You Don't Have to Buy a Monitor Lizard to Share the Gospel

My eldest daughter, Michelle, and I were at a local park trying to choose a location for a church picnic and outreach event. As we walked through the park, off in the distance I could see a young woman walking her pet. It wasn’t a dog—the kind of pet you would expect in a park. It was a 3’-long Australian Monitor Lizard. The crawling creature fascinated us, seeing that such animals are not indigenous to Southern California. We had to get a closer look.

We approached the woman, whose name was Coda, and told her how impressed we were with her exotic pet. She was eager to answer our questions about her pet, and we had plenty of questions. Her pet’s name was “Gushu.” In just a few moments, by simply showing a friendly interest in Coda and her pet, we established a nice rapport with her.

I try to be ever watchful for evangelism opportunities. Recently, I started carrying a small, digital voice recorder with me so I can document my evangelism encounters—always doing so with the other person’s knowledge and consent. The recordings can be useful in training others to share their faith, and they can be a great way to bring evangelism encounters to life so that other Christians can be motivated, and challenged to share their faith. I picked up this idea from the Adventures in Christianity website.

I told Coda that I had hoped to find someone in the park willing to be interviewed. I explained to her that the topics of discussion would be creation, evolution, and spiritual beliefs. She said she had to run an errand, but she was planning on coming back to the park so Gushu could play in the park. To our surprise, Coda and Gushu returned to the park forty-five minutes later.

She laid a blanket on the grass and the three of us sat down. For the next forty minutes, we talked about creation vs. evolution, Coda’s spiritual beliefs, heaven and hell, Coda’s violation of God’s Law, sin and judgment, and the free gift of eternal life received by those who repent of their sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation.

There were no arguments. No subject seemed to be off limits. The conversation was personal, in that Coda shared much about herself. I spoke plainly to Coda. I spoke frankly. I expressed concern about her spending eternity in hell, apart from saving faith in Jesus Christ.

I thanked Coda for talking to me and I gave her a copy of Ray Comfort’s book, How to Live Forever Without Being Religious. She looked at the title and said, “I love the title. I’m going to read this.” I told her that much of what we talked about would be further explained in the book. She thanked me and we went our separate ways, in all likelihood, never to see each other again.

Coda didn’t make a decision to receive Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Frankly, I wasn’t looking for a decision. Too many people in our increasingly godless society have made “decisions to accept Jesus” as their Savior, but they are not saved. At some point in their lives they may have claimed some kind of intellectual belief in the truths about Jesus Christ. They may have cried out in desperation to God in a last-ditch effort to fix their troubled lives. However, they never repented of their sin and put their trust and faith in Christ alone. Like the atheist, agnostic, and cultist they are diving headlong into the lake of fire. The sad part is that they don’t know it because no one has ever told them that praying a prayer and going to church will not save them. They don’t know it because they’ve bought the lie of the “try Jesus on for size” false gospel.

No, the purpose of my conversation with Coda was not to talk her into making a decision for Christ. My purpose, my mission, was to plant good spiritual seed and warn her about her eternal destiny apart from Christ. In doing so, I put my trust in Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Harvest, to save her from the wrath to come and cause authentic spiritual growth in her life.

My conversation with Coda went against the grain of the prevalent evangelism philosophy in today’s body of Christ—particularly in the United States. My approach with Coda would not likely fit into the box commonly known as “friendship evangelism.” The philosophy can be described this way.

“Friendship evangelism” is taking the time and making the effort to establish authentic relationships with non-Christians. The hope is that by establishing such relationships, the Christian will “earn the right” to talk to the non-Christian about spiritual things. Another hope is that living the Christian life in front of the non-Christian will cause the non-Christian to ask the Christian what it is that makes them different and what the non-Christian must do to be saved.

So the Christian committed to the “friendship evangelism” philosophy of ministry takes his or her time, working carefully, diligently, and cautiously to make an investment in the life of unsaved friends, neighbors, or co-workers. They find out what interests the unsaved person and then tries to share in those interests. For example, if the person with whom they are trying to establish a relationship likes to ride mountain bikes, the Christian will buy a mountain bike and join them in the activity. If their unsaved neighbor is a member of the local chess club, the Christian may learn to play chess and then join the club in order to spend time with their unsaved friend. The Christian may also look to other areas of life he or she might have in common with their unsaved friend—like profession, school, and family.

