Evangelism: Motivation

There are several motivations - good motivations - when it comes to evangelism. Here's one: jealous worship. (HT: Gary West Davis) The petition 'hallowed be thy name' reminds us of this motivation. There is to be within the soul of every Christian the deep desire to see the Father honored by every person walking this globe. That such honor is not the case is to be something that troubles every child of God. The particulars of how one responds to this situation will differ according to things like calling and context. But we all are to desire that this lack be changed until God, our Father, is honored 'on earth as it is in heaven'.

Peter’s Kind of Evangelism

I think that you all know how Matthew ends his Gospel. He quotes Jesus’ call to the Church to make disciples of the nations. It’s about evangelism. Jesus wants His Church to be spreading the Good News about Him so that more and more people come in repentance and faith to follow Him in this life and into the next. That’s pretty obvious. All you need to do is read what Jesus said.

What has also seemed pretty obvious is how this evangelism is supposed to happen. I’m guessing that many of you have had the same experience that I have had when it comes to this topic. One particular church that I was a member of stressed the importance of all of the members spreading the word, all the members doing evangelism. The church had classes to train us in personal evangelism. And to put that into practice, it organized opportunities to do it. That, of course, was in addition to the times when we were to seek out people on our own to speak to them about the Gospel. The goal was for every member to talk to lots of people about the Gospel, personal evangelism. And we all knew that this was the way that we were to obey what Jesus clearly said at the end of Matthew.

There is a problem though. It certainly is obvious that the Scriptures lay out the Church’s responsibility to make disciples, to spread the word. But it actually isn’t obvious that the Scriptures call every Christian to do personal evangelism.

They Will Come to Us

I’m not going to talk about Noah this week. I’m not even going to talk about Genesis. Instead, I want to follow up on something. Last week I said, ‘They will come to us’. I was talking about what I anticipate will happen when the lives of so many around us will fail. At that point they will see how the lives of Christians are working. They will see that, and they will wonder. And, as a result, they will come to us to ask how we do it.  I want to return to that comment and explain it. There are ideas included here that we Christians need to understand so that when the hard times do come we will be prepared to take advantage of them.

I’m going to start by saying something that might sound a bit odd. I’m going to do this so that my main point will stand out all the more clearly. Most of us have been taught that one rather important part of being a Christian is going to people with the express purpose of telling them the Gospel in the hope that they will believe it. We’ve been taught the importance of personal evangelism. We have been told that this is something that all Christians need to do. Here’s my odd statement. That requirement cannot be found in the Bible. It never teaches that Christians are supposed to do personal evangelism.

Evangelism: Discipleship

There is one more thing to explain to someone who is interested in becoming a Christian, and this really does need to be done before he makes any decision to follow Jesus. The church word for this is 'discipleship'. In normal English that translates into, 'If you are going to become a Christian, then understand that Jesus expects you to obey Him'. We need to be as clear about this as He was. Jesus talked about self-denial. He talked about suffering. He talked about losing one's life for His sake. And He said that those who are unwilling to submit to these things when called to do so are not worthy of Him. We need to be very clear about this lest we mislead people. And these days we need to be especially careful here because an all-too-common opinion, even in the Church, is that all you really need to do is 'believe in Jesus'  - which boils down to merely saying those supposedly magic words and then living as you please. One reason that the Church at large is so weak is that the call to follow Jesus obediently has not been clearly explained to those who are interested. Jesus was very up front about all of this. We need to be too. 

At the same time we will need to be equally clear about the grace of the Gospel, grace that comes into play at those times when we have failed at our obedience and are ready to acknowledge that. Knowing how to stress both obedience and grace is reason enough to pray for wisdom as we work at explaining the Gospel.

Evangelism: Hell

There will be those times when we will have someone before us who is eager to become a Christian. He gets it. He understands that he has some serious problems because of his choices. He also understands that Jesus offers to rescue him from all of that. And he understands faith and its flip side, repentance. He is ready to tell Jesus all about this so that he can become a disciple.

However, there will be those times when you will have spent lots of time with someone explaining the ins and outs of the Gospel, answering questions and posing a few of your own. But after all of this, it becomes clear that that person is just not willing to bend his will to submit to Jesus as Lord so that he can enjoy Him as Savior. It needs to be said that there will be some times in these kinds of situations that you will need to say one more thing. You will need to tell the person about hell. Not always, but sometimes. And you don't do this as a scare tactic. But the fact of the matter is that the person with whom you have been discussing the Gospel, this person who has rejected it, this person has chosen to end up in hell. He may not see it in those terms. And that is why you need to tell him. 

