And You Think You’re Bold?

My wife had an interesting experience when she was in the grocery store the other day. A couple college students walked up to her in the paper-products aisle with Bibles in their hands and started to share their faith with her. Mormons, I think. Pretty standard form of ‘evangelism’: chattering on endlessly about some doctrine or other, with an aggressive search for assent tacked on at the end. ‘Do you believe? Do you believe?’ After my wife disappointed them, they scurried off to bewilder someone else…

But that’s some boldness, isn’t it? There does seem to be a sad correlation between heresy and boldness. Most of the bravest witnesses here are preaching another gospel. One of the guys from our church called one of our leaders the other day from a bus. While he was riding, a fellow passenger, some member of the Eastern Lightning cult (they pick cool names, don’t they?), starts asking him if he knows who the Mother God is. Our church member got a little weirded out and called for help. Other members have been witnessed to on campus by Jehovah’s Witnesses and all kinds of other sects. We sometimes find Falun Dafa and anti-government pamphlets left on doors in housing units.

Thankfully, there’s also some bold witnesses for Christ in our city. Sometimes they’re outside handing out thin sheets of paper with lengthy explanations of the Gospel. Sometimes they’re running around asking people on the streets if they know the Lord. I’ve been thankful for some students in our church that work hard to bring their friends and roommates to church.

Without getting into what methods of evangelism are suitable, safe, or effective, I’ve just been realizing how ‘not-bold-enough’ our witness in this city is. As long as we compare ourselves to most foreigner-led works, we feel pretty good. But though we’re toward the front of the boldness pack, there’s still some courageous witnesses out in front of us, and we should follow their lead.

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