As you may know, we went to NYC and did some street evangelism with the teens back in August. I did not want to do it. Seriously, who wants to walk up to a stranger anywhere, let alone New York City, and start talking to them about Jesus. I tried to figure out how I could weasel my way out of that part of the trip and just join the group for the work projects but finally decided it was all or nothing and went for the whole trip, evangelism and all.
We did some training: reviewed the Gospel message,
learned a rope trick and some other tools to use. Then headed out... It
was as scary and as awkward as I expected! I got lots of replies of
people not being interested. Some people just completely ignored you. Some people would politely let
you know they weren't interested. Some people were very brash about
their disinterest, "Oh I know I'm going to hell." But some people were
interested.
It was actually shocking to me when I
would come across someone who was interested in talking. It's not the
response I expected people to have. During the two days we were doing the street evangelism, I had two good conversations with people.
The
first lady was an employee working in Central Park, she was sitting in a
van waiting and I just went over to her and started a simple
conversation. After a few minutes she asked me where I was visiting from
and so I told her where I was from and then added in that I came with
the church youth group so we could tell people about Jesus. She seemed
interested, so we then started discussing the Gospel message. She had
lots of questions and it was great to be able to talk with her about it.
I was encouraged by the desire she showed. Unfortunately our
conversation was cut short when her coworker finished cleaning the men's
room.
What I learned from that conversation is that
when we are willing to talk, God will provide opportunities for it to
happen. It was not a forced conversation, it just naturally flowed from
one thing to the next.
The other decent conversation I had was with a woman who saw us doing a math trick on a street corner. I
asked her what she thought of it and she said she was very interested
in numbers and how they relate to spirituality and wanted to what it was
that we were doing. As were were talking, I would tell her about what
the Bible said and she would respond with some of her thoughts on the
matter. She had some ideas that were quite different than the Bible and I
would get a little nervous wondering how I would respond. But the a
verse would come to mind that I could share with her. I gave her some
information to be able to read and she went on her way.
What I learned from that conversation is that when we are willing to talk, God will give us the words to say when we're unsure. Being faithful with reading and learning His Word pays off in the long run. Not just because He will remind us of things as we talk to people, but because it changes us and makes us more and more like Him.
What I learned from that conversation is that when we are willing to talk, God will give us the words to say when we're unsure. Being faithful with reading and learning His Word pays off in the long run. Not just because He will remind us of things as we talk to people, but because it changes us and makes us more and more like Him.
Jonah is not the kind of guy I want to be like. I don't want to run from opportunities God gives me to evangelize out of fear. This trip to New York showed me that some people are much more willing to talk about God and are searching for the truth. And if I am faithful to do so, God will help me do it. I may not be heading to the street corner everyday to preach, but I'm also not running away from it either.
What are your thoughts on evangelism? When's the last time you talked to someone outside of church about spiritual things?
~~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks ago in Sunday School, we looked at Jonah 1:7-17. I already posted about it once, but there was too much good stuff to not share a bit more...
No comments:
Post a Comment