Though it turns out that it was not Francis of Assisi who first said it, this ancient quote still holds true today “Preach the gospel every day, and sometimes use words.”
While it may be true that not every Christian has the specific spiritual gift of evangelism it is equally true that every believer is called to be evangelistic in some way, shape, or form. Many of us are not good at what might be called “spiritual cold-calling.” By this we mean the immediate sharing of the gospel upon first meeting someone. It is not that this approach never works. It sometimes does, but it is most often effective when combined with a tremendous degree of spiritual discernment that not all of us have. It truly is a gift to know that God is calling you to speak at once to a stranger about the state of their soul.
For perhaps most of us a more effective approach is to begin by getting to know someone and, in doing so, “earning the right to be heard” by them.
That said, there are ways to begin immediately planting seeds that may ultimately yield a spiritual harvest by simply, but intentionally, “loving on” a person. Next week we will begin looking at some things we can do to soften the hearts of even the most skeptical people with whom we spend our working days.
Mark 4:26-29
And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
