My evangelism fail on the way to Evangelize2024
The final leg of my travels to the Evangelize 24 conference involved an Uber ride from the airport. As it happened, this ride was unexpectedly shared with a ministry friend.
Having greeted our driver, in the car my friend and I continued our airport discussion about ministry and all the things we would say if the conference organizers had only had the wisdom and foresight to ask us to speak on the topic of evangelism. As this discussion continued, the nagging thought in the back of my—admittedly jet-lagged—brain was that if we were going to a conference on evangelism, perhaps we should make at least some attempt to engage with the probably unbelieving person in the car with us.
So I turned to the driver and asked the amazingly bold question: “How has your day been?”
Turns out, our Uber driver was from Afghanistan and had left that country just before the Taliban took back control. He told us he had been a puppeteer there, producing the local version of Sesame Street. His wife and two children were still in Afghanistan, and he was desperately trying to save enough money to bring them out to join him in the USA.
I asked him if he was a Muslim, and he said yes. So I explained that we were Christians (although I think he had probably already worked that out from our conversation, which he couldn’t have avoided overhearing). He responded with something I think was along the lines of “same God”. (I’m a bit deaf; he was very quietly spoken; he had an accent I’m not used to.)
I was a bit stumped as to what to say, and mumbled something about them being different, but I basically had no real idea where to head. A long silence ensued.
As a story for someone who has been a Christian for over 40 years to brag about at a conference on evangelism, this lacked a certain something. Well, let’s be real: it was an epic fail.
So that’s how I was reminded of something important even before the conference began: I’m not very good at evangelism. And the main reason I’m not very good at it is that, like almost every Christian I know, I don’t do it very much.
And that, my friends, is why I believe E24 was one of the most important initiatives Matthias Media has taken for a long time, and one of the most important for me personally. It’s high time we talked seriously about evangelism. As Dave Jensen said early in his first talk, theologically there is no justification for a failure to care about the eternal fate of the non-Christians around us, yet practically that seems to be where we end up.
I can’t possibly summarize a very full three-day conference in the remainder of this short report,* but here are some of the things I was challenged and spurred on by.
- Tony Payne ended the conference with a reminder (from 1 Corinthians 14:8—“And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?”) of the need for gospel clarity and ‘frankness’. He gave a wonderful exposition of the proclaimed gospel in the New Testament. Just what is the content of the momentous announcement the first disciples delivered to all the world? Tony warned that a vague and muted gospel produces vague and muted converts, and that many of the sermons he hears fall dangerously close to being of that nature.
- When Dave Jensen asked us “What stops Christians from evangelizing?”, the obvious answer was fear. But Dave pointed out this home truth: calling it ‘fear’ is to mischaracterize it. It is really fearing men more than fearing God. Jesus addresses his disciples’ fear by warning them of how hard it will be—why they should rightly be afraid—as they go out to proclaim his kingdom. And yet he tells them that they should do it anyway (like in Matthew 10), in the security of knowing that their eternal future is in his hands. Giving up in the face of fear is a failure to be like Jesus. Mack Stiles’ encouragement to us was to “take a risk” for Jesus and be bold. Coming from Mack, who has a lifetime of doing just that, this was deeply challenging.
- One of the most significant challenges of the conference—in terms of my own work at Matthias Media—was Dave’s argument about the relative priority of each of the four Es we use to describe the “moving to the right” ministry: Engage, Evangelize, Establish and Equip. Almost universally churches do a small amount in Engage, massively prioritize Establish, and invest a minimal amount of work in Evangelize and Equip. Dave argued quite convincingly that we ought to be prioritizing Evangelize above all the others, because if you do that then the other three areas naturally and organically follow, but if you prioritize Establish and Engage, Evangelism inevitably drops off the radar. And the anecdotal data from many pastors seems to back Dave’s theory up. (I’m not doing Dave’s whole argument justice here; you’ll have to listen to the talk if/when it becomes available. But I have a sneaking suspicion he is right and we need to radically rethink our ministry—largely along the strategic and very practical lines Dave spent two of his talks outlining. Again, you’ll need to listen—especially if you’re a church leader.)
- Mack encouraged us to regularly pray a prayer like this: “God, let me be used by you in someone becoming a Christian this year”. He also helpfully told us that “a bit of awkwardness is better than silence”.
- Dave pointed out that while we are people who theologically believe that God can save, we function as if we believe God probably won’t. Yet Paul says in Acts 28:28: “Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen”. We blame the hardness of the soil, but Paul says they will listen and Jesus says the harvest is plentiful. The real problem is that the workers are few. The soil isn’t too hard; the chosen workers are too soft!
- One of the big themes of the conference was that the means by which unbelievers are made into disciples, and the means by which disciples are made into disciple-makers is the same: WPPT. The word of God’s gospel being taught to, by and with people, accompanied by prayer, over time. As churches, we need to create effective opportunities for this to happen. (Again, there was a lot of guidance given about just how leaders can, under God, do this effectively.)
All up, the consensus was that this was a profoundly challenging and stimulating conference. This was demonstrated by one of the last questions in the final session of Q&As: “Are you guys going to run this conference again soon?”
I hope so. I really hope so.
* At the time of writing we are waiting to find out if the recordings worked and can be made available.
What to say to Dave about regular Bible reading
