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Today’s devotional, from Delve Into Jesus, calls to mind a vigorous discussion about street evangelism we had late last year. Delve Into Jesus’ Michael Lane asks us to be open to whatever form of evangelism God calls us to—even if it’s a manner of witnessing that we think annoying or ineffective. Here’s the devotional’s closing challenge:

Each of us has unique needs, a unique background and a unique personality. Thus, the method of witnessing which will be the most effective is unique to each individual. You may find televangelism pointless because it would never have been effective in leading you to the Lord, but many thousands have been touched by television ministry, even if you are not among them. As an unbeliever, you may never have responded to that young pastor inviting you to attend service. But I did.

….The moment when an act of witness captures the attention of an unbeliever is a mysterious and sacred act between God and his creation. It defies all of our projections and predictions about what ought to be effective….

How is the Spirit asking you and your congregation to witness? Is it perhaps a little unconventional? Would it seem to require extraordinary faith and courage? Understand that when God places a desire in our heart to serve Him, it never comes without the necessary strength and courage. Follow the calling of the Spirit boldly with the knowledge that someone very special and unique is waiting for you to proclaim the Gospel in your own special and unique way.

Read the full devotional at Delve into Jesus.

Let’s set aside the specific issue of street preaching (which you can discuss here if you want) and ponder the devotional’s central question: how is God calling you to be a Christian witness?

Has God ever called you to share the Gospel in an unconventional or uncomfortable way? What was the result, both for you and for the people you witnessed to?

Are short-term mission trips effective and worth doing? We’ve discussed that question here before, and learned that there is considerable diversity in opinion about whether they’re a useful activity for churches to pursue.

Well, here’s something else to add to that debate: an interview with missions coordinator Paul Borthwick about the future of short-term missions. As somebody with a lot of experience in both long- and short-term mission trips, Borthwick has some worthwhile insights. He’s straightforward about both the potential drawbacks and opportunities that confront short-term mission trips. Here’s a brief exchange that illuminates his perspective on mission trips in general:

What’s the most common mistake that churches make in short-term missions?

Definitely a lack of long-term planning. If short-term missions guaranteed long-term results, then Mexico would be the most Christian nation on earth, and Tijuana would be the Holy Land. I heard a statistic recently that 30% of all teams from the United States go to Mexico. Now, I’m not saying there aren’t needs in Mexico. But from a long-term, strategic point of view, that’s not the place that needs the most new evangelical ministry.

I’ll give you an example from my own church experience. Our long-term strategy was to invest in the 10/ 40 Window. Yet all of our short-term missions trips were going to the Caribbean and Central America. So we had these people coming back with a heart for Haiti, and we couldn’t support them long-term because our strategy was for North Africa.

In other words, we were not thinking about the big picture. Many times, short-term thinking goes along with short-term missions. When you ask churches and missions agencies what their long-term kingdom goals are, you usually find them coming up short.

The rest of the interview is well worth reading, particularly if your church is planning short-term mission trips in 2010. If you’re planning, or participating in, a mission trip, have you thought through the issues that Borthwick raises? In retrospect, have your church’s mission trips been positive events, or have they suffered from the problems mentioned in the interview? How will this year’s mission trips be different than past ones?

Out of Ur has a retrospective from a pastor about street-corner preachers who use bullhorns and vitriolic signs to get the message of Christ across to sinners. The kind of preachers who sincerely believe that anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint on anything is going to hell.

You can head over to Out of Ur and read all of Angry Preachers. Here’s a good chunk of the post:

Before I’d walked even a block from the festival, I bumped into a small crowd whose attention was fixed on two men speaking loudly to the bedraggled onlookers. One held a handmade sign that read—I kid you not— “TURN OR BURN!” He spoke into a bullhorn, warning the young people of God’s coming judgment and listing in vivid detail the sins that would lead them to an eternity burning in hell. The other man held an open Bible and vigorously debated anyone who disagreed with his companion’s portrayal of God.

For the past two days, I’d watched these young people pursue beauty and friendship and community. Groups of sunburned 20somethings had made their way from one stage to the next, avoiding mud puddles and speaking with awe in their voices about their favorite musical experiences of the weekend. And now, as they left the safety of the festival grounds, they were immediately confronted with Jesus. Or at least two of Jesus’ representatives.

A few in the crowd poked fun and tried to fluster the preachers. What really caught my attention, though, what overruled my fatigue, was another response. Despite this generation’s reputation as cynical and sarcastic, many of the young wore visible sadness on their faces. Some pleaded with Bullhorn Man for a different portrayal of Jesus. A few people asked Bible Man if his God had any love for them. One young man was on the edge of tears as he tried to convince the men to lower their voices, to show kindness in their words about Jesus.

