I recall years ago the way I used to think about evangelism. I was assured in Scripture that we are to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you… (Matthew 28:19-20). And I was told that the ways that this is to be done meant that we should do door-knocking campaigns have Gospel Meetings to encourage visitors from the community to come and hear the Gospel. While this might have been effective in decades past, our culture has developed and evolved where these things are not commonplace and foreign to those outside of the Church. What we have at our disposal now are tools to communicate digitally to much more people than we could hope to reach going door to door.
The thought has been posed before, what could the Apostle Paul do with access to the tools we have. Imagine how Paul would use an email account, a Facebook profile, access to the audio and video tools we use to livestream our services. To say that he would use those tools to spread the Gospel message is a gross understatement. We can all do better in our communication of the good news to the lost, but many of us are doing what we can already.
To imagine a God so loving and trusting to give us, fallible humans, the role of spreading the plan of salvation to the world, is almost beyond comprehension. I think of Jesus’ ascension often. Before Jesus returned to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, he trusted those 11 men to tell the world about Him. He left them the “Comforter” which was no doubt helpful to them in their work, but they still were imperfect. We pick up their mantle, and their charge, generation after generation and join the crusade of telling the world about God’s grace. Conversation with our friends, families, neighbors, and co-workers are all important in building those relationships to share the good news. We are here to follow our Savior in “seeking and saving the lost” (Luke 19:10). Let us constantly be reminded of our responsibilities and encouraging towards one another as we work in His Kingdom.