Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose in the Word of God. It's Monday, May 20th. This is Jeff Klein with your weekly reminder to take your following of Jesus and move it Beyond Sunday.
Jeff Klein 0:19
With the best intentions in the world, people will tell you that every Christian is an evangelist and bears the responsibility to share Christ with others. I definitely agree with the second part of the statement, but new thinking among missiologists finds that the first part unhelpful. The apostle Paul seems to assume a two-fold approach to the mystery of evangelism. He sees a divide between the spiritual gifting of the evangelist and the need for all Christians to be evangelistic. Paul places himself in the first category, seeing his ministry as an evangelist. But, Paul doesn't seem to believe that all Christians bear the responsibility for the kind of bold proclamation of the Gospel that Paul is called to. He describes his two-fold approach in the book of Colossians.
Jeff Klein 1:08
"Devote yourselves to prayer - being watchful and thankful and pray for us too that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should." Now, those are prayers for an evangelist! Then he goes on, "Be wise in how you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."
Jeff Klein 1:37
For evangelists, Paul asks for prayer to proclaim the gospel clearly, but he offers a different set of prayers for the non-evangelists. They are to pray for wisdom in dealing with outsiders and to look for opportunities to answer the questions of people when they arise with gentleness, grace and seasoned with salt. When it comes to the spoken part of their ministries, evangelists are to proclaim, believers are to give answers. Michael Frost says, "The biblical call to all non-evangelists is to live questionable lives. Lives that cause people to ask you about what you believe and then be ready to give an answer." 1 Peter 3 backs this up! "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander."
Jeff Klein 2:31
Does this let you off the hook? Nope, but it does give you permission to move out where you live, work and play - ready to answer questions about your faith, ready to invite someone to Alpha or a place where they can find those answers (Instead of getting on your soapbox and preaching the gospel). This should be empowering! It should make you feel like you don't have to be a gifted evangelist to lead people to Jesus. So do you have an answer? Do you know what you would say if someone asked you? Do you know why you live the way you do? Is there someone you're praying for who needs Jesus? Someone you could take the risk to invite to Alpha this Fall? Let's get out there and start acting evangelistic even though we're not evangelists.
Jeff Klein 3:13
Let's pray. Lord God, help us to know and have the courage to enter into relationship with people around us. Help us be ready to give answers for the faith that we have. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
