On the Need for Personal Evangelism in Deep and Long-Standing Relationships

A Reflection on Evangelism

A couple of weeks ago, I was volunteering at a bike race, passing out food and drinks to the contestants.

One of the bikers approached our stand and began sharing the gospel with those volunteering with me by passing out tracts.

Most of the people volunteering were from my church, but there were two individuals who were employees of the local Parks and Rec division, which was hosting the event.

The biker began passing out these tracts to the volunteers, and when he got to me, I informed him that I didn't need one because I was already a believer. In fact, I was actually a pastor of a local Christian congregation here in the city.

He looked at me joyfully and was glad to hear that he didn't need to give me a tract. Upon seeing that I wasn't given a tract, one of the members of the Parks and Rec asked me, "Is that how you're able to avoid getting tracts given to you? By saying that you're a pastor?"

What I saw from this encounter was that most people are not convinced by being given tracts or being preached at on street corners. This is something I know well.

In college, I was around many who would go around the downtown area of my city and preach the gospel on the streets. They would talk to individuals walking to and from restaurants downtown, sharing the good news of Jesus with them.

And let's be clear, street evangelism does not come back void. Any proclamation of the gospel is a message of good news.

However, if we contaminate that message, sometimes problems arise. It's worth noting that not all cultures are receptive to all manners and presentations of the gospel.

I believe we live in a culture now where what we say and how we say it must be equally evaluated in order to preserve an efficient declaration of the gospel.

Think about it like this: the presentation of the message is just as important as the content of the presentation itself. How we speak matters. And that's why I think we need to understand that there is a need for long-standing relationships in personal evangelism.

The Bible gives us this picture of a farmer sowing seed. The seed is the gospel, the words of Jesus, the good news, and the soil represents different types of hearers of the gospel. All seed that is scattered is good; all presentations of the gospel have the ability to be fruitful. However, where they're sown and how they're sown are also incredibly important to the success of that seed being sown and a harvest coming from that seed.

If you look at recent statistics, you'll see that blind sowing or street evangelism—where you just find any random person and present the gospel to them—has the potential to be effective. It has the potential to reap a beautiful harvest. The potential, in many cases, is small. It's possible, but it's not necessarily likely.

Comparatively, when one utilizes the deep, long-standing relationships one has with an unbeliever, the trust that has been built up over years, the relational equity that one has from decades of loving one's neighbor, or the multitude of kind acts that one has given to another, that sort of deep relational equity allows for one's voice and proclamation of the gospel to make a more deep and meaningful impact in the life of the unbeliever.

Getting over the initial embarrassment or fear of sharing the gospel with random strangers through street evangelism or passing out tracts is relatively easy.

It requires no commitment beyond our own embarrassment or shame. Should someone we don't know or have a deep relationship with reject us, ultimately after those few moments of embarrassment, there's no long-standing consequence to our own personal life.

Yet when loved ones, family members, and friends, or coworkers reject us in our presentation of the gospel, they don't immediately leave our lives. Their presence remains, and thus, a barrier between us begins to be built.

However, if that barrier is ever able to be brought down, the relationship between loved one or family member or friend, when introduced to the gospel, creates this beautiful picture of God's good news transforming their lives. That is able to happen because we're able to speak with power into their life. There's meaning in the words that we share. There's depth to our message.

The modern church needs to be aware that the majority of people who come to the gospel come to Jesus not from shouting on street corners, but from small conversations with friends over coffee. They come from difficult conversations with family members about what is deeply and truly important to us.

If the church begins to invest in deep and meaningful relationships and in those relationships plant seeds of the gospel—seeds of good news, hope, and peace—we would begin to see our families, our workplaces, and our communities transformed.

I think this is the wave we must ride in the years to come as heralds of Jesus’s Good News.