Throwing Jesus at the wall, maybe something will stick

A common idea amongst people today is that you’re a good person if most of what you do is good, or if your good deeds outweigh your bad. Any christian, spiritual toddler and above, should be confident in saying, “that’s not exactly how it works”.

I wonder if this applies to evangelism as well. Is it good to do street evangelism if you know that some of the people will be farther from God because you reinforced their view of christians as self-righteous or judgmental?

Most, if not all, people in America already have some opinion on christianity. If I introduce someone who doesn’t know anything about Jesus to the gospel message, wonderful. They may not believe it right away but they’re closer to understanding it. If I try and share the gospel message with somebody in America, given that they probably already know what they think about christianity, I risk them boxing me into “one of those preachy christians”. I’m not mad about someone judging me for my beliefs, that happens. I wonder, though, if it’s a poor decision to try and witness to someone who I don’t know too well. If they’re curious and asking about Jesus, wonderful. If I’m roaming the streets with a bible, tie, and a smile, searching for my next target, I could very well reinforce someone’s negative views of christianity.

Ideally, we’d all witness to our friends and street evangelism would be unnecessary. We could talk about God knowing what our friends believe or don’t believe. And they would know who we are, and more importantly, what we’re like. Living like Christ can add a lot of power in conversations with people.

The world is not ideal though, so street evangelism seems appealing when you count a conversion as +1 and anything else as +0.

I can’t say I definitively know how evangelism should or shouldn’t be done, I just wonder if there’s a better way to do it. Maybe street evangelism is a good thing, regardless of how many people got closer or further from true understanding of God. Maybe..

But what if we went out and simply loved and served people? What if we lived out loud instead of force feeding people something they may or may not enjoy the taste of? There are churches and organizations that do this, and I think it’s wonderful. NYCUP (New York City Urban Project) is a project run by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and the people running it understand what it means to love your neighbor. They feed, love, serve, etc all the homeless people in the area, and as a result they get to share the gospel message. This has lead to countless lives changed for the better. Many people have chosen to follow God with their life. I believe this is evangelism as it should be.

What if the church aimed at loving and serving people instead of choosing which funeral to protest? What if the church stopped throwing Jesus at the wall to see what sticks?