Raising Evangelistic Temperature!
By Pastor Gary Comer
"I will pay for you to go anywhere in the world." These were the words from a career Delta Airline employee offering us free round trip tickets. This was a gift almost too big to believe, we could go anywhere. Having dreamed of the world’s top destinations – France, England, Italy, Germany --- we decided on Italy. The thoughts of touching its history, culture, and spirituality made it a great choice for us. Let me say without an inkling of envy-producing motive, it was an incredible trip! The language barrier was never easy, but on the train from Rome to Florence we got the chance to sit down with a couple from English speaking Wales. Having only me to talk with for days, Robin was thrilled to have an intelligent conversation! We both savored the moment with our new friends. After the usual introductions and small talk about our travels, I decided to ask a few probing questions. “Do you attend church?” I will never forget their answer. The man said not only did they not attend church, but they didn’t know anyone who did! No family, relatives, neighbors or friends. Nada! He went on to talk about their view of the church as a state run entity that people supported with their taxes. My heart was breaking as I contemplated the status of the church in many parts of Europe, the birthplace of the Christian movement.
Do you recall the metaphorical words of Jesus about our salt influence ... But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Somehow the church in Whales had lost its influence. It was like salt that was no longer good for anything. Let’s not be fooled into thinking this same thing isn’t happening in America or with us individually. One survey said 50% of American churches haven’t reached even one person in the entire year. Many churches, instead of growing, are in decline. If the truth were known, many Christians are not in the game of reaching people. I have the gift of evangelism, and yet, I confess there are times when I am unengaged or ineffective in my witness.
During one of these cold, draught seasons, I found myself doing a bit of soul searching on the matter. As I meditated on what was happening in my life, I came up with five statements to test my personal evangelism temperature. I reasoned, if I am to be fruitful in reaching others, I better work on these things. It helps to know where we are, and when we are doing well. My softball coach used to say, “Let’s get hot!” If you starting ripping the ball he would say “Stay hot!” I want to help us get hot, and encourage you to stay there. These statements apply to individuals so as you read through them ask yourself “How am I doing?” May I encourage you to make this a moment of personal evaluation by rating yourself on a scale of 1 to 5. You can also apply this to your church, but please start with you!
1. If we are going to spread the faith, we need fire.
In the early church movement the Christian faith was spreading rapidly through the apostles and early Christians, so the Jewish authorities tried to invoke a gag order on the Apostles… just don’t talk about Jesus! Look at how they respond. But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:20). Isn’t that great! They say there is no way we can stop sharing what has happened. It is in our hearts. It’s a part of us. Might as well tell us not to breathe or eat or sleep. We cannot do what you are asking. We must share what we have seen and heard!
Ever have news that is so good you are bursting to tell someone? That’s what was happening here! I love that Gatorade commercial where they show the person sweating the color of the Gatorade and ask: Is it in you? That is the critical question for Christians. Not just is Christ in us, but is there a spiritual vitality burning in us about Christ and his mission. Is it in you? Like we see in the Apostles. Please don’t dismiss yourself because you aren’t an Apostle, or Minister. The same kind of fire in the Apostles is also seen in less prominent people in the Bible.
Consider the woman at the well. Have you ever noticed after her encounter with Jesus that little phrase "Leaving the water jar?" (John 4:17) The woman had made a long trip out to the well to get the water that she absolutely needs. We can imagine the Middle Eastern heat. But after her conversation with Jesus where he spills the beans that he himself, the guy talking to her, just so happens to be the expected Messiah, she forgets what she came for and leaves her water jar there. I love that phrase “leaving the water jar.” Who cares about water when you can tell others about the “Living Water?” That is what she did. She excitedly makes her way back to village saying “Come see the man who told me everything I ever did!” Even though she was a woman of poor reputation with a liking for men – plural, they see the genuineness of her excitement, and the whole town comes out to see for themselves.
Have you ever had this kind of drawing experience? I hope we all get a taste of this each week in our churches, where God’s messengers come anointed with fresh passion for God’s truth and his gospel. On our trip to Italy we had one of these experiences at our visit to the catacombs. The catacombs are underground burial sites that exist in different places in Europe, including several outside of Rome. As Christians they are significant locations because the early Christians used these places to both congregate and bury their dead. We were excited to see drawings depicting first century belief in Christ and the afterlife. How ironic that outside the city known as the capital of the Catholic Church, the people at the catacombs don’t talk about Catholics, but rather “the Christians.” Some were the martyrs of the early underground movement of our beloved faith.
