We give away our faith to accomplish God's purposes.
"Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."
Ephesians 6:19-20 (TNIV)
When I was growing up sharing your faith with someone was akin to going to the dentist to get a tooth pulled for me. When I was in high school, I took a course called "Continuing Witness Training," which was a 13-week course on memorizing a "gospel presentation" that could be shared with anyone, but primarily unsuspecting "lost" people on a random night of the week, in their homes. As any good presentation, I was able to work through any answer they gave me to get them back to the issue of their salvation. Every night we would go out into our community was the most uncomfortable times I remember. Something about it just didn't seem right to me. It didn't last long in my life and beyond that particular course, I don't think I ever brought out the presentation.
Another instance in my life that proved terrifying was in seminary. In my personal evangelism class, we had an assignment to "share the gospel" with one person that semester...for a grade! Cold sweats, cotton mouth and serious procrastination followed me all semester. How could I get out of this? How could I manipulate the assignment to pacify my insecurities about the task. Again, something just didn't seem right. I copped out and did it for the grade, but there were no angels rejoicing on that day.
One of the problems I have with the approach to giving away my faith that I learned is that I don't find it anywhere in the New Testament, or the Old for that matter. I watch Jesus invite people to life and never once present a canned presentation. Jesus invited people to follow him. He saw them where they were and he invited them into something bigger - fishermen to become fishers of men, hookers to healing, blindness to sight, release to captives, etc.. Maybe I've missed the invitation. Just maybe the "giving away my faith" conversation isn't anchored in how bad a person is without God and how they need Jesus, but to uncover for them what God is doing around them and invite them into that life. I realize for some, this may appear like a semantics issue, but I think it's more than that.
Have you ever had a friend try to sell you on a "new, revolutionary product"? They start by telling you how what you currently have or what you are currently doing is bad, then they offer their solution to fix everything. You know from the beginning that this is probably a con, no matter how sincere the person is or how much you like them. I imagine that is how people feel when we start "giving away our faith" by telling them how bad they are or how wrong they are living.
Think about a time when you introduced Friend A to Friend B. You've known Friend A for a long time and you think a lot of this person. You recently met Friend B and you thought they'd hit it off well. You have dinner at your house and you invite Friend A over to come and you then go to Friend B. You want Friend B to come to dinner, so you invite him over to dinner with some other friends and you let them know how much fun it will be. You don't start the conversation by telling Friend B how bad he is, but you simply say something like, "We're having dinner with some great friends Saturday night, and we'd like you and your family to join us. Would you come?" This works because Friend B has gotten to know you well enough to trust you and your friend-judgement, so they are open to the invitation. The goal of the night is to introduce them to Friend A, but the invitation was simply to dinner with Friend A.
What if we began to see "giving away our faith" much more like dinner rather than a sales pitch? What if we invited our neighbor who is good with carpentry to go to work on a Habitat house on a Saturday? What if we spent time with the neighbor who is eco-friendly and invited her to join us in a stewardship project by going to a local reservation and picking up trash? Once we spend time with people, then we know how to invite them to the life that is truly life. This is giving away our faith.
Related competencies include: Humanity, Personal God, Salvation by Grace, Love, Patience, Gentleness, Hope, Humility
KidsKreed: I love my neighbors by telling them about Jesus.
Parents, the first and most important people you will give your faith to are our children. We may do so in a conversation or by your actions. We are giving away our faith to them everyday. We are their model, so we must invest in this incredible opportunity that has been given to us. Our kids need us to help them see that life with Jesus is more than just a set of rules and regulations, but a real relationship in which they are invited as well.
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