Day 36 - The Dreaded E-word
I am curious what impression and thoughts you have when you hear the word “evangelism.” Share them here.
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© 2006 Vintage Fellowship & Red Letters Studio
May 21st, 2007 at 9:29 am
Yesterday, I was driving along in my car listening to the radio and heard something about an upcoming event dubbed “a crusade.” Immediately I thought, “You know, some words need to be retired.” When I think of crusade, I think of a war in the name of religion. Somehow, I don’t think war is what Christ had in mind. “Evangelism” is a word like that. When I think of evangelism, I think of the tv evangelists like Swaggert that my grandma used to mail money to. I think of Bullhorn Guy. I think of Brother Dan who tours college campuses informing all the students that they will burn in hell if they don’t accept Christ. (“Burning in hell” can we retire that too?) I think of the early Sunday morning talks and handy pamphlets from my great aunt.
When I actually became a Christian, I was so relieved to read in Blue Like Jazz that all you had to do was live your life. Talk about a weight being lifted. Of course, as I grow, I realize there’s a lot more work involved in that “just live your life” part, but what that means to me is what we talked about in church on Sunday. You live as an example and you develop relationships and hopefully, one day, because of that relationship, you change someone’s life. Or your one of the several experiences that helped change that person’s life. I’ll be honest, the word “evangelism” scares me. It feels dusty, old, and a little creepy. It’s funny though, I do believe in the idea. It’s just that this word, for me, has been associated with many negative things in the past, much like “crusade” and “Christian”. It’s like Rob Bell says in the video, how do so few speak for so many?