Larry Peters has written an interesting post on a difference he sees between evangelism and witness. He opens with: "Witness has come to mean evangelism. It is not evangelism." Beginning there, he makes a case that "Evangelism means sharing your faith. Witness means showing forth WHO you are." This is an interesting distinction. Although I do not agree with some of his statements,* there are gems:
* As a case in point, Peters writes, "In fact, when Scripture does speak of doing the work of the evangelist, it speaks to the Pastors who preach the good news and not to folks in the pew who may think their job is to convert the masses." This apparent reference to Timothy as the model seems to be making the definition of evangelist/evangelism solely the responsibility of office and work, but possibly I am misreading him.
You may or may not be an evangelist. That is a choice you make. You make no such choice about witness. You are all witnesses. It does not matter whether you want to be or you don't, whether you are faithful or not, or what you witness or what you do not. You are already witnesses. That is what God has called you and set you apart to be and it is what the world thinks you are.and
Witness does not point to you. It always points to Jesus. You are in the way. Witness means getting out of the way. With words and deeds we point to Jesus. With words and deeds we talk about Jesus and frame the Gospel by our practice. Witness does not require nor does it depend upon our lives being holy or righteous or perfect. We witness not to what we have done but who we are as children of God in Christ. He is the focus and the goal. So we can talk about sin because we are forgiven. We can talk about weakness because His strength is made perfect in our weakness. We can talk about failure because Christ is our victory. We can talk about evil because Christ is our righteousness.Take some time to read through it. It should spur some thoughts about who you are in Christ and how that is demonstrated daily.
* As a case in point, Peters writes, "In fact, when Scripture does speak of doing the work of the evangelist, it speaks to the Pastors who preach the good news and not to folks in the pew who may think their job is to convert the masses." This apparent reference to Timothy as the model seems to be making the definition of evangelist/evangelism solely the responsibility of office and work, but possibly I am misreading him.
No comments:
Post a Comment