In a previous post, I explored my understanding of evangelism and shared my early introduction to what I call “building-based evangelism”; the activity of inviting people to activities and/or programs which take place in a local church’s building.
As a reminder I define evangelism as introducing people to the good news of Jesus Christ so that they will begin a relationship with God through Jesus. So if we don’t do this by inviting people to events in our buildings, then how do we practice evangelism in today’s world?
We do this by reclaiming the Jesus practice of incarnation as seen in John 1:14 – “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (The Message). This is what we celebrate during the Christmas season, God becoming human in Jesus Christ; God becoming one of us to demonstrate a life giving relationship with God.
While I still see an important role for our buildings in equipping people in the faith, I believe the practice of congregations expecting people to come to us needs to be replaced. As Lauren and I wrote in a previous article, we are called to make the shift and return to the call of Jesus to “go therefore and make disciples” or as we said a better translation is “as you are going, make disciples.” How do we do this? How do we move beyond the walls of our buildings, in order to share our faith and invite others into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ?
In a nutshell it simply means doing what Jesus said to do. It’s not so much about what we believe, it’s about what we do: loving others when they are hungry and hurting; homeless and afraid; grieving and feeling alone; when they think they are unloved and forgotten; when tragedy befalls them and when injustice assails them. Incarnational evangelism is about showing people what we believe. Ask yourself, “If I never profess my spiritual beliefs, will others know that they are? Would they know based on the things I do, the causes I support and the way I treat other people?” These are truly the most meaningful expressions of our belief systems and the one space where our values are really on display. Finally, keep in mind that statistics show that 78 percent of unchurched people (those who have not attended church in the last 6 months other than for a special occasion or holidays) are open to having a conversation about faith with a friend. So long as you are someone they trust and are trying your best to live out your faith, not just talk about it.