Gospel – A Personal Good News
I just saved money by switching to Geico. Much like this ad series, evangelistic efforts across the globe have enticed people to start a relationship with God by telling them about some good news that they will want to know one day. I grew up hearing the Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion, and many other techniques to help me share the gospel. All of them focus on making your presentation vague enough to give it to anyone. But there is a problem in that.
Without a personal gospel, without good news that effects people personally and most often within a relavent time, most people aren’t too terribly interested. I think it would be challenging to find someone in America who hadn’t heard that Jesus died for your sins. It would be muh easier to find someone who hadn’t heard that Jesus died for your porn addiction.
People don’t feel the need for a good news that will one day benefit them when they die, and I’m not sure that is what Jesus meant. It seems like he talked more about repenting now for the Kingdom is at hand – now. Jesus spent less time on the “one day” thougts and much more time in the present. But many of the approches to evangelism only deal with an eternal life that starts at death.
I don’t do evangelism any more. I don’t share the methods of evangelism witht the teens I see throughout the week. Instead, I help them to see how the Gospel is good news for them now and in the life to come. I try to help them see how that would be good news for the people around them as well. Hopefully, some people can learn about a personal God that cares about their lives right now and that it impacts their life through eternity.
BTW, I didn’t really save any money on my car insurance by switching to Geico, but one day, I hope to not have any car insurance.
