On Evangelism
Excerpts from a conversation with a friend
How can Christians interact in the public square in such a way that we can have conversations about who Jesus is and what He has done for people who have not heard the Gospel - especially since there is a whole generation that has grown up without that as a stabilizing portion of their lives? That generation now sees the instability around them and is curious about what came before, whether Christianity actually is, in some way, an antidote to the chaos.
How do we have real, physical conversations and build lasting relationships?
In previous generations, the soil was better tilled with the basic tenets, the basic understanding of Christianity. However, we have a lot of sun-scorched, shallow-rooted plants that sprang up. Maybe they sprouted enough seed to fall to the next generation. That generation is on the rocks now too or hasn't even been able to spring up. Multi-generationally, it has fallen apart.
Rocky soil looks very well tilled because it is really easy for plants to spring up, but it is also really easy to rip them out. We have a lot of thorns as well that have choked out much. Ultimately, what makes the soil good is Christ.
He makes the soil fruitful, and He deigns to cast the seed upon the rocky soil anyway. I have been blessed to have friends who have come to the faith. They thanked me for sharing the truth, but I didn't even know what I had done, because I did not persuade them. They did not come when I was talking to them. I was gone before they came to faith. That means it was out of my hands.
All I could do was what was before me.
I don't need to persuade you to make your decision for Jesus. I need to give you Jesus. If somebody else is going to push you hard and really cut you to the quick - that's great. Some people are made for that. God has made some people to speak the hard-cutting, incisive word that brings repentance in the moment. They seek the Lord - and that's great.
God knows who He's calling
Nobody who is one of God's elect will not be saved.
We will all be saved.
Through evangelism, we have the opportunity to welcome God’s elect into His family. We have an opportunity with the people God puts before us to call them home - to use our earthly possessions to welcome them into eternal dwellings. What is a blessing! You didn't know it going in, you only find out later. What a wonderful surprise! On the other hand, we can’t work harder to save someone whom God has not ordained for salvation. Thus the gift is His to give and our to delight in!
The places He has put us are the field to which He sends us: to till, to plant, to water, to reap. To till is to prepare a heart that is hardened for the preaching of the good news, which is the seed. Sometimes you can cast the seed on the soil, but the soil is still hard because God hasn't tilled it yet. Sometimes He will till it later. I don't know why. Some people come to faith later in life because there was another preaching, another sowing. It might seem like you're sowing seed, but actually you're preparing the soil for years down the road - or perhaps it has to get a little drier before it gets tilled.
I don't know.
Soil analogies are on my mind because I've been tilling my yard, and it was an absolute pain. A neighbor lent me a tiller that I beat up on a little bit. That soil still needs more love. It is so, so hard. Yet because it is clay, it is actually very nutrient-rich. Once it's broken up and tended a little, it can be very fertile—because once you unlock those nutrients, it's primed and ready to go. That's different from other soil that might be softer but which needs more nutrients before it can actually bear fruit.
Gardening is so biblical…
In some ways, the internet is more real than the world we had before. The internet has re-fractured us into tribes, but tribes are a very natural thing. Gathering around four TV channels or radio stations so we could all be the same was absurd.
Babel will always fail.
The challenge, then, of mission—mission, evangelism, gospeling, spreading the good news—comes down to what the Great Commission actually says. It is misunderstood. He doesn't say "Go," but "As you go," or "When you have gone," or "Once you have inevitably left this place."
The going is implied.
The going is going to happen. You can't help it. They're up on a mountain in Galilee. They are going to leave. Once you've left, then what's the actual command?
Disciple. Make disciples. Disciple all nations.
Does that mean go to all nations? Yes. Since He commanded us to disciple all the nations, to discipline them with Jesus’ words, He will put us there; He will move us. This is not to say we should sit on our hands and do nothing—but we don't have to ignore our neighbors in the name of those far away to fulfill the Great Commission.
The assumptions of popular culture—that you need to go off and change the world—distract from loving your neighbors and serving your neighborhood. When you and your neighbors are at peace, go to the next neighborhood and make peace there. If your neighborhood happens to be on the other side of the world because God has taken you there, then bring the name of Jesus over there and do the good work! What else are you supposed to do?
Where has God placed you? What can you do there? All nations include your own. That's where the Apostles started.
Check out this video for another excerpt: