Acts

While the majority of evangelism needs to happen through a living witness, there are times when random evangelism opportunities present themselves. Philip's encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch is a wonderful example of this.

The basic story has Philip, guided by the Spirit, encountering a eunuch who also happens to the court official for the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch was returning to the queen's palace after worshiping Yahweh in Jerusalem and, as he travels along the road, he's reading from Isaiah. Philip asks the eunuch if he understands what Isaiah is saying, the eunuch responds, "How can I without a teacher?", and Philip teaches him about Jesus.

Now, while this is random evangelism, it's a good idea to notice Philip's approach that began with listening. As he's going along the road he overhears the eunuch reading from Isaiah and proceeds to ask a question that would be of obvious interest to the eunuch. In other words, Philip allowed the eunuch to set the agenda. Sure Philip's question was leading, but the eunuch had the option of following.

Compare this with most street corner situations where the conversation is driven by the Christian and shows no awareness of what's going on in the life of the person being witnessed to (to the point that you don't even know if the person is a Christian or not).

So, if you're going to take those random moments, remember to come from a position of serving, listen to the other person, and speak words of Gospel to where they are in life.

As you read through the book of Acts, you repeatedly see Paul going into towns and beginning to preach the Gospel. At first, this might seem to suggest that it's a wise evangelism move to simply start preaching in a public setting. I'm going to assume it was something like this that drove this guy in the ticket line at the Kansas City airport a couple weeks ago.

It was on December 23rd and I was trying to work my way back to Denver after the blizzard that had shut down DIA for 48 hours. That morning I'd caught a puddle jumper from St. Louis to KC with a quick stop in Columbia and then had spent the rest of the day in the KC airport. I'd managed to make the most of my 7 hours and was now getting checked in for my evening flight to Denver.

There were a couple other people in line with me, one male and one female. Suddenly, the guy pipes up with, "All praise to the Lord Jesus Christ who gives us safe travel to and from our destination!"

The reaction of the gal in the line was priceless. She steps back in shock, her eyes as big as saucers, and her lips quivering as she figured she'd better say something but didn't know where to go.

Trying to ease the tension a bit I followed with, "I'll say thanks when I finally do get home safely." The gal relaxed, the guy smiled, and we continued in line.

The difference between the guy in lines approach when compared to the Apostle Paul's is that when Paul just started preaching the Gospel, he did it in places like the synagogue or the Areopagus which were places where this kind of teaching was common or would be expected.

In the synagogue, it was usual to have traveling Jewish teachers come in and expound on the Old Testament, so Paul would go and speak to how Jesus was the Old Testament Messiah. At the Areopagus it was a place where men would gather to debate various philosophies so Paul marched in and pointed to the "Unknown God" who revealed himself in Christ.

Compare this to an airport ticket line, especially one right before Christmas and right after a major blizzard. In this case you have travelers who are stressed out and on edge already, then, out of left field, some guy starts preaching. It's just not a setup conducive to the sharing of the Gospel.

Now, some might say I'm challenging the power of the Spirit here, but I'd disagree with that. Throughout the Bible the Spirit works through means like words and water. In other words, the Spirit doesn't just happen, he has channels he works through.

If your words are that channel, then doesn't basic wisdom say that you want your words not only heard but listened to?