From the Editor
Evangelism Doesn’t Have to Be Awkward
By Andrea Johnson
I was on my first lap around a lake trail trying to get a run in before the temperature rose any higher when I saw a woman who looked to be in her thirties coming at me, arms waving to get my attention. My first thought was that she was quite possibly a crazy person I needed to ignore, but then I surmised she could be warning me about something ahead in the path.
I halted long enough to hear what she had to say but made every visible cue I knew of to let her know I wanted to quickly move on. Apparently the cues were not obvious enough because she took her time with her prepared question: “Do you know Jesus?”
“Yes, I do, thank you,” I quickly replied and picked up my gait, trying to smile although admittedly, it was probably more of a grimace.
On my second lap around the lake, I ran into her again. She clearly didn’t remember me and waved me down again, asking the same question. I repeated that yes, I did know Jesus, and thanked her for sharing.
Unbelievably, while cooling down after my run, I was reaching into my vehicle for my water bottle when “guess who” made her way over to me for a third time. I was more than a little annoyed and let her know that she had already “hit me up” twice. Of course, as she walked away having done her “duty,” I felt guilty. After all, she was just trying to share her faith, something we all should do.
But that’s just the thing. I didn’t feel as if she were introducing me to faith in someone as amazing as Jesus Christ. I was simply one of several people she felt she had “evangelized,” not a soul she cared about.
“Yes, I do, thank you,” I quickly replied and picked up my gait, trying to smile although admittedly, it was probably more of a grimace.
Jesus’ way of evangelizing was totally different. He chose to disciple people. He lived His life among people. He didn’t just preach to the crowds from a mountaintop and then abandon them. He cared about them, so much so that even when He was drop-dead exhausted, He would still minister to them as if they were His family. He couldn’t NOT minister! Whether it was Nicodemus coming to him at night after a long day or the woman at the well when He was beyond parched, He engaged them. Since Jesus is God, He was more aware of what they needed than they were, yet He listened to them verbalize their thoughts. They needed to know their feelings mattered to Him. They mattered.
He answered their questions, sometimes with questions of His own that led to deeper insight. He healed the leper, the blind man, the lame, the demon possessed. He provided food for more than five thousand people. He calmed raging storms. He taught people how to live by His words and His actions, and He endured the monotony of everyday life. Like parents everywhere, He suffered the shortsighted, constant bickering, the incessant questions, and the all-around selfishness of those closest to Him.
Sharing our faith is more than spouting off a memorized prescription to someone we don’t really care to know, yet it does involve speaking truth. If Jesus simply preached to people but didn’t allow them to get close to Him, would they have followed Him for long? Maybe until the next eloquent rabbi came along. If He allowed for close relationships but didn’t offer sound teaching, would His followers have been any better off than before? If Jesus did miracles but didn’t lead people to repentance, would the miracles have become life-changing testimonies or would they have been explained away and simply forgotten?
Jesus was neither wishy-washy nor timid about His message. Only truth can set someone free. But He followed up His message with His lifestyle and by His commitment to those around Him. When Jesus returned to heaven, the apostles followed His lead.
Now it’s our turn to share our faith, not by doing a “good deed for the day” but by “loving our neighbor” enough to get to know them. We certainly need to be available for those times when the Holy Spirit leads us to divine encounters where we may speak a message to someone we don’t know. And we may be the person watering someone else’s “plant.” But too often evangelism can become something we “accomplish.” Discipleship is a process; it’s allowing the Holy Spirit to care for others using our bodies and our hearts. We are commanded to disciple others (Matthew 28:19).
If we are filled with God’s Spirit, we WILL share our faith (Acts 1:8). Awkward? It can be. But not if we allow the Holy Spirit to act through us. God cares about the people we meet. If we permit His Spirit to fill us, so will we.
About the Author
Andrea Johnson, a credentialed Open Bible minister, is the managing editor of the Message of the Open Bible. A graduate of Open Bible College with a major in theology/missions, she has edited and co-edited several books, including Servants of the Spirit: Portraits of Pentecostal Pioneers, We Believe: Core Truths for Christian Living, and We Believe for Kids! Her goal is to reveal Christ to those who are searching for Him. In her spare time you will most likely find Andrea enjoying time with family and friends or hiking. She and her husband, Dennis, are blessed with four children, three of whom are married, and eight grandchildren.
When I was in first grade, I attended William Carey Academy, a small private school in Pasadena, California, that primarily served the children of missionaries who were on home assignment. The school was on the campus of the U.S. Center for World Mission, a collaborative mission base, which meant that I got to learn alongside students and be taught by teachers who had traveled the world. One specific perk of this season was learning Spanish. My teacher was a missionary to Guatemala who had a passion for the language and the Guatemalan people.
