As You Go...

Last night at our mid-week youth worship service we talked about the big "E" word - Evangelism. One of the things that I have tried to do since graduating from seminary is to rid myself of church language and and keep from speaking "Christianese" - You know, the language that only church people understand. One important part of communication is that unless the people whom your talking to understand you, then communication hasn't taken place. You may have talked about something and even thought you commuincated something, but unless you are understood by a recipient of the message communication hasn't occurred...That's another tangent altogether though...

Whenever I talk about evangelism, or telling people who don't personally know Jesus that he loves them and wants to have a relationship with them, it usually ends in a time where I get frustrated with the biblical text that we have. Not that the text is wrong or inadequate...It's just that it is in English. You see, I had the opportunity to take about 24 hours of biblical Greek language in college and so many times what the writers say in Greek just doesn't translate well into English. The words fit, but the meaning is lost...I think that that's the case in one of our "most cherished" passages on sharing our faith. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus gives us the Great Commission. Most translations of the Bible begin this text with the words "Therefore, go and make disciples..." or "Go and make disciples..." However, there is a lost meaning from the original text that I think Jesus was communicating to us and we ought not to lose. If you literally translate the Greek tense of the word it would read something like this: "As you go, make disciples..." or "As you are going, make disciples..."

All that to say that I think Jesus meant for evangelism to be something that we do "as we go." It breaks my heart that churches have to have evangelism weekends, evangelistic revivals, outreach weekends, and other "special calendared times" where we do evangelism. It's a shame that the vast majority of evangelical churches in the United States have an outreach, visitation, or evangelism "night" each week or month. Not that these things are bad at all, but shouldn't we be sharing our faith in Jesus and his love for people every single day, in the places he's planted us, around the people he has given us influence with...as we go. Sharing the love and truth of Jesus and his desire to have a relationship with every individual is not something that should be contained to visitation night or our evangelistic revival week each spring. Sharing our faith should come out of a fruitful life. Telling people who don't yet know it that Jesus loves them, wants to have a relationship with them, and wants to give them purpose in life should be a part of who we are and what we are about "as we go." Evangelism is not something only done by professionals. It is the call of every person who follows Christ. It is the mandate of every believer. Maybe the reason that churches all across our country are dying left and right is because somewhere along the way we forgot that simple principle...Maybe the reason most churches don't see significant growth is because they are full of people who leave sharing the faith up to the "paid professionals"...What a shame that we have taken the last commandment of Christ and simplified it into a "visitation night" on the second Thursday of each month...Somehow, I think we are missing the mark.

So, for you and I, let's share "as we go." Let's use the influence that God has given us by placing people in our paths - at work, school, and in the community - to build authentic relationships that share and model the love of Jesus. Let's be people who live out and speak out the love of Christ "as we go" in life. Then, maybe, just maybe, our church won't have to schedule that "special" spring evangelistic roundup next year.