“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
When we are young we don’t think about death much. But as we grow older, it is inevitable that we have a brush with death whether in our own lives or that of others. Naturally we think death is a negative thing. But in fact, it can be the most sobering experience that catalyzes positive change in our lives. A few years after college, I had my encounter with death. I had never been to a funeral before then, but that year I went to four funerals, and two of them happened back-to-back in two weeks time. One week I went to a funeral and a wedding Saturday and Sunday, and the second week the same thing happened— I went to a wedding and then a funeral.
The person who died was the sister of one of the leaders of my young adult group at church. She was 33 years old, attractive and had a promising career ahead of her. But one summer she fell, had a brain hemorrhage and never woke up. The funerals were somber, sobering experiences as if someone hit me on the head with a hammer, to wake me up to realize how short and transient our lives are. Death is the inevitable end of every human being.
The day after the funeral, I went to the wedding of a close friend. Everyone was having a great time, drinking wine, dancing. The mood was jovial. But I couldn’t help thinking about the funeral the day before. The wedding, the celebration, it didn’t seem real. I felt like I was watching a Hollywood movie. It felt as if all these partying people missed the point.
This experience forced me to ask, “What is the quintessential thing for us to figure out before we die?” It was to get in a right relationship with God. I came to the conclusion that during our short time on earth, we should be helping people come to grips with this reality. Nothing can motivate us with greater urgency to evangelize than an encounter with death.
Prayer
Give us the wisdom to understand how transient and fleeting our lives are. Let there be an urgency in our hearts to preach the gospel to those who do not know You.
What is Evangelism?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Rom 1:16)
When you hear the word “evangelism,” perhaps you think of a group of Christians with picket signs and a megaphone preaching a “turn or burn” message. Or perhaps serving the homeless at a soup kitchen. Perhaps you think of mission trips to Tijuana to do skits and sing songs about Jesus with children.
In the New Testament to “evangelize” literally means “to tell Good News.” It is an act of proclaiming the gospel to someone with the hope of leading them to faith. Years ago, when I was evangelizing on the streets daily, I understood evangelism as mainly the “telling" of the gospel message. I still see how it is effective defining evangelism in this way, because without encountering the message of salvation, a person does not have a chance to be saved. Another reason why this definition is good is because most Christians do not live a life of proactively sharing the gospel with the lost. Yet, the Early Church expanded explosively because of their fervent and diligent proclaiming of the Good News. There is clearly a need for believers to be motivated and equipped to share the gospel.
However, during the years when I rested from ministry, I began to befriend non-Christians without the burden of trying to convert them. Then I realized evangelism is much more than preaching and proclamation. It sounds grandiose, but it is your whole life on display for the world to see who Christ is through you.
So, I would redefine evangelism as living your life before nonbelievers in such a way as to attract and point them to Jesus and the gospel. Therefore, working to soften someone’s heart towards Christ through years of faithful friendship and service is in itself still evangelism. Yet it cannot remain just that. At some point the person has to encounter the message of salvation. That is where proclamation comes in; without it our evangelism is incomplete. We should not shy away from sharing the gospel with our non-Christian friends whenever God gives us the chance.
Prayer
May we realize that our lives as a whole is a witness to our friends of who Christ is. Yet may we not shy away from sharing the gospel with our friends.
The Power of Friendships in our Witness
I remember until I reached a certain point in my faith as an adult, whether someone was a Christian or not did not matter in whether I chose to pursue or maintain a relationship with them or not. Friends were friends whether Christian or not. But at some point in my life, years after becoming a committed follower of Christ, and especially after having attended seminary, it dawned on me that I had no true non-Christian friends. Part of the reason was because I was no longer in the same career field as them and was on a trajectory to become a minister. But another part of it was because deep down I realized I was uncomfortable with how they may perceive the kind of person that I had become. Of course, I was ministering to non-Christians daily on the streets, but there were none that I could consider my true friends. I think somewhere along the line I became so burdened with the job of saving souls, that I stopped relating to people on an equal, human to human level, from a fellow human to a fellow human.
Perhaps it was that I had so bought into the biblical teaching that non-Christians were still living in darkness; they were sinful, pagan and therefore would not fully understand where I was coming from. Perhaps there was some deep part of me that felt uncomfortable being around them, for fear that if I was truly myself before them, they would not understand me, that I would be seen as a weirdo or even be ridiculed or persecuted. I think I had just become too comfortable being understood all the time and having like minded people around me. It is the nature of human beings to surround ourselves with those who are like us and naturally fear those who are different.
I realized that not having any non-Christian friends was a huge problem. I wanted to change that.
