I'm back!

I apologize everyone for being so behind with the blog! I’ve been busy (yeah right!)… no I have.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

Evangelism: for the masses?

I know this may come across as blasphemy at first glance (like most things I write), but is it really the duty of every Christian to make more Christians? When I look back over my Christian life, there have been 2 things that I have always felt really uncomfortable doing, and because of that, have experienced guilt, and the desire to “get better”. These are: worshipping with all the “actions”, and telling others about Christ.

The worship thing I sort of figured out a while back. Contrary to the teaching of my church at the time, I don’t feel it’s necessary for everyone to have eyes closed and hands up. Singing songs is not necessarily worship. That aside, I’ve come to a re-evaluation of this “tell-your-friends” evangelism mentality. Don’t get me wrong, nothing negative can (maybe I should use “should”) come from telling your friends or telling your fellow commuter about the great things your faith has done, but should I feel guilty for not doing that. Is it really up to me to “save souls”? Is the eternal destiny of those I come across really in my hands?

I remember a hyper-evanglistic church I was a part of in England. While feeling guilty for being afraid to evangelize every Tom Dick and Harry during services, I would witness the “witnessing” on the way home on the train and feel absolutely ashamed. Arguments with complete strangers who were just on their way home or to a pub, in your face pamphlets, and events designed to entice the masses with their flavours, all seemed in poor taste and anti-evangelistic.

Apart from my own experience with evangelism or lack thereof, I want to know if it is really my duty as a Christian to “be fruitful and multiply”. While I would say a good majority of Christians are “born” via lay-person interaction, what type of Christians are these? Are they worth it? Are we creating a church based on world-imitation with a Christian undertone and wobbly theology? Or are we actually building a kingdom of power and love? I look around and think not.

You know, there are people actually called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of evangelism. Is it only up to them? Wow, when you think of the eternal implications of their job, imagine the pressure. The pressure against not doing it, and the pressure to do it right. It’s a heavy responsibility that can either be given to the very few or shared by the masses because of its weight. I don’t know which is correct, but I’ve been pondering it…

I’m still alive :)