Many years ago I was asked to help lead a youth evangelisation group. Five weekends and two weeks a year we came together to work on our witnessing. It was then that I discovered how much I hated ‘evangelism’. Whenever someone suggested standing in a market square and singing or talking to people, my toes would curl.
This all changed when we started working on a big mime performance about the redemption of humanity, accompanied by contemporary music. People stopped in their tracks, and were intrigued by what they saw. They asked questions, and we were able to answer. I was in my element.
Real Discussions
There’s a good chance you can identify with this experience. Evangelisation wasn’t always fun, and you may even have felt a bit guilty. It seems like Christians are always far too eager to testify. Not so! I’ve always had problems with the double agenda we follow when evangelising. We don’t say it out loud, but essentially we only want one thing – to get our truth across. There’s something incredibly arrogant in that intention, and it isn’t experienced as a loving act. We’re not actually listening, because we want to bring people our truth. Getting to know people isn’t an option, because in no time at all we’re expected to talk about faith ¬–¬ our faith. Real conversations are few and far between.
Authenticity and Engagement
Now we’re faced with a dilemma. We are connected to people and excited about our faith, but we can’t quite come to terms with the way we are meant to share that faith. I don’t think Jesus had this problem. He witnessed more through his actions than through his words and sermons. His last great witness was his death on the cross. During this experience he only uttered a few words, but his actions spoke volumes.
I don’t believe people today are sitting around waiting for us to tell them the truth. They are looking for authenticity and engagement, like Jesus offered. They would receive Jesus today with open arms, and he would open his arms right back. Let’s take a look at how Jesus witnessed.
Jesus Was All About People
Jesus called Levi in a rather strange way. He ran into Levi one day and said ‘Follow me!’ Then, crazily enough, Jesus followed Levi to his house!
With Zacchaeus it’s the same story. Jesus saw a man hanging out in a tree and made it clear that he wanted to eat with him. Jesus went looking for people in their own element. He crossed the whole of Israel searching for people, and he met people more often at their homes than he did in the synagogue.
Problem 1: Show or Tell?
What Jesus Did
Now we come face to face with our first problem. When Jesus returns to his Father in Matthew 28, he gives his disciples a job: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you’. These words seem to say that we need to tell people what Jesus’s teachings are about (in theory). Jesus said these things after years of working with and for the people (in practice). Does the great commission mean that we need to tell people how it is, or is it an invitation to live out God’s ideal?
Jesus did very little preaching to those who called on him for help. He also rarely felt the need to explain to people what they should and shouldn’t do. He trusted, it seems, that that they would progress just fine through their experiences with him. He let them experience love, and the rest took care of itself. Perhaps that is the power of a real encounter. Jesus witnessed through one act, and let the rest follow. In Mark 9 he calls us to give our fellow human beings a glass of water – a simple challenge, on the face of it.
What We Do
Does this translate to our day and age? We no longer want to be told how things are. We are tired of people who claim to know everything. On the other hand, we are still struck by kind words and deeds. For example Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is deeply appreciated for the many humanitarian projects he supports. You could say, then, that the exemplary life of Jesus has a better chance of making a difference in this world than telling people what they should be doing.
Problem 2: You or Others?
What Jesus Did
Earlier I mentioned that I have always struggled with our double agenda in evangelisation. It isn’t honest or open to approach people from the position that ‘I am right, and you have to see things like I see them’. There is an arrogance in this position that should be totally alien to Christianity. The only person who had the right to proclaim the truth was Jesus, and he only did so in very rare cases. The fact that Jesus is the truth does not automatically mean that we have the truth.
If we witness the way Christ expects us to, we should focus on the person we want to reach. The question is this: are we focusing on others, or on ourselves? In all of his work and ministry, Jesus showed that he was focused on others. He was the instrument through which God’s love and care was delivered. He knew very well who he was, but he was there for others, and gave them what they needed. Often he simply gave people what they asked for. If someone wanted to be healed, he healed them – without a sermon or a Bible study. Sometimes he gave them what they didn’t ask for, because he could see what was really going on. In this he was unique, and we shouldn’t presume that we can (or should) copy him.
