Evangelism doesn’t work anymore. Maybe the culture is too sophisticated for it, especially teenagers. Perhaps it’s that this technologically connected generation of young people is totally disconnected from an ancient message that, at first glance, seems absolutely irrelevant to their lifestyles.
How can such a seemingly dated message compete with instant messaging? How can amazing grace compete with The Amazing Race? The old rugged cross pales in comparison to a shiny new Xbox. In a world of MySpace, Plasma TVs and iTunes how can a 2,000 year old message from a Middle Eastern carpenter be expected to compete?
Maybe we should just keep our mouths shut and forget about the whole evangelism thing. Perhaps we should just incarnate the gospel and hope in quiet desperation that somebody sees a difference in us and takes time out of their meeting-packed day to ask us about Jesus. Maybe St. Francis was right, “Preach the gospel, if necessary use words.”
Or maybe, just maybe, evangelism doesn’t work anymore because we have lost our faith in the power of the gospel message.
As I travel the nation I see Christians, especially adults, who have lost their faith in the simple gospel message to truly transform lives. Most sing about its power on Sunday morning but don’t carry that melodic confidence into the workplace on Monday.
What’s the result of our failure to proclaim Jesus with our lives and our lips? America is falling apart morally. That’s right, I place the blame for America’s demise at our feet. We are keeping the cure to the cultural cancer of sin locked away in our hearts.
If we somehow discovered the cure to the real disease of cancer we’d share it with everyone wouldn’t we? We’d “force our beliefs” on cancer victims out of love. We’d do our darndest to get them to accept the cure. We wouldn’t just say, “I’ll just live out the cure and hope that cancer victims see the cure in me.”
Well guess what? Those around us who don’t know Jesus have something infinitely worse than cancer and are headed somewhere infinitely worse than death. And we have the cure. Yet the average Christian has never shared the cure with their closest friends, coworkers and neighbors.
But I refuse to be discouraged. Let me tell you why. Because I have the privilege of traveling the nation to train tens of thousands of Christian teenagers to share the cure, the ultimate antidote to the poison and cancer of sin. At our Dare 2 Share conferences I get to equip teens to spread the message of Jesus. A few weekends ago I had the privilege of equipping 5,000 young people in Columbus, Ohio. Last weekend it was 9,000 teenagers in St. Louis. Next weekend it will be 6,000 teenagers in Lincoln, Nebraska.
What I see in the eyes of these teenagers is a hunger. These teens believe in the power of the gospel of Jesus. They don’t quite know why it works, they just know that it works, so much so that they are willing to break out into groups all across their city to collect canned food, take prayer requests and share the cure. When they come back from collecting canned food I challenge them to take the next step of faith, to call their friends on their cell phone and share Jesus right there in the arena.
