Evangelistic attitudes

Yesterday, Ken Currie wrote this over at Desiring God:

Evangelism is counter-cultural. It’s true everywhere on the planet, but perhaps it’s especially so in our increasingly post-Christian Western society. We live in a polite culture, for the most part. Talk about religion? You just don’t go there. Talk about how many tornadoes have come through, and how the team is doing, and how the city has new recycling bins. But Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners and risen from the dead? You just don’t go there. So they say.

For the time being, it seems the greatest threat to gospel-telling in such a society is not that we will be hauled before the city council, beaten, and have our property taken away. What we are really dealing with is some awkwardness.

Awkwardness is perhaps the biggest threat to evangelism for far too many of us.

Today I read 1 Thessalonians 2, a passage where Paul recounts his brief ministry in Thessalonica (cf. Acts 17:1-9) — a ministry that may have been as short as three weeks.  Paul’s reflection reveals many of the attitudes that he had in ministering the gospel in a hostile city.  These attitudes will serve us well as we seek to overcome awkwardness, lack of preparation, or anything else, to share the gospel.

• He believed his ministry was not in vain (1 Thess. 2:1).
• He was willing to suffer in order to share the gospel (v. 2).
• Even after suffering — and still facing strong opposition — he was still bold in his proclamation (v. 2).
• He was confident in the truth and purity of the gospel (v. 3).
• He was confident that God had approved him for this task, so he spoke to please God, and not men (v. 4).
• He was not confident in his own abilities or speech (v. 5).
• He did not seek glory (or provision) from men (v. 6).
• He communicated the gospel as caringly and graciously as a mother would care for her infant child (v. 7).
• He had a fondness for those who needed to hear the gospel (v. 8).
• He was willing to work hard for the opportunity to speak the gospel (v. 9).
• He was scrupulous to be upright in all his activity, so that the gospel he spoke in words would be confirmed by his life (v. 10).
• He exhorted and encouraged and urged his hearers to respond to the gospel — just as a father would urge his own son to respond (v. 11; see also 2 Cor. 5:20).
• His goal was not evangelistic “skins” for himself, but for the Thessalonians to walk worthy of God (v. 12).

So there you are — about a dozen attitudes that should help us also overcome awkwardness, or any other inhibitions, about sharing the gospel.  We might turn these into questions for self-examination for ourselves, to determine what kinds of attitudes about evangelism that we have developed for ourselves:

• Do I believe my evangelistic efforts are vain?
• Am I willing to suffer to share the gospel?
• Am I willing to continue to be bold with the gospel even if when I suffer?
• Am I confident in the power of the gospel?
• Am I confident in my responsibility to speak the gospel?  And am I more interested in pleasing God with my obedience or pleasing men with my silence?
• Is my confidence in my own words and wisdom or in God’s gospel?
• Am I seeking glory from men?
• Am I compassionate and gracious when I speak the gospel?
• Do I have a fondness and love for those who need to hear the gospel?
• Am I willing to be inconvenienced and am I willing to work hard for opportunities to speak the gospel?
• Am I concerned to authenticate the gospel by my transformed and transforming life?
• Am I bold, urging hearers to respond to the gospel?
• Is my goal that the hearers of the gospel would become God-worshippers?