For whatever reason people think about hell in terms that everyone knows cannot be true. Some guy in red tights and a tail? Pitchforks? The imagery that they focus on gets in the way. So, ignore the imagery and get to the heart of it all. Hell is the polar opposite of heaven. Think of all the happiness and joy of heaven. None of that in hell. Heaven is about enjoying the presence of God. In hell the only evidence of God's presence will be His anger. And while the citizens of heaven will so thoroughly enjoy each other, those in hell will feel incredibly lonely. 

Some may hear this as an attempt to terrify someone into heaven. That never works. This is simply trying to make clear what it is that a person has chosen for himself. Hell forever. If you can't tell him about this with deep sorrow for him, maybe even tears, then don't tell him. That's really the only way to communicate the complete horror of hell.

Evangelism: Repentance

Last time I wrote to you about faith. Now, it's on to the next topic, repentance. Except that what I have to say about repentance deeply affects the whole idea of faith. It's just a fact that the kind of faith that God accepts is impossible without repentance.  

First, a little review. Repentance is simply being honest with God. You have sinned. You have, in some way or other, rejected God's Law for your life. Repentance is honestly admitting that, no excuses and no minimizing. Also, by repenting you are also saying that it is your desire not to repeat that sin in the future but rather to choose to obey God's way of living. 

Repentance isn't complicated. But it is very important. And it is important because repentance is the flip side of faith. If faith is turning to Jesus then repentance is turning away from sin. And you cannot do the one without doing the other. Faith without repentance is no faith, or at least not the kind of faith that God is looking for. It just won't work. To have a faith that connects with Jesus, a person must also have an honest repentance. This is something that you will need to make clear to anyone interested in Jesus so that he or she can have a real faith in Jesus and actually become a Christian.

Now, there's another reason to make this clear. This idea about the importance of repentance sets the tone of that person's walk with Jesus. Following Jesus isn't just about enjoying His love, though it is definitely that. It is also about working hard at turning away from sin. And one reason we do that hard work is so that we can enjoy more of His love. There are, sadly, so many Christians these days who are struggling with what it means to follow Jesus because they don't understand that a lively walk with Jesus requires both faith and repentance. Too many are coming into the Church only hearing about faith. They need to hear about repentance also. 

So, as you have the opportunity to explain the Gospel to people, be sure to include a clear explanation of the significance of repentance.

Evangelism: Faith

Once a person comes to the place of seeing that he has problems, whether it's guilt, shame, fear, a combination of these or something else, we need to call him to Jesus. In the Gospel Jesus offers Himself as the one who can solve those problems and free that person. But what does it mean to call someone to Jesus? This is where the term 'faith' comes into play. It's important to be able to clearly explain what faith is. Here's one way of doing that. 

There are three parts to faith. First, there is information. Faith in Jesus is impossible without some information. There are things to know about Jesus - who He is and what He has done - that a person needs to know. So, for one example, a person needs to know that Jesus offers to solve those problems of guilt, shame and fear. He is the Savior. 

Second, a person needs to agree that what he's been told about Jesus is true. There are many, many people who have information about Jesus, things that they heard growing up or the like. But they do not accept this information as true, as facts. So, they might agree that there was this fellow named Jesus who made lots of claims. But is He someone who can fix my life? Is He the Savior? No! So, there is information, but then there is the agreement that that information is true, accurate. 

But even this is not enough. A person also needs to entrust himself to the Jesus that he now knows about and accepts as factual. To entrust oneself is separate from knowing and accepting something as true. Jesus calls for people to entrust themselves, body and soul, into His care. This is about depending on Him to do what He has claimed and to depend on Him only. Without this there is no faith. 

So, there's information about Jesus and His claims, agreement that the information is true and then entrusting oneself to Jesus based on that information.

To be sure, a saving faith is a growing faith. It's a process. We learn how to entrust more and more of ourselves to Him as we get to know more about Him. But there must be a first step where, to the extent a person understands what it means, he places himself in the care of Jesus.

However, as important as faith is it is incomplete without repentance. That's for next time.

Evangelism: However …

Having said all that I have about these three root issues, I now need to interject this thought. Those three - guilt, shame and fear - lie behind so much of what people feel and do, but you don't have to always bring them up when talking with someone about the Gospel. They are tools that can be helpful. You can use them to understand the people you talk with. You might even have occasion to bring one of them up as you discuss the Gospel with someone - if doing that will make it easier for that person to understand the Gospel. But you might be able to communicate the Gospel well without any explicit reference to any of these three.

