Get Ready for the GREAT SUNSCREEN GIVE-AWAY. June 21st, 10:10 a.m. from The Journey.

Background on Servant Evangelism –Compiled by Wade Byington

To get a complete understanding of Servant Evangelism, you should order and read Conspiracy of Kindness by Steve Sjogren, founding pastor of a church that grew from a handful to an average attendance of 7,500 in just fifteen years. Such things happen now and then. What makes this story unusual is that this happened in Cincinnati, Ohio — a city that has long been known for its in-your-face unfriendliness! Mark Twain spent a good deal of time in this city on the Ohio River and often commented about how rude people were. When this church was launched, Cincinnati was ranked as the third most unfriendly city in America. After serving about 12 million people over those fifteen years the, tone of the city literally changed and that change had made a permanent impact on the city in innumerable ways. Servant Evangelism (SE) connects people to people in a natural, easy, low-risk, high grace way.

Who doesn’t like to be given a cold Coke on a hot day? Especially by someone who is smiling, happy and having fun.SE wins the heart before it confronts the mind. A small act of kindness nudges a person closer to God, often in a profound way as it bypasses ones mental defenses. The average Christ-follower is willing to hand a stranger a can of cold Coke on a hot day (low risk). The high grace is seen in the typical reaction. “Oh, thank you!” “This is so nice!” “I can’t believe this is for free!” And, “Why are you doing this?”

Kindness builds the bridge for the person to receive a touch of love from God. It’s simple, practical, effective, inexpensive and fun!

Why do servant evangelism?

The goal in all SE is for us to be available to God in a two-fold way:
A. As physical representatives distributing his love in a practical way–however that happens.

B. We are ready to ‘Give an account of the hope that lies within us’ as Peter explains. The context of Peter’s comments has to do with dealing with people that are cocooned away from the faith – people who have heard a lot, but are not yet convinced they are to follow Jesus.

It is essential that we keep it before us, as SE people, that the goal of this all is to see people ushered into the family of God.

(key word: READY. This does not mean that we are automatically going to get into a Jesus conversation, with the opportunity to share the gospel. Be nevertheless, we are ready for whatever type of conversation may arise. We should not look at any situation in which we do not get into a straightforward “religious” conversation as a failure. We are still serving people who Jesus loves!!)

What about sharing the gospel?

I realize what most are getting at: “What is your program for sharing the gospel?” I don’t see any encouragement to precede from the scriptures. As we live in the light and love amazingly, we are guaranteed to have many chances to tell our own amazing Jesus story. Everyone we run into is in a unique place. To treat each person exactly the same way – as though their greatest need is to hear me explain 167 words re-hashed to them… Jesus did not follow that approach. He was sensitive to the readiness or ‘temperature’ of each person he connected with. If we ignore the obvious matter of readiness of a person, we become yet another droning voice in the trail of church people a given person has encountered. All the listner perceives is babbling, religous noise and sadly, they might never discern just how much God loves them.

Our role is very doable – to be the audience who closely watches what God is up to with each person we come across. But even more, our role is to be an audience to what God is up to –period. We join in what he is doing. No other approach to life or ministry will bear fruit that endures (John 15).

So, what do we say to people?

The real question is “What would you say to any stranger you meet in public?” The idea, is to just have natural flowing conversation. We do not have to come with any pre-packaged presentation of what to say to people. I know, when you talk to a stranger in public, normally you aren’t giving them something. So it is a little different. But, the idea is to just serve people and show God’s love in a practical way.
You can simply offer someone a free cold drink on a hot day, smile, and give them the drink. Chances are, they are going to ask you why in the world you are doing that! You can have a card with info of The Journey church attached, and simply tell them that we are just out trying to do things to serve the community and make God’s love practical to people. They may simply say “Thanks,” or “That’s cool,” and move on. Or they may bring up conversation and ask questions. But the key is to be active in listening. Ask about them, who they are, what is their story? We should be sensitive to God’s spirit as we listen to people, and use wisdom both in what and what not to say. Again, try to just simply remember that we are just talking to people. It is no different than talking to them if you just met them in any other situation. Let the conversation be natural and trust God that He is the one working in the hearts of people!

SE ideas

1. www.servantevangelism.com search: “Ideas To Change The World” on the left of the page. They are categorized very nicely under: People, Places, and Times.