Today, Dave Overholt shared with us about evangelism. It was pretty amazing to hear the stories Dave can tell about how God has worked through him in his everyday interactions with people. One of his lines was for us to be “10% more friendly” and see what doors God might open.
Let’s be real. I don’t particularly like talking with people. I’m terrible at small talk. Whenever I go to a conference, I find a table far away from everyone else, set up my laptop, so people can tell I’m not interested in talking. Even on my assessment, one of the key points I needed to change to become more effective was this: “Be friendly.” How much more obvious does God need to be? Although being on my own might totally be in my comfort zone, God wants more.
Regardless of whatever issues I may have with this style of evangelism, at the end of the day, God is restoring this world and I am invited to participate in that restoration. When I think about the things I can do, being friendly and talking to people outside of my context is a huge risk for me. I can work with mental health, trauma, all sorts of things; but just a simple conversation, who knows where that might lead. I have no control over what might happen. Yet, all I can hear is “Don’t just run, trust Me and fly.”
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