Overcomplicating Evangelism
“I want to share with you the story that changed my life.” A teenager from the Maasai tribe in Kenya stared intently at his friend, hoping his friend would accept the invitation. He repeated, “I have a story I want to share with you.”
For the next ten minutes, this Maasai teenager shared the gospel with his friend, after which his friend also proclaimed faith in Jesus. I stood next to the two, celebrating the moment with them. I went to Kenya to share the gospel, but in that moment, I found myself watching life transformation take place in a language I do not speak among people I’d never met—and I just stood back and praised God for the encounter.
One of the most incredible parts of that story is what took place twenty minutes before it. I was walking on a trail with my translator, when I ran into a Maasai teenager. He was sitting on a boulder, eating fruit, his schedule apparently open for the afternoon, so I stopped to share the gospel with him. He placed his faith in Jesus and became so excited that he asked us to follow him to his friend’s house. Twenty minutes later, I was standing by a mud hut, watching this new believer lead his friend to Christ.
The kid had no seminary training. He had never done Evangelism Explosion. If you would’ve asked him to weigh in on the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism, he would’ve provided no meaningful insights. By all accounts, he was hopelessly ill-equipped for evangelism. Yet there we stood, celebrating with the angels in heaven as a new believer led his friend to the Lord.
Here’s the moral of the story: God can use you to lead people to Christ. If you’ve been saved by the gospel, then you can share the gospel. We should all grow in our understanding of the faith and in our ability to share it, but if you know enough of the gospel to believe it, then you know enough of the gospel to share it.
What would our community look like if we all decided to follow the lead of my teenage Maasai friend? How different would our neighborhoods look if we stepped out in boldness and shared the story that changed our lives? How would our schools and jobs be affected if we spread the hope of the gospel with the people around us? I hope we find out.
In Christ,
Britton