Show and Tell

Jan 5 2024 - Eric Buresh

This year’s focus on personal evangelism has been fruitful for me, and I sense it has been fruitful within our body at Grace. To spread the good news is, after all, our great mission. At many and various times in my walk with Lord, I have walked in a selfish way. I would study and pray and fellowship with my brothers and sisters with the focused aim of a closer personal walk with my Father. Because that is abundant life . . . for me. It is joy and peace and contentment . . . for me. So, I strive to draw near to God, to be filled with the Spirit, to live an abundant life in Christ. 

And to do so is totally right! What I am describing is the Great Commandment to love the Lord our God with our everything. But, it is not the end, because the second great commandment is like the first, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Matthew 22:37-40. What this primarily (not only, but primarily) means is that we point those who God brings across our path (our neighbors) to the same abundant life that we experience in Christ. 

In several posts this year on the topic of personal evangelism, I’ve used the phrase “show and tell.” I use this phrase in my life as a reminder against my own selfishness. Show refers to what some of you might know as “lifestyle evangelism.” Lifestyle evangelism was popularized by Joe Aldrich in his book by the same name, and sort of took off in the Western Church in the 1990s. It is an evangelism strategy that focuses on living a winsome life among unbelievers with the goal of attracting people to our abundant life. To be clear, I’m not critiquing lifestyle evangelism or Joe Aldrich. He treats lifestyle evangelism in the same manner as I – a first half of the equation. It is the showing of the glory of Jesus by the presence of the Spirit in our lives, and it is a key component to personal evangelism. 

But it is only half the equation. Once the bees are attracted to the honey of our lifestyle, we must TELL. It is not enough to bask in our own abundant life. We must pass along the secret. How do I have this life? How am I so strong, content, and joyful all the time? Well, I am totally weak, but I am securely connected to the One who is infinitely strong, like a branch is connected to the vine. I believe that Jesus is God. I believe He died on a cross to pay for every bad choice I’ve made that ignored God in the pursuit of my own happiness. I believe His death on my behalf made me instantly and forever right with God despite everything I’ve done and will do that is contrary to Him. I believe Jesus rose from the grave in power and is now seated on the throne of the universe at the right hand of God the Father, and that He is working every detail for the eternal good of me and anyone else that depends on Him. And, I depend totally on Him for everything. For my ability to be right with God, for my life, my breath, for my every need. I put no trust in myself, and total trust in Him. I don’t lead my own life, I follow Him. He is my Lord. This is the faith that produces my Lifestyle. And this faith in Jesus is the only Way to have my Lifestyle. 

We must “TELL” them! It is not either lifestyle or telling. It is both! “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” Romans 10:14 (NLT). So, brothers and sisters, let us show and tell!