Evangelism: (Part I)

A little different approach

Quoting scripture about the fact that we should witness is easy: applying that scripture to our lives is a little tougher. A few years ago, I was working on a job-site in Israel and the opportunity to sprinkle some seed was all around, but I have to tell you, that in the environment that I was in, it seemed nearly impossible. Here were some of the factors that were weighing in against me:

The contractor that hired me to work on the job was a self-proclaimed Christian, who set the tone on the site by lying, cheating, and eventually going bankrupt. He would often tell the Israeli co-workers that he was a Christian so he wouldn’t drink, or work on Sunday (Saturday, is their day off), etc. His ‘witness’ left a very bad taste in the mouths of my fellow workers. I cringed at many of his statements, and I prayed that they would see him as the confused man that he turned out to be.

Where I was outside of Tel Aviv, most of the people I had come in contact with were, at best, agnostics. Within the Jewish communities, many went to synagogues as children, but had long since left temple attendance. There was a small faction of orthodox Jews in the workplace, but most Israelis had great disdain for them because of things like they wouldn’t serve in the military like the rest of the Israeli citizens. The Arab workers were a mix of atheists, Muslims, and Christians. The Arab Christians were of the Greek Orthodox variety, and spoke almost no English. I was alone in a strange land, with no real support of friends, family, churches, even missionaries. I felt like God was telling me: "Okay Doug! You believe in Me, but now you are going to have to trust in Me too!"

To me, witnessing takes on two parts: the most important is following God’s lead and going where He calls us to go. Doing this takes knowledge of how God works, who God is, and how He motivates us. Life is an open opportunity, so we need to be prepared to listen to God’s calling on a moment’s notice. The second is in making the Gospel tangible to humanity. The first part leads us out of our comfort zone and requires us to have faith that God will guide us. The latter part draws upon our own experiences to relate to the human condition. Balancing these two is always a bit of a trick. In a foreign land, this was even more of an issue.

I might write a book on my experiences in Israel some day, but for now I wanted to talk about a couple of approaches I used to open up the Gospel to atheists, agnostics, and other-faith friends. Firstly, I wanted point out that these people are my friends: they opened their homes, and made me very welcome. I am thankful for their graciousness and courtesy. They helped to make a very bad year in my life a lot better. I still keep in touch with many of them, and seeds continue to be planted.

I have a couple more posts planned here, so bear with me. The next will be on using the Practicality of a loving God to witness. I will then want to post about what I like to call the Good, better, best God.

God Bless
Doug