As much as the history stirred my spirit, after our tour my wife and I pulled aside and discussed our tour guide. The woman, who walked us through and showed us the burial boxes with bones still in them, also shared with us the message that the Christians believed. She talked to us about the cross and the resurrection. As she did, I could tell this was no mere job, or repeated history lesson for her. She believed it! Our hearts burned listening to her. I told Robin afterwards, the best part of the catacombs was the guide! She was giving a living testimony to eternal life. It was powerful!
One of the reasons more people don’t come to faith is that we don’t believe it enough. We lack passion for the message that we have for the world. A critic complains, “If I knew the Christian message was true I’d be shouting it from the roof tops. I don’t believe it because they don’t seem to believe it.” This is convicting. I know I have had times in my life where the flame was burning low. I have been a distracted, joyless, indifferent, loveless Christian for too many days on this earth. But when I see the Apostles “can’t gag me” fire, and the excitement of the woman at the well, and the guide at the grave, I am moved to make my life testimony something passionately alive. I want faith to be something others might catch from me. Something that people see is so real that it resonates to the core of my being. When was the last time you had a moment where you shared your story and beliefs with such conviction that others stopped to take notice?
Let me ask you about where you are when it comes to fire. Do people say: That person is spiritually alive. Turned on. Spirituality is happening there?
Rate Yourself: 1 2 3 4 5
1 - I’m cold. I not really going anywhere – and know one around me is going to believe otherwise.
2 –4 You got a relationship that needs some kindling -
5 - You are hot! You are torchin’ people left and right!
2. If we are going to open hearts, we need love.
Lets reflect upon Jesus and his words recorded in Matthew... Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the Harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. Matthew 9:35-37
It is Jesus prayer and God's desire for more workers. What does it take to be a worker in the harvest? The answer is right in this passage. You need the eyes of Jesus. He saw the people’s condition and had compassion on them. He loved them and cared enough to act on their behalf. Friends, my observation is that we don't always have the eyes of Jesus when it comes to loving lost people.
One year when my kids were younger we visited Stanford University. With their cousins we determined a bike ride through the campus would be fun! My two sons and their two cousins mounted their campus cruisers and off we went. I was following behind on foot as they all headed down a long corridor. I watched as the older ones went well ahead and then suddenly stopped at the far end. Then to my horror, I watched my two sons disappear! I ran down the walkway to see what had happened. It turned out they had ridden their bikes off the stairs. They were crying and banged up. I looked distraught at their older cousins saying, “Why didn’t you stop them from going over the edge!”
The only answer I could come up with was they weren’t mature enough to act. Could this be the issue with the church? Are we not mature enough in love to help people who are heading off the eternal cliff? On the flip side, when we do act and give ourselves to helping others find Jesus, we are showing maturity of love and compassion. What breaks down the walls? What melts away icy hearts? What softens the soil of people’s receptivity? Love does. If we are going to open hearts we need love. I think about this all the time. I ask myself do I really care about lost people. At a Conference a speaker asked, “When was the last time you shed a tear for the lost?” What a great question.
It helps our message if we show them love in tangible ways. Notice in this passage how Jesus loved people holistically. He saw they were “harassed and helpless without a shepherd.” He cared about their life condition. We would benefit from noticing lost peoples needs, since it reveals how to love them. For some it might start with a friendship, or a million other needs, but for each one we care as Jesus did about their spiritual condition. We want to help connect them with the True Shepherd of their souls.
When we start demonstrating love to people outside the church miraculous things begin to happen. Lee Strobel tells the story of a man who once had absolutely no interest in God. His neighbor was a Christian, and they used to talk over the back fence from time to time. But one day it became known that this man’s wife had a very virulent form of cancer and she died within a few months after it was diagnosed.
Listen to the letter that this husband wrote afterwards:
“I was in total despair. I went through the funeral preparations and the service like I was in a trance. And after the service I went to the path along the river and I walked all night. But I did not walk alone. My neighbor – was afraid for me I guess. He stayed with me all night. He did not speak. He did not even walk beside me. He just followed me. When the sun finally came up over the river. He came over to me and said, “Let’s go get some breakfast.” “I go to church now. I go to my neighbor’s church. A religion that can produce the kind of caring and love my neighbor showed me is something I want to find out more about. I want to be like that. I want to love and be loved like that the rest of my life.”
Isn't it true that many people come to Christ because somebody loved them? There was a day when somebody loved me that way. Some Christian cared about my life and spiritual condition. They reached out to me and my heart opened up to Christ. When was the last time you showed love to a non-Christian person? The questions before us:
- Do we love people outside the church in a deep way?
- Do we look for ways to demonstrate that love?
- Do we care enough about their spiritual condition to talk with them about Christ?
If you are Christian take a moment and rate yourself.
Rate Yourself: 1 2 3 4 5
1 - I’m not doing much to show love to people outside the faith.
2-4 Sometimes I care and make the effort.
5 - I’m really focused on showing the love of Christ to non Christians. You have the eyes of Jesus!
3. If we are going to have impact, we need contact.
As a Pastor I have listened to Christians share thoughts about their jobs. Sometimes when a Christian gets a new job, I have heard the following expression. I got this new job and God is so awesome! I found out some of the people working there are Christians! We really hit if off, and are going to have a Bible study there. What a blessing from Jesus!
Reading between the lines and taking a bit of interpretive license, this is what I think some of them are actually saying… God I want to praise you for this job! I am so glad there are Christians at my job to fellowship with, and that I don’t have to hang out with those non-Christians who cuss and make off-color jokes about sex. The slime balls! God you really blessed me today by saving me from the non-Christians.
Now I know that may sound humorously harsh. Are Christians really thanking God for saving them from the unbelievers? But I argue this kind of attitude toward non-believers is prevalent in the church today. Rarely, have I ever heard the opposite. “God I am so stoked! I got the job and found out that there isn’t one Christian in the entire place. The whole place is my mission field. Thank you Jesus!” We would do well to pay close attention to the words of Jesus about our purpose in being here. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world ... As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. … My prayer is not for them alone. I pray for those who will believe in me through their message (John 17:15, 18, 20). Jesus states we are left here so people will believe in him through us!
After a move to a new community, I wanted to get on a softball team. I get a call one night from Raul, softball coach and husband of the PTA President. Robin was involved in the PTA, and dropped a hint that I played a good game. Hearing I am a Pastor he calls me to test the waters. “I want you to know, he says, that the guys talk the talk – I mean they swear and talk trash to the other team. Some of the guys on other teams drink beers before the game, but we don't do that.” He wanted to know if I would be Ok with this. He even mentioned the alternative; you could get onto a church team in the church league?
I told him I wanted to play on his team. I didn’t care how much they cuss and swear, and how much they drink, or if we end up in fist o’ cuffs with another team. I am in. It’s where I want to be. The principle is completely true, without contact there is no impact. One of the guys I played with was Ty. There were times I would say to myself, “I may be Ty’s best shot at heaven.” It wouldn’t be bad for us to think that way as we meet and have relationships with the unsaved. I didn’t lead any to Christ but I know I had a witness both with my life and my game.
If you think you are going to be used of God --- you better make contact. You better enter someone else’s world. The “holy huddle” is needed for edification, but we have to get engaged with the unsaved if we think we are going to reach anybody. In my opinion we have too many church leagues. Why aren’t we playing in the city leagues and mixing in? We are here to penetrate the culture not separate from it. That means we need a missions mindset that is willing to put aside our comfortableness and engage with people who aren’t exactly like us. That is what missionaries do, they engage with people who aren’t like them. We would do well to stop complaining and start engaging.
What a moment of Holy Spirit inspiration came over the man who penned these words:
I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world-
It is the door through which people walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind people,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it ...
So I stand by the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for people to find that door--the door to God.
The most important thing any person can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch--the latch that only clicks
And opens to the person’s own touch.
People die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter--
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it --
live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him
So I stand by the door.
(By Sam Shoemaker)
How are you doing on the Contact Test? What about your neighborhood? Do have your neighbors over for dinner. I mean the non-Christian ones. How many friends do I have with people outside the church? We need contact. We need to build relationships with those outside the church.
Rate Yourself: 1 2 3 4 5
1 "Thank you God for Saving me from the non-Christians" - Let it be a rebuke from the Lord. Time to get in the game.
2-4 I have relationship contact with Non Christians - I could make more effort with friendship and sharing with them.
5 I pursue relationship with non Christians and put myself in position to meet them and build friendships with them.
