THE PRESSURE TO GET IT RIGHT

You’ve heard the phrase, “Go into all the world…” or, “Make disciples of every nation…”

What about this one?

The pressure to get it right keeps us from experiencing God’s grace and moves us to strive to earn His grace.

“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.” 1 Peter 3:15-16

As long as I can remember, the churches I have been a part of are coming up with different “tips and tricks” to evangelism. The basic understanding is that people coming to faith in Jesus is dependent on me “winning” them to Jesus. It’s all up to me. I have to explain it correctly, tell the right story, or take advantage of every situation. Discipleship courses and personal evangelism classes focus on my responsibility. Eventually, we turn the focus away from the Holy Spirit’s work and focus on our effective communication. We either get so good at manipulating people to make a decision or become so distressed because of our lack of “conversions”.

Many times it all depends on our ability at sales. Can we sell? Can we convince? Can we get people to do what we want? Many times, we have no need of the drawing power of the Holy Spirit. We become that good at convincing people to “come to Jesus.”

When I was 15, I had just beat cancer. I had life. I felt the pressure to get it right from then on. I became a goody goody who always had the answers and was able to convince people of anything – or so I thought. One day, my friends and I decided to go to an amusement park in Costa Rica. With my new chance at life, I decided to take every opportunity I had to convince people about Jesus. Then, we went to the Ferris Wheel. My friends all paired up with each other, leaving me by myself. The ride attendant was looking for 1 rider to join someone else and I volunteered. As I stepped in, the other rider was a girl, my age. The strangest thing happened. I ignored her and started the ride. It was all going to be ok…until…the ride stopped. We were at the top of the Ferris Wheel and for the next 45 minutes we sat in silence as we waited for the crew to fix the problem and get us out. 45 minutes of silence. The whole time I knew I should say something. I did say hi and something like, “this is terrible.” But, other than that – nothing. I wasn’t thinking about being friendly. All I could think about was, “I need to tell her about Jesus, I need to tell her about Jesus.” Trying to muster up my guts to tell this girl about Jesus, I was trying to come up with an icebreaker. “What if we never get off this Ferris wheel? Are you sure you’ll go to heaven?” Or maybe, “What if there’s a malfunction and we fall to our death? Do you know Jesus?” All crazy, over the top questions that would fuel fear and manipulate her into heaven. I sat there. Silence. Once they got us off the ride and I ran to find my friends, I was so disappointed in myself. I let an opportunity for evangelism go by. She will probably spend her eternity in hell because of me. These thoughts haunted me for years. I couldn’t believe I did that!

Here’s the problem with my experience. I put so much pressure on myself to “win” her to Jesus that I ignored the Holy Spirit’s work and His drawing people to Himself. Scripture says to make disciples, not to make converts. It says to invite others to meet Jesus, not scare them into heaven with scare tactics. Jesus is life, He is not a get out of hell card or a lift (Lyft) ticket to go up the mountain. We rob people from long term peace and faith when we try to pick fruit that is non-existent or fruit that is not ready.

Jesus Himself said that the harvest is plentiful. We can be sensitive and aware of His working in people’s lives and the questions they would have about our faith and Jesus’ work in our own lives. He is way more powerful than we give Him credit for. He is the great Redeemer and Lover of our souls. He can do way more than we ever could.

So how do we share our faith in a way that doesn’t cut God out of the picture?

First evangelism is not as complicated as we think. It is not a program that our church puts on to knocks on doors and give people the hard sell to Jesus. It is not an activity that we plan during certain times. It is not and event – it’s a way of life. If Jesus has done anything in your life; If He has made a difference in the way you live, work, play, eat, sleep, spend, and relax, then you can share Him during any mundane or routine activity. His fruit in your life will be evident. He will draw people to Himself with or without you.

Second, we need to follow Jesus ourselves before we can point people to Him. He is not a prayer or a good luck charm we dole out to those around us. He invites us into a deep relationship with Him. He draws us deeper and deeper into experiencing a life of grace and hope. As He does, we can share our experience with others. Many people feel pressure to run out and share Jesus without first experiencing Him.

Third, getting into Scripture is one of the most powerful things anyone can do. We have to get into Scripture in order for Scripture to get into us. The more we learn about God through Scripture, the more our daily lives are impacted by Jesus. The more we allow the Spirit to guide our Scripture reading experience, the more comfortable we will become in sharing what Jesus has done for us.

So, can we be ready to share the hope that is in us? Absolutely. Should we be ready to make a hard sale of Jesus? Surely not. We can be confident in our relationship with Him in order to be ready to answer questions about our Faith journey.

Get comfortable with Jesus. Don’t keep it a secret.

Ray Rhoton