Evangelism

I admit I am one of those people who when I think of door to door "evangelism" I immediatly think of the Mormans and Jehovah's Witnesses.  And I openly admit that if I realize who it is in time I won't answer the door.  I respect what they do and I understand thier motivation behind it but it is not an interaction I enjoy.  I have always been one who could talk to just about anyone and one of my first jobs out of college required me do this.  For some reason, I could knock on a stranger's door and within an hour they would be sharing the most intimate details of their sex life and drug use. (I was a Syphilis and HIV investigator).  I was always amazed at how quickly people would open up when it meant saving their life or the lives of the people they know.  I am not sure why this same concept is so hard when you are talking about someones eternal life?  For some reason, I seem to have bought into the same concept as many in society that religion is a personal matter.  I am open to talk with anyone who brings it up or if I am generally having a conversation with someone and they want to talk about it fine.  When it comes to going door to door though it seems intimidating.

As a pastor, I wish we could come up with a different word for evangelism. Just the word seems to send people running for the hills no matter what it actually looks like.  Maybe if it had another name with less baggage and history people would at least entertain the idea instead of being immediately turned off.  Faith sharing in general seems to be a difficult task for a lot of people.  They have long bought the idea of "actions speak louder than words" and will often quote St. Frances "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words."  It is much easier to just be nice to people and call it faith sharing and yet often times, no one ever knows the motivation behind why the kind deed was done. The church has long catered to people's reluctance to truly encounter people where they are and allow and many times encourage their members to "Go" by sending UMCOR kits, money, and other hands-on mission opportunities instead of actually meeting the people.  I realize that these services are beneficial and not everyone can go into a disaster area but it seems to have become a crutch for those who want to feel good about themselves without getting their hands dirty.

I am hoping that this trip and participating in the seminar will help me learn how to combine missions and evangelism in new and exciting ways, to ease people into new ways to witness and interact with people and to learn to be more comfortable with faith sharing myself.