Overcoming the Obstacles to Evangelism
Myron Augsburger
I want to integrate evangelism into every hour of the week, so that Christ is carried into people's lives, into our work, play, and socializing.
—Myron Augsburger Evangelism is everything we do to make faith in Christ an option. It includes sharing the good word and doing the good deed. But sometimes our words and deeds do not touch the hearts of those we seek to reach. Sometimes obstacles we don't understand hinder our evangelistic efforts. Some time ago we invited a couple to our home for dinner. He's a member of our church; she isn't. They accepted, but she was so anxious about coming to our home, both because we were white (and they were black) and because we were "religious," that she called several times to change the arrangements. Finally she phoned the afternoon of our engagement and told my wife, Esther, "Don't have a dinner, just a snack. We'll have eaten." So Esther complied and prepared finger food. They arrived together, but he had come straight from work; he did not know his wife had made the change, and had not eaten dinner. Naturally, he finished several plates of finger food and dessert. Nonetheless, we enjoyed a pleasant evening together. As they were leaving, this woman turned to Esther and said, "Next time we'll come for dinner. I won't be afraid." Differences in race, culture, education, habits, and social customs had become obstacles between us. That evening, we cleared away a few. Many things hinder evangelism. Often, our secular, materialistic, individualistic culture gets in the way. Sometimes it's our own insensitivity to other people and subcultures that obstructs the Good News. Fortunately, some Christians are doing brilliant cultural analysis to alert us to such hindrances and suggest how we might ...
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