Inward Focused Evangelism?
September 5, 2008
We often view our circumstances and Kingdom principles as black or white, but God often invites us to experience his grace in the many gray areas of this world. When we can’t reconcile God’s big ideas with our limited human understanding, we find ourselves wanting a set of rules to live by. Black and white boundaries temporarily make things easier (action A is okay, but action B is a “no-no”). But they also make it tempting to miss what God might be doing in the misty gray. That’s where we learn to rely on his grace.
Our lives are full of situations with seemingly competing values. So we live in a perpetual pendulum swing, swaying from one extreme to the other, rarely finding balance and peace in the middle. Take the typical church ministries of prayer and outreach, for example. On the surface, these seem like opposites, with one focused inward and the other outward. But can a person really pray for God’s Kingdom to come and draw closer to him without understanding his passion for others? And when we reach out, do we really receive no personal growth benefit? Of course not! Godly prayer usually has an outward-focused element to it, while true mission spurs inner growth. God is a win-win God.
This is why when I talk about “Inward Focused Evangelism”, I get more than a few sideways glances. That simply can’t be right, can it? Evangelism means to bring the good news of God’s Kingdom to others. “Others” is right there in the definition. So how can participating in evangelism, through an outreach or mission project, be about me?
Certainly I have shown up to serve from time to time because some friend or spikey-haired pastor talked me into it. That’s pretty much about me. There have been occasions when I reached out in order to feel better about myself or my life’s circumstances. That was definitely about me. But what about when I show up to serve or tell someone about my experience in Jesus with pure motives? Is that ever about me? Sure is. Every single time.
Because God is not wasteful, he will use all of our experiences to grow us and to bring glory to himself, if we’ll let him (check out Romans 8:28). So I may start out with a desire to serve out of a pure love for God or others. But God will bring more to that act of service than I can imagine by blessing me as well. Sometimes the way he does that is just by offering up a good dose of “feel good.” Often, though, he allows me to see a glimpse of his character that I hadn’t noticed before. And the intimacy and growth that happens as I know him better is a rich reward. You see, I become more like Jesus when I do the things he did. And he served constantly.
So I believe it’s okay when as church leaders, we sometimes tap into a person’s desire for inner healing and growth as a motivation for serving. I’ve learned I can rely on God to guide a person into a genuine concern for others as they are in the process of serving, even if they began reaching out for selfish reasons. I don’t have to cultivate a passion for the lost to get someone started. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job.
Paul understood this win-win aspect of growing in Christ. He wrote “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” Philemon 1:6 (NIV) Did you catch that? Share with others so that you can better understand what you have with Christ.
So whether we serve as a result of loving God and others, or we serve so that we can learn to grow in our love of God and others, the message is the same: let’s go serve somebody!
