Evangelism by Invitation
© February 2003
© August 2003,
revised edition
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Evangelism has always been a difficult business. As we move
from the modern age into the postmodern world, it seems to have become even
more complex. How does one “do” evangelism in the postmodern world? Are there
any principles that help us understand evangelism in this new context? Should
we just give up? Should we just try harder? Should we simply continue to
evangelize using the same methods we have used for the last half century? I
would like to try to respond to some of these questions from what I have been
learning by experience, study, and observation of effective ministry in
postmodern
Contrary to its fame as the “graveyard of missions,” I hold
out much hope for
We Need to Be Invited to the Party
Evangelism is a supernatural process. In reality, it is God
who brings people to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. It has never
been our cleverness, our techniques, our booklets, or our persuasiveness. Had we the “eyes” to see, we could more clearly
understand that, in the spiritual realm, our most effective evangelistic
opportunities, regardless of method, are simply obedient responses to the
Father’s invitation to enter into a ministry which He had already begun. In fact, we
see in the Word that even Jesus waited for the Father to invite him into
ministry.
In John 4, Jesus strikes up an interesting conversation with
a Samaritan woman. What begins as a simple conversation about a drink of water
ends up as a town revival meeting. Let’s look again at this most familiar
encounter.
Jesus opens his conversation with the woman by making a most
uncommon request: “Give me a drink.” Recognizing the unusual circumstances, she immediately brings their religious differences
into the picture: “You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan
woman?” Since she wants to talk and has brought up the subject, Jesus throws
out a big hook to see if she will bite: “If you knew the gift of God, and who
it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He
would have given you living water.” This spiritual conversation continues even
though she has a tendency to go down rabbit trails, while Jesus skillfully
keeps pointing her back to himself and to his offer of eternal life. To
demonstrate his credibility, Jesus then ends the conversation by making some
amazing prophetic statements which cause the woman to return and invite the men
of the town to what becomes a revival meeting.
Salvation comes to a Samaritan village.
Where was the invitation from God? It came in several parts.
First, Jesus “tested the waters” by asking provocative questions to determine
whether or not God was at work. Had the woman merely refused or grunted:
“Here!” Jesus would likely have taken a drink, wiped his mouth with his sleeve,
said thanks, and waited for the disciples to return. However, God had something
else in mind. The woman brought up spiritual issues, indicating to a discerning
Jesus that, indeed, God was up to something and inviting Jesus to participate
with Him. Jesus waited until he saw that the Father was at work and then joined
him in that work.
Then, the Father’s invitation, implicit in the woman’s
reaction, became explicit in the request and response of the townspeople in
John
So
when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking [inviting] him to stay with them; and He stayed there two
days. Many more believed because of His word.
In John 5, we see the same principle demonstrated. Jesus is
in
Jesus strikes up a conversation.
The other person responds to the
conversation in an affirmative manner.
Jesus offers to demonstrate spiritual
power.
Again, the person responds positively.
Jesus then acts, joining with the
Father, and God’s work gets done.
This is a similar pattern to Jesus’ interaction with the
Samaritan woman at the well. But, in this second incident, the local
“spirituality police” decide that Jesus isn’t working according to their ideas
of spiritual correctness. After a thorough investigation, they complain about
his apparent infraction, to which Jesus responds:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless
it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these
things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and
shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these
will He show Him, that you may marvel. (John 5: 19-20)
There was something in these interactions that Jesus saw as
the Father at work. What was the Father doing? What did Jesus notice? Where was
the invitation?[1] There
certainly wasn’t an audible voice from the sky, at least not in this instance.
Jesus did, however, seem to be highly sensitive to God coloring normal, every
day situations with the supernatural. When he recognized signs of God’s
presence, he assumed that the Father was inviting him to move forward. Thus,
one principle is simply this: When people respond positively to conversation
about the supernatural or spirituality or, in fact, bring up the subject
themselves, we need to move forward confidently yet sensitively, trying to
discern whether or not God is inviting us to participate with what he is already
doing.
Jesus moved into these situations in natural ways watching
for a response. He didn’t force his way with a one-size-fits-all gospel
presentation. He certainly didn’t preach to people when they didn’t want to
listen.[2]
But he did preach. He was not passive and, as a result, found himself in all
sorts of conversations about spiritual things. He was on the lookout for
opportunities opened up by the Father; opportunities in which the Father was
already at work. He did what the Father was doing “in like manner.” And,
according to John, Jesus knew that being invited into ministry was an
expression of the Father’s love for Him. To participate in the Father’s work
was marvelous.
