Friendship Evangelism
// September 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Youth Discussions
In church, Pastor Jeff has been talking about friendship evangelism, so this last week we tackled the subject in our youth discussion.
We’ve been talking about the need to “be in the world, but not of the world,” meaning that God wants us to be in relationship with Him and not with the world.
(see my last post) We are in the world because He wants us to reach others.
Jesus tells us in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. This is our mandate, it’s not a suggestion or a request. As we are living in relationship with God we should have a desire to see others come to know Him.
My simple definition of friendship evangelism is showing people God’s love by being friendly to them. A large portion of un-churched people think that Christians hate them and that we can’t wait to tell them they are going to hell. Unfortunately some of that perception has been earned by the church.
If you look at Luke 19 you will see the story of Zacchaeus, a story of Jesus using friendship evangelism to reach someone. Zacchaeus is a man who had heard about Jesus and was curious to see him, Jesus ends up inviting Himself into Zacchaeus’ home and having dinner with him.
Notice that Jesus didn’t stand under the tree, look up at Zacchaeus and say, “If you don’t get right, you’re going to hell!” I doubt that that type of statement ever came from His lips as he spoke with Zacchaeus that day, instead, as we can read all through the gospels, Jesus’ way was to show the Father’s love. At some point in the conversation Zacchaeus made a decision to be in right relationship with God.
Jesus told us that some plant and some harvest, you won’t always have a “Zacchaeus” moment, sometimes you will be planting seeds of the Gospel in people’s lives, while other times you may lead someone to God from a seed that was planted by someone else. God isn’t going to hold us responsible for whether or not someone responds to our invitation, but we are responsible to “preach the Good News.” All this means is to share what God has done in your life, what He means to you.
In the Christian world today we use the word “witnessing.” The problem is that we have taken the word without it’s meaning. A witness is a person called on to share what they have experienced and seen. We should be compelled by our relationship with God to let others know what we have “witnessed.”
Friendship evangelism is not “faking” care for someone, because when we are in relationship with God we will take on His attitude and love for those around us. We should look at people and have a genuine desire to see them in relationship with our loving Father. If you don’t have this desire, stop and pray right now! “Father, I’m sorry I haven’t been showing your love to those around me. Help me to see how much you love those that I come into contact with, and to share your love with them.”
By my definition, friendship evangelism can be a one time interaction with someone or it can be an ongoing, building relationship. Everyone we come in contact with should experience the love of God in us somehow, whether it’s the only time they’ll ever see us or if we see them every day. Whether it’s a simple smile or a deep conversation.
One of the young ladies in our group left service the other night with an excitement, she told me, “I can’t wait for tomorrow, I get to plant seeds.” What a great attitude! We plant seeds every time we show someone His love. It doesn’t have to be some great theological conversation, it can be as simple as smiling, listening, helping etc.
We have a job to do… Let’s get to work loving people! What a great job we have!
