During our recent YF Committee retreat there was discussion about improving/instilling a culture of evangelism into YF. Fair enough since the last couple of years it seems that though YF has grown and people have come, we haven’t been as outward focused for a while.
However that got some thinking juices going and some good discussion also – is there a lack of evangelism happening in YF? I feel in some ways that our last evangelism coordinator felt like he was bashing his head against a brick wall (to put it lightly) in trying to get YFers passionate about evangelism. The problem, though, is that this brother is also a rather gifted walk-up-evangelist – he’s great at striking up conversations with people on the bus and sharing the gospel with them.
But are YFers generally capable and gifted in this particular type of evangelism? I think the answer is no for a couple of reasons:
- Despite the seeming lack of overt evangelism (in the form of walk-up type conversations) there seems to be strong ‘friendship-evangelism’ going on – that is, lots of people in good relationships who then invite people along to events (like Fundays and YF Camp) to hear the gospel message
- Something has to be happening if YF continues to have new people come through (keeping them is another issue)
Whilst this is no excuse/cop-out; I think we need to get passed the idea that if you’re not doing walk-up evangelism at Uni or in Queen Street Mall, then you’re not evangelising.
What is the alternative then?
I still honestly feel that street preaching is highly ineffective in our current society/day and age – it may have worked 50 years ago, but we have a very different generation today (and to ignore that is, I think, to make the work of evangelism that much more difficult for everyone). Previous generations may have thought more about death and its implications – thus making street preaching in some ways effective for those listeners. But death is one of the remaining taboos in today’s generation, thus very few people will think deeply enough about it, and fewer still will listen to a person on a street corner with their ‘opinion’ on the matter. It’s a sweeping generalisation, but that has been my experience in watching various street preachers over the last couple of years in the city.
However, walk-up itself is not a bad thing. It may be worthwhile for people to at least attempt it every now and then to push them beyond their personal boundaries. But it may always feel uncomfortable for some – and I think that is natural (and probably God’s way of letting you know that walk-up isn’t your gift). We should be supporting our brothers and sisters who have this gift. But we all need to see that not everyone has that gift.
My mother-in-law clearly has a gift for hospitality. She cooks great food and is very warm and welcoming. But could she lead you through Two Ways To Live? Probably not…but that’s the point – God has gifted each of us differently.
Jesus’ final commission to his followers was to make disciples of all the nations. He’s also gifted us in different ways in order to fulfill this commission.
So I guess my thoughts are basically: support the brothers and sisters in their walk-up efforts. And support those brothers and sisters who play different roles in the great commission as well.
Any other thoughts?
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