As time went on, I listened to many sermons, read a lot of books, learned much of the Bible, and became acquainted with other believers. Looking back, I have some observations on things I did, or others did, especially in evangelism circles.
There used to be an emphasis on having people respond to the Gospel. In watching others present the Gospel, there was always that pressure to get the person to respond. It seemed like if you really were successful at evangelism, you would have had many people make a decision for Christ after you shared the Gospel with them.
There are some reasons people do evangelism, that aren't exactly right on. I have had people who I was sharing the Gospel with, think that I was doing evangelism in order to earn Brownie points with God. I think some people actually do that. Some go out and share the Gospel because they feel guilty about having not shared the Gospel with people. Others tell the Gospel because they don't want their family or friends to go to hell. This is not totally wrong though. We are to warn people about hell. But there is a bigger reason for doing evangelism.
Some wrong motives for doing evangelism are: guilt, pride, striving to please God, fear of failing God.
Some right reasons for doing evangelism: love for God, love for people, making God's name known in truth, warning people about the Judgment to come.
I think evangelism has gotten such a bad rap, not because people are offended by the Gospel, but because 'evangelists' are pretty hateful sometimes. We are commanded to love God. We are commanded to love people. But even more, if we are truly in Christ, the Bible says that we are constrained by the love of God.
I think many people have no idea of the love of God. Christians don't seem to know either. That's probably one reason why there is such a battle over how evangelism should be done. Some people think that you should always serve people food if you are sharing the Gospel with them. They are afraid that if you just preach the Gospel, let's say, on the streets, then you really don't love them. It's like evangelism is something you have to tack onto your schedule, rather than it being an outworking of the overflow of the heart.
Love starts before we go out and evangelize. If love isn't the motivation of our hearts, then we need to ask God to fill us with His love and give us new hearts. Evangelism without love doesn't work. And if we truly, really do love, we will want to share the Gospel with people. We will want to let others know of God's greatness and what He has done for us. We will die to ourselves and to our selfish desires that would interfere with evangelism.
One example of this in my life was, when I was younger, I didn't know how to talk well. It was very hard for me to talk and communicate. As I got older, it never got better. I always wanted to do evangelism, but since I couldn't talk, the best I would ever be able to do is to give out tracts, so I thought. But then the desire to proclaim the Gospel became stronger. I had to pray for many years that God would help me learn how to communicate. After wrestling in prayer for a long time, I was now able to talk. God has helped me learn how to communicate the Gospel with people and to have good conversations about the things of God. I didn't just think to myself that I wouldn't be able to talk, so, I'll just pass out tracts the rest of my life. Thank God all that changed. I had to desire that kind of change. I had to be desperate for it. May God help us all to love one another, and to love the lost people who need to come to know Him.
One question to ask ourselves: Are we evangelizing to be seen by men, or are we evangelizing to be seen by God?
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