Getting Healthy Enough to Evangelize

I wish every member of a Kentucky Baptist church could participate in the monthly Kentucky Baptist Convention staff forum.  

Forum, as we call it, is a two-hour meeting where we celebrate ministry wins, challenge ourselves in our work, inform team members about upcoming ministry, employee benefits, etc. and talk about how we can improve our efforts to advance the Great Commission. Picture a church staff meeting, but in a video format, as our team members are scattered throughout the commonwealth.  

One thing we do at each forum is called “Evangelism Focus.” This is a time when a few team members are asked to unmute themselves and tell us about their recent attempts to share the gospel. There is never an awkward silence in response to this question and there are always more people willing to tell their stories than we have time to hear. The KBC staff values personal evangelism and strives to lead by example in this important spiritual discipline. 

Occasionally I will hear church leaders say they are trying to get their church healthy enough to do personal evangelism. While I understand and appreciate the sentiment, and have probably said it myself at some point, I have a different perspective. 

My observation has been that Christians do not need to get healthy enough to do evangelism. We instead get healthy as a result of practicing the spiritual discipline of personal evangelism. I am not being pragmatic and saying that personal evangelism should be done so we become healthy spiritually. Personal evangelism is a command from Jesus, not a means to an end. I am saying that one of the benefits of doing personal evangelism is that it normally positively impacts every other area of your Christian life.  

Here are five ways that intentionally sharing Jesus with lost people through personal verbal evangelism will strengthen your health as a Christian.  

1. Personal evangelism will strengthen your prayer life. I seldom pray more fervently or ask others to join me in prayer more frequently than at those times I am about to share Jesus with a lost person. Not only do I pray beforehand, but I am also in a state of prayer while evangelizing. I am asking God for wisdom and clarity of speech, an open door and boldness to speak. I have heard it said that anything that makes you pray is a good thing and personal evangelism will make you pray. Just this past week while evangelizing with a Kentucky Baptist pastor, I was earnestly praying silently as he shared a clear gospel presentation with a lost person at their front door.  

2. Personal evangelism can lead to increased holiness. Those who preach the gospel but live contrary to biblical values are hypocrites. There are few activities that expose hypocrisy more than personal evangelism. For a Christian to confront someone else who is living in unconfessed and unforsaken sin, they themselves must be putting sin to death in their own life. The sinning witness invites the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the criticism of the lost world as the person attempts to share Jesus with others. 

3. Personal evangelism can help you grow in compassion. When we see television commercials of stray dogs and cats about to be euthanized due to a lack of a suitable home, our hearts are touched and many of us are moved to tears. How much more will our heart be moved when we sit across the table of an unrepentant sinner who is one breath away from an eternity in hell. In a recent gospel encounter, I was moved in my heart as I thought about the lady we were sharing Jesus with spending an eternity in hell.  

4. Personal evangelism causes you to depend on God. Peter was the only disciple who walked on water modeling what it looks like to live in dependence on God. Personal evangelism requires dependence on God. I have heard personal evangelism defined as “sharing Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.” I am not certain who first gave us that definition, but I am certain that effective personal evangelism will always require dependence on God. 

5. Personal evangelism forces you back into the Bible. Every witness for Jesus will be asked questions that he or she cannot answer. I like to say that I know exactly what to say in every gospel conversation about thirty minutes after the conversation is over. Witnessing sends me back to the Bible to answer questions and learn more of God’s word.  

So, instead of trying to get healthy enough to do personal evangelism or waiting for a strong urging to witness to lost people, just obey Jesus and watch these and other soul-strengthening realities take place in your life.