I remember the time that I had an epiphany. Kevin (name changed for privacy) had a kind of threatening presence, 6ft. 4” decked out in all black with long hair and combat boots. Half Native American, gothic, naturally inclined to dark things— the occult, heavy metal and horror movies. He was also a felon and lived on the streets. His stepdad, a Jehovah’s Witness, had physically abused him until he was 14 years old. Naturally he had a lot of anger towards Christianity and God. I met him on the street while evangelizing. Over the years I tried everything I could to try to convert him, preached the Gospel to him every chance I got, prayed and fasted for him, brought him to church. But when I finally realized that he wasn’t going to convert, at least not anytime soon, I had two choices. I could just drop my efforts completely and move onto another person who would be more ready, willing to hear what I had to share and stop meeting with him altogether. The other option was simply to continue to remain his friend. I felt as though the Lord was gently asking me through my thoughts, “Do you really like him? I know you’re trying to convert him, but do you really like who he is and enjoy spending time with him?” I realized I actually didn’t like him. I didn’t like the kind of music he listened to, the kind of movies he wanted to see, how at times his thoughts frightened me because it was so cold and loveless. Also, for most of the time I’ve known him, he was living on the streets. And whenever I would get a call from him, it was because he needed help monetarily. So, if I was honest with myself, I don’t think I really liked Kevin. But I also realized that what he needed most were genuine friendships, people who would love and accept him for who he is, who would appreciate him and enjoy his company. Everyone else saw him as a burden, because he was homeless and would often asked for help. I imagine people didn’t want to be around him. I realized I had to do the hard job of liking him, befriending him, enjoying being around him, and really appreciating him as a human being if I was to become his true friend.
So I gave up trying to preach to him every time I met him. Since then I hardly mention God or Jesus to him. And I tried to lighten up with him, trying to spend time with him as a friend, not as one who is trying to convert him, like going to the movies or lunch with him, inviting him over for dinner. Once I stopped trying to convert him and tried to relate to him as a friend, I think something changed within him too. He stopped seeing me as some crazy Christian trying to convert him all the time, talking about Jesus 24/7. He started to consider me a friend. And a good friend. And he expresses that he likes me better now than when I first met him, that I’ve lightened up a lot.
Last Saturday, I went to a brewery for Octoberfest where a musician friend of mine was performing with other musicians. I hadn’t seen her in a while. We are not very close; she is not a Christian, and I presume most of her musician friends are not either. So I prayed before going, “God, give me the courage and the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.” But I was open to however the Spirit would lead me. And while I was there listening to them perform, it dawned on me, that perhaps more genuine and effective than just preaching the Gospel to them on the first encounter, was really relating to them on their level, to become one of them, to build relationship, rapport, and trust. These are the natural, wisdom ways to get to know people. And I would enjoy the process a lot more and feel less of a burden in having to evangelize to them. If they could see me as one of them, that I didn’t have an agenda, and they found out that I was a cool guy, then in that relationship of trust I would have plenty of opportunities to share the Gospel with them, not only in words, but in deed as well. I think sometimes we turn people away because we are too bold or direct with them and skip the hard, time taking step of getting to know them instead of using wisdom and earning their trust; this is especially true in this post-Christian generation.
As I sat there listening to the music, I reminisced about my time in art school in my twenties. I wasn’t as strong in my faith yet, but I used to form relationships with just anyone because they were just cool people, not because I wanted to convert them, but just because I needed friends. And I didn’t categorize them as Christian or non-Christian. I just befriended them, because that’s what humans do. In this way evangelism becomes much less a burden and less an event, and more part of what you do naturally as you go about your life. You’re able to evangelize more organically based on whom God places in your path. And you’re able to minister to people not just in word but in deed. In this way evangelism becomes less of a one time presentation where you’re trying to get an immediate decision out of people whom you may never see again, and more of an ongoing relationship and conversation, where you show the light and magnitude of the Gospel through your love and service in long, lasting relationships.
We should not be hesitant nor afraid of forming relationships with non-Christian friends, not only to evangelize to them, but simply to love them, to know them as people, to learn from them, to be blessed by them, and to see the image of God shining through them, so we could do life together and call out those things in their lives that God sees as redeemable, leading them to hope, life, and love. This is what the Lord did during His time on earth. This is what it means to dwell incarnationally with people.
Partnering with the Holy Spirit
I’ve heard a saying that we never really go anywhere where the Holy Spirit isn’t already at work. Often times in our evangelism efforts we meet people in whom God has been clearly and powerfully working so that they would be ready and receptive to us when at the right time when we share the Gospel with them.
