Not everyone is specially gifted for the good news-bearing task. We call those people “evangelists.” I love evangelists. I’m not one, but I love being around them. I’ve known a number of evangelists over the years, those with a God-installed aptitude for attracting people to Jesus. You can’t go anywhere with these flaming friendship-makers without having to peel them away from conversations with everyone they encounter along the way.
The rest of us are gifted in areas other than evangelism, yet we use those gifts to evangelize in other ways. Most of us are just plain old witnesses for Christ.
In some people’s minds evangelism is designed exclusively for extroverts––salespersons-of-the month-types. Which pretty much counts us ordinary people out. But you don’t have to be brave to share your faith. For every one time I share my faith I wimp out at least ten times. I agree with Jim Henderson, “Boldness is overrated.” Even if you identify more with Woody Allen than Jason Bourne and suffer from acute “Evangelism Stress Disorder,” welcome to the land of the ordinary witnesses.
If offering Jesus to people takes great boldness and super faith then just write a check for the next evangelistic event our church is putting on for Christmas and call it a day. No doubt, the cantata will be great and a good thing to invite our friends to, but writing a check and playing Mary (or Joseph as the case may be) is the very least we can do to help them find Jesus.
– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends
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