One of the most disturbing elements in modern evangelical church life is making evangelism so very hard. By leaving people without the understanding, which says the greatest blessing in this world is leaving it, they end up clinging too much to life and all the weaknesses of the flesh. From that ground, Christian Mysticism is impossible to understand, much less embrace. So without the full power of the Spirit, people are left with a mere alternative lifestyle, a better brand of middle class pursuit of worldly success. Evangelism becomes a sales pitch.
If we understand the goal of faith is earning our departure from this life, it changes everything. Evangelism is merely being friendly, knowing no enemies. It won’t matter a whit what these others may think about you or the situation. Your worst oppressor is still a friend, one to whom you will act according to a genuine positive regard. You have nothing to lose. The same goes when you face someone against whom the Lord requires you to guard some duty on this earth. Should you be required to commit a violent act, say in defense of your infant child, you still do so from the perspective of a friend trying to do what is in the attacker’s own best interest.
There simply is no place for animosity. The worst you can do is avoid someone for that length of time the Lord requires it of you. Otherwise, even your worst psychotic nightmare you are to encounter with cheerfulness.
That is the sum total of evangelism. The rest is simply speaking the truth to which you are already fully committed. About the only part we have to learn is how to grow up and stop talking to others the way children do. That is, we aren’t seeking approval, and we don’t load up the air between us with chatter about all the things we know and can do. We let the Spirit guide us to saying things which meet the context, and no more. We don’t descend to their lower level, even though we understand it and remember all too painfully being there ourselves. We stay up in the sky, as it were, with our eyes on our commitment to Christ. That sort of learning is more than enough to make each of us the most powerful evangelists on the earth.
