Those of us ploughing on with fruitless endeavours might be faithful in that particular work, but we’re not actually hearing what Christ says about a whole bunch of other things that we’re letting slide. The problem, at heart, is one of faithfulness.

We live in a instantaneous society, don’t we. Everything ought to be now. We want faster broadband, same day deliveries, microwave speed cooking and the rest. We like our gratification instant. I wonder whether this has affected our evangelism a bit.

I am in favour of all godly means of evangelism. I think we need a good mix of cold-contact and warm-contact stuff. I think we need stuff that meets needs with gospel input and stuff that just delivers the gospel as is with no frills. What will lead to the salvation of some won’t lead to the salvation of others. We need as many different means of engaging people with the gospel as we can muster because everyone needs the gospel and not everyone will respond in the same way to everything.

But I sometimes sense that we want the quick stuff. The stuff that gives us instant gratification. We don’t want to do the hard yards of walking alongside people. We would much rather serve up the gospel and, if they don’t respond there and then, wash our hands of folk and tell ourselves we’ve done our duty.

Or, we do the stuff that gives us a good crowd but maybe doesn’t have the most gospel impact. If I run a nice event and get 100 people along, we tell ourselves how great it is that a hundred outsiders all came under the sound of the gospel. But each of those people gets a 5-10 minute snippet of a gospel message. Did they get the gospel? Sort of, yes. But impact-wise, whilst I don’t doubt there are some people who would alter the entire course of their life based on a tiny message at a do from a stranger, I sense that isn’t most people. I mean, I don’t so much as buy pegs from people who knock on my door and give me a two-minute spiel, so I struggle to see myself altering my entire worldview based on that and that alone.

I think we forget the value of a soul. I could reach 100 people with a 10-minute slot, which took minimal planning, but how many become believers as a result? Or, I could really pour into one or two people over years. The second one is definitely harder and feels like it has less impact. But which is more likely to see gospel results?

Now, I am loath to push too far down this line. Let’s not forget this is a spiritual work and somebody who is in the sights of the Holy Spirit may well turn to Christ off a seemingly random encounter and a five minute conversation. And those we walk with for years, should the Spirit not so move, won’t be any closer to the kingdom when we’re long gone. So there’s no formula here.

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