On Evangelism

 

 

 

This past Saturday I attended the Antiochian Men's (AMEN) breakfast at my parish, with a talk by my former priest (he is now retired) Fr. Stephen Rodgers.

Fr. Stephen's talk was on how to share the Gospel with unbelievers and/or non-Orthodox. It was quite the edifying talk with a few points made that stood out to me.

For many Orthodox converts, the word evangelism, or evangelical, can be a dirty word - especially for those who come from an Evangelical background. However, evangelism means to share the Gospel. An evangelist is someone who is a bringer of good news. Quite literally, an evangelist is a messenger of the Gospel - the Greek "eu" meaning "good" and "angelos" meaning "messenger" or "one who announces" - a messenger of good, or one who announces good.

One thing that Fr. Stephen said is that evangelism is inevitable. And when you think about it, this is true whether it is good evangelism or bad evangelism. When the world knows that we are Christians, the world tends to judge our actions, and our speech. Our responsibility to be evangelists is not optional.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew Chapter 5 we are told to let our light shine before men, and later in Chapter 28 we read the Great Commission - to go forth and make disciples of all nations. To be a Christian is to be an evangelist. We are called by God to be messengers.

The most effective tool of evangelism is how we live our lives. Like I stated above, the world judges us based off of our words and actions. If we continue to live our lives like we belong to the rest of the world, then we are telling the world that their actions and speech are OK. But, if we live our lives like truly changed beings, the rest of the world will take notice.

This, of course, is a struggle. It is hard to live in the world, but not to be a part of the world. We are fallen beings, and we will stumble and fall in our endeavor to become restored beings. But we should not feel disheartened when we do stumble, nor should we feel discouraged when the world is constantly against us and shows us our shortcomings. Instead, we should keep on trying to live our lives the way Christ wants us to.

Fear and pride are the biggest hindrances to our evangelism; fear of what others might think of us - how harshly they'll judge us when we fail - and pride in that we might think that we are better than others because we have discovered the truth while others wallow in darkness.

The antidote to fear is gratitude. When we take time out of our day to be grateful for the things that God has provided for us, grateful for the things God has done for us, we will grow our faith. Faith will cast out fear. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Psalm 22:4.

The antidote to pride is repentance. When we stop to take a look at our lives and see what we need to repent for, we will realize that we are not perfect beings. We are really no better than those of the world for our sins are innumerable.

To effectively combat fear and pride we should start each day by being thankful and showing gratitude, and then end each day with a review of our shortcomings. This will help to purge fear and pride because we will see that we have nothing to fear, and nothing to be proud of.

Our goal, when evangelizing, should not be to bring people to Orthodoxy, but either to Jesus, or closer to Jesus. Orthodoxy is the complete way to know Jesus, but we need to make sure that Jesus stays the center of the conversation.

Naturally, if we are thirsty we would appreciate a full glass of water, but if we are parched, even a sip will help.

In bringing others to Christ, we should focus on bringing them to Jesus - or helping other Christians be closer to Christ - and hope that as they come closer that our example of living an Orthodox life will bring them to the fullness of faith.

This does not mean that we do not talk about the Orthodox Church at all, but that we have our focus on our salvation - Jesus Christ.

One of the sayings that I really detest is, "Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship." In reality, it is both. Our religion is not just a set of doctrines and rules, but a relationship. True, we do have doctrines and rules, but we should never neglect our relationship with Jesus. Christianity is a religion, and a relationship. In focusing on our relationship with Jesus we will naturally start to follow the rules set for by Him and His Church.

Before we share our faith with others we need to examine our motivations. Our motivation for sharing our faith should be love for God and our fellow man. If we love God then we will follow His commands; if we love our fellow man then we will want him to share in our salvation. Never should we speak the truth with anger and hate; as fun as it may be, we should not just run around calling people heretics or other derisive names - if they receive only hate from us, then they will return hate to us.

More than half of effective evangelism is listening. The most effective tool of evangelism is knowing the other person. We need to listen more than we speak. God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. When we truly know someone and listen to what they have to say, we can know where to start a conversation - again, letting the other person speak more while we listen and answer their questions.

When we do share our beliefs we should always speak in the first person. "I am an Orthodox Christian because..." and not, "You should become Orthodox because..." When you're speaking in the first person you are sharing your experience and you're being less adversarial. Do not frame conversations in right versus wrong; rather we should discuss the fullness of the faith versus the partiality of the faith. Hailing back to the water analogy - a full cup of water is what is needed, a sip of water will hopefully tide us over. The Orthodox Church is the fullness of faith.

Salvation has been framed as justification, and sin as evil. Instead, we should frame salvation as a restoration; a restoration of man to how man was initially made, how man is supposed to be, restoration from a fallen being.

Also, life is to be enjoyed. We can have fun, we can laugh, we can play games. This is not to say that we should be given over to depravity and hedonism. Everything in moderation. Being able to enjoy life shows that we are not a part of a religion that is just doctrines and rules, and that our religion is not some dour experience that involves only pain and suffering. The rules and doctrines that we have are there to help us achieve a closeness to Jesus - we are not to be overly legalistic, and neither should we apply legalism to others when we fail to live up to those standards.

The Incarnation has changed everything. God became man so that man might become God. God has partaken of our nature that we might partake of His divine nature. When Jesus died and resurrected, He was not merely a sacrifice so that our debt to God would be paid; no, when Jesus died and resurrected He also defeated Death.

Western theology is often framed as judicial - or like that of a courtroom. There is an angry God who has been wronged, and things must be put right. Jesus came and paid that price for us.

Eastern theology is framed as therapeutic - or like that of a hospital. We are fallen beings, separated from our Creator. Jesus has come and offered the way to be restored. We are not inherently evil, we are damaged by the fall.

Lastly, we need to know our faith. This does not mean that we all need to hold a PhD in Orthodox studies and have written a doctoral dissertation on Orthodox theology, but that we need to have a good understanding of our faith - not just so that we may speak of these things, but that we may live these things.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, the sinner.