ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW

Here's Paul the Apostle on evangelism.

"I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! " ~ 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (MSG)

A Couple of Things Really Stick Out:

1. Paul "kept his bearing on Christ."

This is crucial. It's all about Jesus. It's always about Jesus. It's only about Jesus. If we lose this perspective, we've totally missed the point.

2. Paul "entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view."

This is contextualization... Paul understood an old principle that's been said so many times that it's almost become trite: "people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."

Paul cared... He cared enough to listen to the hurts, pains, thoughts, dreams and perspectives of the people he was trying to reach.

Sometimes the best thing we can do when it comes to evangelism is just LISTEN.

3. Finally, Paul viewed himself as a "servant." "I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life."

Paul understood, "It's not about me... It doesn't have to be about me... It's about what God has done through His Son, Jesus Christ, and it's about others..."

4. Paul refused to live on the "sidelines." He wanted to be part of the action of what God was doing in this world.

"I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!"

I want this guy's heart... His heart for God... His heart for people... His heart for the gospel...