There is certainly value in establishing relationships with non-Christians, but “friendship evangelism” (as it is applied by many Christians) has a flaw. While this philosophy of ministry helps in the establishment of relationships, more often than not true evangelism doesn’t occur. Why? For one thing, most Christians do not share their faith with others to begin with. Another reason evangelism doesn’t happen is that Christians work so hard to establish relationships, they won’t share their faith because they don’t want to do anything to jeopardize the relationship they have worked so hard to build. In the end, maintaining a relationship with the non-Christian becomes more important than where the non-Christian will spend eternity.

“Friendship evangelism,” as it is typically practiced, is neither friendly, in the truest sense of the word (John 15:13), nor is it evangelistic. It often becomes a “cop-out” for not sharing the gospel, as opposed to being a catalyst for sharing the Law and the gospel with the lost.

I didn’t have to establish a relationship with Coda by buying a monitor lizard and joining the “reptile of the month club” so I could earn the right to share the gospel with her. I simply had to care enough about her to establish a rapport with her, so I could fulfill my responsibility to share the gospel with her (Matthew 28:18-20). The approval, acceptance, or comfort level of non-Christians is not how Christians should determine when, where, and how to share the gospel with them. The command of Scripture, the Christian’s love for God, and their love for the lost should be all the motivation and mandate the Christian needs to share his or her faith with them.

Many Christians are under the impression that Jesus spent a lot of time establishing relationships with the lost. But even a cursory review of the Scriptures reveals that what Jesus (and the apostles) did was establish a rapport with the lost when bringing the Law and the gospel to those who He encountered, one-to-one.

Take for instance the woman at the well (John 4:7-30). Jesus’ earthly ministry lasted just a little more than three years. He didn’t spend all of that time developing a relationship with the woman at the well. He took but a few minutes to establish a rapport with her before confronting her about her adulterous relationship and explaining to her the way of eternal life.

Jesus didn’t have to be wealthy and spend years developing a relationship with the rich young ruler to have the right to confront the man with the Law of God (Mark 10:17-27). Jesus had an immediate rapport with the young man when he came to Jesus with an important question.

Philip didn’t have to spend years learning Ethiopian culture to earn the right to engage the Ethiopian eunuch in spiritual conversation (Acts 8:25-40). Philip established a rapport with the man by simply asking him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

Paul didn’t have to spend years assimilating into the Athenian culture before engaging the people in spiritual conversations and confronting them on their sin of idolatry, or before engaging the people through open-air preaching (Acts 17:16-34). He established a rapport with them by engaging them in thought-provoking conversation. He reasoned with the religious people, the philosophers, and with whomever he came in contact. He stood before the people and called them to repentance and warned them about the judgment to come.

It doesn’t take months of training or a particular spiritual “gift set” to establish rapport with people. It simply takes the willingness to talk to people, fueled by the hope that the conversation will open the door for presenting the Law and the gospel. You’re not being obnoxious if you engage a stranger in conversation. You’re being obedient. You’re not being caustic or deceptive if you turn the conversation from the natural to the spiritual. You’re being caring and determined. You’re not being insensitive or judgmental if you honestly and sincerely confront people about sin and warn them about an eternity in hell apart from Christ. You’re being loving—very loving.

Should Christians try to establish relationships with non-Christians? Yes—by all means. But Christians should not do so at the expense of evangelism. Our ability to establish relationships with people will not save anyone. It is only the gospel that has the power to save (Romans 1:16-17). And the gospel must be shared. It must be spoken, using the Law of God to bring non-Christians to recognize that their sin against God is exceedingly sinful (Romans 3:19-20).

You don’t have to wait years to share the gospel with someone. You don’t have to wait years only to see you talk yourself out of sharing the gospel with whomever you are trying to establish a relationship. Leave your house today determined to establish a rapport with someone, anyone, and share with them the only good news that will save their lives—the gospel of Jesus Christ.