When asked, many Christians would likely acknowledge that they find evangelism to be challenging. I like to think that they want to evangelize, but they are inhibited by many concerns that flood their mind. “How will I know the right thing to say?” “Is this person ready to hear the Gospel?” “What happens if they ask I question that I don’t know the answer to?” These and other thoughts often stop a person from doing what their heart compels them to do – reach out to someone who doesn’t know Christ and tell them the Good News of His death and resurrection and the salvation that comes from repenting and trusting in Him.
The apostle Paul was not stopped by such concerns. As my husband recently observed, Paul cast a big net. He knew that not every evangelistic effort would be successful, but that didn’t prevent him from diligently presenting the Gospel to those he encountered. He wasn’t picky about who he presented the Gospel to or a particular method or strategy for doing so. As he writes in I Corinthians 9:22, he became “all things to all people, that by all means [he] might save some.” (emphasis mine). His concern wasn’t limited by geography, receptivity, tradition or his persuasive ability – his concern was that more people would hear the good news of Christ. He realized that it was his job to present the Gospel by whatever means possible and to whomever would listen to it; it was God’s job to save (see I Cor. 3:6-7).
It modern-day evangelism we often take the opposite approach. We look at those around us and, instead of casting a big net, we narrow down our evangelistic field. We look for those that we think are most likely to respond. We pick a favorite method or strategy and use it as our turnkey way for presenting the Gospel. We seek out the familiar – groups or types of people that we have effectively reached before – and focus our efforts on them. Instead of fishing with a net – we often use a single pole.
There are probably many strategic reasons for the evangelism tactics that we employ. However, I fear that often in our effort to engender the most effective evangelism scenario, we neglect to actually evangelize those that God places in our life. Paul knew that not all he presented the Gospel to would be saved, but he diligently presented it because he was confident that some would be. May a similar confidence prompt us to evangelize as he did – casting a big net that some may come to know Christ.
