We Don’t “Do” Evangelism

By Rev. Donavon Riley

We can knock on door after door, but it won’t change anyone’s mind about Jesus. We can argue with family and friends about the Virgin birth, Good Friday, and Easter morning. None of our explanations, apologetics, or appeals to the Bible can wash away disbelief. In the end, no matter how much effort we pump into evangelism, none of our efforts will work. Evangelism—delivering the message of good news about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us—doesn’t run in the way of monologue, dialogue, or revival meeting. The good news about Jesus Christ runs only in the way of the Holy Spirit and His gifts.

In an elegant and simple way, Martin Luther lays it out for us in the Catechism:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

Evangelism is wholly the work of God’s Spirit. Conversion is always and only through the Holy Spirit who works through simple earthly words, water, bread and wine. Daily faith that clings to the forgiveness, life, and salvation won for us by Jesus clings only because the Spirit keeps His promises and won’t let us go. That just means all of the “evangel,” the Gospel for us, is overshadowed by the One who was there at the beginning of everything, and the beginning of us in our mother’s womb, and the beginning of us as new men at the font. It is all the Holy Spirit’s work for us, delivering us to Jesus so that He can be delivered to us through Gospel, Baptism, and Lord’s Supper.

The look and feel evangelism is wordy, watery, suppery stuff. Therefore, when evangelism is tuned up in our churches, not just a pastor but everyone in the congregation is pointing at font, pulpit, and table when asked, “How does your congregation do evangelism?”

We don’t do evangelism. Evangelism is done to us by the Holy Spirit and then, when He’s brought us to faith in Christ Jesus, the Spirit drives us into the world to deliver that good news to our neighbors. Evangelism in the way of the Holy Spirit is organic, like when a sower goes out and recklessly sows seeds without any concern for where they land. And we can try to bring God’s Spirit to heel, plot and plan out the next evangelism project, but just as we can’t choose where or when seeds will grow, we don’t have any control over whom the Spirit shows mercy.

So then, what’s left for us? If there’s nothing of our doing needed for evangelism, if we’re just the instruments through which the Holy Spirit works to bring sinners to salvation, what’s the point of all our efforts to be more effective in our evangelism, to reach more people, to bring more people to saving faith in Jesus? The simple answer is, since there’s nothing left for us to do (and there never was) then there is no point. If it’s about our doing then it’s not evangelism done in the way of the Spirit.

When evangelism is in the way of Spirit then we’ll be found where God is located. We will point family and friends to the font, to the pulpit, and to the table. We will tell them about our hope that “Baptism now saves you”, that, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you,” that, “Whatever sins are forgiven us on earth in Christ’s Name are forgiven in heaven, too.”

This is why the whole look and feel of the Church is bent toward evangelism, because the whole Church is Christ’s Body. Sunday school, Confirmation, youth group, adult Bible study, liturgy, hymnody, sermon, and so on are intended to evangelize. There is never anyone who doesn’t need God’s Spirit to speak them into Christian faith. As Christians we still struggle every day with sin, and need the Spirit to double down (or triple down) on His promises to us. We need Him to strengthen us in faith and stir us up to love each other. We need the assurance that Baptism gives us, or the Body and Blood feed us, or the Gospel declares to us.

Evangelism is an “every time the saints congregate” kind of thing. It’s also an “every time the saints are sent into their neighborhood” kind of thing. We tell others about our hope, because how can we not when the Holy Spirit is at work in and through us? Sometimes this happens subtly, and sometimes like a jack hammer battering an old patch of sidewalk. However He chooses to work, the Holy Spirit is always at work, whether we see what He’s up to or not. He’s at work in the liturgy of the Church. He’s at work between bites of potatoes at the family dinner table. He’s at work in the breakroom in between shifts. He’s at work at the bus stop while we gossip about the boy who sits behind us in science class. Wherever the blessed baptized are planted by God’s Spirit, they will produce fruits that yield salvation for someone.

This is our constant comfort as Christians. We don’t do evangelism. We don’t bring people to belief. We’re not responsible for anybody’s faith. We can give up on worrying about who’s in or out, who’s a true believer and who’s putting on a false face, who really cares about evangelism and who doesn’t. Coming to faith in Jesus, and belief and keeping on in church is all the work of the Holy Spirit. He calls us, Gospels us, sanctifies and enlightens us, and keeps us with Christ Jesus in the true faith. All from the Spirit for us, is then poured out into the world from font, pulpit, and table in Jesus’ Name so that others “might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14).

Rev. Donavon Riley is the pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Webster, Minnesota. He is also the online content manager for Higher Things. You can contact him at elleon713@gmail.com