Extracted and modified from Elizabeth Rzepka’s article in RM Magazine 2022
The cultural chasm between the disciples of Jesus and the average person on the street has become vast. If you find spaces where you can listen to other people speak about their worldview, you will likely find that your approach to daily life as a Christian is so foreign it’s like you’re living on another planet.
As many of us stand at the precipice of that chasm, looking at the souls on the other side who desperately need Jesus, we are confronted with an important question: How do I evangelize today?
We need to be honest about the landscape, accepting that we will encounter people who are devastatingly broken, wounded, and distrustful (people who will struggle to conceptualize the goodness of what is offered in Christ). Here are a handful of things that I believe are essential to consider for the question at hand:
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We underestimate what is possible in us by God’s grace.
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We need radical dependence on God and constancy in prayer.
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We need to look more like Jesus in all our relationships and in every encounter with another person.
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We need deep humility.
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We need the willingness to invest deeply, relationally, and for the long haul in people who don’t know Jesus.
It is critically important that we begin by deepening our understanding of a fundamental truth: through the grace of baptism, the Holy Trinity indwells your soul. The triune God, who created the universe, who created you, who loves you, who conquered death, divinely indwells your soul!
Now ask yourself, do you live (and evangelize) out of a sincere, deeply held belief that almighty God indwells your soul? God is intimate with us and available to guide our evangelistic endeavors, infuse them with grace, and multiply our efforts to make them supernaturally fruitful. He also is exceedingly able to help us navigate the relational difficulties that arise from so much brokenness and moral upheaval.
By grace and by his power, it is possible to imitate his perfect love towards those who are broken and trapped in sin, while not compromising our own faith. Jesus wasn’t safe when He died on the cross to save us. He doesn’t call us to be safe. But Jesus does say that if we die with Him, we will also rise with Him.
We need to normalize asking God for everything. He knows exactly who we should talk to when we should talk to them, and how we should talk to them. So, we should ask Him who is all-knowing to help us. Pray that God gives you his heart, equips you with his words, and gives you the grace to imitate Him in your words and actions in every encounter with the lost.
The virtue of humility is at work when we entrust things to Jesus, when we understand that we can do nothing apart from Him, and when we understand that He alone knows everything, and we do not. Humility is also approachable; in the face of great woundedness, it enables trust.
In the Gospel, Jesus invites us to radically care for our neighbor, who has been stripped and left for dead by robbers (cf. Lk 10:25-37). How radical is our love for our neighbor, who has been stripped of life by sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil? What is needed is a profound commitment to the lost in our midst—a commitment to showing up for our neighbor day in and day out, perhaps for years, in ways that build trust, restore brokenness, heal wounds, and pave the way to receiving the Good News of Jesus Christ.
When we think of radically loving our neighbor in this way, it can be daunting. The investment is a whole-life kind of investment. I’ll share one of the best pieces of advice I ever received: build the kingdom like Jesus did. Jesus primarily poured into twelve men and then even more deeply into three of those twelve. And those twelve men changed the world. This challenged me to always ask, “Who are my twelve? Who are my three?”
Rzepka, E. (2022, November 19). How to evangelize today. Renewal Ministries. https://www.renewalministries.net/how-to-evangelize-today/
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