Ten minutes of this street theatre was enough and, quenching my desire to punch Bullhorn Man and Bible Man, I continued toward the train. As I often do after encountering this version of Christian witness, I angrily questioned why these men did what they did. How could they possibly think their language and posture was helpful? Is this what Jesus had in mind when he felt compassion for the harassed and helpless crowds—sheep without a shepherd—and asked his disciples to pray for more workers for the harvest? My irritation only increased as I thought about how the irreligious and marginalized of his day were attracted to Jesus. Whether or not they would have accepted his easy yoke, certainly these festival goers would have been intrigued by the alternative life Jesus proclaimed and demonstrated.

This method of spreading the Gospel doesn’t sit well with me. It’s always awkward and always uncomfortable. I find it rather telling that whenever I encounter someone like this the only people giving them serious attention are other Christians. Christians who are desperately attempting to ascertain why Christ is being portrayed like this. And, without fail, the rest of the crowd is making fun of the preachers or yelling back at them.

The thing is, most people who do this sort of street evangelism have a deep desire to see people turn from their ways and see the light. They just happen to pick a shocking way in which to preach that message.

Out of curiosity, I’d really like to know if you or anyone you know has found salvation through the efforts of an angry street preacher? And to be clear, I’m not writing about all street evangelism, just those that choose to do it with questionable signs akin to “Turn or Burn” and screaming through megaphones.

This is one of the more vexing questions that Christians encounter (or ask themselves): if Jesus is the only way through which we’re made right with God, what does that mean for people who never hear about him? It’s one thing to hear the Gospel and choose to reject it; but what about somebody who never had a chance to hear, let alone reject, the message of Jesus?

Christians have taken many different approaches to this question. I’ll highlight responses from two different online ministries below. Do you agree with either (or both) of them?

Uplook Ministries answers the question by arguing that God works in people’s hearts in many more ways than just through overt preaching of the Gospel. They conclude:

God has promised us that, if we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). He is not eager for anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). “For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12-13). We do not know how God is dealing with people in lands yet unreached by the gospel, but from Scripture we can see that He will never condemn anyone unjustly, but will be faithful to reveal Himself to anyone who looks for His salvation.

We also know that John saw in heaven “…a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10). Not only every nation but every tribe will be represented in heaven.

Notice that they all sing the same song. We are not saying that sincere Muslims or Hindus, trusting in their religion, will make it to heaven. There is only one Saviour, and everyone in heaven will be there through the salvation provided by God’s Lamb, the Lord Jesus.

Read the full answer at Uplook Ministries.

The Faith Facts ministry answers the question:

…the Bible also teaches that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2)! And it implies that whoever seeks after God earnestly will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalm 86:5; Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7-8). God is fair as well as just. We are confident, for example, that the Old Testament patriarchs who lived by faith before Jesus’ earthly ministry, are in heaven. So certainly some people have gotten to heaven without knowing Jesus in the personal way that the New Testament speaks of. Ultimately only God can judge as only He knows the individual’s heart. We hold out hope that for those who have not heard but have not rejected God, those have been misinformed, or those who are unable to understand (children, mentally ill, etc) may be pardoned by a just God.

Certainly, the Bible does not teach “universalism.” Universalism is the idea that everyone gets to heaven.

The Bible clearly teaches that the only certain way to heaven is through Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). We are confident that God will not hold anyone accountable for any knowledge he did not receive. At the same time, the Bible emphatically states that Christ is the only sure way to salvation. Anyone who has heard of the saving grace of Jesus, and rejects it, would be thumbing his nose at God (John 3:36).

Read the full answer at Faith Facts website.

Do these answers satisfy you?

Share your thoughts!

Evangelism—sharing our faith in Jesus with people who don’t know the Gospel—is at the core of the Christian faith. There exist countless ministries, organizations, and publications aimed at introducing people to the Gospel, or at encouraging individual Christians to do so. Yet it’s my impression that the idea of witnessing to others is a daunting one for most Christians.

Do you actively and consciously share your faith with others? What part does witnessing play in your everyday spiritual life? And what does your witness usually look like—is it a traditional verbal presentation of the basics points of your faith? Do you try to witness with actions but not words? Something in between?

How often do you share your faith with others, and how do you tend to do so?

Share your thoughts!

Today’s devotional comes from A Slice of Infinity, a daily series by noted Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. Drawing on an unusual experience from a visit to a communist country, Ravi shows that powerful witnessing can take place when we simply model for others what prayer and worship look like:

A few years ago, two or three of my colleagues and I were in a country dominated for decades by Marxism. Before we began our meetings, we were invited to a dinner hosted by some common friends, all of whom were skeptics and, for all practical purposes, atheists. The evening was full of questions, posed principally by a notable theoretical physicist in the country. There were also others who represented different elements of power within that society. As the night wore on, we got the feeling that the questions had gone on long enough and that we were possibly going in circles.