To be effective in evangelism, we need to be invited to the
party by the Father. We should not initiate ministry unless we discern that God
has opened the door for us, that He has invited us to do ministry. If God is
not at work, why would we want to do it in the first place?
We Need to Discern the Father’s Invitations
What does an invitation from the Father look like? To be
sure, there is no formula, but, like Jesus, we can look for signs of God’s
presence. Sometimes, we may be well into the process before we realize, “Wow,
God is at work here.” Friends of mine, Bill and Jane, experienced this in a
clear way.
It began with a simple request from their daughter that they
host a foreign exchange student in their home. The first student they hosted, a
young man from the Basque country of
Sometimes the Father invites us to the party through prayer.
A few years ago, I had a strong conviction to pray about entering into a
specific ministry. At first I was uncertain. Was I hearing from God or from my
own flesh? Did I want to do this because I wanted to be important and
significant, or was God really speaking to me? In the absence of clear
confirmation, I simply prayed. Soon, God began to confirm this through other
people. Though I had not told anyone about my prayer burden, people began to
call me to talk about this particular type of ministry. They asked if they
could be involved with me though I had said nothing about it to them or to
anyone else.
My prayer then became: “God, bring five couples to be
involved in this with us.” Although the first couple had contacted me within a
month, I still felt it could take years to find the remaining four couples.
However, within a ten-day period, four additional couples had contacted me, two
of which I hade never even met. In ten days God had accomplished what I thought
might take years. Before long, there were ten couples involved, each of which
initiated the contact. From that beginning, an ongoing church planting ministry
has evolved. God confirmed, through answers to prayer, that the burden I felt was,
indeed, an invitation to go through a door that he had opened. He continues to
bless this ministry to this day.
What might have happened had I simply plowed ahead on my own
to initiate this ministry? What if I had gotten on the phone and called
everyone I knew, twisting people’s arms to join me? Would the same supernatural
confirmation and subsequent blessing have occurred? I don’t think so. God
blesses what he is doing, not what we want him (or others) to do.
Sometimes the Father invites us to the party though
prophecy. Though my own spiritual formation took place in a context where this
type of event is not accepted, I have personally seen it happen. While at a
conference in October, 2002, a colleague with a prophetic ministry gave a
prophecy to a man named Ignacio, one which had a few key elements:
Ignacio’s name was ‘General’ which
meant he was a strategist.
He was to help strategically lead a house
church movement just getting started in
He was to join with certain people
(specifically named) already involved with this movement and develop a
father/son relationship with them.
He was to go through a brief, very
difficult period in the near future, but he wasn’t to despair because this
period would end.
The man who gave the prophecy did not know Ignacio.
Actually, very few people at the conference knew him. Until this point in the
conference, Ignacio had not said a word and had been rather reserved. He
certainly wasn’t standing out as the “big leader” type.
At that point, I approached Ignacio, whom I had only spoken
to once by phone. Asking him how he was doing, it was clear he was quite
emotional because many of the prophecy’s specific points had deep and
significant meaning for him. I asked him if he would like to go outside and
pray together. As we prayed and talked, I became very impressed with Ignacio’s
clear giftedness in ministry strategy and vision. Though he was relatively
young, I was surprised by his breadth of experience. Ignacio had come to the
conference because he was convinced that there was something missing
strategically in the way church was currently being done in
As we spoke, I became convinced that this young man was
divinely-appointed to lead a Spanish “house church” movement. I told him that I
felt that he needed to get in contact with the leaders of the house church
movement in
“Oh, I’m moving to
“Where in
“Schaffhausen; my wife is from there and, since she is
pregnant, we decided to move up there so she could be with her family. I have
just finished my responsibilities in the planting of a church in Extremadura. I
have come to this conference and it is the last thing we need to do before we
move.”
“Ignacio,” I said, “Schaffhausen is just across the border
from where that house church leader lives in
So I took him inside and personally introduced him to the
people I had specifically named. They struck up a friendship and promised to
meet in
The next time I saw Ignacio, after the October conference,
was in
“Sure,” he said, “We live less than ten kilometers from each
other. I see him often and since then he has taken me to
Since then, I have seen Ignacio one more time, face-to-face,
during one of his visits to
“Ignacio, how has life been for you personally?”
