Church good at evangelization

[Sudsy]

Preach the Gospel at all times. Whenever possible, use words!

Interesting how this was considered a quote from St. Francis of Assisi—founder of the Franciscan Order but it has no proof.

Note the difference between the quote attributed, perhaps incorrectly, to St. Francis -- "if necessary" -- and Ernie's wording -- "whenever possible."

Noted, thankyou.

[Sudsy]

Presumably you have a life outside of work?

I'm retired. Going on 22 years now.

Well then, your time is now your own to do with it as you will.

For those of us who are still exchanging our time and labor to put a roof over our heads and support a family, not all of our time is our own. And if we are only going to pursue jobs and careers in which we are entirely free to spend all our time evangelizing, we are going to be picking from a fairly narrow set of jobs to choose from.

What if the time spent here we were out evangelizing. I have more time and less other responsibilities than those still at work yet I struggle to spend time evangelizing. I question my own beliefs regarding those who are heading to hell and what I am doing to help them avoid it. And perhaps my annihilationist view of hell is, to some degree, an attempt to ease my anxiousness over the matter.

So my question was are we all sent or just a few Christians are the bringers of good news ? Some chose to believe only certain Christians are called to evangelize. But, if I really believe in hell as eternal, never ending torment how could I not evangelize if I have God's love for lost souls in my heart ? Scripture says God is willing that none should perish and the Romans text I referred to, asks how will they respond to the Gospel if we do not tell them.

When I was in a First Baptist church, they believed that God had already decided who would and who would not be saved. However, we were still to be involved in evangelism as we don't know who these chosen ones are. But some used the reasoning, since God will save all those He has determined to save, if they don't evagelize, God will save these through those who will evangelize and that lets them off the hook and will only affect their reward in heaven.

In the Pentecostal evangelism I was raised in, the need to evangelize was quite strong and was often presented to us as if we don't tell them about Jesus and they spend an eternity away from God, then that's on them. However it's on us, too. The picture was often presented as one of our acquaintances being cast into hell and asking us why we never told them and pleaded for them to be saved. And hell was often preached as a place of unending torment.

I believe satan uses fear to keep some from sharing their faith. Not that we have our lives to be taken from us, as the early church feared, but rather fear of mis-treatment through words. And as the early church prayed, whatever our fears are, we can pray for and receive boldness.

Here is a link regarding thoughts on being called to evangelize I found interesting -

https://biblicalmissiology.org/blog/202 ... FEQAvD_BwE

[Ernie]

Preach the Gospel at all times. Whenever possible, use words!

That will get you fired at my job and many many others. Possibly most jobs in which you represent an organization larger than yourself and have a captive audience.

I guess that depends on how you define and apply the word "possible". And there are also a variety of ways to preach the Gospel orally.

It's not just public service jobs like teachers. For example, try working in some generic job like a sales rep in a Verizon Store, or a cable TV installer for Comcast, or a customer service phone rep for Bank of America and see how long you last on your job if you are evangelizing customers. It won't be very long… So I stand by my contention... constant and overt evangelism of the sort advocated in this thread will be frowned upon and likely get you fired if you don't stop.

I don’t doubt that at all.
I said there are a variety of ways to preach the Gospel orally and I still stand by that. (e.g. A good friend from my church who is a PA at a Corporate, secular, family practice talks to people about the Lord all the time and even prays for people.)
I’m not sure what type of evangelism you are referring to in this thread, but I think we are talking about two different things.

[Josh]

I often spend time on MN during the workday... Sudsy, so according to Ken, I'd get in big trouble with my big corporate employer if I were trying to evangelise then. (Spending time reading/posting on forums is acceptable, though, particularly when one is "multitasking" during some tedious task with lots of waiting or various kinds of meetings, to the point sometimes I ask during a meeting if everyone could please close their forum tabs, Facebook marketplace pages, and stock day trading apps.)

[Ken]

I often spend time on MN during the workday... Sudsy, so according to Ken, I'd get in big trouble with my big corporate employer if I were trying to evangelise then. (Spending time reading/posting on forums is acceptable, though, particularly when one is "multitasking" during some tedious task with lots of waiting or various kinds of meetings, to the point sometimes I ask during a meeting if everyone could please close their forum tabs, Facebook marketplace pages, and stock day trading apps.)

You know exactly what I am talking about.

I don't know who your big corporate employer is. But I suspect they would not be pleased if you used your position within the company to OVERTLY evangelize customers, clients, and subordinates. Which is what people are talking about here: OVERT evangelizing, using WORDS. Not simply doing it covertly through living by example.

[temporal1]

“covertly” has an undeserved negative connotation i think is out of place in this context.
even if lashing out because one’s feeling got hurt by being mistaken.

being a living witness for Truth is not covert. it’s shining Light. often brighter than spoken words.

a simple, “o.yeah, i wasn’t thinking of that” would suffice.

.. sorry about my increased typos.
in addition to my imperfect vision, imperfect communication skills, i dropped my device and cracked the screen pretty badly. it’s working, so far. with occasional tiny glass shards in fingers. it balances out my broken foot.

[Josh]

You know exactly what I am talking about.

I don't know who your big corporate employer is. But I suspect they would not be pleased if you used your position within the company to OVERTLY evangelize customers, clients, and subordinates. Which is what people are talking about here: OVERT evangelizing, using WORDS. Not simply doing it covertly through living by example.

I wasn't aware plain's evangelisation scope was limited to canned conversations or sermons.

[Ken]

You know exactly what I am talking about.

I don't know who your big corporate employer is. But I suspect they would not be pleased if you used your position within the company to OVERTLY evangelize customers, clients, and subordinates. Which is what people are talking about here: OVERT evangelizing, using WORDS. Not simply doing it covertly through living by example.

I wasn't aware plain's evangelisation scope was limited to canned conversations or sermons.

I'm responding to plain and all the others in this thread who assert that evangelism needs to be done OVERTLY with words.

I personally disagree with that notion. For example, in the Catholic thread we were talking about Bach and his masterpiece work Mass in B Minor. I would suggest that Bach did more to promote and evangelize Christianity to the world for centuries through composing that one work. Than a hundred different street preachers would accomplish in a century.

But if you think, as some here suggest, that evangelism must be done overtly with words. Then I will continue to suggest that there is a time and place for that sort of thing. And most workplaces are neither the time nor the place.

[temporal1]

I wasn't aware plain's evangelisation scope was limited to canned conversations or sermons.

It may have been, then it took a good turn and expanded. plain hasn’t commented, yay or nay.

i’m interested in learning more about plain’s background and experience in Sweden.
it might help guide responses.

[Ernie]

I'm responding to plain and all the others in this thread who assert that evangelism needs to be done OVERTLY with words.

Could you provide examples from this thread in which someone asserts that evangelism needs to be done OVERTLY with words.