I asked if we could have a word of prayer with them, for them, and for the country before we bade them good-bye. There was a silence of consternation, an obvious hesitancy, and then one said, “Of course.” We did just that—we prayed. In this large dining room of historic import to them, with all the memories of secular power plastered within those walls, the prayer brought a sobering silence that we were all in the presence of someone greater than us. When we finished, every eye was moist and nothing was said. They hugged us and thanked us, with emotion written all over their faces. The next day when we met them, one of them said to me, “We did not go back to our rooms last night till it was early morning. In fact, I stayed in my hotel lobby most of the night talking further. Then I went back to my room and gave my life to Jesus Christ.”

I firmly believe that it was the prayer that gave them a hint of the taste of what worship is all about. Their hearts had never experienced it.

Over the years I have discovered that praying with people can sometimes do more for them than preaching to them. Prayer draws the heart away from one’s own dependence to leaning on the sovereign God. The burden is often lifted instantly. Prayer is only one aspect of worship, but one that is greatly neglected in the face of people who would be shocked to hear what prayer sounds like when the one praying knows how to touch the heart of God. To a person in need, pat answers don’t change the mind; prayer does.

Read the complete devotional at Ravi Zacharias’ website.

Pointing people to God doesn’t always mean handing out tracts, preaching to them, or outwitting them in an apologetics debate—sometimes it’s as simple as showing them what worship means in your own life.

When some people evangelize, they do so with tracts. Tracts, for those that don’t know, are short Gospel presentations in a little booklet. They usually have some sort of eye-catching cover or are centered around a particular theme. Every single one that I’ve seen includes a “Sinner’s Prayer” that the reader can read aloud in order to become a Christian.

We’ve probably all heard stories of well-meaning Christians leaving tracts as tips at restaurants, or giving children tracts instead of candy during Halloween. And if you’ve spent any time in a major city, you’ve probably seen a tract or two “left” in a bathroom. I’d have to imagine that most of these tract distribution methods are ineffective (I’m willing to be proven wrong). However, a tract in the hands of someone who can explain what it means seems like it has potential to me.

What about you, do you think that Tracts are an effective evangelism tools?

Share your thoughts!

The Digital Evangelism blog has a post up today about understanding followers of Islam. The Christian witness to Muslims is complicated these days by a huge array of challenges—political and cultural as much as theological—but Christians can be more effective in sharing their faith if they take the time to understand exactly what Muslims believe and what is important to them.

Of the various articles linked to in that blog post, I found this one about understanding “shame-based” cultures the most interesting. It illustrates how important it is to consider local culture and beliefs when presenting the Gospel—in this case, the importance of ritual cleanliness in Muslim culture—and how failing to respect non-Western cultural values can sometimes put additional roadblocks in between Muslims and the Gospel message. And it also challenges us to consider whether we can’t learn something from the Islamic emphasis on ritual purity and defilement; the essay’s author, Bruce Thomas, suggests that those concepts aren’t as foreign to a Christian worldview as you might think.

It’s an interesting set of articles for anyone interested in cross-cultural evangelism.

Today, a couple of quick updates from the COMIX35 ministry! COMIX35 is a Christian comics ministry that publishes and distributes evangelistic comics around the world. They also do a lot to identify and recruit promising comic artists from within the Christian community.

They’ve got updates on two comics contests that they’re running:

• They’ve launched the Christian Comics Competition for U.S. Prison Inmates as a way of identifying talented Christian artists in the US prison system. The first phase of the competition asks prison chaplains to recommend inmates who “exhibit exceptional talent in the areas of drawing and storytelling.” The three candidates who make it to the end of the contest will help produce a short comic for inmates and at-risk youth.
• The deadline for the Manga Messiah video competition has been extended to March 4 to give all “amateur and professional video producers, YouTubers, and GodTubers around the world” a chance to get their entries in. The competition webpage has full details on the contest, as well as free music tracks you can use with your video.

Take a look at these contests, and while you’re there, get to know COMIX35’s unique comics evangelism ministry!

Arab World Ministries has a new website! For over 120 years, AWM has worked to bring the light of the Gospel to Muslims in North Africa, the Middle East, and major cities in Europe and North America. If you don’t know this unique outreach, now’s a good chance to check out their new site and learn about their ministry.

Here are a few noteworthy sections of the new site:

• Ministry opportunities, both long- and short-term, in Jordan, Morocco, London, and other locations around the world. Find out how you can get involved.
• The history of AWM—and how a worldwide ministry began after a heartbreaking encounter in Algeria in 1881.
• AWM Media has been broadcasting Christ-centered television and radio programs to the Arab world for decades. Their new media programs like Maarifa continue this legacy.

Take a few minutes to get to know AWM and the amazing work they’re doing in the Muslim world.