I recently started meeting with a gentleman who didn’t grow up in church. I met him through a sports connection, and over the years we’ve become more than associates, but less than hang-out buddies. He came to me and asked if I would share my “program” (his words, not mine) about this whole Jesus thing.
We’ve met twice, and I have to tell you - it’s been such a gift to me.
I LOVE getting to talk to him about basic Christian doctrine, Scripture, and how the love of Christ has transformed my life. We are in a space I’ve never been in before because he is actively reading the Gospels, yet not sure he really believes the “stories” that he is reading. Every other week we meet, and I have no idea what will happen next.
This new connection has really got me thinking about evangelism in the church.
I think for most of us, we are so busy serving the people who attend our church that it becomes near impossible to carve out time to meet with people who don’t attend where we serve.
I was meeting with some disciple-making pastors last week and we all kind of came to the same conclusion - it’s almost as if meeting with non-Christians isn’t really part of our role as a pastor of a church.
Before we all reject this notion, I want to suggest it is actually a good thing. Because for the majority of our congregation evangelism isn’t part of their jobs either.
Instead, we have to evangelize on the margins of life. We have to find non-Christian friends in our extracurricular activities. We have to be intentional about finding groups of people where non-Christians might hang out (basically everywhere outside of church), so that, we can find new ways to reach people for Jesus.
Maybe, instead of creating an evangelism committee, or formulating this awesome plan to reach the lost - maybe we schedule fewer activities IN the church and tell the saints of our communities to do something OUTSIDE the church.
I wonder what would happen if we all just found some non-Christian friends?
Luke 19:9-10
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”