Through the years, I've challenged the members of our church not to think of inviting people to a church service as "evangelism." Extending an invitation to someone to join you in corporate worship on Sunday morning can be a good thing (sometimes it's not!), but it's not evangelism. It's a kind-hearted gesture, but it's not evangelism.
According to Got Questions, personal evangelism can be understood as "the act of a person sharing the gospel with another." The article goes on to say, "Personal evangelism is the responsibility of every believer. God calls each of us to different tasks and endows us with different gifts, but the goal is the same—the salvation of the lost." There are two helpful reminders here.
First, evangelism is about gospel proclamation. The gospel is the center and circumference of evangelism. Getting someone to go to church is not successful evangelism. Becoming friends with a lost person is not evangelism. Only articulating the gospel is evangelism.
Second, evangelism is the responsibility of all Christians. We are defined as ambassadors for Christ—those who evangelize. Pastors are not the only evangelists. Mature believers are not the only evangelists. All true Christians of every strip bear the privileged responsibility of evangelizing the world.
In all of this, remember that even though the conversion of the lost is the goal, it is not the definition of evangelism, either. A person being born again may be the fruit of your evangelistic efforts, but it is not the definition of successful obedience. When it comes to evangelism, "success" is the effort, not the result. Results are up to God and God alone. The effort is our part. Will you make that effort?
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