Looking over to the person beside me on the plane, I lean in to speak only to let out a fearful squeak. I settle into my comatose plane ride with a war battling within me. My neighbour is out often. We have shared life together from house improvements to job loss but whenever my heart burns to talk about Jesus my fear squeak pokes out and words rescind.
Evangelism has been on my heart the past five years. Even typing the word makes my bones shutter. All I think about is colonization, white supremacists, and manipulation. When colonization was happening, preachers or missionaries would jump on board the ships to help “civilize” religion. The major problem with racial supremacy is the entitlement that caused violence and mass murder to First Nations or those who settled before. At this point, along with the Crusades, Christianity meant violence and murder. White Supremacists use a bizarre form of Christianity in a similar tone. Manipulation was rooted in evangelists who felt the sense of spiritual authoritative power that comes with whisking in and out of towns or through 30-minute television programs without investing in a relationship with the community. That anti-relational ministry is contrary to what Paul did. Paul said he didn’t only give the gospel but gave of their very selves (1 Thess 2:8-12). Tension builds within me so that when I want to bring Jesus up, I squeak. Fear fills me.
The tension is this: Paul states, “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” In context, Paul is discussing salvation coming from both your heart and in your mouth to then quote the prophet, Joel, to say, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:5-15). Next, Paul urges people to use their mouths to tell people about salvation. Maybe the word evangelism needs rebranding or a new word to help this tension because this much is clear: We need to talk about Jesus.
After preaching on this, an elderly gentleman and former minister of the gospel came to tell me this is a problem. He detailed a church meeting he went to that talked about the good old days when they saw great numbers of people come to the faith and be baptized. The problem, he stated, was they weren’t talking about Jesus. He was alive when the numbers were coming in after the great depression and the difference then was you couldn’t stop people from talking about Jesus.
The Western Canadian District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance began by seeing the lack of Jesus in the West. This resulted in Christian workers coming from New York to ride saddleback in order to spread the gospel with nothing other than their horse, saddle, blanket, and a map. They had such a desire to simply tell people about Jesus.
We have a plague of a private faith in a public kingdom. Privacy is normal with our six-foot fences or isolated acreages. We are told from our culture that church and state must be separate. This has been ingrained in us for hundreds of years, even before Canada existed. So now, everyone is free to believe what they want, but it must stay at home. Government and courts have no place for religious talk. We live in a spiritually quiet country but the Kingdom of God comes loudly.
The Kingdom only comes loudly because it is so different from our culture. Jesus came healing and resurrecting the dead. He wipes away pain and tears. This isn’t normal except in the Kingdom of God (Rev 21:3-5). The Kingdom of God is so disruptive that it got Jesus killed.
The loud kingdom collides with my private faith, seizing my tongue from uttering anything but a squeak. Fear and shame fill me. Brent Trask stated in a district address, “In our culture of tolerance for everything except the Bible and our obsession with politeness and safety, there is a shyness and shame about the gospel that has crept into the church and it is hobbling us. It has us bound up and this must be discontinued.” It sounds like fear and shame are filling all of us.
I want to talk about Jesus because he means a lot to me. That sounds simplistic but I like to talk about things I like and that affect me. I talk about everything from the weather to renovations to camping and Jesus affects me more than any of those. He has helped me in pain and through loss of my mom. He gave great clarity in times of stress over my future. He provided money when I was strapped. He stopped the rain and started it again just in time to finish a gospel event. He cares and loves and makes a difference. So how can I talk about him?
As Paul urged Timothy so it permeates my heart, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 2:1). Strength comes from living in the grace Jesus gives. Earlier in this same letter, Paul urged Timothy to “Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you” (2 Tim 1:6). The only fanning I know is to ask the Lord to strengthen me by his grace, to ask for forgiveness for being ashamed of him and fearful of bringing up his name and this by the filling of his presence into me. The bitter past of talking about Jesus needs cut off by Jesus himself.
I kinda lied earlier. The public is opening up about spiritual talk. Experience is highly valued, including spiritual experience. People may be cynical but it includes government, authority, and chance as well. Maybe it’s time to give Jesus a chance. Maybe it’s time to talk about him with our friends, family, and co-workers. Or maybe at least start adding him to our language. “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?” “Yea, God’s really given us a good one!” Maybe eventually I’ll be bold enough for this: “Man, I lost my job.” “No way! That’s awful. Are you guys set up or need any help and hey, can I pray for you right now?” Who knows, maybe Jesus’ kingdom will spread.
For His Kingdom 