Evangelism - Why Change?
September 19, 2021 Sunday Evening Study

I officiated a funeral about a year ago where I was told that the deceased had been extremely fond of the Evangelism tool called the Roman Road. This is basically the story of salvation taken from verses in Romans - starting with how all have sinned, then our hope in the fact that Christ died for us, and the promise that if we confess Him, not only will we be saved, but that nothing can separate us from Him. It is actually a very easy and effective evangelism tool, and I had actually used it when I was younger. I had a tract with the Roman Road printed in it, and when I was a freshman in high school I was on a trip to Arizona, and I tried to witness to college students on the ASU campus.

Mind you, this was in 1993 - nearly 30 years ago, but not so long ago that we have begun to forget what the world was like. As it turns out, college students have no problem being fairly rude with a 14 year old trying to share his faith with them. Most would simply ignore me, but more than once I heard the answer that none of this mattered because the Bible was a book of fairy tales.

The truth is that methods and tools that were used so effectively in the sixties and seventies no longer have the impact they once did. The actual proclamation of the gospel is still simple - but getting to that proclamation is the challenge. Nowadays Christians are often vilified for teaching that there is only one way to heaven - we are seen as intolerant. As a result, our models for evangelism need an overhaul - just as long as we ensure that the message and truth never change. Here are 3 reasons we need a change:

1. Many people are less interested in a simple Gospel presentation
1. Most people are unwilling to give Christians 10 minutes uninterrupted unless we are able to engage at a personal level which creates value in their eyes.
2. People are more likely to be receptive to the gospel if it is injected into normal conversation on a regular basis - the more we mention our faith, the less “shock value” it has when we intentionally bring it up
2. The world we live in has changed
1. The post-modern attitude is characterized by a rejection of moral absolutes, deep religious skepticism, and indifference or outright objection to objective truth (that may be your truth, but it is not my truth)
2. We live in a world with a vastly different values system than in the 60s and 70s. Many younger people have discarded the moral values that make up the fabric of society
3. It is extremely difficult to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to a world who believes that since morality is objective, there are no sins to forgive. This is not the lunatic fringe of society - two thirds of American people reject the concept of absolute truth.
3. There is rampant skepticism toward Religious truths - especially in the academic community where atheism is resurging
1. Part of understanding the times is to recognize that most people will not take what we say at face value as true - especially if it is religious
2. People commonly believe that something cannot be true unless it can be proven through the scientific method of repeated observations.
3. Popular culture has, through books like The Da Vinci Code and The Gospel of Judas have even begun interjecting fiction into Christian history that is being regarded by the general populace as more reliable that facts or the Bible
4. Others are indifferent to truth - it doesn’t matter is something is true or not. “That may work for you, but it doesn’t work for me.”

This should be no surprise to us. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” The fact is that the moral fabric of our society is unraveling, so that we need to do more than just get someone to listen to our gospel presentation.

Perhaps the biggest difficulty facing evangelists today is the world’s perspective on us - those who believe in an absolute truth, even more so when that truth is God’s Word. We now live in a world that has increasing intolerance for those who claim to know the truth. To a post-modern listener, for a Christian to say that Jesus is the only way to God sounds arrogant and intolerant to anyone who does not share our beliefs. While there may be no arrogance in the statement, but really in fact the opposite - this is the perception of your modern-day skeptic.

So what can we do about this? What do you think?

A beginning - Conversational pre-evangelism

If evangelism is planting seeds of the Gospel, then pre-evangelism is the tilling and preparation of the soil to receive God’s message. Any farmer knows that to project the success of any seed he sows he must look at the condition of the soil - otherwise, the seed may never actually be planted and will take no root. And if we fail to prepare the soil today, the seeds we attempt to plant may fail, and even further close the door for planting seeds later.

There are many things that we can do to develop good soil in the lives of our non-Christian friends and loved ones, and it goes back to our own spiritual maturity and the investments we are willing to make into the lives of others.

1. Living Godly lives as an example - flies in the face of the hypocritical stereotype
2. Going out of our way to show love for others - especially nonbelievers
3. Prayer for people will soften hearts where our actions do not

Yet there are other ways to till the soil that we do not normally associate with evangelism.

1. If someone has a distorted perception of themselves, they may not understand the unconditional love of Christ
2. Helping people to better understand misconceptions about themselves - their value, their purpose, and then in turn handle misconceptions about Jesus and the Father, we will see more seeds taking root and bearing fruit

Evangelism is a process. 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” You and I may not be able to share the entire gospel presentation in just one conversation. We may not be able to do so in many conversations - but we may be able to help them take a step closer to the cross with each encounter.

If we look at evangelism simply as reaping, then we will get discouraged in our witness, especially if people are seemingly disinterested from the get-go. Christian writer Tim Downs stated “We have come to believe that there are only two kinds of Christians - the harvesters and the disobedient.”

Today, it takes preparation of soil, and likely the planting of many seeds through our own actions and example before a person will seriously consider the person of Christ. Today’s skeptic will not believe in the transformation of grace unless they see people transformed.

Evangelism is not a one and done scenario in quite the same way it was before. It takes time, commitment, and follow-up. Does this mean that we should abandon things like revivals and evangelistic rallies and events? Absolutely not. If we are engaging in conversational pre-evangelism, then we are preparing the soil for just these types of events. You never know where a person will be on their journey to Christ when they cross your path - some days you are the reaper, somedays you are the waterer, some days you are tilling away.

If you take anything from tonight - take this. We are not called to bring everyone to Christ, but simply to bring Christ to everyone. This is more than a nifty little saying - it is a huge responsibility in its own right. To bring Christ to everybody is to vastly change the intent and content of our interactions with anyone who does not know Christ - every interaction.

For our purposes going forward, we should define evangelism in this way:

Evangelism - Every day and in every way helping nonbelievers take one step closer to Jesus Christ.

Our question, should then, be every day asking “What do I need to do today to help so and so take a step closer to Jesus?

Next week we will talk about many of the necessary changes in approach, especially from a pre-evangelism standpoint. We will discuss ways to engage in pre-evangelism and start to prepare the soil for the Gospel message.