Please Don't Evangelism (Part 1)

Given some recent experiences, I thought I'd share some, "Please don't do this!" comments on evangelism.

The first experience of mine happened one evening as I was making my way back from an HOA meeting. I'd taken Robbie with me so Anita could have some personal time and was making my back way up the 16th Street Mall, listening to my iPod, controlling Robbie's carriage with one hand and sipping on a latte that was in the other.

As I stroll along, this young woman stops me to ask a question. I have my headphones on so I can't hear her. I put down my latte and knock my headphones off and ask, "What?" She repeats, "Do you have your million dollar bill?" and proceeds to hand me what looks like monopoly money.

"Um, thanks." I reply.

Not satisfied, she continues, "On the back is the million dollar question."

Given that it's a bit chilly outside I have my gloves on which makes my hands rather clumsy so I pull off my gloves, flip over the paper, and adjust my position so I can read the mini-print in the glow of a street light. The question of course is the ever popular, "If you were going to die tonight, would you go to heaven?"

Completely annoyed I said, "I'm good," handed her the bill, and continued my trip home.

So, why do I say, "Please don't do this?"

First off, her whole approach began with inconveniencing me. Not only did she make me stop to answer an unsolicited question, but I had to go through the whole routine of putting my drink down, taking my headphones off, removing my gloves, and trying to read tiny green print on green paper in bad lighting. The whole experience was just annoying and had me completely turned off before she ever got to her point.

Then, her "evangelism move" is built on the assumptions that 1) this random guy on the mall couldn't possibly be a Christian, 2) that the question of eternity is somewhere on my mind, and 3) that I'd like to discuss these matters with someone I don't know who approached me at random. I'd say the odds of all these assumptions being true is rare.

In the end, all she did was get me thinking about how I could distance myself from "the annoying Christians".

Now don't get me wrong, I'm okay with annoying and even offending people, I just want them to be annoyed and offended by the foolishness of the cross rather than my tactics. In this case, the annoyance and offense didn't have anything to do with Christ, rather, it had everything to do with her.