Consider Jesus when He did evangelism. There were times when He didn’t bring these into play when He talked about the Gospel - at least not obviously. So, there's Nicodemus. Jesus' point to him was clear. 'Nicodemus, something dramatic has to happen in you. The Spirit has to do a work in your life. And if He doesn't, there is no hope for you. You must be born again.' And then, there's the Samaritan woman at the well. 'It is clear to me - and to you - that your life just isn't working. You are thirsting for something more. You've thought that a man could deal with your thirst, but you've found that isn't working. I can make life work.'

In neither case did Jesus talk about guilt or shame or fear - though I would almost be willing to bet that both of these people had issues with one or more of those three. My point is there are many tools that you can use - tools that the Bible describes - as you try to help people place their lives in Jesus' hands. Talking about these three root issues are only some of the tools that you might use. Get to know the other tools by getting to know your Bible.

Evangelism: Using the Three

So the Gospel deals with these three root issues: guilt, shame and fear. I've pointed these out so that you might see that there is more than one way to relate the Gospel to the unbelievers that you know.  You can approach them according to the root issue that they feel the most.

However, to do that you will need to be able to discern where they are in terms of these three. And one way to get to know others is by getting to know yourself. So, a question to ask yourself is this: Which of these three has stood out the most in your own life? Has there been a persistent sense that you are in the wrong and trying to justify yourself to some perceived authority who could forgive or excuse you (guilt/innocence)? Or have you been among those who are looking for approval, maybe feeling unacceptable and unclean (shame/honor)? Or has the problem  been that you have felt enslaved by your fears?  It's as we get to know ourselves in terms of these root issues that we will be able to sense where others are. Once that happens we can then relate to them in terms of the particular root issue that especially affects them. 

Be aware that talking about any of these three in a personal way with someone is something that you will need to do carefully and gently. Approaching someone and just blurting out, 'I see that you are greatly troubled by a sense of shame', may cause that person to react and pull away from you. Pray not only to be able to discern where people are but also to be able to speak gently into their lives. 

Evangelism: Instead of Fear

When a person comes to Jesus one thing gets replaced by another. Guilt is replaced with innocence. Shame is replaced with honor. But what about fear? What is fear replaced with? Fear is replaced with fear.  

There are many ways that people fear. For one thing, they fear other people. This kind of fear results in all sorts of trouble. 'The fear of man is a snare', says Proverbs. Fearing other people - what they will think about you, how they will respond to you, how they might use their power over you - will result in slavery. This is the wrong kind of fear. 

Adam and Eve feared with the wrong kind of fear, but they didn't fear other people. They feared God. That's why they hid when He showed up after they ate the fruit. They 'just knew' that God would explode at them because of their sin. That's a fear of God, but it's the wrong kind.  

There is a fear of God that is right, so very right. 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' This kind of fear understands a key fact of life. God is God, and we aren't. People who grasp this basic fact can fear God in the right way, and they are able to live wisely.

When someone repents and believes the Gospel the wrong kind of fear can be dealt with, removed. So, there is no need to fear other people. And, instead of some slavish fear of God, there is the right kind of fear of Him. This kind of fear knows that since He is God He is good. Life works by knowing Him and, as a result, fearing Him and only Him.

Christians, then, are people who have been freed from the wrong kind of fear. Instead, they are freed to fear God in the right way and live well.

Evangelism: Fear

We've looked at two other root issues that the Gospel is designed to deal with, guilt/innocence and shame/honor. Now, we're ready for the third, fear. One consequence of sin is fear.

We see fear in Genesis 3 just as we saw guilt and shame.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:8-10

Adam and Eve hid from God because they were afraid. They were afraid of God. This is so different from  what Adam and Eve enjoyed before. It marks one of the consequences of their sin.

The Gospel understands this. And that's why it teaches that Jesus has come so that we might be freed from our fears.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Hebrews 2.14-15

We are surrounded by people who are afraid. And that is so very understandable. It's a consequence of their sin. What they need to hear is that Jesus has come to rescue them from the slavery of fear. So, just as some people will respond well when the Gospel is presented in terms of freedom from guilt or of shame, there are those who will listen to the Gospel if it is presented in terms of freedom from fear.

