A sigh of commiseration
At the conference, we learned how evangelism isn’t just something we’re to do as individuals, but something that the collected saints, the church, are called to be giving themselves to. And so, a few weeks after the conference, the team that attended from our church met to consider, pray and plan the best next steps for us to ‘raise the mission heat’ as speaker Dave Jensen told us.
In preparation for the meeting, I scanned my shelf and picked up my used copy of Share the Gospel*. And as I reviewed some of the lessons and my notes, I knew why I picked it up. While the book has a particular aim to mobilize more gospel speakers in the world, it acknowledges that this can’t be a solo effort. This was a good reminder, and motivated me to act upon the prompt - to work together with people as a mission team, not just a bunch of hopeful but struggling individual evangelists. So, after the meeting, I plan to look for a small group of people to work back through the Share the Gospel with and ‘raise the heat’ together.
Below is a portion of the last study. Tony Payne, the author, offers an almost universal sigh of commiseration expressed in words. But he doesn’t leave us there. He reminds us of the two simple and still powerful propositions to go back to in trying to raise that mission heat - to be ready with a simple gospel outline and to depend on each other in this work.
I hope you read and consider your next steps in this wonderful work.
*I just have to say this is another reason I like to use physical resources and keep them prominent on my shelves - to visibly remind me of important readings and studies I’ve done and keep them in the forefront of my mind.
Share the Gospel: Week 8 (page 116)
I’ve always been a bit disturbed by the fact that I find sharing the gospel with other people … difficult. I feel like it shouldn’t be. It should be easy and a joy.
After all, the gospel is the most extraordinary, life-changing news.
It’s changed my life and the life of nearly everyone I admire most in the world.
It’s true and compelling.
It’s the power of God for salvation for all who believe.
And without it, my friends and family face the terrible prospect of God’s judgment.
So why do I frequently find telling people about that difficult? Why am I often reluctant or anxious? Perhaps worst of all, why do I forget about it? How come sharing the great news of the gospel gets swamped by all the other things I’m juggling in life?
I’m assuming you’ve had similar thoughts. And I’m hoping you’ve found that many of the obstacles and difficulties you have in sharing the gospel have been addressed in this book. We’ve looked at the powerful motivations and reasons the Bible gives us for evangelism; we’ve shared ideas and approaches and tips for getting started; and we’ve learned and practiced and prayed together to build our confidence in the nuts and bolts of actually talking to other people about Jesus. I hope and pray that you feel much better equipped and much more excited and confident about sharing your faith now than when we started back in chapter 1.
But none of this will make sharing the gospel a snap. Evangelism will always be tricky for us, because of the kind of people we are, and the kind of people we’re talking to.
In our lives and hearts, sin is still very much present, and affects our motivations, our anxiety, our confidence, and our understanding. We’ll have our ups and downs, our successes and failures. And we’ll keep learning and growing in sharing the gospel as we go along.
But evangelism will continue to be a complicated business for us, because sin is also present in the lives of those we’re speaking with. Each person will have their own history of rebelling against God and of running their own particular life their own way. Each person will have their own questions, and will have done their own damage to their life by rebelling against God. There will usually be lots to talk through and untangle.
This means that sharing the gospel with someone is rarely a one-off event. In God’s timing, we pray for an opportunity to pull it all together, and explain the whole gospel to someone at one time—but very often that moment is preceded by a whole series of conversations, and followed by many more.
In this sense, just as “sharing the gospel” is not a one-off event, neither is learning to “share the gospel” an isolated skill, or something that you master and then move on from. It’s a way of life, in which love compels us to keep praying for and reaching out to our friends and family—chatting with them, asking them to dinner, asking them to evangelistic events or courses, giving them a book to read, sharing a link to an article or sermon, asking them to dinner again, and all the while praying that God would be merciful.
In all of this, having a clear gospel framework in our heads (like Two Ways to Live) is of massive benefit. It reminds us where we’re heading, and what it is that we really want to share, through whatever opportunities God gives us.
But the main resource that God gives us to keep us learning and growing and making progress in gospel sharing is each other. (That’s why this is a Learn Together book!) As we keep sharing the word with each other, and praying for each other, and encouraging and exhorting each other, God’s Spirit produces in us the wonderful fruit of a gospel-shaped life; a life that reflects and adorns the gospel; a life that shares gospel words with others so that they can come to know Jesus.
Gospel work is teamwork, in so many ways. We put on gospel-related events or courses together (perhaps as a church), and work together to bring along the friends we’ve been in conversation with. We pray together. We can keep reminding each other and setting an example for each other—in praying for fields and friends, in taking opportunities, in being “God talkers” who get into gospel conversations with others.
How could you keep encouraging each other, and praying for and with each other, about sharing the gospel?
The Profit of Reading Together
A trustworthy saying
