Evangelism

In my previous post, I asked about methods of evangelism that readers had confidence in. The most common response suggested building relationships with people. One reader said, “at least in our culture, people are longing for truthful relationships”.

I agree that this will work well in the modern world. However, relationships take time, so this is not a quick option.

I nearly said “relationship evangelism”, but I remembered a friend who hates that term. He said that if Christians are making friends with people just so they can share the gospel with them, it is not true friendship. Especially if they drop the friend if they have not received the gospel within an appropriate time.

We should make friends with unbelievers because they are children of God made in his image, not with any other agenda. If we are demonstrating the love of Jesus, we should be prepared to continue being a friend of the person, even if they never choose to follow Jesus. And if they do choose to follow him, we should continue the friendship, rather than neglecting them to pursue another victim. Friendship must be a way of life, not a method of evangelism.