Evangelism in America

This is an interesting read on evangelism in America and what might just happen to start getting Christians to share their faith.

Taken from John Piper's newest book, Finally Alive (171-172):

What Will It Take Today?

What will it take so that thousands of Christians in our churches become passionate about telling the gospel to unbelievers? One of the reasons we don’t do it as much as we should is that life in
America is so entertaining that thoughts about desperate, eternal, spiritual need are hard for us to feel, let alone talk about. The world is just too interesting and entertaining. It feels awkward to make ourselves or others uncomfortable with thoughts about perishing people. It’s heavy. But life in America is light.

So perhaps what God will choose to do is what he did for the church in Jerusalem. They were not moving out from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world in evangelism the way Jesus told them to in Acts 1:8. So Stephen was raised up to bear such irresistible testimony (Acts 6:10) that the only way his adversaries could handle him was to kill him (Acts 7:60).

And when they did, the persecution spilled over onto all the Christians in Jerusalem. “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1). And what was the result? Acts 8:4: “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). Literally: “Those who were scattered went about gospelling the word (euangelizomenoi ton logon, Acts 8:4–5). They weren’t preachers. They were just ordinary folks, thousands of them (Acts 2:41). After they were driven out of their homes, they went everywhere telling the good news.

Is this not an amazing response to persecutions and pain and loss and exile and homelessness? They did not go everywhere complaining. They did not go everywhere questioning God. They went everywhere “telling the good news.” O that we would so love the gospel and have so much compassion for lost people that tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword and gun and terrorist would turn us not into fearful complainers, but bold heralds of good news.

Precisely when they were persecuted, they went everywhere telling the good news of Christ. Maybe the Lord will do it that way. He certainly is doing it that way in some parts of the world, and millions are being born again—through the loving, bold, clear telling of the gospel by persecuted Christians.