I have been going out on Friday, Saturday evenings to evangelize at bars. During my sabbatical from ministry, I’ve frequented bars in order to meet new people and socialize. I’ve found that this is where the people of the world come together to relax and let their guards down. It’s a perfect place to build relationships and shine our light. I’ve been having wonderful conversations there. One I will share here. I met an out of state visiter named Jeffrey (changed to protect privacy). As I started to share my testimony of how I had gone to 4 funerals one year and how that woke me up spiritually to become serious about my faith, he mentioned that recently he had gone to three funerals within a few months time. They were close relatives of his. He also opened up about how he never got over the death of his dad. When asked if he ever felt there was an unseen force or a higher power that was helping him or guiding him, he said he thought perhaps his dad was helping him and watching over him. He expressed that one day he would be able to see his dad. He told me that he had wished him and his dad were closer while he was alive. I felt the Holy Spirit gave me wisdom and I told him that he will be able to see him one day because of the hope we have in Christ. I proceeded to share the Gospel. When I asked him if he was ready to receive Christ, he said that he would. I encouraged him to go home and pray to receive Christ and commit his life to Him.
The Lord’s also opened up opportunities to share the Gospel with some of my Memphis friends in the arts. During my sabbatical time here in Memphis, God has opened a way for me to befriend several musicians, artists, filmmakers. One of them, Wade (changed to protect privacy) is an acclaimed filmmaker who’s worked with top Hollywood actors and directors. We’ve been meeting up periodically for coffee. But until recently our conversation had been kinda dry. When I first met him, he told me he was an atheist, so I didn’t bring up faith in our conversations for some time. As I felt recently the Lord’s call to evangelize again, I felt it was proper time to talk to him about spiritual matters. So about a month ago I met him and shared my testimony about how God had been with me through the toughest trials and hardships and how He had recently brought me through one of the most difficult traumas; I sensed him listening keenly. When I shared my testimony about attending four funerals (mentioned above) he opened up to me and said that since last December till June he had gone to 8 funerals, all of people who were mentors or very close to him. I could see that this had had a deep impact on him and that he was emotionally shaken up by the events. He was teary eyed as he shared how he half kiddingly and half seriously said to his friend, “Maybe I need Jesus.” He told me that he had never opened up about what he was going through except to one other closest friend and that I was the only other person with whom he shared his vulnerability with. I think he really appreciated me opening up to him and sharing my experiences and faith with him. He even mentioned that he wanted to get together once a week to chat.
In both of these encounters, I sensed that God had already been working powerfully in their lives, through circumstances and events, to open their hearts to the Gospel. We often think the burden of saving the person is all up to us, from fasting for them, to praying, to toiling the soil, to planting the seed. But the reality is that through our obedience we are merely partnering with God already at work in the lives of others and we find that He places us in the right place at the right moment to nudge people closer to Jesus. This is the privilege of evangelizing, we get to see God at work in the lives of others, moving people’s hearts closer to Him and we get to partner with Him. What a glorious calling.
What My Time away from Ministry Taught Me about Life and Ministry
Those of you who know me know that I’ve been taking a break from ministry for the last several years. Ever since I’ve felt the call to ministry, I’ve been evangelizing regularly on the streets and wherever I go. I carried the burden to evangelize 24/7. When I took a break from ministry, it was definitely a load off and liberating to just live as a normal person and find joy in the simple things of life. During my Sabbatical, I started going out on the weekends to bars and places where people gather to socialize, because I was hungry to meet new people, for community, and companionship. One of my prayers and new year’s resolutions was to expand my network of friends and to befriend a wider spectrum of people from all sorts of backgrounds, especially those outside of church. And this, not only to try to convert them, but merely for the sake of friendship. One of the things I realized years into my seminary studies, was that I had cut off all contacts with my non-Christian friends. Even though I was ministering to non-Christians on the streets all the time, I had no real non-Christian friend whom I enjoyed hanging out with. I realized this was a big problem and wanted to change that. Having carried the burden of evangelism for so many years, it was hard to relate to people on a more human level; I was so overtaken with the burden of saving souls that whenever I met a non-Christian person, the thought of building friendships with them was always secondary to the thought of converting them. I came to see people only as “saved” and “unsaved,” and the latter I saw merely as those who needed to be converted.
