For years I led my church in what is sometimes called street evangelism. We would walk up to people we didn’t know and start conversations about God. As it happens, my church was also in the hood where there were a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Hebrew Israelites seeking to reach us with their messages. So we had to spend a fair amount of time studying other religions and what they believe, because when Jesus tells us that we are to “make disciples of all nations,” what he is really saying is that we need to make disciples of all people. Well, people from different backgrounds who subscribe to all kinds of religious doctrines are included in these people. We didn’t avoid them because we were unfamiliar with their gods. We talked to them and studied what they believed. And the more we understood what they believed, the easier it was to know how to approach them with the truth.
Now I’m not saying we need to obsessively research every religion under the sun. In fact, I think that’s where a lot of apologists go wrong. They try so hard to be jacks-of-all-trades that they end up being masters of none. I am, however, a firm believer in understanding the beliefs of the specific people you are trying to reach. In other words, if you don’t live near a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or Hebrew Israelites, don’t knock yourself out studying what they believe. But if you feel like God is calling you to reach out to the Muslim family down the street, familiarize yourself with the Koran and the five pillars of Islam. You don’t have to know everything, but if you don’t know anything about what they believe, it’s hard to know where their beliefs come into conflict with Christianity.
Because I know Jehovah’s Witnesses take issue with the divinity of Jesus, when I share my faith with a Jehovah’s Witness, I typically focus my energy on defending the Trinity. The same goes with the Mormons’ take on salvation, Hebrew Israelites’ emphasis on how keeping the law justifies us in God’s eyes, and atheists’ issues with God’s will and the question of good and evil. When you know the distinctives between different religions and Christianity, it takes some of the pressure off because you don’t have to know everything. You just need to know some key verses that address the main points of contention. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.
And I think that’s another place where we can go wrong when we share our faith with people: we don’t trust the Holy Spirit’s work. Instead, we develop a savior complex. We think that if our conversation doesn’t end with the Sinner’s Prayer, we’ve failed somehow. But it’s the Spirit of God that gives life—not our intellect, our words, or our ability to debate or convince. I truly believe that God wants to raise up a generation of evangelists who are okay with being seed planters.
Believe it or not, this call is for all believers. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be a street evangelist. While we are all called to obey the great commission, we’re not all called to fulfill it in that way. When Peter tells believers that they should “always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15), he isn’t telling us to start arguing with people. He’s simply telling us that we need to be prepared when the opportunity to defend our faith arises.
Because make no mistake: no matter where you live, at some point, you will be called upon to share or defend your faith with somebody who’s operating from a different belief system than you, whether it’s the fallen-away Catholic who lives next door, the yoga instructor at your health club who says she’s really starting to get into Buddhism, or your agnostic uncle who’s always making his opinions known at family get-togethers. The goal of “always being prepared” isn’t to become some kind of Bible Jedi Master, ready to take on any and all objections at once. The goal is to tell the truth of the gospel to others to win hearts, not arguments. It’s to tell the truth in a way that represents God well without it turning into a shouting match, without you completely turning people off, and without you sounding like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
The people who are doing it right are the ones who really understand the great commission. They can look at people who are part of a religious cult, who claim God doesn’t exist, or who are out there shouting false prophecies from a street corner, and rather than getting defensive or upset, they say, “God loves these people and wants to reach them.” And from the very beginning, the way he reaches them is through us, his followers.
Who are the people who live near you, and what do they believe? What will it look like for you to be “prepared to make a defense . . . for the hope that is in you” to the people that God has placed in your way? You don’t have to know everything, but what might be helpful for you to learn to answer the questions they might have about your faith?
Adapted from How to Tell the Truth: The Story of How God Saved Me to Win Hearts—Not Just Arguments by Preston Perry, available now.
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