From: BSCURR01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (Brenda Curry-White)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Subject: ways to evangelize ( was Re: Some thoughts on commtment )
Date: 15 Oct 92 15:44:19 GMT
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Center for Urban and Economic Research
Phone: 502-588-6626

Mark writes: "He (Mark's pastor) said that 70% of those led to Christ by a
stranger are never seen in a church again after a while."  Mark goes on to ask
"Should we be training our people to evangelize strangers or should we be
training them to talk to their friends about christ?"

I'm not a big fan of evangelizing strangers, or street witnessing, or whatever
you want to call it, and I am not so gifted anyway.  But in defense of those
who are, if 70% of those led to Christ by a stranger are never seen in a
church again, that means that the other 30% go on to find a church and remain
in it.  If you were to tell 10 people (strangers) about Christ and only 3 of
them decided to make a true lifetime commitment, would it be no less worth
it because 7 of them reject God?  I think most of us would consider our time
well spent for the sake of the 3.

On the other hand, if your pastor's numbers are indeed correct, we will get
a higher rate of return (so to speak) by evangelizing those who are our friends
and family.  But we shouldn't be so concerned about how many we reach.  We
should be concerned about those WHOM we reach.  Too often our emphasis is on
the number of people we can evangelize rather than on the spiritual condition
of those we DO evangelize.

What makes me uneasy about evangelizing strangers (although I still believe it
to be a necessary function within Christ's Church) is this mental image I have
of it.  When I was in college I belonged to a small Christian group.  There was
a larger group on campus that put much more emphasis on the types of evangelism
we are discussing.  While walking through the dorm, one day I saw a member of
the larger group "evangelizing" a fellow student.  He had him pinned in a
corner with the Bible open in front of him.  The look on the cornered student's
face said, "Just leave me alone."  He did not appear to be listening to the
one witnessing to him, only looking for a means of escape.  This did not appear
to me to be witnessing in love.  We used to joke about this group by saying
that the surest way to get them to never speak to you was to hold an open
Bible in front of you.  And we would do this when we saw them coming toward
us, and they would turn and go another way.  This was because they emphasized
witnessing to strangers, but put very little emphasis on follow-up or
ministry to fellow Christians.

So after all this rambling, what is my answer to Mark's question?
We must do both.  We must train ourselves to do both.  There well may be
strangers who will never have any Christian family or friends to tell
them the good news.  At the same time, we have a responsibility to our own
family and friends.  Could we bare to look into their faces when Christ
says, "Depart from me, I never knew you" if we have never shared with them
what we know?  My father only became a Christian three years ago.  I could
not have looked into his eyes if he had died before he accepted Christ and
I had never shared.

Thank goodness God gives us all unique gifts.  Some of us will be able to
go out on the street and witness to strangers because that is the gift God
has given us.  Others will be gifted in following up with recent converts.
And we must always remember to place our emphasis on the person, the persons
that are converted rather than on how many we can convert.

Brenda
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