I’m going to begin a new series on evangelism in an unusual way. I’m starting with a confession: I am a terrible evangelist.
Here’s what I mean. Evangelistic instincts don’t come naturally to me. I don’t easily recognize opportunities to boldly and clearly share the gospel with people stuck in sin. When I do see an opportunity, I usually feel uncomfortable and awkward about it. My nature doesn’t lend itself to great evangelistic work.
Furthermore, very few people have modeled good evangelism for me. For that matter, most of the church talk I hear about evangelism isn’t really evangelistic. It usually begins with the question “How do we attract people?” A very different question. Doing things that might attract people is much more comfortable than doing truly evangelistic things.
From what I’ve seen and the conversations I’ve had, most of you are like me. You share my discomfort and awkwardness with evangelism. You share my uncertainty about how to even go about it at times. And you share a genuine desire to see people come to Christ…
I am a terrible evangelist. Most of you are, too. But it’s not sufficient for us to say, “That’s just not my spiritual gift.” That cop-out won’t do. It’s like saying you don’t pray because it’s not your spiritual gift. Unacceptable.
I’ll use the next several posts to share some ideas, some experiences, and some challenges for us all. I believe we can and should be doing much better. I hope it will stimulate some new ideas, open opportunity for some discussion, and give us courage to ACT.
teddy ray 
Teddy-
Looking forward to reading and hearing your thoughts on improving this problem many of us seem to have!
I heard a great testimony in church this past Sunday about a woman who had mentioned casually at work that she had started discipling her daughter and has been blessed by it. Obviously she had been living out her faith for quite some time also at work and a collegue came to her office to ask about her discipling times with her daughter and others! Long story short, she led the woman to Christ right in her office and now is meeting with her weekly for discipleship!
I was WOWed by this testimony and now seeing that evangelism is your topic for awhile I’m thinking perhaps God is wanting to work on me in this area!
Robyn,
That is a great testimony. I just read last night about a man who led 75 (not a typo) of his co-workers to Christ in the year following his own conversion. Excited to share more next week that might prompt some discussion and thoughts about how we can go about sharing our own faith.