While most of my Spanish has left me, my love for Hispanic nations, culture, and people has not. One of the most fun parts of my job as Message editor has been working with teammates like Mindy Khanthavixay (Mexican-American), Areli Estrada (originally from Mexico), and Ximena Urra (originally from Chile) all of whom are fluent in Spanish. Without these women, it would have not been possible to launch our fully translated Spanish issues of Message of the Open Bible. As our current issue of the magazine is being released in tandem with Hispanic Heritage month (September 15 – October 15), we would be remiss not to honor our many Hispanic coworkers, pastors, and ministry partners within Open Bible. We would not be who we are without you!
Open Bible is currently active in eighteen Spanish-speaking countries and has 556 churches within these countries. Our Hispanic Ministries within the states is also flourishing with twenty-eight churches across the nation, many of which are leading the charge in church multiplication. I am so excited for you to read the story of Melissa Alvarez, who is a second-generation Mexican American and a second-generation church planter. You will also love reading the testimony of Mary Lou Wolfe, who grew up in a Hispanic Open Bible church (Templo Santo in Antioch, California) and whose parents come from Nicaragua and El Salvador. Mary Lou’s miraculous kidney transplant has made it possible for her to continue a vibrant ministry where she currently serves at Life Church in Concord, California.
In addition to these articles by Hispanic authors, don’t miss out on our other great articles, including a thoughtful reflection on modern discipleship by Gary Khan and
an important global missions update from Vince McCarty. And if you didn’t catch our special edition President’s Perspective article, you’ll want to read “The Power of We” by President Michael Nortune.
I am proud to be part of a movement that has honored and advocated for ministries in many languages, cultures, and nations. Let’s continue to celebrate every part of our Open Bible family as we fulfill the Great Commission together.
Hannah Bemis currently serves as the editor and director of Message of the Open Bible. She always wanted to do too many things when she grew up, and God has been kind enough to let her do most of them in different seasons. After seasons of mothering, teaching, writing, and staff pastoring, Hannah’s most recent adventure is planting College Street Church in Newberg, Oregon, with her husband, Jordan. After Jesus and all her favorite people, she spends the remainder of her passion on pizza and dark chocolate in equal measure.
My life was forever changed a few years ago when I read a book called The Insanity of God. Written by Nik Ripken, a missionary who has given his life to take Jesus to some of the darkest, most dangerous corners of the world, this book calls Western Christians out of the casual faith many of us enjoy. Ripken asks irritating, important questions like:
I found myself convicted by how little of my life I had given up for Jesus and how resistant I was to become uncomfortable for Him.
“Does God really ask us to sacrifice everything?”
“Is God at work in the hard places, and does He expect us to join Him in those hard places?”
“Isn’t it possible to love God and to pretty much keep living the life I already have?”
Ripken freely admits that he doesn’t have answers to all these questions, but he challenges his readers to remember that following Jesus means saying “yes” even when it hurts.
“We have the high privilege of answering Jesus’ call to go,” Ripken says. “But let us be clear about this: we go on His terms, not ours.”
Reading this book felt like being shaken awake after a long sleep. I found myself convicted by how little of my life I had given up for Jesus and how resistant I was to become uncomfortable for Him. (How ironic that is, when He became incredibly uncomfortable for me.) I began offering up a new kind of desperate prayer, begging God to make my life matter. To make me willing to go anywhere, do anything.
Lord, let my life be a sacrifice.
That’s a dangerous prayer. It’s a prayer that has led to my saying “yes” to assignments and callings that scare me: serving as a staff pastor at my previous church, becoming the new editor of Message of the Open Bible, and most recently, uprooting my family from our home of twelve years and moving to another state to plant a church.
The comforting thing is, I’m not alone in trying to live this kind of radically obedient life. I stumblingly follow in the footsteps of the Hebrews 11 heroes of faith, who “obeyed and went” even when they didn’t know where they were going (vs 8, NIV). Heroes who “conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised” but also “faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment” (vs 33-36). I walk alongside others in the Church and within Open Bible who are saying “yes” to difficult and daunting things. You’ll read about many of them in this issue, and I hope you will be challenged and encouraged by their stories.
To walk in obedience is to walk hand in hand with Jesus.
In truth, none of us is alone when we say “yes” to a God-given assignment. Let’s not forget that directly after the biggest, scariest assignment was given to Jesus’ disciples, the one that would take them to the ends of the earth and would include hardship and suffering for many of them, they were also given this promise:
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt 28:20).
To walk in obedience is to walk hand in hand with Jesus. That’s a reward worth even our most frightening “yes.”
About the Author
Hannah Bemis
Hannah Bemis currently serves as the Editor and Director of Message of the Open Bible. She’s always wanted to do too many things when she grows up and God has been kind enough to let her do most of them in different seasons. After seasons of mothering, teaching, writing, and staff pastoring, Hannah’s most recent adventure is planting College Street Church in Newberg, Oregon, with her husband, Jordan. After Jesus and all her favorite people, she spends the remainder of her passion on pizza and dark chocolate, in equal measure.
