As a redeemed people, we bear witness to the good news that Jesus died on the cross, bore our sin, and rose from the grave, conquering death. Believing this good news makes us part of a body that lives and moves together toward seeing Jesus. We don’t do this evangelism thing alone.

Myth #1: Evangelism is something I do myself.

The call to carry out the Great Commission feels heavy when we picture ourselves alone, laboring away to share good news. Anything in the Christian life feels heavy if I’m envisioning a rough road and myself walking along it by myself.

Stories from fellow travelers help light up the landscape. Stories, for example, of those who are reaching from Christ’s body outward—those who invite neighbors to a church Bible study group and who see those neighbors and their families gradually transformed by the gospel; those who host international students in their home, regularly bring them to church, and see some of them believe in Jesus; women whose brothers and sisters in Christ’s body have prayed for years with them for their husbands to come to faith. Interwoven through these stories are the hospitality and prayers of God’s people—specific prayers for the salvation of those they name together in God’s presence.

As a redeemed people, we bear witness to the good news that Jesus died on the cross, bore our sin, and rose from the grave, conquering death. Believing this good news makes us part of a body that lives and moves together toward seeing Jesus. We don’t do this evangelism thing alone.

Better to picture a road full of people walking together, sort of like we picture the Israelites walking up to the Jerusalem temple at feast time—whole groups and families, talking and singing and taking in others along the way. We’re God’s people. This is all God’s work. By his Spirit, God calls people to himself and gives them new life through faith in Christ. Those who have believed get to participate. He uses us. He uses us.

Myth #2: We don’t have to speak the gospel—we just live it. Or at least wait and earn the right to speak.

Should our lives touch people and transform culture first, before we speak? Do we need to speak? How do we manage this tension between verbal and nonverbal witness?

As believers, we can run to God’s Word to address and even embrace this tension. And the Word will tell us that God’s good news is a message to be proclaimed and believed: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). We withhold the ultimate help if we withhold “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).

But the Word also tells us that the gospel transforms lives, empowering doers and not just hearers—doers who, for example, care for orphans and widows in need (James 1:22, 27). If we have received the ultimate help, then we’ll offer it not just through words but also through transformed and transforming lives.

We should perhaps take with more grains of salt the view that lengthy relationship-building is required before we earn the right to speak gospel truth. It does take time to minister in mercy and to build relationships. But I’d rather do that building with someone who is hearing me talk about Jesus in the process—with sensitivity and restraint, yes, but with confidence that the gospel is the best, most urgent news in the universe. If we wait a long time to speak, it usually becomes harder, more awkward, and more like there’s an elephant in the room.

I’m reminded of a woman who moved across the globe to a country not generally friendly to Christianity. In her (successful) interview for a job at a local business, she told her potential employers about her Christian faith—because she figured that to be initially clear about her commitments would pave the way for more fruitful interactions on the subject. And indeed it has. Another friend across town has been able to show and explain the gospel through years of work in church-based ESL classes—and some of those students are now brothers and sisters in the Lord.

In her early years of marriage, a friend of mine didn’t know the Lord but was restless and searching. A man who showed up to fix a household appliance told her that Jesus loved her. That’s all he said. But she couldn’t get the words out of her mind. She got a Bible and read it, found a nearby church where in God’s providence the Bible was taught, and, in the end, both she and her husband came to faith in Christ.

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