NonModern Nugget: Evangelism

Not every believer is commanded by Scripture to be an evangelist, but they are all called to make disciples. These days, however, there is a large portion of the Church that would argue that every single Christian is to “do evangelism” and by that they usually mean that they should be trained and sent out to make a sales pitch. The idea seems to have been born in the time when salesmen seemed to make up 90% of the American population and 100% of the population had a pretty good idea what the product—er, Gospel—was all about.

Much like a door-to-door salesman, these believers are trained to know a very specific pitch and to spit it out as quickly and simply as possible. It makes the whole process far more simple, and yet complicated than it should be.

It is too simple in that it takes a complex and wonderful truth—one that needs God’s intervention and clarification to be understood—and turns it into a cost/benefits proposal that tends to be about how the hearer can benefit rather than the life changing, earth shattering decision that is required.

It is too complex in that it takes the personal story of something that actually happened to the believer and turns it into a presentation that is knowledge rather than experience based.

The whole thing takes a series of questions and statements that should initiate communication and turns it into a one way information dump that in many “trained” believers’ minds constitutes the entirety of a relationship.