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Evangelism. A word that has strong feelings for many (if not all) Christians. In some, it invokes good feelings of spreading God’s love and being saved; in others, it conjures up nightmares of being forced to awkwardly share the gospel message. What do you think of when you hear the word evangelism?

Before we get into that too much, let’s define the word. Evangelism comes from the Greek euangelion, which literally means “good news.” This simple word encompasses the entire Gospel message - that Jesus was God in the flesh on earth, died for our sins, and was raised to life again. The act of evangelizing is sharing that message with others.

For me, for many years my feelings toward the word evangelism were negative or indifferent. I grew up in a church that didn’t really evangelize much. Yes, we were told to bring our friends to church and tell them God loves them, but I don’t know that many people actually went out and did that. That faith tradition believes that a person cannot accept Christ on their own without the working of the Holy Spirit, so it seemed like everyone was content to let the Spirit do all the work for them. So evangelism was never really a big deal.

That resonates with me to this day, as I still have a hard time actively evangelizing, so to speak. Whether good or bad, I’m one of those people who lets my actions do the talking more so than my words. Only on a couple occasions have I really had the opportunity to share the Gospel with someone, since the majority of my acquaintances are Christians, or have at least heard the Gospel message so many times they could recite it themselves - even if they don’t personally believe it in their heart.

Nowadays, it seems as though the Gospel message has been evangelized everywhere - so much so, that people are tired of hearing it. It appears to have lost its power. But what is powerful is the God behind that evangelism message, and it’s powerful when people truly live out that message! Anyone can stand on a street corner and tell people Jesus died for them; but it takes a person with authentic faith to truly live it out and invest it in the lives of others. We don’t just need to tell people the Gospel with our words, but we need to live it out in our daily lives, 24/7.

How are you evangelizing?