The Myths of Personal Evangelism
From the desk of Rev Zheng 7 July 2024
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1Peter 3: 15)
Myth 1: Evangelism requires a certain type of personality. Under this premise, an introvert cannot do evangelism, befriending or even inviting. And we are quick to admit: that is me! I am more of a ‘work’ person, not a ‘talk’ person. Let the extroverts do the talking.
We may think this is a good division of work, but God does not think so. In the last two sessions, we have learned that God calls every Christian to share the Gospel. Life and lips are interwoven when it comes to effective evangelism. By our lives, we pave the way for the lips, or we destroy what our lips may say.
God uses a great variety of personalities. Most of the people He chose began by telling God He had chosen the wrong person. Moses said, ‘I have no eloquence’. Jeremiah said, ‘I am too young’. God rejected their excuses. God knows our personalities, and He chose to use us all to tell people of His salvation, some on a pulpit, and all on a one-to-one basis.
Myth 2: I need to be a Bible encyclopaedia. We think that we must provide answers to every question our friends raise, of which some are indeed difficult, such as why does a good God allow good people to suffer? How do you know the Bible is true?
The fact is most of us do not have the answer for every question. It is okay for us to admit humbly that we do not have the answers today, “But I believe the Bible has the answer. Would you mind giving me some time to get back to you?” Some questions do not even have answers in the Bible, such as why God is three persons. You may then turn to Deuteronomy 29:29 and sincerely invite your friend to read it.
Myth 3: I’m personally responsible for sharing the Gospel with everyone I come across. You are not. Otherwise, you either will suffer from dreadful depression and unbelievable guilt because you did not speak to everybody about Jesus today, or non-believing friends will flee from you as soon as they see you coming. Having said that, we should not let this be an excuse to quench Holy Spirit’s prompting to seize a particular opportunity to share the Gospel. Remember: Jesus is the soul winner, not us. People are not won by us for Him, but by Him through us. If we do not understand this, we will appear to people more like salesmen than fishers of man!
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