Evangelism Myths: What It Really Means to Share the Gospel
Evangelism, at its simplest, is the process of proclaiming the gospel to others. It is the first step in discipleship – meaning, that if we want to ‘make disciples of all the nations,’ we have to start somewhere. That first starting step is to evangelize.
This means that to be a Christian is not just to be someone who holds certain views about God, or even someone who has a personal relationship with God (though that it very true!). A Christian is more – he is actually an ‘ambassador’ for God, someone who is involved in this task of spreading God’s message through the world.
Let’s consider a few things that evangelism is not. Evangelism is not just spiritual conversations. Such conversations are good and important, but they do not truly constitute evangelism if they do not include the ‘evangel.’
Evangelism is not merely living a Christian life. It involves words. The famous phrase, attributed to Francis of Assisi, to “preach the gospel; if necessary, use words” is wrong, because it is impossible to preach the gospel without words. The gospel (“good news”) is a message (“news”!). While it is important to live out the implications of the gospel, that is not the same as telling others the news. There is a common misunderstanding among Christians that we can attract interest in the gospel by just living godly lives in front of unbelievers. While this may attract some people, it won’t bring anyone into a relationship with God!
Evangelism is not a special activity for a subset of the church. This is something that every Christian is expected to engage in, to the extent that God gives them opportunity. While some people are more gifted than others in the area of sharing their faith, every believer is called to tell others about the gospel, to the extent that he is able.
Evangelism is not limited to spiritual giftedness. Again, some people may be more gifted in the ability to evangelize. However, it is no more a spiritual gift than faith is. In other words, while some people may have more faith than others, no one can make the excuse that ‘I don’t have the gift of faith’ as a reason why they don’t need to believe. Similarly, while some people may be more comfortable in sharing their faith, no one can say that they have an excuse not to evangelize because they don’t have this ‘gift.’ As believers, we are all called to evangelism, and it’s a high spiritual privilege to introduce others to the Savior!
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