Rear View Mirror Evangelism
Recently, I have been thinking more and more about the topic of evangelism and am feeling sort of convicted. Though I regard it as extremely important to the church, it is not something at which I am particularly good. My own sense is that we in the mainline churches do much better at missions intended to alleviate physical suffering and needs, both at home and abroad, than we are at actual evangelism. Missions of mercy are certainly a part of the Christian's responsibility and ministry, but these don't take the place of evangelism. St. Francis of Assisi is oft quoted as saying, "preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary used words," and we rely on this as a crutch to keep us from actually doing evangelism. Unfortunately, this is a weak reed since this quote doesn't show up in any of his recorded writings and wasn't even attributed to him until centuries after his death. Over the next few weeks I will be devoting this space to things that hinder o