The activity of communicating the good news of Jesus Christ and His mission to save us from sin and its consequences and give us new spiritual life for now and eternity has been called evangelism. Based on the teachings of Christ, including His several directives to go into all the world and preach the gospel, Christians have, to a great degree, taken evangelism seriously for twenty centuries or so. At times the church’s strategies of persuasion have taken aberrant twists and turns and used forms of coercion and threat in order to “persuade”. The bitter legacy of the crusades and inquisitions stand out in history as a reminder. For the most part, however, the followers of Christ have understood that convincing others must be motivated by love and conducted by presenting the case for Christ one on one and leaving the decision to the recipient. In light of the tension between an intense desire to see people come to belief in Christ and be saved versus a perversion of that intensity that attempts to convert through intimidation many Christians claim to be confused about how to evangelize. Even among those of us who are referred to as evangelicals there are significant differences of opinion as to what is enough and what is too much in the way of aggressiveness in attempts to do “soul winning”.
Maintaining a balance in the manner in which we approach men and women about their relationship with Jesus Christ is a matter worthy of concern but care must be taken that the point of balance is calculated on a scale that agrees with the testimony of the Bible. It is clearly portrayed in the Gospels that Jesus did not force himself on anyone. He could have but He didn’t. He chose to make use of His divine authority in a way that was qualified by the willingness of men and women to respond to it positively. On the other hand he was assertive in His method of confronting people with His saving message. He took the initiative in approaching most of the individuals He evangelized. To those who came to Him on their own, such as Nicodemus or the rich young ruler, whatever their question, Jesus quickly turned the conversation to the subject of the condition of their souls. In what we read of The Apostles Peter and Paul their strategy was similar. They were bold to seize every opportunity to persuade others to commit their lives to Christ but it is also very apparent that they did not engage in arm twisting and high pressure tactics. They laid the message out there in no uncertain terms but they didn’t attempt to jam it down the throats of their audience in an inappropriate way.
When trying to come to grips with the issue of proper balance in evangelistic techniques, one thing is for sure: doing away with any evangelism at all is not the answer and slacking off in our efforts to impact our spiritually lost population through personal witnessing for the sake of “correctness” is not an acceptable choice. Taking the attitude that somehow, someway people are just going to come to Christ or that they are going to come to us so we can tell them how they can come to Christ has always been a wimpish cop-out and remains so today. As I once heard Jerry Vines put it this way, “Jesus Christ never told the world to go to church, He told the church to go to the world. People will not just come to church they must be brought. People will not just learn about Jesus they must be taught.” That is simply stated but profoundly on target.
The first poem many of learned was none other than “Little Bo Peep”. In the poem Bo Peep’s dilemma was a serious one and worth of deepest concern. Her sheep were lost and what’s more she had no idea of their whereabouts. There was no apparent way to get them back. She needed some good advice and counsel. The last line of the little rhyme gives her a suggestion, perhaps as an attempt to relieve her anxiety but, nevertheless, quite unrealistic in light of the nature of sheep and the use of logic. “Leave them alone and they will come home, wagging their tails behind them.” To accept that recommendation as a reasonable word of guidance fails to make good sense. Bo Peep’s sheep will, for all realistic purposes remain lost and probably wind up at the bottom of a cliff or in the jaws of a wolf or in a butcher shop. If it is Bo Peep herself who delivers the last line the attitude it expresses is even worse. Her realization that her sheep are truly lost is perceptive enough but her lack of concern is grossly irresponsible and certainly unloving.
In order to avoid “Bo Peep’s Blunder” the church had better ask at least a couple of necessary questions. How is it that we leave them alone? Why is it that they don’t come home, wagging anything? Those who qualify as spiritually lost are any and every man or woman who has never committed his life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. If those of us who have made that commitment and profess to be Christians our personal responsibility, as well as the privilege, clearly stated by Jesus and the Apostles, is to lead the lost to a saving knowledge of Christ.