Evangelism: Speaking to the Shamed

I've been writing about how, along with guilt, shame is a root problem that the Gospel is designed to solve. So, how shall we use this second option of presenting the Gospel? It's always important to start where the person is. There are those who understand guilt. They get it, and they can relate to the idea of needing to deal with it. Then there are those who see their problems more in terms of shame. They may not use that word. They are more likely to talk about failure, and that's how they understand much of their lives. They have failed and they can feel it.

So, you talk about failure. You talk about how it's not something that can be solved by simply telling yourself that you aren't a failure. That's a common myth that many have been told. No, instead you talk about how their sense of failure can reflect something real, an actual failure. You help the person to move from their smaller sense of shame, something rooted in the standards of their parents or the wider culture, to the reality of their having failed to maintain the standards of God. Just as when dealing with someone's sense of guilt, here you help the person see that the problem of their failure is greater than what they thought. 

But then, you can explain how Jesus has come to remove that shame, by taking it upon Himself, and to grant to that person not merely a sense of honor but the reality of being honored by the Father. Jesus' death covers their shame (remember the prophetic picture of the skins God provided Adam and Eve) and makes it possible for the Father to deal with them as honored people to whom He can say, 'You are My beloved in whom I am well pleased'.

Evangelism: Shame, Part 2

The question that we're going to deal with now is this. Does the Bible speak of the Gospel in terms of honor and shame? Is that a root issue the Gospel is designed to deal with? And the answer is, 'Yes'. 

Let's go back to the Garden of Eden and look at what happened when Adam and Eve sinned. Clearly there was guilt. They had disobeyed God's command. But there was also shame. The word 'shame' doesn't show up but neither does the word 'guilt'. But look at the actions of these two. Before this sin Moses wrote something that sets this up. 

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 

This isn't about sex. It's about shame. There wasn't any. But then, there's this right after that sin.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 

Something has changed. Before they were naked and not (a)shamed. But now they see their nakedness and attempt to cover it. They are shamed and are trying to deal with it with some fig leaves. 

The sin of Adam and Eve brought guilt into the world. That is clear. But it also brought shame into the world. Jesus has come to deal with that guilt. He also came to deal with that shame. Shame is a root issue just like guilt is.

You know plenty of places in the Bible where the Gospel is explained in terms of guilt. But there are also places where the problem of shame is likewise dealt with by the Gospel. For example,

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 

What does it mean to 'put on Christ'? Elsewhere the word for 'put on' is translated as 'clothe'. One example:

Now John was clothed with camel's hair ...

Christians are people who have been clothed with Christ. He deals with their shame. He covers it. This fits with what happened back in the Garden. Here's a prophecy in pictures. 

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed[!] them. 

God clothed them. In so doing He dealt with their shame. And He did a better job than their attempts with those fig leaves. That's a picture of how Jesus does a better job dealing with our shame than our sorry efforts. And when you see that there had to be death so that there could be skins to deal with the shame it fits even better.

We can explain the Gospel in terms of dealing with the problem of guilt or we can do that in terms of the problem of shame. We have options when we talk with people. More to come.

Evangelism: One Kind of Problem (Shame)

Last time I wrote to you about one of the root issues that the Gospel deals with, guilt. Now it's time to consider a different root issue, shame. First, I want to be clear what it is that I am referring to. This is not about feelings of embarrassment or the like. What I'm referring to is the failure to meet some accepted standard, a standard of honor. Failing here may result in feelings of embarrassment. But I'm not so interested right now in the feelings but in the actual, objective status of having failed, of being shamed.

For some cultures, the ideas of shame and honor are foundational. There is an established code of behavior which is that culture's standard of honor. Gaining honor and avoiding shame are the basic motivations of the members of these cultures. And anyone who fails to meet the standard of honor is shamed in the eyes of the people of that culture. One example of this would be Muslim culture.

Our culture doesn't use the language of shame and honor very much. However, similar ideas do exist here. It's just that they are labeled differently. So, while we may not use the word 'shame' in the sense I'm using it here, we do understand the idea of not meeting expectations, of being a failure. That's our equivalent of 'shame'. Similarly, 'honor' for us is about approval. 

It seems to me that parts of our culture are moving away from being built on the notions of innocence and guilt (right/wrong), and moving toward the honor/shame (approval/failure) dynamic. I think that you will agree that many of those in the younger generations are at least leaning in this direction. So, it's okay to do wrong (like cheat on a test) as long as you gain approval (the result of a high grade).

One result of this is that such people do not understand very well a Gospel presented in terms of innocence and guilt. However, a Gospel presented in terms of honor and shame - though using the language of approval and failure - will probably communicate better with some of them.

