by Steven Uggen
That’s right; I said it. Evangelism gives me joy. When most people think of evangelism they don’t think of joy. The emotion it provokes in many is anxiety: What do I say? What if they reject me? What if they don’t want relationship anymore?
These are very real questions that we have to wrestle with, but I have found that when we finish the wrestling and surrender to God, we discover that sharing our faith is one of the most life-giving, joy-producing activities we experience as followers of Jesus.
God loves evangelism. This was His idea. It was the entire reason that He sent His Son here. Jesus came to earth for the express purpose of finding and saving lost people (Luke 19:10). Lost people are the whole point. Don’t misunderstand me — Jesus loves when we gather together for fellowship and teaching, but He prefers when we leave our comfortable gatherings and go out and share our faith. That’s the meaning of the following parable from Matthew 18:12-14:
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
He really wants to restore relationship with lost people. Notice what happens when one lost person comes home to the Lord (verse 13): He rejoices! It brings Him joy! In fact, it was that very joy that Jesus set His heart upon when He was enduring the agony of the cross. Let’s check out Hebrews 12:2:
We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
What was the joy awaiting Him? It was every son and daughter that was brought home to the Father – you, me, and every lost person who is yet to be saved. We bring Him joy. We are the reward of His sufferings!
When we partner with the Holy Spirit in the work of leading others into relationship with the Lord we are bringing great joy to Him, and He shares that joy with us. I can tell you that my life has been full of joy. That doesn’t mean I don’t ever face hardships. We all do, but because we live a missional lifestyle we walk in a joy that is unavailable to those who never share their faith.
There is no experience I have ever had that compares to witnessing someone truly surrender their life to Jesus. Watching the miracle of a new birth is a completely and totally miraculous experience. What joy!
What do you do for evangelism? How do you engage the rest of the church in the joy of evangelism? Share your thoughts and look forward to two more posts on evangelism in this series.
Steven Uggen leads an evangelism and equipping ministry called Trinity Works in the Twin Cities and is part of Bethel Christian Fellowship in St. Paul, MN.
