gospel

The Mormons came back.

They knocked on my front door on a Monday evening at the typical time: shortly after our dinner table had been cleared and just before our kids’ bedtime.*

I had not met the two young men who stood on my porch, but I quickly learned one was from Sacramento and the other from Salt Lake City. One introduced himself with the title of Elder, the other with only his first name. While they talked, my daughter gripped my hand and pirouetted from time to time. This wasn’t new to her either.  

Visitors from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have made it a habit to stop by our home. A few years ago, my wife and I invited a small group of missionaries into our home to discuss their faith in greater depth. This led to a series of meetings over several months and gave me the chance to participate in an Alpha course with a couple from the local LDS ward. The missionaries from that first meeting have returned to their respective hometowns, but the cycle of visitations is now continuing. New faces, new introductions, but very similar interactions.  

After I bid them farewell, I collected my thoughts and reflected on how it felt to be an “outsider”—the person perceived to need the faith being presented. Many times, Christians try to think with this mentality so they can communicate the gospel message more effectively. But thinking from a certain perspective is much different than experiencing it firsthand.

Here’s what I learned from my latest interaction:

They came with a purpose

Pranks aside, people don’t knock on doors without a reason. Salespeople want me to change my gas or internet provider, my neighbour asks me for a favour, my friend arrives and doesn’t want to barge in. There’s always a reason for knocking.

I don’t consider myself an evangelist and I’m not an overly outgoing person. Yet, over the years, God has given me numerous opportunities to lead people to Christ. I vividly remember when our neighbour Cathie prayed to receive Christ in our living room. We had prayed for her, loved her, and when she was ready, we shared the Gospel with her. 

In a previous blog, I shared eight biblical reasons for sharing Christ. In this post, I would like to share six practical and powerful ways that any Christian can share Christ.

Pray

Several years ago, a guest speaker at our church preached on the importance of praying for the unsaved people in our lives. He challenged us to pray for five unsaved neighbours, for five minutes a day, for five days a week, and to continue this for five weeks. He encouraged us to BLESS our unsaved friends and family by praying for their:

Bodies – health, protection, strength

Labour – work, income, security

Emotions – joy, peace, comfort

Social life – marriage, family, friends

Spiritual life – salvation

As the five weeks of praying regularly for my unsaved neighbours turned into months and years, I was amazed by how God answered those prayers. Cathie was one of the people who was on my prayer list. As Hudson Taylor once said, “We need to learn to move [people] through God by prayer alone.”

Love Each Other

When Christians love each other (I’m talking about a deep, sacrificial, life-on-life kind of love), it sends a powerful signal to a world that is desperate for love. Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

Be a Blessing

I remember walking to church one Sunday morning. I was a pastor at the time. One of my neighbours came out of his house just as I was walking by. He was dressed in his painting clothes and seemed quite agitated. He told me that he was hard-pressed to get some painting done before a contractor arrived to do some work for him. Part of me wanted to help, but I couldn’t just abandon my church responsibilities. So I wished him well and continued my trek to church.

Even though I probably couldn’t have helped my neighbour right then and there, I realized that I had become rather selfish in my interactions with my neighbours. I didn’t really want to get involved in their lives. That day marked a turnaround for me as I attempted to be more of a blessing to my neighbours.

A few weeks ago, our family of six decided to move into a two-bedroom apartment in Surrey, BC. New Hope, a ministry devoted to helping refugees settle into life in Canada, recently purchased a small apartment building. Most of the suites are for refugees, but they also wanted some local Christians to move in to help with the ministry. We volunteered because we saw it as a great opportunity to live out the Gospel with those who are trying to start new lives.

There are many reasons why we made the decision to live with refugees. In this blog, I will explore eight compelling biblical reasons for sharing Christ with those who have not received him as their Saviour and Lord.

1. The Harvest is Ready

Growing up in Saskatchewan, I saw what happened during harvest time. Farmers would postpone almost everything unrelated to the harvest. Their focus was on getting the crops in.

In John 4:35, Jesus tells his disciples that the fields are ripe for harvest. My take on this passage is that he was actually pointing to ripe fields. Yet, walking through those ripe fields were spiritually ready people coming from the town to see this stranger who had known so much about one of their own. They, too, were ripe for harvest.

I believe that there are people all around us who are ready to take steps towards Jesus. We can help them.

2. God Does Not Want Anyone to Perish

God wants everyone to come to repentance. When you read 2 Peter 3:9, you catch something of God’s passion to save the lost. If God does not want any to perish (and they will perish without Christ), then He will draw people to Himself even as He empowers us to be His witnesses.

3. People Need Us to Tell Them about Jesus

In many parts of the world, it is easy to find out about Jesus. One click of the mouse can connect people with the Gospel message. Of course, some people do not have ready access to the salvation message. We need to embody the message and build meaningful relationships with people so that they hear and see the Gospel up close (and pray for and support others who are doing the same both here and around the world).

4. Jesus Said to Love and to Go