Lies We Believe About Evangelism

The following is a excerpt from a book that I've been co-authoring with Roger Hershey - our very own Fall Retreat speaker. We spent most of the summer working on a book we're calling The Finishers - a book aimed at showing your generation that it indeed could be the one that sees the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) completed, and examining the convictions and perspectives you need to embrace to help be a part of it. I have no idea when it will be published - we have a few more chapters to write, and then the publishing process could take quite some time. You can pray that it will be sooner than later, though - we're excited about what we have to share! In the meantime, I'll probably periodically post little snippets from the book, especially when I can't think of anything else to write on here.

I should mention that most of the book - including this section - is taken directly from talks and teaching given by Roger Hershey. He's a fantastic speaker and teacher of the Word, and you'll love him at Fall Retreat! (In fact, go here to register!) So when you see "I" in this case consider it Hersh's voice.

I thought this would be a good section to post - it deals with 6 lies we tend to believe about evangelism. Six areas where we make excuses about not taking the initiative to share your faith. The working title of the chapter is "Go" - an examination of why we need to be intentional about taking the initiative go to to people with the Gospel. I encourage you to examine your own heart and see which of these lies you might be believing, and ask God to develop in you the courage and conviction to go to people with the Gospel - be it your friends, strangers, whomever!

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What shapes our thinking about evangelism? Is it the Bible, or is it culture, our own emotions, past negative experiences, or the misguided influence of others? Because sharing our faith requires a step out of our comfort zone, it’s often the hardest spiritual discipline to put into practice, and the one most easily affected by lies that creep into our minds and hearts. You may not even be aware of some of the lies you’ve been believing.

In order to make sure it’s Scripture that influences our convictions regarding evangelism, we’re going to address some of the biggest lies out there - lies that could prevent your generation from being to go-ers who finish the Great Commission.

>>Lie #1: My reputation is more important

You probably wouldn’t actually think, “My reputation is more important than this person’s eternal salvation,” but that’s essentially what we believe when we avoid sharing our faith for fear of what the other person might think. Giving in to fear of rejection or seeking the approval of others ultimately means I’m caring more about myself than the non-believer.

Penn Jillette, of the magic and comedy duo Penn & Teller, once said this:

"If you believe that there’s a Heaven and Hell, and that people could be going to Hell...and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward...how much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"

He said these words in one of his “Penn Says” video blog entries, after recalling a situation in which a man who’d been at one of his shows approached him to compliment his show and present him with a New Testament. Instead of taking offense to the gift, Penn was touched by the man’s kindness and boldness in approaching him. Penn astutely reasons that to truly believe that there are people in grave danger of Hell but not go out of your way to tell them how they can escape it is akin to hating that person. Love for that person and concern over their eternal state, as well as the depth of belief in that truth, ought to move you to act, regardless of reputation or potential social awkwardness. Now the thing that makes Penn’s words so arresting is the fact that he’s an outspoken atheist. He’s not speaking as a Christian trying to guilt other Christians into evangelism; he’s simply observing an inconsistency between the stated belief of Christians and their actions.

The antidote to this inconsistency is to identify that this is what’s going on in my heart, then replace that lie with the truth that apart from Christ this person is heading toward eternal destruction and horror. To be Christlike, I ought to be willing to sacrifice my potential reputation for their sake.

>>Lie #2: People aren’t really lost without Christ

This lie is becoming more and more prevalent as postmodern thought - which espouses, among other things, that all truth is relative, all roads lead to God, and the highest value we can have is tolerance - seeps its way into Christianity. An emotional dissonance rises within us, because the truth that Jesus is the only way people can be saved seems so narrow and intolerant. More and more, evangelical Christians seem ignorant and out of touch, and we can find ourselves searching for ways to wiggle out of the “only way” doctrine to maintain relevance and a good face.

Add to this the fact that some Christian scholars are downplaying or even denying the exclusive claims of Christ, manipulating Scripture toward pluralism. They’ve let cultural norms determine their interpretation. But it’s difficult to read John 14:6 another way: “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (emphasis mine) These words of the Lord Himself, coupled with many other verses throughout the Bible show definitively that people are indeed lost without Christ. The Bible leaves no option for pluralism.

Even if we have a firm Biblical grasp on the exclusivity of Christ, this lie can work its way in when we come face to face with non-Christians. The shrinking of the world has caused your generation to be exposed to more people from different religious backgrounds than any before it. You live, work, and go to school with Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and others. These people often seem more devoted to their faith than we are, and we can subtly believe that God will grant them forgiveness and eternal life because of their devotion - it’s just misplaced, that’s all. Surely God will overlook this and see their heart, right?

