Enjoying Evangelism

I like David a lot. We became friends a few months ago when I moved to the Los Angeles area. Whenever we hang out, we talk about injustice in our neighborhood, basketball, music we like, and his disinterest in God. I’ve grown to appreciate that he doesn’t treat me awkwardly because I follow Jesus.

To be honest though, most of the time I don’t like evangelizing to David. It seems inconvenient, intrusive, and an extremely fear-filled endeavor. I think this is a very sad problem I have that is due to misconceptions of what evangelism, the gospel, and ultimately Jesus are all about.

Lately, ruminating on the stories of scripture and my relationships with people like David, is forcing me to rethink the dreadful e-word. I wonder if it should be different than so many televangelists and Christian tracts have taught me. What if evangelism is about taking a deep interest in people as creative, interesting image-bearers of God, rather than just sinners desperately in need of good fire insurance? I imagine that evangelism is more about asking questions and listening than dogmatic dictation and relentless arguing. One of my new favorite things to do with David is to ask questions about the ultimate reality that frames how he thinks about injustice, understands relationships, and reflects on the beauty of the world.

This is all making me see evangelism as helping David and others take the next step towards Jesus—whatever that is for them, rather than trying to unload the New Testament in five minutes. Through this, evangelism is becoming more an adventurous journey of joining in the way that God is at work in those around me, rather than trying to “fix” David in one conversation.

So, I’m starting to rethink what it means to evangelize to my friends like David. I realize that we create a lens everyday with our work and words through which people understand the gospel that we proclaim with our lips. As I see my life as part of the process of evangelism and invite people towards real, authentic life in Jesus, I can walk on the road towards enjoying evangelism afresh. I look forward to seeing what this could mean for David.

Today’s post is a guest post from Pastor Trey Clark. Pastor Trey is the youth minister at South Bay Church of God in Torrance, California.