“Bible bashers” are about as popular as double glazing salespeople and traffic wardens. I am speaking 
generally because I find myself, these days, extremely fond of several traffic wardens; or civil enforcement officers as we are now to call them. Estate agents always used to be deeply unpopular. They certainly were when I was one, in 1994, for forty days. Few people seem to whinge about them anymore. Maybe it is because so few people have enough money to think about moving house.
Don’t talk about religion or politics!
The contempt for “Bible bashers” is far more consistent. Never has anyone ever enthused to me of some random stranger telling them all about God. Many still regard religion and politics as completely taboo subjects for polite company. So should those of us who enthusiastically “bother God” do so privately and tell no one?
Well it seems to me to be pretty inconsiderate to discover the meaning of life, the universe and everything, yet keep it to myself! Jesus seemed keen for people to know about His kingdom and the New Testament of the Bible contains loads of examples of this good news about God being communicated in lots of ways; the scary, theological word for this communication being “evangelism”.
Keep quiet
Does Francis of Assisi offer us a way out? He is attributed with the saying “Preach the gospel at all times and where necessary use words.” It is a line my friend NeoWesleyan is fond of alluding to. I am uncomfortable with it. Referring particularly to NeoWesleyan’s post of 27 July 2011, I am also bothered by the idea that evangelism can be left to the evangelists; those with a particular gift in evangelism.
The argument goes that if we are good Christians, people will see how good we are and realise that God is in our lives (Matthew 5 v.16). All this can happen without any verbal proclamation whatsoever. What a wonderful way of avoiding all that nasty Bible bashing.
I am a Christian, by which I mean I seek to obey God as represented on Earth by Jesus Christ. Often I am good, too. But I cannot claim to have always been good. Neither would I want to claim I will never do anything stupid ever again. I know myself too well! So relying on my goodness as the sole means of sharing the gospel at all times seems a tad flimsy.
Also, people hate frauds. Adopting the strategy to deliver our message purely through our exemplary lives risks those around us resenting what can be interpreted as brazen elitism. The moment we put a foot wrong, our strategy backfires as we are seen to be a sham.
Now, I must acknowledge that neither Francis nor NeoWesleyan actually said “Never use words”. Their argument is that words only be used where necessary. My concern is that words are necessary a lot; and not just by evangelists. Only with our words can we articulate our dependence on God’s forgiveness and kindness. By verbalising God’s goodness in our lives and the universal availability of that wonderful goodness, we avoid the pitfalls of perceived elitism.
Kindness
In this light our kindnesses can be appreciated by those around us and indeed point to the God who fills our lives with love. Those referring cynically to us being “do-gooders” and “holier than thou” can thus be minimised and those appreciating us as simply real, honest, kind neighbours and friends can take the overwhelming majority.
I cannot resist just remarking on how sad it is that “do-gooder” is seen as a negative thing. “Just look at those people going around doing all that good. Why can’t they destroy stuff and hurt people?” Crazy isn’t it?
What about evangelists?
So what can those who follow Jesus, but not called to the particular job of “evangelist” leave to those who are? Well, as an evangelist myself, it seems that the particular gifting I have is to connect with all sorts of people. My understanding of the work of the evangelist does not involve going up to strangers to preach at them. I have never seen that succeed; only alienate and irritate! Normally, the only people who really hear the good news about Jesus are those who want to because they know and care about the people who have that good news to share. Evangelism seldom happens with strangers. What makes an evangelist an evangelist is their habit of making lots of friends easily such that few people remain strangers for long. So, the thing that can be left to the evangelists is making quite so many friends.
Leave it to the ones with the gift?
No follower of Jesus is excused from sharing their faith, and if their faith is such a wonderful thing, why would they want to be? It is slightly disingenuous to point out there are only three occurrences in the Bible of the word “evangelism” and thus imply evangelism’s unimportance. What about Jesus’ commissioning passages of Matthew 28 v.19 and Mark 16 v.15? What about Paul’s connection between our verbal confession and our salvation in Romans 10 vv.9-10 or his description that we are all to be ambassadors of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5 v.20? What about how the gospel is the footwear of the armour of God in which everyone is urged to be clothed as in Ephesians 6 v.15? I could go on.
All followers of Jesus have the privilege and duty of sharing their faith. This does not mean blurting sound bites to strangers. But neither does it mean relying only on godly lifestyles and praying that a gifted evangelist might come along at some point with the right words. We should seek to demonstrate heaven on earth in all of our words and actions. Our commission to share our faith should not be borne as a terrible burden and, yes, there are people with whom you might not make a connection. What a relief it is that none of us are the only Christian in the village!
purplepreacher 