Someone suggested taking a few minutes after our sermon on Sundays to answer a few questions and build on what we said during the worship gathering at Christ Church. So here's this week's post-game interview...
Q: What are you hoping people walk away with from this morning?
MCA: Hopefully, Jonah 2 taught us that every problem, struggle and challenge we face in life comes down to a question of whether we believe the gospel. Particularly when it comes to evangelism, our struggle to engage people with the gospel can't simply be resolved by trying harder or learning new strategies.
Q: Do you like talking about evangelism?
MCA: Yes and no. Yes, because we were created to tell this story to whomever God gives us the opportunity to talk with. No, because the topic usually sets people off.
Q: What do you mean?
MCA: Two things in particular. I basically said that evangelism is something we should all be doing but that we aren't supposed to do it in the same way. So some people will struggle with the first part of that, wondering if it's true that we're all supposed to do evangelism or share our faith. Other people will struggle - not with the idea that different people do evangelism in different ways - but thinking that we're discounting or dismissing a particular type of evangelism.
Q: Yeah, I was wondering if you thought some people thought you were going after certain kinds of evangelistic programs?
MCA: It wouldn't surprise me because anytime you say things like 'beach evangelism is awkward and can feel artificial', you could take that to mean that therefore, that kind of evangelism is unhelpful or even wrong. I don't know what to say except that's not what I mean. I think God uses lots of different ways to communicate the story of the gospel to people - and I'm pretty sure I said this - I never doubt the intentions and motivations of people who are trying to find ways to tell that story and help other people tell that story. But what I'm also dealing with is the reality that no single approach works for everyone and that a lot of people end up on the sidelines because they think the only way they can talk about the gospel is by using ways that are really foreign to their personality and context. So this particular sermon was easily one of the hardest I've had to deal with since I've been here.
Q: Why's that?
MCA: Because I've got friends who probably think I sold them out this morning. I've got a couple of people who really struggle with the whole concept of evangelism who want to talk this week because what they heard is - all Christians evangelize. And I'm pretty sure I'll hear from some of my friends involved in ministries I care deeply about who heard me say they're doing something wrong in the way they do evangelism.
Q: So what are you going to tell them?
MCA: I hope they heard both sides of the coin - that yes, we should all be engaged evangelistically but in very different ways because of who we are and the people who are around us. So to my friends who are really nervous about evangelism, what I hope they see is the tremendous opportunity they have to communicate the gospel in ways that are authentic to who they are and the people in their pathway. That might be a very confrontational approach or a very relational approach - God uses both.
And to anyone who thinks I cut their legs out from under them and dumped on what they do, I hope they hear me saying that we share the same goal of seeing more and more Christians engage people around them with the story of the gospel. My concern after fifteen years in ministry and lots of conversations with people inside and outside the church is that our current approach to equipping people evangelistically isn't producing the results we all want.
Q: By results, do you mean conversions?
MCA: Good question...and no. I simply mean that with the emphasis we've put on evangelism, we'd expect more people to be active in sharing their faith. But they're not - why? Maybe because there's a disconnect between how they were trained and how they function with other people. Evangelism isn't a matter of being introverted or extroverted but it does feel sometimes that things breakdown along the lines.
Q: So is there anyone to blame for this?
MCA: I'll tell you what frustrates me - people who look back to evangelistic training they received in a church or in a campus ministry and blame the person who trained them for their lack of evangelistic activity. There's not anyone I know in any group I know that has anything other than the best intentions in mind when they set out to train people. But sometimes things get lost in translation and you end up with people who feel cheated and burned and like they're JV Christians because they struggle to do evangelism the way they were trained.
Q: So...
MCA: Sorry, didn't want to interrupt but one of the things I prayed for all week and will be praying this upcoming week is that the Enemy doesn't get hold of this and use it.
Q: How do you think he'd do that?
MCA: I can tell you how he does it now. I have a good number of conversations with people who used to be involved in this campus ministry or that evangelistic training program through a church that are hostile towards those groups. And because I'll say things like, 'there are other ways to do evangelism besides XYZ,' they think they've found an ally to talk trash about this guy or that group. Not to discount their pain or frustration, but I do feel like most of the time that's coming straight from the pits of hell.
Q: Why do you think that?
MCA: Mainly because when I ask them, 'so how are you sharing your faith now,' they've got nothing. And that plays very well into the plans of the enemy. I mean, what's his goal? No evangelism...no one share their faith; nobody preach the gospel. And if you're so mad at so-and-so that you don't do any evangelism at all? Score one for the bad guys.
Q: So where do we go from here?
MCA: Hopefully we learn the story of the gospel together, growing in our love for the gospel that leads to gospel-saturated lives that do things like evangelism in very different ways so that very different people can communicate the same gospel in very different settings.
Q: What's coming next week?
MCA: Well, I want to try to put my money where my mouth is and talk about some ways that we can engage evangelistically in ways that ring true with who we are and where God's placed us in this world. So we'll see what happens.
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