What We Do
We think our insights are so amazing that we often forget to think about our fellow human beings. That can’t be right. We need to make contact with the people around us, so we can see what they need and how we can serve them. Instead of giving them what they don’t need, we should start by giving them what they do need. Who knows what might happen next!
Problem 3: Truth or Values?
What Jesus Did
It should be clear by now that truth and values are polar opposites. With values I mean the way we deal with one other; how we approach and treat each other. Respect, love, equality, and openness are examples of values. Talking about your faith should be carried out with these and other values in mind. I’d love to talk about my faith, but I will only do so with respect for the other person, from a place of commitment and on the basis of openness and fairness. Only then am I really treating them like an equal.
Some believers think truth is more important than values. They won’t say so in as many words, but in practice it shows. Whether it’s appropriate or not, they rub ‘the truth’ in other people’s faces. In a pretty loveless way, they beat others around the ears with ‘the truth’. If we look at Jesus’s example, we can see that his occasional use of harsh language never had a visibly positive effect. His enemies remained his enemies. But how moving were the changes and conversions in those lives that came into contact with his dedication? Sometimes this was just because the Lord chose to come by their house. He saw them, and treated them in a respectful way. That made an impression.
What We Do
Communication takes place on two levels: a content level and a relational level. The content level is about the message, while the relational level is about the way the message is delivered. Scientists have shown that the way a message is delivered is four times more important than the message itself. This means that the truth by itself has little influence on whether a person takes it to heart. It’s the way the truth is brought that makes all the difference. This doesn’t make the message unimportant, but it does suggest that we need to invest more deeply in values. John 13:35 reads: ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’. These are the values that will show everyone we are followers of Jesus.
Human Witness
One day, Jesus was sitting in the temple and saw a poor widow put a coin in the offering box. He took her as an example. She didn’t have much, but she gave what she had. She gave a piece of herself in addition to that small coin. She was honest, sincere, and faithful.
We often try to give what we don’t have. We witness in ways that don’t suit us, and also fail to meet the needs of those around us. This makes sharing your faith a burden for you and a torture for others. In our Christian-ness, we often lose sight of the human element. Why don’t we invest more in human witnessing – by people, for people, in an ordinary, human way? No complicated long-term projects, but brief, swift actions with little preparation, focused on the needs of our town or city. No more hoping and waiting that people will come to our services. We need to leave the church and go into the surrounding neighbourhood. Last month in Utrecht, we cleaned the water around the church for (and through) our neighbours. The Utrecht city council gave us their full cooperation. The message we shared is that we care about the people around us. We let people see that, and our actions made an impression.
Stop Winning Souls
We ned to stop trying to win souls. We need to stop talking to people about how it is. Instead, we need to extend a hand to the people who need help, like the refugees or the poor in our society. People should be looking after each other. We need to take up our social role as a church. Give God’s love for people a face – and a helping hand. The discussions can come after.
During a short project called ‘High Five’, held several years ago in The Hague, we discovered something special. We invited friends, acquaintances, and neighbours to help out in the neighbourhood together. To our surprise, a full third of the people who came weren’t church members. The evening dinner in particular was a big hit, thanks to some delicious food. Members and non-members had worked together for a good cause, and never before had we had so many non-members in the church.
Joy!
Standing up for your faith and for Jesus’s message can be a joyful experience. His message boils down to a few simple pieces of advice: be yourself, be human. Be normal and speak normally. Be genuine and well-intentioned.
Christ calls us to be human witnesses. He said: ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
This is a translation of the main article found in found in Advent 2: Kom uit de kerk! and was written by Lex van Dijk, psychologist and a pastor in the churches Utrecht and Uniek.
