Article by Jeffin Johnson
Melbourne, Australia
Every time I hear the word “evangelism”, I feel unstable on the inside and the words ‘Go preach the Gospel’ echo in my mind. For a long time, I had the dream of becoming a Christian public speaker and doing great things for God. It is partly because of how my parents brought me up and the events that happened in my life. My grandfather was a well-known preacher. God blessed him and his generations and put the burden of evangelism in our blood. Our family went through many eye-opening moments that caused us to understand the will of God in our lives. We are all now put into God’s field to work together along with thousands of others who have the same calling.
Here’s what I think of Evangelism. This great commission according to Mark 16:15 involves going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to all creation. It’s a task involving everyone in a global scale. God made man in His own image, but it was distorted by sin and God still loves mankind so much that He gave everything up to mend his relationship with them. That story which is the power of salvation to all who believe is what the Gospel is about. We as children of God have a heavenly call for action!
There are so many ways we can be involved in evangelism and it depends on what God calls each of us to do. Some do it as part of their Church activities; some do a relationship based evangelism which involves making friends and sharing the Gospel with them. Some others preach in the open air which is a popular method in the Bible and some others do write up Gospel posts on the internet. My style would be to preach in public, something many of us dare to do.
Well, I think if you have a strong calling from God to preach in public and you don’t have rest until you release it out, you will end up being bold and speaking to strangers in an open area. The first time, I tried to preach on the streets of Melbourne, I was so conscious about what was going on outside and I felt a bit silly and fearful. Fear stopped me. So now I knew that the only thing that can stop me from declaring the Gospel is fear. Even apostle Paul feared. In his first letter to his Church at Corinth, he says that he was with them in weakness, and in fear and in much trembling (1 Corinthians 2:3). Anyway, after realising what I had to do, the second time when I went back to that same place to preach, I closed off my mind from talking to me and somehow used my mouth to declare the truth. It was simple and so easy. Of course my heart was beating like crazy, but it gave me peace and happiness to know that I am finally being used by my God. To all those who have an evangelistic calling, I would recommend you to get involved at your local Church and obey what God tells you through His word. He will use you if you are willing to obey.
The harvest is ripe.
We need more Christians to be bold and to take on the will of God and preach the good news. We cannot allow our friends and fellow countrymen to die without giving them a chance to be saved. Salvation of souls should and must be our highest priority. I hope all of us are involved in God’s great plan of saving his creation.
May God bless and use us all.
