We Know the Truth, but We Aren’t Talking About It
Many church leaders are recognizing a heartbreaking reality. We have received the good news of the Gospel but we’re not actually communicating that good news. Paul writes to the church in Corinth that we are compelled by love in particular because we know if Jesus died for all, then those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the One who died for them and was raised.
Research shows that Protestant churchgoers in the United States and Canada as a whole are not telling this good news message. According to Paul, part of our new life is that we have been commissioned by God to reconcile the world to Himself through Christ. So we’ve been reconciled to become agents of reconciliation. Unfortunately, most Christians have become cul-de-sacs on the Great Commission highway.
In the Transformational Discipleship study, we asked 3,000 protestant churchgoers how many times they had personally shared with another person how to become a Christian. Sixty-one percent said that they had never shared their faith. Zero times. Forty-eight percent said they hadn’t invited anyone to church during that period of time.
Evangelism has become an afterthought for many believers.
Evangelism has become an afterthought for many believers. They invite their friends to church at a better rate. But inviting friends to church is not evangelism. It could be a step in evangelism, but evangelism involves a bloody cross and an empty tomb. It involves us telling people about the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The reality is when we look at the facts, most people aren’t doing that. They know the Gospel, but they aren’t sharing it.
Why Are People Not Sharing Their Faith?
When you find that people aren’t doing what they should be doing, there are bound to be reasons and/or excuses. In the case of evangelism, there are even objections to the way others are doing it. “Well, I don’t like the way some people evangelize. It’s too reductionistic, or too canned.” So they make all these objections on the means and yet they don’t have any alternative ways for sharing the Gospel.
When someone complained about the way he did evangelism, D.L. Moody supposedly responded, “I like the way I do evangelism better than the way you don’t do evangelism.”
We have to find a way to get the Gospel out. There are plenty of organizations that have put out great and accessible tools. People can always find faults with these means.
We can always find a reason to not engage the lost, but at the end of the day, excuses don’t win souls. But in all of those things what we find is people have to find courage, obedience, willingness, to take the step and to use those means. Use the tools or don’t. But share the Gospel.
On the other side people say, “Culture is too resistant. People don’t want to hear the Gospel.” Yet the reality is the opposite. Our studies show that younger adults are more willing to have spiritual conversations than older adults. They’re turned off by the church, but not by spiritual conversations.
