True Lifestyle Evangelism?
Authentic Christian living tends to be a more powerful and persuasive influence to pre-Christians than sermons, songs, or religious programs. Pre-believers are more interested in the genuineness of your personal faith than they are of your doctrinal purity or your denomination.
~Barry Howard, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pensacola, Florida
This was quoted in the July 2010 edition of Baptists Today. (To which my father got me a subscription a few months after I “converted” to the Methodist church—think he’s trying to tell me something? ;-))
So, my thoughts on this quote . . .
First, I have some trouble with the terms “pre-Christian” and “pre-believer”—as much as I have a problem with unpublished novelists calling themselves “pre-published.” On one side, yes, it looks like an optimistic viewpoint. But on the other side, it’s setting up what may be unrealistic expectations. There are a lot of people who will never become Christians, no matter how many times they hear the gospel. (Just like there are a lot of people who will never be published, no matter how much they write or submit.)
To me, someone who views non-Christians as “pre-Christians” or “pre-believers” is already skewing their view of a nonbeliever with presuppositions and preconceived ideas that those people are easy pickings, and that all it takes to get someone to stop being a “pre-Christian” and become a “Christian” is one tiny little step—repeating some pre-written words of a prayer that may or may not truly bring about a change in that “pre-Christian’s” heart.
Granted, I don’t know the whole context of this man’s statement, and perhaps he was talking about those who are already seekers, who are on the cusp of making the decision.
Evangelism is not one of my spiritual gifts. It took only one mission trip and a short stint in college involved in Campus Crusade for me to realize that. I’m not good at the “hard sell” when it comes to influencing others for Christ. In all my years, I’ve only been used by God once (that I know of) to bring someone into relationship with Him—
and I’d been friends with that young woman for at least a year. We worked together, we went to lunch together, we went out together on the weekends—we had a relationship. It didn’t take her long to discover I went to church, and after she’d known me a while, she asked if she could go with me. After several months of going with me, she asked me if we could sit down one Sunday afternoon and “talk about God.” She asked me questions; I answered them the best I could, showing her passages in the Bible she’d heard at church or that talked about what I was trying to tell her. I didn’t make her pray the “sinner’s prayer” or make any kind of a commitment. We talked about it off and on for several more weeks. And then, on her own, one Sunday she walked down the aisle and made a profession of faith.
Not once, on the mission trip or in all of those college dorm-room visits I was forced to go on as a leader in Crusade, did I ever see a single person come to believe in God the way I saw her come to believe in God. And until she asked me about it, I never actually talked to her about God or about my faith. I’m not saying I live an exemplary Christian life. But I definitely agree with Mr. Howard that authentic Christian living will make a more positive impact on non-Christians than preaching or witnessing or carrying signs or yelling or quoting Bible verses. Because bringing someone to faith in Christ is not about learning the Roman Road or the Four Spiritual Laws and saying the Sinner’s Prayer. Faith, belief, Christianity is about relationship. It’s about what happens after the person makes that profession of faith as much or more as it is about bringing them to the point where they’re ready to enter a relationship with God.
So, that’s what that quotation makes me think about. What about you? We don’t have to agree—but we do have to be polite!
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KayeDacus.com 
I agee with you. I really loved Bill Hybel’s book Just Walk Across the Room. It has similar ideas about building relationships and being open to follow God’s lead.
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I AGREE with you – not agee. I shouldn’t be allowed to comment until after I’ve had my morning coffee 🙂
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I most definitely agree. I have a serious problem with viewing people as “pre-Christians” and agree with what you said that it can allow us to simplify the process. We’re not the Holy Spirit and we can’t hope to understand what He does in people’s hearts. I would love to think everyone would become Christian but unfortunately the Bible says not everyone will repent.
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I’m sure this gentleman was speaking to the paper, or to a group of people who were not necessarily the subjects, but I’m not crazy about the lingo, either. I had a pastor once who didn’t like the song “Sinner Saved By Grace,” because, in his opinion, once you’re “saved,” you’re no longer a “sinner.” Semantics, pure and simple. Personally, I love that song! 🙂 I don’t have the gift of Evangelism OR Mercy, but last time I took an inventory I was high on Service and Encouragement. I haven’t “officially” led anyone to the Lord in a long time, but I think I’ve been instrumental in the lives of a lot of kids growing to know and love Him, and finally receiving Him as their Savior. Words are a funny thing, aren’t they?
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if being saved means you’re not a sinner anymore, that doesn’t bode well for all us who think we’re saved…
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I agree. His point is that when we’re saved, we’re a new creature, a “saint” who sometimes sins. Like I said, semantics. I do not like it when words confuse instead of clarify!
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You may several good points. Sometimes in our enthusiasm we Christians “forget” that it is the Holy Spirit that draws people to God, not the human being. We are merely vessels or tools. God uses people as He pleases to do His will. Some of us he gifts with evangelism. Some of us he gifs with teaching or preaching as well as other gifts.
I live near Bonnaroo, and I’ve been working with a ministry tent ever since the music festival came to town. There are ALL TYPES of people who show up during this long weekend. Some are seekers; some are screamers, standing on the outskirts of the campsites with their condemnation signs that warn the music fans and drug dealers that they’re all going to burn unless they repent.
The mission of the ministry tent isn’t to twists peoples’ arms into believing–as if we could really do that. We hand out cold cups of water, shampoo, sunscreen, apples, etc. We develop relationships as we meet the needs of the people. We hope that if the Holy Spirit is drawing some of them to Him that the their hearts will be more open if they experience God’s love in a tangible way.
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It is no secret to anyone who knows me what my faith is. Yet, I would make the worlds worst evangelist. Everyone who comes to Christ does it differently. All I can do is be there to share if anyone asks and I have had a few of those conversations, though I am not sure if anything I said made an impact one way or the other. But as far as thinking of someone as pre-christian, that is a huge assumption. I prefer to think of friends who do not believe as friends.
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