Witness

Several years ago, as I was pastoring an established church, my wife and I were struck by how hard it was to get our unsaved neighbors and friends to come to church with us. Some might come to an Alpha Course in the church building, but that often didn’t translate into regular church attendance.

Something was wrong with our approach to evangelism.

Allan Hirsch, in his book Forgotten Ways, describes four types of people in our society. The first group is made up of those who have some concept of Christianity and are often willing to explore Christian beliefs. The second group is the average non-Christian who has little real awareness of, or interest in, Christianity. They’re often suspicious of the Church, but are generally open to spirituality. The third group has no idea about Christianity. They might be part of an ethnic group with totally different beliefs or they could be part of a fringe group that has been turned off by their perceptions of a narrow-minded, restrictive kind of Christianity. The fourth group is highly resistant to the Gospel. They view Christianity as a threat to their way of life.

Now, obviously, the first group is usually the easiest to reach. They may even send their kids to youth, a church day camp, or even a week at a Christian Bible camp during the summer. They may come to an Alpha Course. These are the ones who may still attend a church at Christmas. The way many churches are set up allows them to be reasonably successful at reaching this group, especially if they are intentional about it. This is good and yet, there is also a problem.

According to Hirsch, the first group only makes up 10% or less of the population in many Western countries. That means that most churches can only hope to reach about 10% of their neighbors using an attractional model that seeks to draw people into church programs.

The other 90%, those in groups two, three and four, are unlikely to cross the huge divide between their lives and church life.

It was going to be a three-hour bus ride. I sat down by myself and honestly, hoped it would stay that way. I was tired and just didn’t have the energy or the desire to talk to anyone.

Just as we were about to leave the bus terminal, one more person got on the bus. Sure enough, he sat down right beside me.

Thankfully, he didn’t even acknowledge me. I was safe.

Most of us have times, like that, when we don’t really feel like engaging with people or even being friendly, let alone sharing our faith.

Of course, we know from Scripture that there are many compelling reasons why we should care about people enough to help them and even tell them about Jesus. Yet, I suspect that we already know those reasons quite well and that there is a whole set of other reasons, reasons for not sharing our faith, that sometimes undermine our Gospel witness.

Reason #1 - I Don’t Really Want to Tell People about Jesus

The first reason, which comes naturally out of my bus story, is that I sometimes don’t want to tell people about Jesus. My concern and even love for them is not enough to move me to reach out to them in a deep and meaningful way. To be honest, all too often, I don’t really care very much for the people around me.

Jesus told us what was most important when he said in Matthew 22:37-39: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love God and love others. I want to focus on the second part for a bit.

I love to jog. One day, I was out jogging in a rainstorm. I was already feeling miserable before the jog and the rainy conditions didn’t help. As I sloshed forward on the trail, I ran past a man walking his two dogs. They kind of got in my way and in a moment of frustration, I swung my fist through the air on the way by.

I was lying in a Filipino hospital with excruciating pain. It felt like someone was twisting a knife in my stomach. The doctor’s first priority was to rehydrate me, as I had gone through a serious bout of dysentery. They did a series of tests, but could not determine the cause of my pain. After a day, the pain went away. Not knowing what else to do, the doctors released me from the hospital. As I l walked out the hospital exit, the pain came back.

I decided to go back to the missions guesthouse where we as a short-term missions team had been staying. As the “knife” work continued, I asked my teammates to pray for me. They prayed for God’s healing. The pain gradually subsided and by the next morning, it was gone for good. I have no doubt that God answered prayer by healing me.

The early Christians certainly knew about the power of prayer. After the Jewish leaders had commanded Peter and John to stop speaking about Jesus  (Acts 4:18-31), they went to their own people and together, they prayed. How did God respond to their prayers? “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (v. 31).

God’s power not only shook the building , but also moved the people to speak the Word of God boldly. All of this came after the people prayed together.

I am convinced that prayer is our primary way of moving the hand of God. He doesn’t always say yes to our prayers, but how will He answer at all, unless we ask.