Believing this lie will undercut urgency, and ultimately produce a generation of passive Christians who have no passion to go - whether across the street or around the world.

>>Lie #3: The way I live my life is enough

A famous and often-used quote is “Preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words,” attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Now I have no grievance against St. Francis, and I understand the heart behind this quote - an encouragement to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. But it’s been taken severely out of context. Christians will use it as an excuse not to open their mouths and share the message of the Gospel, thinking that their acts of service or good deeds are enough. I see 2 major issues with this dangerous thought.

One, it’s simply not true. The Gospel requires words! Romans 10:14 says, “How are they to believe in him of whom they’ve never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” Good deeds must be accompanied by the good news. Let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that service means evangelism. It can be a great door-opener for evangelism, but unless we share the Gospel it’s just service.

Two, it presumes that we’re living our lives in such a radically different way that non-believers will automatically notice, and be compelled to ask us why. 1 Peter 3:15 is the verse most often quoted about this: “...always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you... .” But this verse is in the context of suffering for the sake of righteousness - being persecuted or avoiding retaliation when wronged - it’s doesn’t mean “people will ask you why you’re so nice, so you better be ready to tell them it’s Jesus!”

Unfortunately, our lives really aren’t all that different than the average non-Christian. We struggle with sin, we wrong people, we fail. And in our desire to be culturally relevant, we try as hard as we can not to appear different - we listen to the same music, watch the same movies, wear the same clothes, and hold to the same values. None of which are overtly wrong, by the way, except when we sacrifice biblical morals and values for cultural ones. If we’re going to take the stance that we’ll wait for non-believers to notice significant differences in the way we live, we’d better be prepared to actually live lives of radical holiness - something we’re called to do but rarely actually follow through with.

>>Lie #4: Evangelism is only for those spiritually gifted in it

Just as those who don’t have the spiritual gift of teaching will at times teach, and those who don’t have the spiritual gift of mercy still show it, those who don’t have the spiritual gift of evangelism still are to share their faith. Those who are gifted in evangelism may naturally be more effective, but Scripture is clear that the whole body of Christ is responsible to be engaged in sharing their faith.

>>Lie #5: No one is interested in the Gospel anymore

This is another effect of postmodernism. Because tolerance is such a buzzword, and the cultural value is to let people believe whatever seems right to them, we can begin to believe that people just aren’t interested. They’re content where they’re at and don’t want to be bothered.

I’ve found that this simply isn’t true. As I’ve chatted with people, I’ve found that people are actually very interested in spiritual things. It does seem that people in American culture are farther away from Christ, in general, than in past generations, but this has nothing to do with interest. The fact that people invest so much in a search for satisfaction - be it through worldly pleasure or the hundreds of spiritual roads people travel - shows that a hunger is there. It simply means that more of the vital work of sowing and laying a foundation for the Gospel is necessary.

Even if it’s true that 8 or 9 out of 10 people in your sphere of influence are unreceptive to the Gospel, those 1 or 2 others are still there. We can trust the Lord to lead us to the receptive, ready hearts while seeking to sow into the lives of the others. But if we believe that no one wants to hear, we’ll be passive and never initiate.

>>Lie #6: I have to build a good relationship first

A common thought we have is that we have to wait to breach the topic of spiritual things until we’ve developed a more solid friendship. We view it as an intimate subject that requires trust be built before opening that door. The danger in thinking this way is that we put ourselves in a position of always finding excuses. There will always be a greater level of depth a relationship can go to, and how are we to know when is the exact right time for spirituality to become part of the conversation? And the longer we wait, the more awkward it becomes, and we’re far less likely to bring the topic up. There will always be some reason not to.

As we’re getting to know someone, if we don’t share with them about our relationship with Jesus - the most central and important thing about us - we’re actually not being true to ourselves. We’re neglecting to reveal the most important part of our lives, and as a result we build a surface-level relationship, not a deep one. Now, we may discern it best to slowly work our way to the Gospel over many conversations once someone knows we’re a Christian, but we must throw out the myth that this is an absolute essential.

These lies are authored by the Enemy, who would love nothing more than to prevent us from telling others about the life they could find in Jesus. Satan wants to keep people in his kingdom, and he’ll use every lie in the book to ensure that happens. We must be aware of the lies so we can reject them and be people who actively, boldly, and lovingly initiate Gospel conversations, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

--Jason