Relational Evangelism

As I was sitting in Starbucks today, drinking the coffee of the week, and reading through my notes on my upcoming sermon, the idea of relational evangelism came to my mind. It has amazed me over the course of this last year how many times I have heard this method taught on, or talked about. Whenever the topic of evangelism comes up in a discussion, the idea of "relational evangelism" is usually at the forefront of everyones thoughts.

Relational evangelism is really just a fancy way of saying, "go make friends, and find out how you can share Christ with them". However, the question that always seems to come up is; “how many encounters should one have before he or she should bring up Christ?" I have heard it said after two or three visits. I have also heard it said one should not bring up spiritual things until you have earned the right to be a called a "friend" of the person you are building the relationship with. This makes it even harder because that could take weeks, or months, or even years, and our command to share Christ is left in the hands of the one who is defining the relationship. The idea of "encounters" begins to become very tricky, and in some cases paralyzing. "What if I speak too quickly? I might ruin the relationship and never get the chance to share with them again?" or the flip side, "What if I waste my chance and never see that person again?"

As I was thinking about these ideas, I was reminded of an old Tootsieroll Pop commercial I used to watch when I was a kid. The main question of the commercial is, "how many licks does it take to get the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop?" The caricature (who seems to not be wearing any pants) goes from animal to animal asking the same question. Only the “wise ol’ owl” has an answer for him, and in reality, was the not answer he was looking for. I have attempted to attach the video for your viewing pleasure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2xMGI-QpZw

So how many encounters does it take to get to the core issue, namely, sharing the Gospel of Christ? The bottom line is, if we are not willing to step out in faith and just share the love of Christ, this may be a love "the world may never know".

2 Corinthians 4:1-2

"1Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God." (ESV)

1 Peter 3:15

"15but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,"