Evangelism For the Non-Evangelist In the Workplace

BEN PURDY

The Bible seems to talk about ‘evangelists’, people who are particularly gifted in the area of of sharing Jesus with others. My younger sister is one of these people. She has a particular gift of leading people to trust and follow Jesus. I wouldn’t say I am one of those particularly gifted evangelists.

Looking back at my walk with Jesus there have been times when I have been more focussed on sharing about Jesus. I grew up hearing about Jesus and considered myself a Christian throughout high school. In my first year at uni I came to a point where I realised I had been consciously walking away from God in an unhelpful relationship. With a broken heart, but most strikingly an awareness of the darkness of my sin, I prayed to Jesus. It was an amazing experience. Knowing the grace and forgiveness of God, like an over shaken bottle of coke, I couldn’t hold it in. I had to share my new life in Jesus with everyone in my life, and God gave me so many opportunities!

I confess that as I look back, having worked in graphic design, marketing and in fulltime ministry, the fizzing flow has become a trickle. Even now, as I study at Bible college and work part-time in a bike store in Parramatta, I don’t as regularly look or pray for opportunities to share about Jesus with others. Still, I am convinced of the work of evangelism biblically, personally, statistically and experientially.

Biblically, evangelism is a necessity because of the famous Great Commission, an active push to ‘go and make disciples’. Also, Peter instructs Jesus’ followers, scattered throughout the world to ‘always be prepared to give an answer for the hope you have’.

Personally, I am convinced of the importance of evangelism because I know and have experienced how amazing the grace of God is, and thus I want others to know and experience it too. God has saved his people from a Christless eternity and our desire is that others might too be saved.

Statistically, I have recently heard that 1 in 10 people might say yes to coming to church if they were invited. I work with 10 people—that means 1 of them might say yes to coming to church. In a workplace of 50, that’s 5 and in a lecture of 120, that is 12. In a Facebook friend list of 500, that is 50. That is a lot of people that we are regularly interacting with who might say yes to being asked to church.

Finally, experientially, I have found that there are people who are curious about spirituality, church, and even Jesus. The loudest Australian voices silence the Gospel, but I’ve found in my workplace that people are happy to talk and are often curious. I work 2 days a week in a bike shop in Parramatta and I’ve had many opportunities to answer questions, talk about Jesus and invite people to church. One of these particular people I’ve had conversations with is Lauri (pictured).

Evangelism is important, it can also be awkward, and it’s certainly hard. Perhaps as followers of Jesus, we need to focus less on being “gifted” and more on how we are going spiritually, at prayer, and at the discipline of evangelism.

With this in mind, let’s talk about evangelism in the workplace. In a sense, this article doesn’t seek to give any secrets or profound methods, but rather four things I have found personally helpful.

1. Look and pray for opportunities

It’s 8am on a Saturday morning and I’m walking down to work at the bike shop for the day. It’s been a full week of college and assignments, and my desire is still to be in bed. Crossing the road is my memory trigger to pray: ‘God, help me to live for you today and to have opportunities at work to speak of Jesus’. By praying I am asking God to work, and I am also getting myself into gear to be disciplined for evangelism, looking for and making the most of opportunities that God gives.

So many times, God has answered that prayer with a yes, I’ve had conversations about what church is like, different faiths, how God reveals himself and sadly conversations about sinful failings in the wider Church. I mentioned to Lauri I was writing an article and he was happy to be a part of it, saying “I love how you’re willing to answer any of my questions about religion”.

When I meet someone for the first time, I’ll speak about what I do, or about church, to which most people say something like ‘that’s interesting’ or ‘that’s cool’ and in a friendly way I will casually ask ‘do you have any religious background?’ Often this leads to great conversations and opportunities.

So, this week, will YOU pray before work each day for opportunities to share about Jesus?

2. Live it

It’s devastating when someone says “What! That person is a Christian? I can’t believe them of all people’… It’s a stopper for evangelism. It’s been said about me, it might have been said about you. Living as a Christian in the workplace over a long period of time is difficult—your colleagues see you at your best and worst. In my morning prayer I pray that God would help me to please him, work with integrity, that I would submit to my boss, do my job well and honour my work colleagues. There are certainly moments where I haven’t done this at work, and I’ve needed to apologise to my colleagues. What are the areas of your work life where you need to repent, apologise and change, to live for Jesus?

3. Listen well and be ‘that person’

The McCrindle research shows that people ask the deep questions of life during times of difficulty. If you are a good listener, and love and care for people, guess who they will come to in those hard times? Ask your colleagues about their family and significant life events, listen to them, and ask follow up questions. If you have to write things down, do so, so you can remember them. If people have questions about spirituality, religion and church, and they know you are a Christian, they will come to you. I’ve found many times people have engaged with me in conversation by asking questions.

4. Know that you’re in it for the long haul

Evangelism in the workplace is so different to walk up or cold contact, because it’s all about the long haul. Over months, years, even decades your colleagues will watch how you live and how you handle the ups and downs of work and life and you will have so many opportunities to talk to them about Jesus. You don’t need to get every aspect of the Gospel into that first or second lunch time conversation because you will have many more, so keep chipping away.

Pray now for a work colleague and ask God for an opportunity to share the Gospel in the next 24 hours.