This is the forth in a series of blog posts about evangelism
at work – feeding back the results from a recent survey of members of Emmanuel.
We’ve discussed the challenges of speaking about Jesus. We’ve talked about
factors that make it easier: location and personal relationships. We’ve considered
how that might affect how we use our time.And when the moment arrives to speak about Jesus. What do we
say..?
Well, it all depends…My experience is that the opportunities
to do a full-gospel presentation to a colleague at work were very rare. That
can be discouraging if you’ve come from a university background where there is
far more openness to discussing the gospel.
The survey responses back this up. Opportunities for evangelism tend to be of the salt and pepper kind:
we sprinkle small little nuggets of truth in here and there.
Maybe it’s as we
offer a biblical perspective on family life or a film. Maybe it’s as we explain
how our faith has made a difference to what we do with our holiday time or
money.
We shouldn’t underestimate the cumulative impact this will have.
We’re gradually building up a picture of what it means to live in the King’s
Kingdom.
The survey responses suggest that– in time – the opportunities
to have in depth gospel conversations do arise. It’s been a real encouragement
to read the survey responses. Amongst the challenges, there are stories of
colleagues being willing to read the bible, attend Christianity Explored
courses or come along to church events.
Yes, speaking about Jesus usually involves crossing some
form of pain line. And often we don’t put things very eloquently. We might not
see fruit for a very long time. But, in the words of Mark Greene, let’s
remember that, “the Holy Spirit is at work and has, over many millennia, shown himself
to be more than capable of overcoming a billion apparent obstacles to the
communication of the gospel news in a myriad different contexts – open, closed
and deliberately murderous.”
One final point. A number of survey respondents picked up
how they’ve been encouraged in their evangelism by knowing that they have
friends and other Christian colleagues praying for them. In particular, one
respondent pointed out that “the City Centre
prayer meeting is a real help – it keeps evangelism on my radar.” We all
recognise that evangelism in the workplace – being on the frontline - is tough.
Knowing you’ve got prayer backup seems to make a real difference in those
moments when you need courage, perseverance and wisdom in speaking about Jesus.
If you want any details about the City Centre prayer
meeting, please get in touch with me.
