I had a professor in seminary whose gift was bold, confrontational evangelism.
He developed a method for sharing Christ and we were assigned to use his method with four strangers.
When I did this, I felt I was operating in the flesh, not the Spirit. The assignment convinced me that God didn't design all of us with the same gifts, skills, and purposes.
There's a popular belief among Christians that "real" Christians do confrontational evangelism. Some even consider this the most important aspect of the gospel. Quiet servants, faithful disciplers, generous givers, and other behind-the-scenes Christians are seen as second string to bold evangelists.(1)
But that isn’t scriptural. God has different purposes for each of us (Ephesians 2:10).
The one who leads someone to the Lord is merely the final person in the process of evangelism and the first person in the process of discipleship. Some plant seeds, some water, and some harvest (1 Corinthians 3:6-9).
When we seek God's purposes, we develop our unique gifts and help the body of Christ to function as it was designed (Ephesians 4:7-16; 1 Corinthians 12:4-7).
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(1) One reason we think bold evangelism is so great a gift is because it seems scary to most of us. We fail to realize that developing a relationship with a neighbor and sharing Christ over time is every bit as effective and important as confronting strangers. What comes naturally to one person does not come naturally to another. Sometimes God calls us to step out of our comfort zone, but He doesn't expect us to operate there full-time. Read more in the 1-minute archive about Evangelism Styles where I call these bold-evangelist types Jumpers.
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