we’ve been staying in Sanford and the other Sunday we were privileged to hear the pastor present the church’s vision. He said he had summarized it into two words so that anyone in his congregation could easily remember it and share it with someone who wanted to know what their church was all about. “Compel them” was the phrase he chose to use, coming from the scripture in Luke 14:23 “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

Compel them to come in. If you read that passage in its entirety the reason the Master sent the servants to the highways and hedges was that the invited guests had made excuses as to why they couldn’t come. This parable doesn’t just apply to Jews versus Gentiles, religious folk versus common folk; it also applies to modern church people and the hurting world we find so easy to ignore. Sometimes we ‘church folk’ become like the invited guests who were “too busy” to come running at the Master’s invitation.  We reassure ourselves that the invitation always stands, that there will be plenty of time to arrive fashionably late.  But there is a paradigm shift in the kingdom; namely the Master is extending His hand again in this season to the undesirable ones….the ones we don’t see as fit for His table.  Look at the church world today; what kind of church is growing the fastest?  The ones that reach out to the urban Samariatan…the church plant that is only 10 years old yet is running close to a thousand unkept, tatoo covered, barely sanctified, marvelously saved ones….  We must be careful we don’t find ourselves, as”‘dyed in the wool Christians” so to speak, on the outside looking in – criticizing but not partaking.

Are we His servants?  What did tell His servants to do?  “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”  How often do we really compel the unwanted to the feast? A church sign I read today said “the gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.” Sometimes we forget we’re beggars…sometimes we forget what it’s like to be hungry.

We attended an evangelism conference one weekend and the key note speaker said something I will never forget. (I’m going to paraphrase all but the last bit in quotations, just FYI). If you want to grow your churches you go to the highways and byways and compel them to come. That means you get the crack addict saved, the alcoholic saved, the homeless man saved by whatever means you have! Its not throwing a tract at them from two feet away and saying Jesus loves you and hoping for the best…you compel them to come. And when they do, your church better be prepared and ready to actually be Jesus hands and feet, because when the Magnificient Master comes and brings life where only death once dwelt, that crack addict is going to go back to his alley, grab his friends by the arm and say “What the h*** are you doing just sitting here? Get off your a** and come on, you’re coming with me to church!” As we sat there with all those ministers, who responded with a mixture of nervous laughter and a small hesitant applause, he fixed a sly smile upon us and said, nailing the point upon my heart forever, “And some of you are going to talk more tonight when you go back to your rooms about the fact I said h*** and a** than about anything your church could do to compel the lost to come.”

The whole thing just floored me and as the word ‘wow’ ghosted across my lips, there was a definite deep feeling of EUREKA in my spirit that left me giddy. As I glanced over at my husband I saw a fire in his eyes and a grin that told me he felt the same thing too.  This is what evangelism means…this is what the great commission means.  Getting over getting your hands dirty because dirty hands are a natural consequence of dragging those mired in sin out of the filth they don’t even see anymore.

The problem is I like to spend too much time in my ‘scared place’ as Pastor Mark calls it. You know, what  I’m talking about – that place you go to, whether mentally or physically when things get frightening or overwhelming.  When I was a kid it was behind my daddy’s recliner. As an adult, its youth ministry. Its the place I’m not afraid…the place where I’m utterly at ease…safe. I know what I’m doing, I’m confident. No one can mess with me here. The disciples had a ‘scared place’ too.

John 20:19 “That Sunday evenings the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.”

There they were in their ‘scared place’ and Jesus shows up and offers them peace! How great is that? But then, if you read further, He imparts His Holy Spirit on them, empowering them to carry the good news to all the world.  Awesome!  Go God!  And so what do they do?  They stay right there.  Jesus leaves, is seen by hundreds of witnesses, but there’s not a single disciple among them because they are still all locked up in their ‘scared place’!

Jesus comes back eight days later (John20:26), reassures a doubting Thomas, and pushes the disciples out of their comfort zone.  He tells them to meet Him at a designated place (Matthew 28:16) where He would give them His final instructions, namely, “Go and make disciples.”

But I want to stay in my safe place!   I want Jesus to show up where I am hiding!

But Jesus is calling me to GO and compel them to Him.   I need to realize if I stay in my safe place Jesus is going to leave me right there.  My witness must be intentional, not accidental.  I’ve got to go where I’m not comfortable, go where its scary, and bring in the lost ones before its too late.

Time to start compeling…

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