Coming to Memphis two and a half years ago, I continued my practice of going to bars, concerts, film festivals, going out on the weekends to meet people and socialize. I got to meet so many interesting, wonderful people. And I began to wonder, why aren’t more Christians at these places? Why isn’t there more of a Christian presence where the people of the world come together? During this time my preconceived notions of going to bars, how the people of the world come together to celebrate, all changed. Yeah, I realize that bars and clubs can be seen in a negative light because some people go there for the wrong reasons. But others are coming just to relax after a long work week and enjoy a drink or two and themselves. Bars are places where people congregate; (to put it in a positive way) it’s more of a social hub where people come together to hang out, socialize, share news and experience community. It’s the perfect place to meet people with their guards down where they can be honest and real with one another. I stopped seeing bars as a place of sin and everything that non-Christians do as sin. And even seeing people in such black and white ways as “sinners” and “saints.” That is why I came to be ok with how the people of the world celebrate and enjoy life. What I’m trying to say is that there was a quiet frustration in my evangelist heart that said, “Why isn’t the church meeting the world on their turf where they meet and congregate? What would Jesus have done if He were on earth today? How would He evangelize?” Jesus hung out with the tax collectors and sinners on their turf (Remember He went to Levi’s home and hung out with all his tax collector friends). Wouldn’t Christ be hanging out with the people of the world in bars, clubs, wherever the people gather? I think perhaps this lack of Christian presence in these places is first due to the false belief that bars are places of sin and that by going to them we can become tainted ourselves. This I’ve found is simply not true. The other reason may be our fear of stepping out of the safe confines of the church and our circle of Christian friends, to reach out to those who are different from us. This leads to us becoming passive in our evangelism efforts. Whereas as mature Christians, we should be more proactive in being present where the people of the world gather and be salt and light among them.
The other thing that I learned during my Sabbatical, through some of the most grueling and traumatic hardships I experienced was the priceless value of empathy. Those of you who know me know that after graduating from Fuller Seminary, I experienced several extreme personal hardships which led me to take a break from ministry. And having experienced such pain and trauma, dealing with a lot of emotional angst, unfulfilled desires, and frustration with where I was in my life, I went through the darkest time of my life. In the midst of what I was going through, I cannot forget the words my mother shared with me. She said, “David you had to go through these things to understand the frailty of man. If you had just graduated from seminary and delved right into ministry you would have never been able to embrace and understand people suffering and in pain.” What I went through I did to prepare me to become more empathetic to people. I believe partially that she’s right. I now have become a humbler, more empathetic person to the pain of others. I’m careful to judge others for what they fail to do. I understand that some people are going through a pain so great that they’re powerless under the weight of it. It is not them who are to blame; they are merely victims of the terrible hand that life has dealt them. I believe and hope that what I’ve gone through has in the least made me a more gracious person.
How does this all relate to evangelism? Evangelism or any form of ministry happens through a twofold understanding. First, understanding of who God is. Second, understanding of who we are as human beings, what makes us tick, what breaks us, what moves us, what brings us to tears, what moves us to joy. Who understood us more than the very God Himself who became one of us and spent 30 years learning to be human? Jesus was the most empathetic evangelist that walked the planet earth. For our evangelism to be truly incarnational, which was Jesus’ method, we need a deeper understanding of human nature. And so it is important as we are learning to evangelize, to connect to people on a human to human level and seek not only to convert the other, (seeing them merely as souls to save) but to learn from them, to be challenged by them, to be inspired by them and to receive love from them. In this way, ministry is not a one-way street, but in serving others, we experience the love of God ministering to us as well. I hope and pray that as we continue to find opportunities to share the Gospel with others, we would grow in our understanding of the humanity of Jesus and the humanity of man, so we could, like Jesus, embrace all frail, sinful people like us and bring them to a relationship with God.
If I could summarize what I’ve learned during my Sabbatical in a few words, it would be “Be more human.” I realize that I myself as one who ministers, am a fallible, weak human being just like the people I minister to and that it is ok to have very real human needs, wants, dreams and aspirations. If I keep on going like a robot while ignoring my own needs, at some point I will breakdown. Just because you are a minister does not mean that you’re somehow above the fray of human emotions and struggles. It is ok to have frailties, personality flaws, weaknesses, because despite all these things God still loves us, and perhaps all the more because of our weaknesses He works powerfully through us to display His glory. His grace is made perfect in weakness. By understanding our own humanity, we also gain a greater capacity to empathize with the humanity of others as well. When we empathize with others in this way, this in turn builds a bridge from our hearts to theirs for the Gospel to travel through. This is the whole reason for the Incarnation, that we like Jesus would truly become like those we minister to; that we would be present with them on their turf, embracing them with all of the gunk, mess and sins they carry. That in doing so we may bring the transformative power of the Gospel, not as those who have it perfectly all together, but as those who like them have experienced deep brokenness and sin but are now mended whole and are being mended whole, with the cracks still showing, breathing, feeling, fully human.
Welcome to Seeds of Love Ministries Blog
Hello folks! This is David Park, founder/director of Seeds of Love Ministries. On this blog I will post testimonies, reflections, meditations from my evangelism experiences. Expect to hear stories from our weekly evangelism outreaches, tips and thoughts on how better to minister to others, and anything helpful and fruitful in building people up in evangelism. I hope that through this blog I could encourage others to become wiser in loving people into the kingdom. Please check back often for updates and feel free to leave comments and questions! Would love to interact with you!