Have you ever wondered why people in other places think differently about God than you do? They may even think about a different god altogether. Certainly it’s because that is how they are raised and all they know is what their parents taught them, added to the general cultural norms they live with everyday. Thus a Buddhist is such, and so is a Hindi, and a Muslim, etc. Each person is trying to live their life and raise their family, while constantly “searching” for the mystical truths of eternity.

Why isn’t Christian evangelism working very well? What are we doing wrong? Don’t we have the Truth? From a purely practical standpoint isn’t our God the One and Only God, able to do anything He pleases? Are we somehow not communicating this?

Have we somehow lost the emphasis on God being “good” ? To evangelize means to spread the Good News. So what is that good news? Is it good that Jesus Christ is the Savior? That He is the healer? That He is actually coming again?

Have we lost the ability to talk about these things in compelling ways, focused on the good that happens when someone embraces Christ as Lord? If so, what has replaced it?

Has our determination to be “right” disconnected us from the very people we’re trying to steer from the “wrong” ?

In our truly great and Blessed America we have so concentrated on Capitalism that we’ve made “competition” a national ethic, where “to win” is almost everything. Don’t misunderstand here, winning is better than losing, on many sides of the issue. But what if the “winning” gets off target, such that what is won isn’t what was sought? We certainly haven’t “won” someone to Christ simply because of that person’s church attendance. The creeds are wonderful summaries of and Statements of Faith, but they surely don’t “save.”
Our church governments are necessary to keep order and focus mission, but they don’t heal or deliver. The way we “do church” may change, as certainly as demographics change, but our order of service isn’t what draws one to Christ, it’s His Holy Spirit.

Did Jesus ever compete? Did Jesus ever evangelize by denouncing another’s faith? I know He took on the Pharisee’s from time to time, but not about their Godliness, but rather their un-Godliness. Jesus wanted them to open their eyes and see their Savior, standing right in front of them!!

We surely cannot evangelize someone else until WE’VE been so changed, ourselves, transformed not by a religious system, but by a Savior, personally. We need to fully evangelize our own souls, such that the Good News of Jesus Christ is so rooted in us and so developed within us that it begins to spill out and over to others. Maybe then we’ll see some changes in our lives and in our communities…