Speaking Up

Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words.

Forget that, its crap.

The first quote above you've probably heard a lot if your a Christian. Its from St. Francis of Assisi and is very memorable in terms of its depth and simplicity. The second quote is a very loose paraphrase from Niel, the guy who co-founded the ministry Thrive Africa (i.e. the one I'm with) with his now wife 10 years ago.

If he sees this and doesn't like it I'll take it down but I write those quotes because I really liked what he said. You know when you hear something that totally changes the way you think about something and you love it? That was what happened when I heard Niel speak. (For the record he said the above at Mabula when we were on safari.)

Let me be honest. All appearances to the contrary I am not the nicest guy in the world. I'm cynical, sarcastic and often overly-logical for most people. I'm often too honest with people and I tend to offend people a lot. I like people but I often forget that I'm friends with them in the heat of a good debate or argument. When I say a compliment or when I am just genuinely nice to someone that isn't me, its Jesus working through me. I say this to make the point, no matter how hard I try my actions will never be sufficient enough, by themselves, to share the gospel with someone.

On the other hand I have had a interest in apologetics since middle school when I found out that not everyone grew up in church and that many people thought what I believed was crap. I love discussing religious and controversial things. I've read the Bible 2.3 times at the moment. I pride myself on having some sort of answer for every question a skeptic can think of. I say all this to make the point, speaking about God and Christianity is the way that I share the gospel best.

I think too often Christians get blinded by this false idea that Christianity is about being really, really nice. Now disregarding the fact that one doesn't get to heaven by being super good, Christians are obsessed with always being perfect. While Jesus was turning over the tables in the temple, we live so as not to offend anyone. We do a bunch of token actions like go to church, give some money, buy Christian music, do a short-term trip and then tell no one about Jesus. Ever.

Now I'm not saying stop doing good things. Strong relationships are the key to effective evangelism and I'm learning and I'm growing in being nicer and less offensive while I'm here. What I am saying is we have to stop worrying about making sure everyone is happy when we are around and start telling them about the truth that is in us.

Is the Bible really the Word of God?
Is Christianity really the best way to live?
Is Jesus really the only way to heaven?


If so we better start preaching it.