In chapter 2, McRaney states that, “dealing with lost people will cause us to get our hands dirty and sweaty just like tending to yard work. Part of evangelism is to clear up misconceptions and misperceptions people have about the gospel. Dealing with people and evangelism is often messy.” Reflecting on my conversion story, I agree that one can get their hands dirty by dealing with lost people. At the age of 19, I was a drug addict and never believed in God, and anytime my neighborhood clergyman told me about salvation, I turned him down, not once and not twice, but he kept coming back to preach the same gospel I never believed in.
However, he was a servant evangelist because he drove me to the way of salvation and brought my messy life back in track. His actions depicted the power of evangelism, the works of the Holy spirits in our lives, as well as displaying God as our father who loves us despite the cruel things we do in life. Through his persistence in planting the word of God in my life, I accepted Jesus as my personal savior.
Evangelism is associated with a number of misconceptions, and it’s a process that takes time, resources and work. The scripture illustrates that God does the calling, but he uses believers to reach to people in a personal relationship, and this is the biggest misconception that people have. 1 Corithians 3:6 shows that God saves people but not human beings that save them, because it says that God makes the seeds that were watered by Apollo to grow. Planting a seed to people especially non-believers is a messy work indeed that calls for sacrifices. Human beings need to understand that all that God requires is personal relationship with his people, and therefore, during evangelization, its good for people to let the Holy Spirit take control, and have abundant faith to give them the right words to say to the right people, so as to save as many souls as possible.
Bibliography
William, McRaney. The Art of Personal Evangelism: Sharing Jesus in a Changing Culture (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2003), 34-35, Kindle Edition.
Wagner, C. Peter. Strategies for church growth: Tools for effective mission and evangelism. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010.