“It has been really difficult, one of the most difficult
times of my life.”
“Why?” I was thinking to myself that this would have been
one of the most fulfilling experiences of his life, considering how much he had
learned and the extent of his ministerial development.
“Did you know that in
“Do you think these hardships have anything to do with your
prophecy about the brief difficulties you were about to experience?”
“Oh sure, this was the fulfilling of prophecy. But I am going
to be back in
I have certainly not exhausted the ways that God invites us
to the party, nor could I. I’m not sure I know all the ways that he invites us
into ministry. He is sovereign and knows how to communicate with us. There is,
however, another invitation that is vital if we are to be effective in
evangelism in the postmodern world. This is the invitation from the person with
whom we desire to share Christ.
Getting a Party Invitation from our Postmodern Friends
In 1 Peter 3: 13-15, we find an
insight in how to witness in a seemingly hostile, postmodern environment.
And who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But
even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And
do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as
Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks
you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and
reverence.
When are we to share our faith, especially in a hostile
environment? Peter says, “When someone asks us to give an account for the hope
that is in you….” Hold on!
You mean that, in most cases, they
should ask first?
You mean they should have a reason to
ask?
You mean there has to be something in
my life, something that they see first before I share my faith?
Let me make a couple of statements about what Peter is not
saying. He is not saying we need to bone up on apologetics so we can prove we are
right through a recitation of Bible facts. He is not saying that we should
fight about every controversial public issue that seems to pop up in the
newspaper. He is not saying that having convincing scientific facts will sway
our audience. Peter is talking about quality of life, about the powerful
testimony of a life where Christ is clearly in charge. Facts are not bad or
wrong. In fact, they can be good. However, they are not nearly as convincing as
a Spirit-filled character.
Postmodern people do not appreciate someone sharing their
point of view about controversial issues, without that “someone” first being
invited to do so. This is particularly true of religious convictions. In fact,
most postmoderns wouldn’t be so kind as to use such a gentle word as “share.”
They would say something like: “Who asked you to jam your religion down my
throat?” Postmoderns have been accused of having no moral absolutes. This is
not true. They just have different moral absolutes, one of which is that you
don’t try to convert someone without an invitation. How offended are you when
someone violates your moral absolutes? Aren’t you even more offended when you
are somehow involved in the process against your will? Now perhaps you can
understand why postmoderns get so emotional when we witness to them without an
invitation.
To make it worse, the more we insist on witnessing, the more
powerful their negative reaction. Let me try to illustrate this with the
concept of a semi-permeable membrane
in a cell. In biology, a semi-permeable membrane is one that allows certain
substances to pass through while blocking others. Once a substance is permitted
through the membrane, it can do what it was designed to do within the cell.
Substances which are not permitted to pass through the membrane never affect
the inner workings of the cell.
Social contexts function in a similar manner. Someone who is
on the outside of the “social membrane” of postmoderns should recognize the
existence of a relational “semi-permeable membrane.” If this principle is
violated, and if someone speaks about spiritual things without some type of
invitation, implicit or explicit, they will be rejected and may lose whatever
potential for relationship existed to that point. However, those who have
passed through the membrane may quite possibly be welcomed to talk about
spiritual things.
The analogy of the semi-permeable membrane has many
implications and applications. First, think of the membrane as a tautly
stretched piece of latex rubber, like that used to make surgical gloves. Now,
imagine trying to push a marble through the latex. It will not pass through,
and the harder you push, the stronger the resistance. Eventually, the
resistance will cause that marble to be flung away, similar to shooting it out
of a slingshot. The harder the push, the farther the marble will sail
away. In the same manner, the harder we
press in with preaching the gospel to postmoderns who have not invited us into
the conversation, the stronger will be their rejection. I personally believe we
do more damage to the cause of Christ than good to the cause of Christ by this
type of evangelism, no matter how noble our intentions.