This is all well and good, but a question remains. Does the Bible speak of the Gospel in terms of honor and shame? Is that a root issue the Gospel is designed to deal with? Or is this just another attempt to remake the Gospel according to the ideas of the modern world, compromising important truths along the way? I'll deal with that next time.

Evangelism: One Kind of Problem (Guilt)

Jesus has come to fix life. That's basic. But to really get it a person has to have a grasp of what the real problems are, the root issues. You need to be clear about what ills the Great Physician has come to heal. I'm going to be explaining three root issues that the Gospel addresses. Here, I'll start with the one that is familiar to most of you.

At our beginning, humanity was innocent. Think of that in a positive way. It's not that we just weren't guilty, a neutral condition. We were innocent, a very positive condition. To use a Bible word, we were fully righteous. But then, Adam and Eve rejected God's idea of life lived well. They refused to trust His wisdom - to say nothing of His love. So, they sinned. And the result? Guilt. Likewise, we are guilty because we sin. Make that as negative as you can. The evil of sin is not tied to the nature of some behavior. After all, how evil can eating a piece of fruit be. The evil of the sin is all about who that sin is against. It's about the rejection of the God who loves. So, this guilt of sin needs to be seen as very dark. Humanity is not innocent. We all sin. We are all guilty. And that means that we all deserve justice. And who decides what penalty fits this crime? That's up to the God who created all of this, the God whose love we reject and whose law we ignore. He has determined the penalty and has applied it to us. Our guilt is a root issue from which other problems come.

This is where Jesus comes in. He offers healing. In this case that means restoring us to a state of innocence. Again, think of that in a positive way. It's not just that disciples of Jesus aren't guilty anymore. No, they are innocent, righteous. God deals with them as if they had never sinned. That is the offer of the Gospel. Jesus fixes life. He removes the guilt of sin and replaces it with perfect innocence.

However, here's something to consider. Guilt is passé. Increasingly, our culture doesn't deal in terms guilt or innocence. Many people in our culture just don't have a developed sense of guilt. 'It's not my fault!' So, trying to connect with these folk in terms of their guilt won't work very well. They just won't get it. They will not see the problem that Jesus offers to fix. It won't make much sense. That's why it's increasingly important to understand the other two ways that the Scripture presents the Gospel. And that's where I'll go next.

Evangelism: Root Problems

Last time I wrote about explaining sin as poor choices. I said that this can be a good way to explain to your friend why he has the problems he does. So far, so good. But you still need to be careful. There are many ways that you can (will!) be misunderstood. Your friend may understand 'problems' in a way that will not be helpful. He may very well be thinking only of symptoms instead of the real issues. So, 'problems' can be understood in terms of things like marriage, job, kids, health and the like. Those certainly are problems, but you'll need to help your friend see that these are not the real issues of his life, the root problems that are the source of all that troubles him. If his life is going to be fixed he will need to focus on and deal with the root issues.

This is a good place for me to insert this thought. The way that we explain the Gospel to people has a great affect on their lives later. The goal isn't simply to get someone to say 'Yes' to Jesus so that they can end up in heaven. The goal is to see the Spirit create a disciple who will follow Jesus wholeheartedly and, as one result among many, experience great healing in his life. For this to happen you'll want to be very clear in explaining the Gospel. A bad foundation will result in an unsafe house, one that may not weather the floods and storms of life. Part of a careful explanation will include identifying and then dealing with root issues from which the problems of life come. These days, this will probably mean that explaining the Gospel will be a longer term project than what many have thought.

Now, I want to mention three problems that the Scriptures label as root issues that Jesus has come to deal with. The first is one that we are most familiar with, especially when it comes to thinking about presenting the Gospel to others. It's the issue of guilt. We are guilty before God. Another, less familiar root issue is powerlessness. Apart from Jesus, people are powerless to deal with life. The last of the three is shame. We were made to enjoy the status of being honored but instead we have fallen into the status of being shamed. Next time I'll begin to explain these.

Evangelism: You Have a Problem

Last time I mentioned that we need to explain to people that life has problems and to explain that in such a way so that they could see it clearly. Next, we have to explain why that is. For Christians raised as I was, the answer is simple. The problem is sin. We need to tell people that they are sinners. Well, they are, but I doubt that using the word 'sin' is going to be very helpful. It's a word that most people don't understand. Sin is about breaking some celestial rule. As a result, the Ogre of heaven gets mad and takes it out on you. (Alas, there are lots of Christians who think about sin in this way.) Using 'sin' is not helpful if our goal is to communicate clearly enough for people to come to some very important decisions. 

