New Year’s Resolution?

As a new year begins, like many people, I look back at the last year and reflect on the year. The one thing that I may look differently at is the tradition of making resolutions. Of course it would be easy for me to commit to exercise, losing weight, eating healthier, etc. I do need to do these things, but what does the need to make a resolution really mean? I think the need to make resolutions simply means that we realize that we are failing in an area in our lives. Thinking of it this way, I think we should look at the larger picture of where we are failing instead of just looking at personal selfs. That is what this post is all about.

As you may know, I started taking courses for a Master in Christian Studies almost a year ago. Besides the amazing knowledge that I have learned, the most beneficial data came from the last class that I took, Evangelism and Missions. This class really made me think of how we as Christians do when it comes to Evangelism and Missions. It was VERY disappointing to learn that we are failing when it comes to sharing Christ with others. The majority of the funds and man power are spent in areas where most people have already heard the word of Christ. There is an area called the 10/40 window in which has the most people that have not heard the message of Christ, yet this is where the least amount of missionaries and missionary funds go. If this is the biggest area of need for the Message, why is this where we are spending the least funds and time on. This led me to realize that we as Christians need to rethink how we look at evangelism. I think this must start with how we look at evangelism in our personal lives.

When it comes to personal evangelism, most Christians look at it as the duty of missionaries or pastors to witness to others. As a matter of fact, it is stated that 95-97% of Christians NEVER share their faith with others. That means that only 3-5% of us are willing to truly share our faith. Now this is not sending on a chain letter that says you recognize Christ. This means actually developing a relationship with people and sharing your faith with them. I think this was the most important thing that I learned this last year. How do we are really look at our responsibility of sharing the good news of grace and forgiveness? How important do we look at sharing the most important thing in our lives with others?

Thinking of how we are doing in personal evangelism made me look at things around me and what we are doing in order to reach people for Christ. In spending the time to look at this, I realized that most of the people around me wanted to focus on evangelizing to people that already knew Christ. That really did not make sense because the definition of evangelism is “the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ.” If these people have already accepted Christ, then we should be focusing on discipleship rather than evangelism. There was one great evangelism attempt that I did participate in, but I actually heard than one youth pastor even say that if we are having programs where there are more lost people than saved people at the program, then something is wrong. While I truly hope that he was misunderstood in this statement, this would go along with how we are reaching the people in the 10/40 window. If we do not want lost people at our church programs, then how do we really think we are going to reach lost people? Since the other religions are growing faster than Christianity and since it seems like more time is spent on tearing other Christians down than is reaching people with Christ, I think it is safe to say that we are failing at the Great Commission.

Well, my conclusion and the closest thing that I am committing to as a New Years Resolution has to do with refocusing on how we look at evangelism. There is no doubt that we are failing and need a resolution when it comes to evangelism. We must have the passion and dedication to share the love and grace of Christ as the Muslim and Mormons do with their beliefs. We must start looking around us for the Holy Spirit to guide us to share the Good News. We must stop looking at Christ in a selfish nature and look at it as our duty commanded in Matthew 28:19-20.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

I ask everyone including myself how many times have you looked at a crowd in a football game and asked yourself how many of these people do not know Christ? How many times have you wondered while walking through the mall how many of these people are going to spend eternity in hell if someone does not share the sacrifice of Christ with them? Even harder, how many times have we looked at a barbarian like Saddam Hussein and were more glad to see him see justice than we were concerned with him spending eternity without Christ? We must look at our world differently and start looking at our purpose in sharing the love of Christ with others. We must stop looking at Christ’s love as just for us and start looking at the importance of sharing this with others. So I hope that when you think of your New Year’s Resolutions, you think about how many people may suffer in eternity because we need a resolution in how and when we share Christ with others. I commit to look harder at the world around me and proactively look at where the Holy Spirit wants to use me and get out of my comfort zone. I am curious how many people with make this resolution with me.