Following Jesus as his disciples means learning from him and doing what he did for us. Jesus was the one who reached out and drew us into a relationship with God. It is the very nature of God to desire a close and intimate relationship with us. In both the Old and New Testament we hear God speaking and acting with a desire and intention that his people no longer be estranged from him. In the book of Acts we read of the early church as it took the message of Jesus and shared it with many people. Whilst we may find it uncomfortable we cannot ignore the fact that this same ministry of evangelism is ours today.
Our preferred method of evangelism is through intentional relationships, where we share faith with our friends and family. After all, if these are the people that we love and care for the most, don’t we want them to have the very best in life, including a relationship with Jesus Christ? Relationship evangelism involves deepening relationships with others for the sake of the relationship, not to see them as a project. In effect we say that we will befriend and love the other, even if they were to say, “no I don’t want and never will want to be a follower of Jesus.” This is the way Jesus loves us, this is the way of grace. This way honours and respects the other person.
Along with having at least one intentional relationship we also need to be cultivating a wide range of acquaintances and practicing a lifestyle of goodness toward others. This includes being willing to chat with complete strangers, being pleasant and warm to people who serve us, being interested in the lives and sharing conversations with people that we come across infrequently. We cultivate these encounters, because through them we may find the one intentional relationship that God has for us.
The impact of the purpose on our congregation will be to raise the value of evangelism within our congregation. We will provide resources and training to help people share their faith, such as the Just walk across the room study we did last year. We will create groups to which people can invite their pre-Christian friends. We will pray for each other as we share faith and we will pray for those to whom we are reaching out.
Yet for us to do these, we need to first have a faith that is growing and of which we are passionate. When we are being ever more excited by our faith, we will be more willing to share our faith. Evangelism starts with the work of the Spirit in us, and then flows through us as we participate with God in his work of drawing people into him.
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