How does one share the gospel with a postmodern if they are
so resistant to spiritual things? Actually, they aren’t resistant to spiritual
things; they are resistant to pushiness and the violation of their moral
absolutes. In fact, postmoderns are often very open to conversations about
spirituality and are often quite open to a relationship with Christ. But, they
are only open to spiritual conversations with people who have been allowed to
pass through their “membrane.” Penetration comes by invitation and invitation
by special relationship. To witness to a postmodern from whom you have no
relationally-based invitation is an exercise in futility. They decide when, how
and with whom they will invite someone “through their membrane.” To force this
process is to invite a forceful rejection.
Ministry in the life of the postmodern comes on the basis of
the quality of our relationships and the quality of our living. All of life
should be viewed through this lens. In every relationship we possess an
opportunity to minister the life of Jesus to others, both to Christians and to
non-Christians. At the beginning of this article, the question was asked: How
does one do evangelism in the postmodern world? The answer: we don’t “do”
evangelism, we don’t “do” ministry. We live the supernatural life of Jesus. All
of life is ministry. We can not and should not dichotomize our lives into
ministry and non-ministry. Thus the onus (and privilege) is on us, as
believers, to be the fragrance of Christ (2 Cor.
Being the Fragrance of Jesus
This does not mean we have to be secretive about Jesus, who
is the focal point of our very existence. He is the author and finisher of our
faith. He is our life, the captivator of our every thought. He is the
supernatural presence that fills our souls with his love, peace and joy. We are
in love with him, and he with us. If this is how we live, it will be evident.
Then, the subject of Jesus will come up at the right time. It will be natural
and winsome rather than artificial and forced.
We can take heart; relational membranes are semi-permeable.
One can get through and, when one does, sharing our faith becomes a joy both to
the one who hears and to the one who proclaims the power of Jesus. As stated
above, penetration comes through invitation, and invitation comes through
special relationships of which there are only two: family relationships and deep
friendships. In terms of family relationships, one is born into or marries into
the family; the only remaining avenue is adoption. And, in terms of deep
friendships, no amount of insisting will create them. They only grow over time
and through free, mutual assent based on trust. But there are a number of ways
one can be invited through the membrane.
My friends Bill and Jane found a membrane-penetrating
principal when God initiated their ministry to Basque exchange students. They
recognized it when they went to
How did the penetration occur? They were informally
“adopted” by these families. Why? Bill believes he and Jane were adopted because
they had, first of all, adopted those students into their own home and family.
Because they had loved those students, they were loved and invited into their
families. Bill and Jane are still very careful with the freedom they now have.
They are aware of how precious it is. But, at the same time, I have been with
them as they boldly shared their faith. Had I, as an outsider, tried to say the
exact same things, the conversation would have ended rather abruptly or created
relationally-devastating tensions.
It is not merely the quality of the conversational content
that is important to the postmodern hearer. Rather, it is the quality of the
relationship in which the conversation takes place that gives or denies the
right to speak. This is one significant difference between evangelism from the
old “modern” viewpoint and that which occurs in the newer, postmodern world. In
the rational, modern worldview, one could often prove through rational argument
the validity of one’s position; even to someone he or she did not know. The
idea was to make the gospel simple, clear, and convincing. In point of fact, we
sometimes confused evangelism with a type of indoctrination in which we made
sure someone understood and agreed with the right “doctrines.” Evangelism, on
the other hand, is actually helping someone encounter the supernatural life and
salvation of Jesus. Postmoderns may agree that your views are rationally right
and still deny you the access necessary to change their heart. What postmoderns
really want is to see that they are loved in a way that is natural, appropriate
for the situation, and unforced.
Many years ago, I had a summer job on a wheat ranch in
Another way to penetrate the membrane is to become accepted
as a close friend. How do such friendships happen? They happen like they have
always happened, through time together and mutual interest. Tim, a friend of
mine in
A few years ago my wife, Margi, started to attend a local
Tai Chi class to exercise and to make contacts in our Spanish community. Before
she did this, we had long discussions about potential dangers from spiritual
roots of Tai Chi. She attended the first few weeks with trepidation, hoping
that the class was not actually a front for New Age spirituality. What she
found was that this particular Tai Chi school mainly emphasized the physical
benefits, rather than presenting it as a spiritual exercise. Through prayer, we
decided that she should continue in class and that our daughters could join.
This class became a source of many friendships for Margi and the girls. Margi
started praying for her friends as she exercised. She also found herself
playing the role of the “bridge person” for the newcomers in the class whom the
old timers tended to shun.
