[Disclaimer: This is an article I wrote for uni students as we were approaching our annual mission week. If you're not used to the university scene this generally means a week of heightened evangelistic activity, usually including some public talks. Though it was written for a particular context I think it's an important truth for all kinds of church activity.]
Do you have mixed feelings about the upcoming ECU mission? I always did when I was at uni and still do. On the one hand, you sincerely want your friends to know God but on the other hand, the whole experience can be terrifying. You want to speak—you want to invite them—but it's so hard to do. You may feel guilty when you don't take an opportunity. You may even feel guilty about finding it scary.
There are people who don't seem to be like that. They are enthusiastic and active in evangelism all the time. Always talking to people about Jesus; always sharing the joy that they've had in talking to people. They thrive off this activity and take every opportunity they get. Mission week at uni is one more thrilling opportunity and they can't wait.
Make no mistake: these people are freaks. They have a beautiful and exciting gift from God but in my experience there just aren't many of them around. If you're not like that then I'm writing to you. If you are like that, it's ok to listen in.
For a long time I've felt guilty about finding evangelism hard. But I've finally realised a couple of things. And this is the passage that helped me:
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Colossians 4:2-6 (ESV)
You might be thinking, “But this is a passage telling me to do evangelism! How is that going to help me?” Well, it helped me because clearly there is a difference between what Paul and his friends are doing and what he tells the Colossians to do.
He asks them to pray for “open doors” so that he can speak the truth of the gospel. He doesn't go on to say, “And I'll pray the same thing for you.” He was an itinerant preacher (and was in prison for it) who had been commissioned by God to make the mystery of Christ clear. Instead of telling them to get up and start preaching from city to city like him, he says to them: “conduct yourselves wisely” when you meet those who are “outside” the people of God.
It took me years to work it out, but that body stuff Paul's on about in 1 Corinthians 12 is true! There's eyebrows and elbows and pinkies and they all have different roles and abilities. I don't need to be like Billy Graham any more than Billy Graham needs to be like me. Which means that I don't need to feel guilty about who I am and what I find hard.
If you have felt pressured into being involved in particular kinds of evangelism—whether that pressure came from other people or your own conscience—this is good news. It means that when mission week comes around at uni you don't have to be a knee-cap. You continue being the armpit you've always been but you have some extra things to invite people to.
As well as giving us the body metaphor, Paul tells us why God has designed the church that way: “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” (1 Corinthians 12:25)
Mission is not a time when we're all individuals. Just like every other aspect of church life, the different parts of the body function together. During a mission time we will have different roles and responsibilities. We need to esteem each other equally as we do mission, so that there is no division in the body.
During mission, division can come about if we feel that we are being pushed into doing evangelism. When that happens, we are in danger of making some mistakes.
One mistake is to think that particular kinds of evangelism (that you find hard) are wrong. For example, “No one should do walk-up (or cold turkey) evangelism: it doesn't work.” Another mistake is to think that it's unneccessary to go out of our way to be involved: “God will save who he will save without my help.”
A more common one is to think that for most Christians it's enough to just live a good life. With God, there is no “enough”. There is no amount of work we can do that will make us acceptable to him—he has already accepted us. And there is no limit to how much we're allowed to love those around us.
It is love that will drive us not merely to live but to speak. Pressure from others won't do it. Pressure from your own conscience won't do it. We need to be realistic about our abilities and then we need to care deeply about our friends. And then about our campus.
Because we can never care “enough” and because it is God who equips us, it is wise to have a go at different kinds of evangelistic activities if we are able. Personalities, abilities and fears change over time and some things that are scary now may not be as scary next year.
So be encouraged this mission week to act in accord with who you are as we work together to introduce our friends and our campus to the God who has accepted us.
Ben is the editor of Hippocampus Extensions
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