John Doe, meet Jesus!

Okay, so I lied. I surely thought I was gonna be posting as much or more than before. I hadn't thought that once you stop blogging it's hard to start up again. I'm learning that it's a habit, like reading your Bible, cleaning your kitchen, or picking your nose. I've got the last three of those down pat, but I gotta get back into the blog scene.

If any of you are still checking in on a regular basis, I'm not gonna make any promises, but keep checking in and maybe I'll get back into the swing of things. For now, my very good friend Dave asked me to explain a bit more about something I said in that last post about the Western concept of evangelism and missionaries...

I think the problem is that a lot of folks in America get the wrong idea of what it means to be a missionary. One popular idea is that missionaries are lonely souls, living in a hut in some tropical rainforest, teaching Bible stories to naked Indian children. Now that's one kind of missionary (and a very good kind indeed), but I think it scares a lot of people who are attached to their creature comforts. People can easily sit on their couch and say "In that case, I could never be a missionary!"

Another picture people have of missionaries is from the false impressions they get through gigantic evangelistic crusades. In this way it would seem that missionaries are outspoken theologians who travel to exotic lands to preach hellfire and brimstone.

Likewise, people get the wrong impression of missionaries through stories of trampled cultures. When boats full of white men land on foreign shores and conquer the natives, and in the name of religion say that it's for their own good, missionaries quickly look like big, fat hypocrites. But a missionary doesn't have to be any of those things. You can be a missionary without being a hermit, a preacher, or hypocrite.

A missionary is simply someone who sets out to obey the Great Comission. A quick look into any major missions organization will show you that all kinds of jobs are needed on today's mission field. Missions work has become a lot more complex in the last fifty years and all sorts of short-term or part time support is needed. With whatever talent you have, or whatever time you'll give - you can and should be a missionary.

Part of the deal that once scared me about being a "missionary" was that I thought that meant I would have to become an "evangelist." Even if one has a good impression of evangelists (we won't talk about televangelists or the "God hates gays" sign-holders outside of every public gathering) that still means you've got to pass out tracts or say "Jesus loves you" to everybody on the road. That may be good, but it just doesn't sit well with me. Where's the personal connection?

Instead, I'm learning that Jesus can speak for Himself. If you'll just get out there, make friends and be sincere, you'll find that people start asking you questions. Being an evangelist on a real level simply means introducing people to Jesus. They see Him in you, He's attractive to them, so you just make the introduction.

For example, I don't set out to trek the streets of Malta saying to strangers, "You should meet my friend, Dave. He's really cool and he's got a plan for your life!" So why do some people try to do that with Jesus? Being an evangelist doesn't have to mean preaching "turn or burn" to people who never asked you. It just means that you share honestly the Good News about what Jesus has done in your life. And if they want to know more, "John Doe, meet Jesus!"