Evangelism

A few months ago I sat in a South Bronx living room discussing the salvation found in Christ alone. We experienced much of what life together can be. We prayed and talked and laughed. At one point a woman who was attending this meeting for the second time described the change that she had seen in her friend, our host, since we began meeting together in her home a couple of months ago. She said to me: "I see her changing, and I want that too. I want what she's experiencing for me too."

A few weeks earlier our host raised a question as we studied from John 4. She read how Jesus described the 'Living Water.' She said, "What is He talking about? That sounds like something that I would want too." She put her hand to her chest, over her heart, and described how deeply this story and Jesus' description of living water made her feel. I treasure moments like these.

Evangelism is a viral activity. In other words it only needs to begin with one infecting one other with the Good News. Then another catches it and then another. But do you know how it most often happens? It's life-on-life. All the stadium crusades, conferences, and revivals don't really compare to the mustard seed, do they? Yet, we spend enormous resources on these things. As we embrace our identity as a missionary community, we step out into the lives of others. We enter their world with respect for their ways, and we embody the Gospel there in that place. Strategic, missional prayer is the same way. We don't pray for the lost with any real passion unless we actually care about the lost. It's a heart issue. All the evangelism campaigns and programs and currculum that make their way into church calendars every year don't work for a reason (or when they do work they leave many crippled). It's a heart issue, and good information is no substitute for heart surgery. If we were losing oxygen, we would do whatever it took to breathe. When we understand that, we understand the kind of missional prayer that is needed for mission in the city.