LCM recently commissioned from research from ComRes exploring the motivations for mission among practising Christians. It was fascinating to discover that, of the 1000 people asked, 90% were pursuaded that telling non Christians about Jesus was important, four out of five felt confident in doing that, but only about 50% felt they were actually taking steps to put their convictions and confidence into practise. This got more and more apparent as they considered people more and more different to them. Only 1 in 5 would be comfortable sharing the gospel with someone on the outskirts of society.
How do we respond to this? Luke 10 Jesus instructs his disciples in ways that might spur us on to mission.
Evangelism is for everyone
"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them ..." (Luke 10.1)
The first thing Jesus reminds us is that evangelism is something that he wants all his followers to be involved in. Choosing 70 people wasn't random. It was the number of nations described in Genesis 10 (symbolising all of God's people descended from Noah), the number of Jacobs family that went down to Egypt in Genesis 46 (symbolising the whole people of God), the number of judges that Moses appointed in Exodus. It is meant to suggest all of God's people. Even though some are called for special training and roles (like the twelve) all have a part to play in mission (like the 70). Have you let yourself off the hook because evangelism is a job for people gifted in different ways to you or the "professional Christians" in your community? Jesus says that evangelism is for all!
Reflection:
Do we believe that evangelism is really for everyone? Who could help you get started (or recommit) to taking daily opportunites to share something of Jesus?
How could the content of the Sunday sermon you heard this week be an opprtunity to speak of Jesus today?
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