Two years later, her Tai Chi instructor asked her for a
private meeting. In that meeting, he told her that he noticed something special
in her character. He didn’t know quite what it was, but he did notice that
people were attracted to her. This was particularly interesting since she and
the girls were the only non-Spaniards in the class. The Tai Chi instructor
asked her if she would be willing to become an instructor herself. Again, after
much prayer, we felt that God was opening doors and that we should proceed.
Even though her school emphasized the physical benefits of
Tai Chi, Margi found that many people came looking for something spiritual.
Margi has not publicly emphasized her Christian faith, nor had she denied it.
What she has found is that many of her friends now openly talk to her about
spiritual things. They initiate these discussions; when they do, Margi talks
about Jesus and her relationship with him.
Recently, Mari Carmen and Marisol went out to coffee with
Margi after class. Mari Carmen wanted to talk about chakras, a Hindu concept. Marisol told Margi that she believed in
auras and entered into a long description of the meaning of the different
colors of auras. She then admitted that, even though she has been studying
auras for several years, she had never really seen one. That is, until she
watched Margi do Tai Chi. She said, “Margi, I can actually see your aura. It is
bright white.” Margi asked what that color meant. “White is the color of
purity.” From this Margi got an opportunity to explain that what she was
probably seeing was the presence of Jesus. Margi talked of who Jesus was and
why he was important in her life. Had Margi felt duty bound to discredit Mari
Carmen’s and Marisol’s false beliefs concerning Eastern mysticism, she would
have never had a chance to talk about Jesus. In fact, the relationship probably
would have ended at that point. Instead, she took every opportunity to build
the friendship until she was invited through the membrane. Now, she has even
more opportunity to talk about Jesus.
Cleaning up false beliefs should come after conversion, when
the Holy Spirit is present in someone’s life and can lead them into all the
truth. Sometimes, however, we get this process backwards. We feel we have to
help people clean up their lives so they are, somehow, acceptable to Jesus.
This, of course, is nonsense. Were we actually to think about it, we would
realize this is not biblical nor how Jesus himself acted. He entered freely
into the lives of sinners and, in turn, was very welcome among sinners. The only people offended by him were the
religious types, because he didn’t try to fit into the norms of their religious
sub-culture.
Another story from the Gospels that most Christians are
familiar with is that of Zaccheus, the tax collector, and his interaction with
Jesus. We are usually most familiar with how Zaccheus, who was short in
stature, climbed a tree to be able to see the Lord. Yet, Jesus called him by
name to come out of the tree; then invited himself to dinner at Zaccheus’
house. I’ll pick up the story there.
“And when they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone
to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zaccheus stopped and said to the
Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I
have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is
a son of Abraham. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which
was lost.” (Luke 19:8-10)
How different the story would have been if Jesus had said.
“Zaccheus, charging more taxes than the Roman government requires is fraud.
You, a descendent of Abraham, are harming his other children. I know what a
dishonest scoundrel you are. When you show me that you are willing to shape up
and act right we will have ourselves a little talk. I do want to commend you
for your willingness to seek me, demonstrated by climbing the tree. Now, just
keep up the good work and go that extra mile and some day salvation can be
yours.”
Evidently, the crowd was waiting for a nice little religious
speech like that. Jesus didn’t give it, and they began to doubt his
credentials. Jesus didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the grumblers. He
was too busy listening to Zaccheus spill his heart on the way to his house. The
striking thing for me in this passage is Jesus’ statement: “Today salvation has
come to this house.” How did Jesus know that? There had been no gospel
presentation. There had been no decision, no apologetics, no convincing of any
kind. There was just Zaccheus, wearing his heart on his sleeve, expressing his
desire to make things right. For Jesus, that was enough. There was already
evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in the tax collector’s life. Apparently,
for Jesus, life controlled by the Holy Spirit is salvation.
One day I went into a bar in
We do not need to help people become more holy. The Holy
Spirit is the only One capable of that. When he does it, it is a wonderful,
powerful, and supernatural process. When we try to do it, it is obnoxious. Many
of us long for the days when average Europeans and North Americans were good
church-goers and when the morals of society were better. I don’t long for those
days. Although I am sorry for the people who are wounded by sin, the fact
remains that light shines brightest in the darkness. I do not long for the days
when it was difficult to tell the sheep from the goats. Marisol knew there was
something very sheep-like about Margi. No one needed to tell here. She could
see the light shining in the darkness. She just thought it was an aura.
