Continuing in our series (our much drawn out and often not posted series) on being Salt and Light, I wanted to approach what I believe is the common belief in most evangelical circles. It goes something like this, “If I invite someone to our worship service on Sunday, I have doe my job of evangelism.” I believe the Bible begs to differ.

We are all familiar with what has been coined the Great Commission found in the Gospels (Matt. 28:18-20), that we should go and make disciples, making disciples being the main thrust in the original language. We have often relegated this call to those who are known as “overseas missionaries”, but we must see that this is the call to all those who profess faith and trust in Christ.  Much in our evangelical world has taught the practice of evangelism equalling bringing someone into a church service that is “geared” for their liking so that they are not offended by the gospel. This is counter intuitive to what the Scriptures know, as it describes the cross as foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18).

In light of this we must change our thinking. We must be in the world and not of the world (John 17:14-19). So it seems we must therefor, proclaim Christ in word and deed. There is no salvation of men seeing Christ only in our lives, for they will not know it is Christ unless we tell them that He is who has made the difference in us. We must proclaim Christ with our tongues, but back it up with our lives (James 2:14-26). We must proclaim the gospel with our tongues. We must also of necessity back it up with what we do. Is there merit in not only being a good neighbor, but also asking for forgiveness when I am not? If the world looks at us and expects us to be perfect because we claim Christ, we must adjust their view to the right and proclaim, when we have sinned against them, that Christ is perfect and we are not and it is His righteousness that God counts as worthy for us to be received by God (2 Cor. 5:21).

I do not believe that St. Francis of Assisi has captured the whole of Scripture with the saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” I believe it is more biblically accurate to say, “Preach the Gospel at all times and it is necessary to use words and live what we preach (Romans 10:14-17; 1 Pet. 2:12).”

One question/thought that has plagued me over the last couple of weeks and keeps ringing in my head is, “How am I reaching my neighbors?” And as a pastor my next thought is, “How are we cultivating this within the minds of God’s people?” It’s not that I don’t believe evangelism isn’t happening when folks go out and shop or go to the pool. What I know about myself is that I have not done an effective job of cultivating relationships with my neighbors. They don’t know that my home is open to them, because I have not offered. Yes, this has been plaguing my thoughts.

One reason this has been on my mind is because of a message preached by Ligon Duncan at the Truth & Life conference at the Master’s College this year (you can listen to it here). He does a great job of communicating the balance we as Christians need to have of being in the world and not of the world.

I am going to continue to explore this and will probably preach on this the next opportunity I get.

Another interesting twist in this is Dr. Varner’s posts, that seem to be dealing with much of the same topic (Starting with the linked post read on for a few posts).

I am curious as to our readers take on this. What does it mean to be salt and light in the world?

Your thoughts?