To my knowledge, no one has become a Christian as a result of my evangelistic efforts. Furthermore, I’m notoriously shy about face-to-face witnessing. Although I was so bold about the Gospel in high school that I often became obnoxious, college eroded that boldness. Sadly, I never have regained it.

I’ve been thinking about evangelism lately because of a recent sermon our associate pastor preached and a variety of articles I’ve been reading. But the Lord has particularly convicted me about evangelism through Richard Story of Voice of Reason Radio. In a recent episode, Rich told his co-host, Chris Hohnholz, how he uses Facebook and Twitter to share the Gospel every day.

Like me, Rich is a wheelchair user, and therefore limited in his social interactions. His disability doesn’t prevent him from following his own advice (which he gives at the close of every Voice of Reason podcast) to “share the Gospel at least once every day.”

The Lord has used both my pastor and Rich to get me thinking about how I use social media. I have started making feeble attempts to post Gospel messages on Twitter, which I then copy and paste to Facebook. So far, it feels awkward and contrived, confirming that evangelism just isn’t my gift.

That awkwardness could provide me with a convenient excuse to avoid evangelism.

I’m not going to use that excuse. I’m not going to use it because God never called us to be successful evangelists. Rather, He called us to be faithful evangelists by sowing the seeds of the Gospel and trusting the Holy Spirit to bring the harvest.

²⁶ And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. ²⁷ He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. ²⁸ The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” ~~Mark 4:26-29 (ESV)

Notice verse 28. Although the man faithfully scatters the seed of the Gospel, he doesn’t bear the responsibility of bringing it to fruition. For people as inept at evangelism as I am, this verse gives wonderful liberation from guilt! I won’t be judged as a failure because the two people I supposedly “led to the Lord” back in high school now practice Buddhist disciplines. He simply commands me to be faithful.

You see, God hasn’t gifted me for evangelism. He has gifted me to teach Christian women, which I joyfully do through this blog, but I’ll never be known for bringing countless souls into the kingdom. At the same time, He holds me responsible to use the means He has given me — especially online — to broadcast the glorious news that Jesus died to atone for the sin of all who will believe and that He rose again as proof that God accepted His sacrifice. I can’t use my unskillfulness as a reason to shirk that responsibility.

Right now, Christians still have relative freedom to proclaim the Gospel on social media. We probably won’t enjoy this freedom much longer. Consequently, let’s take advantage of this easy form of evangelism as long as the Lord makes it available.

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