Because I have never claimed to be “the sharpest tool in the shed” I am not going to apologize for not defining Personal Evangelism before I started writing about it.
Since talking to other people and seeing other blogs on evangelism, I thought I needed to at least make a statement about the what and why on personal evangelism.
First, the what is personal evangelism? This is the art of personally telling people about Jesus. This is to be done day in and day out, every day you are living and breathing. If you attempt to use words every time, you will have no friends or family that will ever come around you.
This is the model we use, the life of Jesus. We are not suggesting you become Jesus but we do suggest you study, meditate, and ponder the life of Christ. What He did, how He interacted with friends and enemies. What are some of the “techniques” He used to affect peoples lives? How can we be more like Him?
When a believer will look to Jesus’ life and not a “program” they find He spent time praying, hanging out, loving, teaching, working, ministering, healing, etc. You get the picture? Instead of concentrating on getting friends and loved ones saved, concentrate on being more like the friend Jesus would be to them. The “WWJD” phenomenon has kind of tarnished this a bit but it is still a valid question.
Why personal evangelism? People are more persuaded by what you do than what you say. Again, look to Jesus’ example, do you see Him going door to door trying to get people to follow Him? Or confronting “sinners” on the street telling them they were going to Hell? Maybe He did but I can’t find it. What I see is Him pouring Himself into His disciples day in and day out. How many of His Disciples were “born again” while Jesus was with them?
After His death He breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:22) This, in my humble opinion, is when the disciples received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. So Jesus spent His whole life pouring into these men and women for this one event.
What makes us think we can be any different? I have heard the argument, “People are going to Hell, something is better than nothing”. I agree, but if you are waiting on the Pastors to evangelize your friends and family or “street evangelism” to get the job done, I believe you are going to have a horrible “Judgement Seat of Christ” experience and many of the people God expected you to tell about Jesus will be in Hell.
Was that too subtle? People are dying and going to Hell because many believers are too busy to help. They are waiting for someone else to do it or worse, they are not even concerned at all about anyone but themselves.
Personal evangelism is all about dying to self and living as a reflection or ambassador of Christ. Our company is based on the word of God but specifically Revelation 12:11:
And the overcome the him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
We are not trying to condemn any method, maybe just inspire someone to pray for a friend/family member that may not be saved and pour into them the love of Jesus.
Here is your challenge, commit to helping three (3) people around you find Christ, and if there is no other way to express it, use words.