When it comes to evangelism—sharing the good news—it starts with you. You can’t share good news you haven’t experienced yourself.
As I was beginning to imply at the end of my last post on the subject, being evangelized is being invited into a particular narrative.
That narrative, that story, for Christians begins with Scripture. Exiled Israelites knew the story of deliverance and redemption. They recalled it and looked for its imprint in their own lives. In the same way, we have to find the signs of God’s storied imprint on our own lives.
Evangelism feels icky when we hear colonizing undertones (or overtones). We hear talk of one person bringing a better god to another person and it’s just so offputting to we 21st-century, postmodern Westerners. I couldn’t agree with such a concern more.
But here’s the truth: God is already there. Our job is not to “bring” God. But, just as St. Paul did, we are simply to point out God when God goes unnoticed.
But as I said, it starts with you.
And one of the best ways I’ve learned to uncover God at work is to draw out a timeline of my life and then talk about that with others, usually in a small group. As I’ve led groups in this exercise, people have told me how exciting my life seems when I retell my story.
Honestly, I’m a normal guy with a pretty white bread life. But when we begin to see God at work in our lives, it’s like going from your grandpa’s black-and-white TV to a hi-def big screen.
Everything simply becomes more colorful, brighter and deeper.
I spent many years in my early adulthood going to a Calvary Chapel. I heard some of the most incredible testimonies and concluded my Christian life was quite boring. That was until a tattooed, middle-age drummer (now I’m becoming that guy) whom I deeply respected convinced me of the opposite. As he learned about me, he reflected back to me where he saw God showing up in big ways.
Seeing the good news of God showing up in his life changed that homeless person I mentioned above. He still battled with addiction. But he was able to see where God had shown up in his life and had learned to talk about it in normal, un-weird ways.
How about you?
Evangelism begins with listening.
Listening to the often hushed, sometimes loud, tones of the Spirit showing up in our lives. When we begin to learn how to see God at work in our own lives, we’ll be better prepared for listening for God showing up in others.
