Redefining Evangelism in Canada

This article appeared in the April/May/June 2021 issue of testimony/Enrich, a quarterly publication of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. © 2021 The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Used with permission. Visit testimonyenrich.ca.

Embracing the Call to an Invitational Lifestyle

An empowered layperson, fuelled by the Holy Spirit, can participate in changing the radical trajectory of someone's life. At the age of 22, in my last year of university, I met a young woman on my campus who took the time to love me, meet with me, and lead me to the Lord. From the moment I became a Christian, I have wanted the whole world to know Him. From my first encounter of being evangelized, I’ve been convinced that telling others about Jesus can be the joy of every believer. 

For the last 20 years, I have dedicated myself to the proclamation of the gospel through the local church in Canada and across the world. In that time, I have observed the dramatic changes in culture and how we approach evangelism. The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to accelerate these changes in ways we could never have anticipated. 

I believe COVID-19 has forced people to revisit their big questions about life, faith and God. Christians are reawakening to the need to provide an answer for the hope we have. But are we engaging with people to have these conversations? 

Tearfund, a Christian aid agency in the U.K., recently took a survey of more than 2,000 people that revealed one in four young adults in the U.K. have watched or listened to a church service since the coronavirus lockdown began.[1] At Alpha Canada we’ve seen a remarkable uptake on churches mobilizing the laity to run Alpha online, to create a safe place for people to come and explore faith. By mid-June in Canada alone, there have been over 1,200 Alpha Courses run online with news of entire groups making decisions for Christ!

If evangelism were only the work of church leaders, we would quickly hit a ceiling on our effectiveness in reaching people with the gospel, especially during this season of limited gatherings and physical isolation. 

However, if evangelism is the work of every believer, anything is possible.  

As the church awakens to this unique opportunity we have to engage in conversations about our faith, the question is, how can we empower our congregations and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to know that everyone has a part to play? 

My conviction is that we need to redefine evangelism for every believer.

“Evangelism is joining a conversation the Holy Spirit is already having with another person.”

 This quote from Darrell Johnson, theologian, author and pastor, is one of the best definitions of evangelism I’ve heard. In John 15 Jesus says, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father … he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning” (emphasis added). [John 15:26-27] 

Jesus is teaching us that while He uses us to tell others about Him, God has already gone ahead by the power of the Holy Spirit. This passage also reveals that while God doesn’t need us, He chooses to use us. The reason we need to change our approach to evangelism is because sharing the gospel is meant to be a source of joy and hope for every believer. The opportunity we have in this season is remarkable. 

Every Christian is a part of this great and wondrous mystery of sharing the gospel, and we need to be reminded that we are not the initiators. We have to reorient ourselves to this truth and be reminded that the Holy Spirit, who loves people, has gone ahead of us into a conversation with those we love. He has given us power to participate (John 16:7-8). 

This is liberating news! We can feel freedom from fear and anxiety when it comes to evangelism because the Holy Spirit has paved the way. We just need to slow down long enough to listen. We need ears to hear and eyes to see what is happening all around us. 

A few years ago, I began to see fewer people around me responding to the gospel. I started to believe the narrative that very few are interested, but then I read Matthew 9 again. The words “The harvest is plentiful” (v. 37) both convicted me and captured my imagination. From that day on, I started to pray for the workers and asked God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, for eyes to see the harvest around me. Boy, did He answer that prayer.

There are times in my personal life and ministry when I have felt tired and would rather wear deaf ears for a while. Once, during an exhausting period of travelling for work, I was waiting to catch a plane home. There was another passenger in the waiting area who was clearly looking to engage with someone. I kept my head down and prayed he wouldn’t sit next to me on the plane. 

Sure enough, he was in the seat next to me. I tried to communicate the universal sign of “Don’t talk to me” (magazine to the face). He didn’t get the message; he asked me how I was. When I begrudgingly returned the question, he told me he was going through the worst time of his life: death in the family, business in turmoil, and massive relational struggles. 

And then he asked me something that was remarkable: “Do you know what 3:16 means? I saw it on a letter in the mail, and nobody has been able to answer my question.” This man came from a Sikh background and had no knowledge that he had just asked me about one of the most important passages in the Bible. 

He might have not got the message, but I finally did. The Holy Spirit was at work in this man’s life and was inviting me into the conversation. I was able to share the gospel with Daz. I told him about Alpha and left him with my email. A few weeks later, he emailed me and told me he was freaking out. He found the pamphlet and nowhere on it did it say 3:16! Daz asked me to send him a Bible and told me he wanted to find an Alpha to attend immediately.

Sometimes we have the joy of just entering in and saying, “God, how did You do this?” He will use us even if we’re barely conscious! However, most of the time, if we want to be aware of the ways God is working around us, we need to be actively attuned to what the Spirit is doing. We see how to do this in the example of Jesus.

Jesus prays. Jesus was never so busy with the agenda of His ministry on earth that He didn’t take time to pray. He would find a quiet place to seek the heart and will of the Father. So we ask ourselves, What does my prayer life look like? Is prayer the foundation of my evangelism? What about my church and the work we are involved in? What do our prayer lives look like? Is prayer the foundation of all the evangelism we’re involved in?

Jesus pays attention. Think of how He took notice of people like Zacchaeus and the Samaritan woman alone at the well. Jesus said, “I only do what I see my Father doing” (John 5:19). Jesus had time to pay attention to what the Father was doing around Him, and He is inviting us to do the same. Paying attention takes time. How can we have spiritual eyes to see what God is already doing?

Jesus listens. The book Jesus Is the Question by Martin B. Copenhaver points out that in the New Testament Jesus asked 307 questions and only directly answered three.[2] The Barna Group has found that non-Christian millennials in the U.S. are willing to engage with Christians who do the following two things: they listen without judgment, and they don’t force people to draw conclusions.[3] Isn’t it amazing that people still want exactly what Jesus did? So are we, too, listening attentively to the people God has put in our lives? Are we being quick to listen and slow to respond? 

Jesus invites. Jesus says, “Come and see.” In fact, in the Gospel of John, it is the first invitation recorded as coming out of Jesus’ mouth (John 1:39). After Jesus says it, we hear the same thing from Philip’s mouth to skeptical Nathanael (John 1:46), and from the woman at the well to her entire village (John 4:29)! We are simply inviting people to experience the goodness of God for themselves. What are the ways we invite people into our lives to share Jesus with them? How do we model this invitational lifestyle to the people around us?

The challenge for every believer is whether or not we are willing to slow down and speed up. We are called to still ourselves before God to listen to what the Father is saying and doing, while at the same time there’s an urgency to tell people about Jesus. Especially in this season, where many people are feeling alone and hopeless, may I offer encouragement to embrace this tension and discover how the Holy Spirit wants to lead us to partner with Him.

 Which people does He want us to pay attention to, listen to, and invite? 

As we spur one another on to love and good deeds, let’s remember that God is the initiator. The whole church has been invited into this great and wondrous mystery of making Jesus known in the world today. Let’s redefine evangelism and rediscover the joy of entering into the conversation the Holy Spirit is already having, not only with those we love but even the stranger on the plane. 

Shaila Visser is the national director of Alpha Canada.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR