By Eddie Gibbs

Senior Professor
Fuller Theological Seminary
California

Most of us are crippled by our sense of inadequacy when it comes to sharing God’s Good News with our family, neighbours, friends, and the people we encounter in the course of daily life. Our failure to accept the mission that God has entrusted to every member of his church, whether we like it or not, arises from any one of a number of causes.

We may compare our feeble and bumbling efforts with the clear and winsome communication skills of the gifted evangelist. We mistakenly conclude, “If that’s what it takes, then I don’t qualify. Let’s leave it to the experts, rather than make a mess of it ourselves!”

Our message may also be lost in translation. The Good News that we share among ourselves within church circles is expressed in “churchspeak”, which we are unable to translate into plain language. We have all experienced being on the receiving end of jargon-laden conversation with car-mechanics, computer geeks, or doctors. We didn’t understand a word of it, but we came away better informed! We are at ease talking among ourselves within the religious “club” but suddenly become tongue-tied in the company of those who don’t know our language.

Others of us may opt out simply due to lack of motivation. I’m regular in church attendance, and made my personal commitment to Christ some time ago – perhaps in the dim distant past. But if I am honest, it hasn’t made a significant difference in my life. I was stopped in my tracks and received God’s forgiveness as I confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord. I turned to face a different direction, but I haven’t traveled very far in a new direction since that day. My life raises no questions. It does not spark people’s curiosity. To them, I am simply a person with a religious interest that is a private matter and of little consequence to the rest of my life.

A further obstacle arises because of a feeling of isolation in the midst of a hostile or complacent atmosphere. We are intimidated into silence about our faith. As the old saying goes, if you want to stop a conversation in its tracks just mention either politics or religion.

Despite the obstacles I have mentioned – and no doubt there are many more we could raise – we do not have the option of leaving it to the experts. We celebrate the special gifting of the evangelist, but he or she does not intimidate us. There is more than one way to communicate the gospel, and each and every one of us has a role to play. Witness is not a solo performance, but the choral statement of the whole church. Therefore, let us see if we can dismantle some of the obstacles.

In the first place, you don’t have to be a gifted orator or entertaining conversationalist in order to be an effective witness. Most people are won to Christ through an ongoing relationship with a Christian friend. Jesus himself could draw a crowd, but notice how much emphasis is placed on his one-on-one conversations in the four Gospels. Jesus was never too busy or preoccupied to stop and engage with individuals in need.

The language we use will either turn people on or turn them away. Throughout the New Testament, the Good News was powerfully communicated in ideas and word picture that resonated with people.

Jesus taught by means of stories that conveyed a meaning to those who were truly seeking. The message that God’s long-awaited kingdom has finally arrived in the person of Jesus was a hot topic among Palestinian Jews. But that language would have been received with blank looks among the non-Jewish people of the Mediterranean world. So the early missionaries had to find a new way of communicating the message. They opted for “Jesus is Lord,” i.e. a rival Caesar. That got people’s attention as well as getting them into a great deal of trouble. The Good News for our time signifies living God’s future now, as we recognize and submit to Jesus’ authority over the whole of life.

Our motivation has been severely eroded because we have succumbed to a watered down and restricted gospel. It is not just a message about life after death, but of a transformed life before death. Unfortunately, evangelization has become separated from disciple-making. The turnaround point of conversion is meant to lead to a life-long journey in a different direction, following in the steps of Christ. We are not expected to make this adventurous and arduous journey alone, but in company with others who also are learning as they go.

Church was never intended to be restricted to a weekly gathering of consumer Christians, but as a seven-day-a-week community of active witnesses, demonstrating and explaining a life-transforming message. We need the support of two or three other Christ-followers so that we can encourage one another and apply our faith to the tough and perplexing challenges we face in living into our faith on a daily basis.

What about those of us who cannot point to a time and place when our lives were turned around? In our experience there was no single dramatic moment that we can point to, but rather a gradual realization, or a series of steps over a period of time. First, recognize that you are in the majority! Second, in order to have a testimony to share you don’t need to know when you were born again, simply that you know now that you are alive in Christ!