Evangelism Implosion (Part One)

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.

--St. Francis of Assisi--

I like Saint Francis. I do. But I worry about the overuse of this quotation in contemporary circles. I think in certain hands it might be the most damaging thing possible to the Christian witness.

Let me explain.

Like many I grew up in a conservative church that, whether they intended it or not, made me feel guilty that I wasn't aggressively confronting people about their journey towards Hell and how they might avoid it. It seemed as if the only type of Christian witness I ever knew about was something akin to a kind of badgering.

Never mind if this was the right approach to things. Never mind that certain people wouldn't respond to the these methods or read the tracts I was supposed to be handing them. What mattered was that we were putting ourselves on the line for Christ.

I felt a little timid jumping into this type of evangelism. Maybe I was afraid. Maybe I was ashamed. All I knew is that I couldn't do what everyone else seemed to be doing. It petrified me.

I think a lot of my peers in evangelical circles felt this way.

We were caught between a genuine desire to see people find truth and love in Christ and a tendency to shy away from some of the more aggressive tactics we heard about from the pulpit or from other Christian speakers. It seemed that the fault was ours. Why weren't we fulfilling the Great Commission, after all? Why weren't we going up to everyone and asking them where they were going when they died?

Then I found something easier. I found I could preach the gospel without words.

Boy, was I happy.

(to be continued...)