An Important Shift
As someone who was raised in a Christian home, being a Christian was a priority. I wanted to be a Christian, I wanted you to be a Christian: everyone should be a Christian! As someone who was raised in a conservative Christian home, most everyone I knew was Christian, or at least raised to be: at church, at home, at homeschool co-ops, and there were very few other groups of people I knew. It was a carefully and lovingly constructed bubble that kept me safe. And now that I have kids, I totally get it.
When I was in middle school, our youth group had a big push to “save our friends.” To bring our unsaved friends to church. I felt horribly guilty about not bringing anyone. I don’t think I ever really realized: I didn’t HAVE any unsaved friends (at least who thought they were unsaved). I even questioned if I was saved because I didn’t have any great testimony of stuff I was saved from, like all the people who kept sharing at church. The bubble worked almost too well.
After high school was the first time I really started to understand what discipleship was. To really understand it. And it was beautiful! My childhood had been so focused on evangelism. This quote rang through my mind: “An atheist once told William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, “If I believed what you Christians say you believe about a coming judgment and that impenitent rejecters of Christ will be lost, I would crawl on my bare knees on crushed glass all over London, warning men, night and day, to repent of their sin and turn to Christ who is their only place of refuge.” Lou Nicholes
I absolutely believe that making sure those in your life understand the gospel message is important. But I’ve found that those conversations come naturally when I’m living in integrity with my values of glorifying God, of walking with Him, and the natural outpouring of love that comes from that. The problem is, most of those conversations can’t be planned. They can’t be forced. They can’t be controlled. So if my goal is to feel relief because those I love are going to heaven, I will quickly become frustrated.
If I have a checklist of people to “get through talking to” so I won’t feel guilty about not evangelizing, it will not go well. Because I don’t get to be in charge or in control of the souls of others. I am not even in charge or in control of my own life, because I gave it to God.
This overfocus on evangelism and under focus on discipleship has caused a lot of unhealthy things. I get it: evangelism is more flashing. It is more clear and has a direct goal: sinners prayer. It is countable: “How many people raised their hands or came forward?” You have a clear definition of success (or do you? Is this actually true evangelism?).
Discipleship, on the other hand, is messy. It is living life together with people you didn’t choose and don’t like a lot of the time: it is family. The end is only when you die. It is the day in, day out boring drudgery. It is one step forward, two steps back. With all that time, we have so many opportunities to mess up. And we do. All the time.
Growing up, inside the bubble was about Jesus, and outside it was scary and we had to be careful, because they were trying to get us. Imagine my surprise when I grew up and went “out there” and found that while there are the rare sickos and psychopaths (proportionately inside and outside of my bubble), generally most people were kind, wanted to help, but were mostly too busy and tired to actually care or do much about things outside of their own little world.
I experienced a shift. I still cared about evangelism. But I found that when I focused on discipleship in the day in, day out: evangelism was (eventually, not on my timetable) a natural byproduct. I didn’t need to carry the heavy (and horrible at times) weight of saving anyone. That weight for soul salvation isn’t mine to carry: it is mine to lay at the Savior’s feet (1 Peter 5:7).
This shift isn’t about breaking bubbles, but growing them. Growing my understanding of what discipleship and evangelism truly is. Growing my understanding of what God wants to do in my life, and other’s lives: and how it is His power, not mine. It doesn’t take away from the beauty and importance of salvation: it grows into a whole life of sanctification. A life that people need to see to understand why this is the greatest choice they could ever make.