I was listening to Nick Vujicic on a video. He is the limbless evangelist from Australia. He was saying that he believed that in a church of 100 people that at least one person would have the gift of evangelism.

That got me to thinking about gifts. I was in a church recently that believed in soul-winning. Everybody was to be a soul-winner. They take a bus out to different neighborhoods and go door to door witnessing and passing out tracks. The church has been there for many years but there were probably about 20 people in attendance on Sunday morning. I looked through the pastors videos and it seemed that his constant theme was evangelism and he pushed the people constantly with that recurring theme, but there wasn’t much evidence that it was increasing the size of their Sunday morning service.

Now, I realize that many people believe that every member of the church should be doing soul-winning and they push their people to do it. They shame them into doing evangelism. I grew up with that scenario.

What Nick said about having one person in a church of a hundred with the gift of evangelism got me to thinking. Evangelism is a gift and not every one has that gift. People have many different gifts and that keeps the church balanced and functioning scripturally.

Pastors need to quit shaming people for not evangelizing constantly. Some ask, how much fruit do you have? When did you last win a soul to Jesus? That is a large guilt trip for people who do not have the gift of evangelism. The verses used in Matthew 28: 19-20 were spoken to the apostles and other verses used such as in Acts were spoken to Apostles. You can define it your way but that is the context.

What is fruit anyway, spiritual fruit? People like to quote Matthew 7:20. “Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.” He was speaking about the lack of righteousness of the Pharisees. To the believer, fruit is defined as the fruit of the Spirit that develops in a believers life as he lives in the spirit and does not walk in the flesh. Galatians 5:22,23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…” Those are the fruits of a righteous life lived in the Spirit. We need to keep things in context and not teach a false message which puts a lot of guilt on the shoulders of Christians.

Not everyone has the gift of evangelism. Ephesians 4:11 “And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers; 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Evangelism is a gift. Not everyone has that gift. We are called to live lives that produce righteous fruits. Righteousness is not how many people want to live their lives. Many Christians like to blend in with the world and their righteousness is compromised. That seems to be the state of most churches today. We have capitulated to the worlds’ way of living, thinking, and doing so we do not look odd in a culture that is fraught with evil and wickedness. God help us to live righteously in a world that rejects our Lord and may we endure with boldness the mockery and demeaning attitude of the world toward us which is aimed at destroying us. God willing, the righteous lives of believers will stand as a light on the hill for all to see and that righteous saltiness will permeate the hardest hearts.

Ken Lewis, ThD