Handbasket Evangelism

[HKHaugan]

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “The world is going to hell in a hand basket.” While this may carry a tone of casual agreement in a conversation there is more to it than its use indicates. First of all when I think of a hand basket it’s one of a stack of item carriers at the entrance to a supermarket designed to carry small items for a quick purchase. Actually the true nature of the world is just as compactable in our mind and especially in God’s mind. He knows the world’s vulnerability to His truth and love which can penetrate it at any moment. That’s why we need not feel the world around us is so daunting when we run into its unbelief.

Viewed in a biblical perspective the world is secular society as we have mentioned before. Secular is a polite way to say ‘godless’ which means ‘non-all-religions.’ For believers in Jesus that expression means ‘no room for God.’ But Jesus does say that God loved the world enough to send His Son into it (Jn.3:16). To God the world is the people whose minds, hearts and spirits have been lured into the trap of secularism and its cohorts. He is making clear in Jesus that secular structures and the atmosphere that supports them will disappear while He prevails eternally.

Every day we walk out into the world. It has a physical environment in which human beings have built an invisible reality we call society. Society is a loosely connected agreement based on behavioral rules both written and unwritten. Its cohesion is only as strong as its weakest member. If you really think about it the fact that it survives from day to day is amazing. For believers this is more than unexplainable survival, it is called grace. Grace is the spiritual gravity that holds the universe together.

Obviously therefore, God has other plans. He is patient. He wants the ‘full number of the Gentiles (Rom.11:25)’ to come to faith before the world ends, a moment which only the Father knows. That number is a mystery as well but indicates He wants everyone to come to know Him. So ‘the world’ continues and we are under His call to make disciples of those who are in it.

In the past several days I’ve suggested we need to take seriously a different approach to reaching people for the Lord. The real face of evangelism is no longer the ‘build-it-and-they-will-come’ idea or the canned program presentation. Evangelism is restoring the early church’s face-to-face sharing while we are on the way to wherever our daily routine takes us. It’s intentional seeking to converse with people along the way, meet them, build a trust with them and then share the Gospel. The emphasis is on earning their trust, working to build trust, being genuine in our desire to know people as they are and accept them where they are.

Our agenda is not to have an agenda. It’s just to get to know and be known. The media age we live in is conditioning people to reject Christian morality as unloving, judgmental and exclusive. That’s why we have to be careful not to exhibit a moral or political agenda before we share Jesus. The Lord’s moral and political agenda is the Spirit’s job which only He knows how to impose anyway. The media’s influence has caused people who have no faith in God to be hypersensitive about personal morality. So, moral and political statements about sexual behavior, abortion, immigration, cosmetic appearance and ethnic biases can be turn-offs if they precede sharing our faith in Jesus. If we lead from those points of view what it’s saying is that they have to be morally and politically correct in order to know Jesus. That certainly is opposite of the early Christian witness seen in Scripture.

Again evangelism is about bringing people to the Lord not to our moral and political viewpoint regardless of how right we think it may be. That’s what I mean when I say let the Holy Spirit take care of that. Believe me, He will. Again, it’s about gaining trust. The Lord will do the rest. Of course if those subjects come up from those you are sharing with then be honest and give the reason for the hope that is in you as Peter directs. But let that be their call. Your call is Jesus first. That’s what we have to keep in mind. When people realize you are first a genuine Jesus person the rest will follow in His time which is always the right time anyway.

It’s time to take our handbasket and shop out there in the world market.

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited (Romans 12:9-16).”