Went street evangelizing in Broadripple with 8 other people tonight. Mostly with Tom Miyakawa and his son, Evan. My thoughts....
* Humbling. At one point, Evan and I went around passing out cards. He and I went together because I was the "adult". Hah. Such irony. He's a sophomore in high school. I'm a sophomore parent. You would think I would be the one to have it all together, especially since I have memorized a lot of verses and listened to a lot of sermons. Hah. He's a stud. 240 lbs, 6' 4'', middle linebacker with a full beard? Not exactly. More like 5' 6", 140 lbs, left defender on his soccer team. Major stud. The young man loves the Lord with all his heart. He's mature way beyond his years. He knows the Word. He walks it out. He goes out regularly to do contact evangelism, not to mention walking his faith out on a day-to-day basis. I am envious. Envious of his unashamed love for the Lord, his lack of fear of man, his passion to serve the Lord. Especially his lack of fear of man. He doesn't fear man because he loves his Lord and worships the only holy God.
* Testing. Heard a guy talking with the barista at Starbucks about the Bible while I was talking with someone else. I really did not want to, but the Lord prompted me to talk to him. I went up afterward and tried to probe into his questions but he was very uninterested in talking. Since we were up near the bar, the barista threatened to call the cops on me. The first time in a while. I apologized profusely and mentioned I was merely trying to encourage the man's faith. So I left. My spirit was troubled though. A mingling of the fear of man and feeling like I did something wrong or against the rules. We went back to Starbucks to warm up and again apologized to the barista and I discovered the man I was trying to talk to had some major mental disorders and has had fits of screaming obscenities and the barista was just trying to avoid that. I then talked to the barista for about 15 minutes. I planted some seeds.
* Learning. I am learning a lot about sharing my faith. Contact evangelism is not primarily aimed at drilling the gospel into everyone's soul. As Tom Miyakawa says, "People are where they are." He demonstrates this fact by explaining a story from a few months ago. He chatted with a guy on the street who was selling some stuff. Tom asked him if he ever thought about what happens when we die, he said now. He then asked him if he ever thought about God, the man said no. At this point, Tom realized that this guy is probably not going to commit his life to Christ at that moment. So he just tried to plant some seeds. The next people he went up to was a group of a few people. Tom asked if there was anything he could pray for. One guy said yes, that he knew he needed to pray for salvation. Then one of his friend did the same. People are where they are. The primary goal of contact evangelism is to "move the peg". That may mean ushering in someone to salvation. That may mean getting someone to think about God. Tom also mentioned some fact that it takes an average of 7.2 gospel presentations before someone might accept. The average is not one, but the average is not 100.
I also learned it's easier as you go. While I put my full faith in the Holy Spirit to give me the words in the moment, I also need to practice. I can't use tools that are not in my toolbox. The Lord can supernaturally at times provide tools, but often times works through means. There are no world renowned violin players who woke up one day and became world renowned violin players. God certainly gifts some to be musical and some to not be, but He often works through the means. For example, He maybe gets that world renowned violin player to meet lots of people and learn discipline and perseverance through the years and years of practice. Not sure I'm making much sense at this hour, but my point is that the Lord will gift me in evangelizing as I practice. He's a good Father and will guide me along the way.
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