So, how do we go about explaining that the problem is sin without using that word? We describe the concept of sin. One way to get at that is to talk about choices. Our lives (yes, we include ourselves) have the problems they do because of the choices that we make. We choose poorly. Life would be so much better if we made better choices. (Isn't that, in part, how the Bible describes the concept of sin?)

It's important that our friends understand why we make such poor choices. To be sure, there are things that we don't know which affect how we make decisions. Our lack of information results in bad choices. But that isn't the basic problem. The basic problem has to do with a more fundamental choice. The God who created us has explained how we are to live. He can do that because He has created us. (Here, we're back to the whole thing about God's expectations which I wrote about earlier.) It's important to make clear that He hasn't simply imposed a bunch of arbitrary rules. He has described how we can live well. He knows what that means because He has created us. But we don't want to listen to Him. We choose not to listen to Him. We want to figure it all out on our own. And that results in lots of very poor choices. And that's why life has the problems that it does.

Evangelism: Something's Wrong

Here's another Gospel tidbit that you will need to communicate to people. You'll need to be sure that they understand that there is a problem. Now, you're probably thinking that people already know that life has its problems. And, in fact, some of them tell you about those problems more than you care to hear at times. Yes, that's true, but even at this point the Christian's understanding of the problem is dramatically different. While people will agree with you that there's a problem, most of them are thinking something like, 'Life has problems, but there isn't anything to be done about it'. For them, the problems of life are just that: the problems of life. To expect anything different is to expect too much. This is just the way things are. Deal with it. But they are wrong. It's not supposed to be this way. The problems of life are these oddities. We were created for something much better. But something has entered the picture to make a mess of things, and quite a mess. And believe it or not, to say something like this can give someone hope. Life can be better.

And that lies near the heart of the Gospel: life can be better. There have been plenty who have twisted that up and promised heaven on earth. That's another of Satan's lies. And yet, it's still true: life can be better, starting in the here and now, and completely so later. In communicating we are not to minimize the evil of the present. And that is especially true when it comes to those who have had an especially hard life. But we can tell everyone that life can be better. Jesus has come.

Evangelism: God's Character

The aspect of evangelism that I want to deal with here is a bit more subtle than some others. When you are talking to someone about the Gospel, one goal you want to work toward is getting God's character right. It's too easy to miss the mark here. We can make God into this ogre who is so mad at people because they don't toe the line in just the right way. Or we can give people the impression that God is this patsy who just loves everyone, and it really doesn't matter what they do. There are other twisted version of who He actually is. Our presentation of the Gospel hangs on our presentation of God's character. We are, after all, talking to people about how they can get to know God.

What we need to do is present God in the way that the Bible does. So, according to the Bible, there are times God when expresses one aspect of His character. Then, there are times when what comes out is something very different. He is, you know, like us (except that, in God's case, whatever comes out is always the right thing).

Getting this right requires something that I don't usually hear about when people talk about evangelism. We will be able to give people the right impression when it comes to God's character only if we are getting to know God's character. You can't teach what you don't know. And the primary way that we will convey to others some sense of God's character will be as we imitate Him in our own interactions with them. Remember where we started. Peter tells us to be ready. As people watch us they will come with their questions. (1 Peter 3.15) Evangelism is about more than what we say. It's also about who we are.

Evangelism: God is a Person

Another thing that we will want to make clear to people who aren't Christians is that God is a person. It may sound odd for me to tell you this, but you need to consider your audience. People today think about God as something other than a real person. He is a principle, a deity (think Zeus or Thor), a 'spiritual' thing out there (whatever that means). But that's not Him. He is a real person. And that means that He thinks and feels. He enters into relationships which He enjoys. He responds to things. He loves. He hates. He is patient. He gets angry. He acts in decisive ways. And He waits to act. He's a person. And that means that we are inviting people to come to know a person and not just acknowledge some doctrines or do some religious things. We want them to come to know God as a person and to enjoy His friendship. The key to communicating this isn't bound up in some deep and detailed conversation with these folk. We will communicate this by how we live. What will attract people - remember, that is where we started - is our relating to God as a real person, enjoying our friendship with Him. They will see that as we interact with them and talk about our lives with them. And that will be so attractive. And if they do become Christians then they will have already taken an important first step. They will know that God is a person to enjoy.