Recently, I’ve sat in several appointments with college students and campus staff that lasted an hour and a half (a long appointment). In them, I’ve seen the staff member engage the student and really get to know them. Inevitably, the conversation shifts to faith as they seek to learn the person’s spiritual story.
In these particular appointments, the students have been very interested in faith. They open up about their life and beliefs. They’re asking all kinds of questions. The staff member seeks to share more about how to grow on campus. It seems like the perfect opportunity to present the Gospel.
But it doesn’t happen.
Instead, in those instances the staff members set up another time to meet by saying something like, “Hey, I’d love to meet up again and talk more about a verse that has really helped me.”
Why didn’t we give them the Gospel in that moment?
Peter gives a command to every believer out there when it comes to evangelism. Be ready!
1 Peter 3:15 says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”
There are two aspects to this command. One is we must be prepared to make a defense. The Gospel is urgent! The other is we must do it with gentleness and respect. An evangelist should be bold and ready to pull the trigger with the good news of the Gospel, but he/she must not be obnoxious or brash.
The Evangelist Scale
There is a scale all evangelists fall on, with the obvious goal to be bold in the middle:
|Bashful ———————————– Bold —————————————— Brash|
In the name of boldness some mow people down with the Gospel. It can come from wanting to prove oneself or impress others. That’s brash. Others wait for the perfect opportunity and hold back from sharing more times than not.
Where would you put yourself on the scale?
The trend I’ve noticed over the past few years in college ministry has continued to push further and further towards bashfulness.
Recognizing Bashfulness
There are at least 3 common types of bashfulness when it comes to evangelism on campus. They aren’t all necessarily bad, but it’s important we recognize what would make us hold back from proclaiming the good news.
1. “Fearful” Bashfulness
Sometimes we are just afraid. We don’t want to make the conversation “awkward” and so we hesitate to confront someone with the Gospel. It’s a lot easier to talk about vague spiritual topics. It’s okay to admit this. We’ve all felt fear at one point.
What has contributed to this?
The more recent emphasis on relational and friendship evangelism has made us gun shy. We’ve convinced ourselves that it’s our fault if someone ever gets offended and we need to do everything we can to avoid it.
I’ve heard staff say, “I’m afraid if I share right away I’ll lose the relationship.”
Somehow, we believe we must build a certain amount of relational capital with someone before it’s okay to share the Gospel with them. We’ve convinced ourselves that there is a correlation between the depth of our friendship and the likelihood of a person’s salvation.
We must remember people are saved by the power of the Gospel and not the power of our friendship. Paul didn’t command Timothy to “preach the Word…once you’ve built a deep enough relationship.”
Evangelism is confrontational by nature, but it is loving. Sometimes boldness with the Gospel means trusting the Lord’s power to save.
2. “Formula” Bashfulness
Another reason staff hesitate in evangelism is because they believe in some formula or process of conversion. They’ve read the books about lost people crossing all the thresholds from curious to convinced to some other step leading up to conversion. They hold back because they are afraid to get it out of order.
I’ve seen staff, like in the example above, not share because they thought they needed to hang out a certain number of times before it was okay to present the Gospel. Like a scheduled process, they needed to meet them, then get their story, then cultivate, then set up a time to share.
I’m all for cultivating relationships. I’m not recommending cold turkey evangelism as the most effective strategy on campus. Engel’s scale of -10 to +10 is helpful in understanding the process some people go through to come to faith.
But it can’t paralyze us.
The Gospel, not our clever influence, is the front door to process evangelism. God, through the Gospel moves people down the scale. The Gospel is what cultivates a person’s heart and makes them ready to repent.
God is the One who gives us favor with people.
It’s okay to seek to understand people’s holdups to the Gospel, but we must trust God and not a psychological process of conversion
On whom, are you relying?
3. “Strategic” Bashfulness
There is a 3rd form of “bashfulness” in evangelism that isn’t necessarily bad. Sometimes we don’t pull the trigger with the Gospel because we’re being strategic.
In Matthew 7:6 Jesus says, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs.” There are some people who are so antagonistic to the Gospel they aren’t ready to receive it.
I’ve heard some of our staff say they held back in sharing the Gospel because the student “needed to get lost first.” Instead of sharing, they spent a whole conversation talking about sin. This wasn’t bashful, this was discerning.
Discernment comes with practice! We need to build an Evangelistic IQ to know when this strategy is important. “Evangelistic IQ” is a term I heard from Josh Horton used to describe the wisdom to recognize when the Holy Spirit is opening a door (Col 4:3) for us to proclaim the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit is the one who cultivates and draws lost people to Christ. When we see Him doing that in a student’s life we must be “ready.” There is no more need for us to “cultivate” on our own before we present the Gospel.
Put it into Practice
From Bashful to Bold
I’m concerned we’re passing up on a lot of open doors in the name of cultivation. It’s slowing down the Gospel from going out on our campuses.
Take some time to evaluate in your own personal ministry and with your team where you fall on the Evangelist IQ.
Think through opportunities you’ve had to share the Gospel lately. Have you hesitated because you’ve been at all fearful or relying on some formula? Could you have gone ahead and presented the Gospel right then? If not, why not?
In most cases, I’m convinced it would be appropriate to transition to more intentional Gospel conversations in these moments.
This could be a great chance to increase your Evangelistic IQ to learn to see and take advantages of open doors for the Gospel.
When you see them, you’ll be ready!
