“Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.” – Bill Bright.
What does the Bible say about taking the initiative? Why should we go to people and offer them the gospel? As we look at Scripture and the example of Jesus, we find at least five compelling reasons:
1. Jesus took the initiative to come to us. Jesus came to “seek and save” the lost. God has always been the one pursuing us. During His life, Jesus was continually pursuing people and speaking with them about the Kingdom. Jesus also sent His disciples out two-by- two, from village to village to take the initiative by proclaiming the kingdom. (Luke 9:1-6 & Luke 10: 1-11)
2. Jesus commanded us to go. Read Mark 16:15 and John 20:21 to see how Jesus wants us to take the gospel to all peoples. Just as the Father sent Jesus into the world to pursue people, so He has sent us. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-19 reminds us that God has all authority and is calling His people to “therefore, GO and make disciples of all nations.”
3. The apostles and early church took the initiative to expand God’s kingdom. If you read through the book of Acts, it is quite clear that the apostles and other leaders in the church were continually going towards people and not waiting for people to come to them – heres just a few of the many examples in Acts:
- Acts 5:42 in the temple and from house to house
- Acts 8:4-13 Phillip to Samaria
- Acts 10 Peter to the Gentiles
- Acts 13-21 Paul’s three missionary journeys
4. Some people cannot hear unless we go to them. According to Romans 10:13-15, there are some people who will only hear the gospel if we are sent to them to explain the truth. Some people do not have an existing relationship with someone who can explain to them the gospel – both individuals here on campus and entire people groups around the world. The gospel cannot spread relationally for some, because there is no relationship unless someone goes and establishes one.
5. God is preparing the hearts of people to hear the Good News. There are some who are ready and want to know, and all we have to do is be willing to be used and take the initiative.
Common Myths About Evangelism
After looking at the Scriptures, let’s now look at some common misconceptions about evangelism that are often held by Christians in our culture. Let’s process them in light of what we just saw in Scripture.
1. If we just live a good enough life, people will come to us and ask us and then we can share our faith with them.
Response: Of course people ought to be seeing the difference in our lives and that should make them thirsty for what we have, but often they still don’t come to us and ask how to know Jesus, unless we bring it up. Or even if they know that the difference in our lives is because we are Christians, they often still don’t understand the gospel and why they need Jesus or how to receive Him. We need to offer that understanding to them.
2. If we go to people, we will turn them off.
Response: Yes if we are obnoxious, pushy and insensitive. But if we learn how to sensitively approach people and offer them the opportunity to have a dialogue if they are interested, then we won’t turn them off. If we preach over/at people, don’t listen, don’t give them a choice to interact with us, and force the message upon them–then we will likely turn them off. But that is not initiative evangelism in the power and sensitivity of the Holy Spirit.
3. People don’t want to hear the gospel. They don’t want to be bothered.
Response: True, some are not interested at all or at this time in their lives, but there are always some who do want to hear or want to understand more so they can consider it later on. We can trust God to lead us to the ones who are hungry now and to lead us to ones for whom our role is going to be just to begin the process of thinking about spiritual things (sow the seed). Plus, if our approach is dialogue rather than preaching, most people enjoy discussing issues related to the Gospel.
4. You can’t share Christ with someone until you have a relationship with them.
Response: Most importantly the Bible doesn’t teach that and we will see that in the illustration below. However, while having a relationship is really valuable and often most effective, the question is how long does it take to build a relationship and trust? A month, a year? Sometimes trust and rapport can be developed in 5 minutes. God prepares many hearts of people for us to talk with whether or not we have a relationship. In fact, offering to rescue lost people with the gospel is the most loving thing we can do for them!
For example, if a house is on fire and someone is trapped on the 3rd floor and about to be burned to death and you are on the ground with a ladder laying there, would you say in your mind, “I really don’t have enough of a relationship with that person to help them”? Of course not! If we actually believe people are headed for Hell and we have the “Gospel ladder” to extend to them – we are being selfish if we don’t offer it. Love takes action and initiates to meet a serious need !
5. Initiative evangelism means street corner preaching.
Response: While God may use that method on occasion, 95% of the initiative we want to be doing on campus and the rest of our lives will involve more relational connection with people while also taking the initiative. There are many different ways to initiate: following up a contact from an outreach, surveys on campus asking people about their spiritual perspective, an athletic or social campus-wide outreach, or most often, initiating with someone you already know. You may know them from school or from work or from home, but often times we don’t take the initiative to talk with them about spiritual things. Taking the initiative simply means I am going to offer them the opportunity in a loving and sensitive way to interact, think about, and hear the gospel.
Consider checking out this article that describes the different modes of evangelism. All evangelism should take some aspect of initiative and relationship building.