Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 1 Peter 3:15
If you asked Jose if he was an evangelist, he’d respond: “Who, me? No!”
What is an evangelist? Going back to the word’s Greek roots, evangelism simply means telling others about Jesus so they can know and follow Him. But the best evangelism doesn’t take place on a street corner, or even in a church. A wise spokesperson for the Christian faith says, “Most evangelism that is effective is done by people who are regularly in conversation with individuals!”[1]
If you follow Jesus, you are equipped for evangelism. You’re equipped when you go to a party, when you’re sitting in a cafe or when you’re out for a walk with a friend. The Bible gives us this plan for sharing the hope we have in Jesus. It says, “ … worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it” (1 Peter 3:15). But is anyone asking about our hope? How do we live and speak in such a way that people can see we’ve got real hope for the future?
Jesus was an asker of questions, and we can be too. Jose is a great friend who’s trained himself to ask questions when he meets someone new. He’s genuinely curious to know them, what their interests are, about their families. He asks them questions until they sense that he is genuinely different and then they ask about that difference. And when they ask, he simply shares his personal experience of how Jesus has changed his life.
You and I can do that too.
[1] Proclamation Evangelism Network, Proclaiming Christ in a Skeptical World with Prof. Lennox, YouTube video, 1:19:20, August 21, 2023, https://youtu.be/ercJKQpFvco.