I also have no interest in changing people’s drinking habits
or bringing about some other kind of moral change. My interest is in introducing
people to Jesus. He will help those who have a drinking problem. I know because
he helped me in a supernaturally-powerful way. It was not a matter of having a
newer and better set of Christian morals. Jesus helped me with my drinking
problem before I knew that North American Christians didn’t approve of strong
drink. I was a 15 year-old at the time. I didn’t know any other Christians. It
wasn’t until two years later that I started to attend a Bible believing church.
All I knew was that, as a new Christian, I no longer wanted or needed to get
drunk. I just wanted to please Jesus.
There is one final way through the semi-permeable membrane
that I would like to discuss. This is the concept of the “man or woman of peace.”
In Luke 10, Jesus is giving ministry instructions to seventy people. Among
other things, Jesus told them:
And whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ And
if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will
return to you. And stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you;
for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house.
(Luke 10: 5-7)
Many around the world are seeing strategic significance in
the concept of the “man of peace” (v.6). For many, the man of peace is the
strategic door-opener, the person who opens the way for the gospel to enter a
group or segment of society. The man of peace is often found through prayer or
prophecy and not necessarily through strategic insight or ministry technique.
Three biblical examples of this come to mind: Cornelius the Roman centurion in
Acts 10, the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, and
Does this happen today? Is that really an application of
what Jesus was teaching in Luke chapter 10? To the first question the answer is
clearly “Yes,” This is happening today. Should we wait for God supernaturally
to put us in contact with a strategic door opener? To answer this, let me
simply state that, when people ask God to put them in contact with a man or
woman of peace, it is not uncommon for God to answer, often in unusual and
powerful ways.
Phil and Becca were new missionaries in
This is a relatively mild “person of peace” story. I know of
many others who have been found through prophecy, still others who are being
found through prayer and divine appointment. I’m sure “people of peace” are
being found through dreams. In fact, I believe a fascinating book could be
written just compiling person of peace stories which are happening all over the
world. God clearly seems to be at work.[3]
Through their existing relationships, “people of peace”
transport the gospel through the semi-permeable membrane that stretches between
people who have the gospel and people who need the gospel. Some people of peace
only bring the gospel through the membrane; others bring their gospel-bearing
friends through as well. By this, I mean that we don’t always become friends
with all the person of peace’s friends. They may not introduce the
gospel-bearer to their friends, just the gospel itself. On other occasions, the
person of peace may be the doorway for friendship with a whole new network of
people.
The important thing is that Jesus and his gospel gets
through to a new network of people; and that the gospel becomes a lovely
contagion there. Of course, there are significant, strategic issues involved as
the gospel crosses a semi-permeable membrane. How will discipleship be carried
out? How will churches be formed? How will leadership be developed? These are
important questions, and the same Jesus who introduced us to the person of
peace will give us the wisdom and the resources to answer the strategic
questions as they come up.
The man of peace, the adoption principal, and significant
friendships are all illustrations of God opening the doors of relationship. In
all of these instances, the non-Christians also initiated the passage through
the semi-permeable membrane. It would be very easy to make this simply a new
technique:
All I have to do is make some friends
and do friendship evangelism.
Maybe we should all just pray to find
the man of peace.
If I would just have exchange students
maybe I would get adopted into their family.
I guess we will all just have to go
out and buy a motorcycle like Tim.
That is more like magical thinking than sound ministry
practice. It is putting faith in the technique, not in a
supernaturally-powerful God. Techniques do not have power, Jesus has power.
Jesus needs to lead us into ministry. Jesus needs to open doors. That Jesus
wants to do this for us has never been in question. The hard part is praying,
listening, waiting and following. For far too long we have been putting too
much faith in techniques and methods, and too little in God. We need to watch
and pray. We need to wait for God to invite us to the party, and then we need
to be patient until God initiates a way through the semi-permeable membranes
that separate us from people who need Jesus. We need to stop forcing and start
following. Actually I think Solomon says it best.
Trust the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own
understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.
(Prov. 3:5-6)
The author would like to express his deep appreciation to