Overcoming the Difficulties of Evangelism

Rev. Kao Keng Tai

When Jesus was on earth spreading the Gospel, the scribes, priests, elders, and Pharisees became extremely strong opponents obstructing His work. However, Jesus did not retreat but continued to move forward, even turning the humiliating cross into a symbol of glorious salvation.

When we believe in Jesus, we must resolve to carry our cross and follow the Lord. Not only did we receive eternal salvation and unchanging love from Him, but also the mission to spread the Gospel. Evangelism should not be a secondary gig for Christians. It is our primary duty and we must never forget it. Yet, many Christians fail to grasp the urgency of evangelistic outreach, resulting in many people not hearing or receiving Jesus' salvation. Evangelistic work faces all kinds of obstacles. How can we overcome them and transform a weak Christian life into a victorious one? Let us consider the following points:

1. Strong Spirituality— When we neglect the basics of Bible study and prayer, it demonstrates a lack of appetite for spiritual matters, which is the reason for our faith growing cold. It is often emotional entanglement and material concerns that turn us spiritually cold. Therefore, to maintain spiritual health and vitality we need to address our living connection with Christ.

In this increasingly technologically advanced society, people are becoming more concerned with the realities of life. Without money, everything is "fake" and enjoyment must come before paying the cost. What a short-sighted view! Christians living in this materialistic society inevitably face various trials, and many Christians approach these trials with passive negativity, so of course plenty of them would fail their tests. In fact, all Christians encounter the same trials. We are in the world but transcends it, and our lives are naturally different from worldly living as a direct effect of our new life after salvation. One of the obstacles to evangelism is thus weak spirituality.

2. The Cost of Sacrifice— Believers are called to take up their cross daily and follow the Lord. The cross signifies sacrifice, and we should be prepared to pay the price every day. Television takes up too much of our time and weakens our commitment to offer ourselves to God’s kingdom. When we surrender our personal sovereignty to the Lord, we naturally experience spiritual growth. The cost of evangelism includes sacrifice. How much are we willing to pay, both in weight and quantity?

3. Time Management— A person who is not good at managing their time unknowingly becomes a slave to time so God’s servants must know how to allocate their time well. Don’t you think you are quite able to set aside just a little time each month to go door-to-door distributing tracts? In Singapore, 80% of people live in government housing. If we distribute tracts in one HDB blockevery week, we would cover 52 blocks in a year. In other words, we could witness for the power of the Gospel to over 5,200 households in just one year, which translates into at least 10,400 people (assuming an average of two people per household) hearing the Gospel. Let us take another look at how we have been spending our time.

4. The Burden of the Work— Many charitable organizations would recruit professionals to volunteer with them, and each of these volunteers bear different motivations for helping. The primary motivation for Christians to engage in evangelism is to glorify the Lord. Regardless of whether one possesses professional qualifications, evangelism is for everyone. We ought to cultivate our passion and burden for evangelism, especially for bringing the Gospel to the non-Christians who make up over 80% of our population. There are many opportunities out there and the scope of outreach is broad, so we can easily form teams at any time to go door-to-door sharing the Good News of salvation.

For the growth of the church, our spiritual growth, and the countless unsaved souls who have yet to hear the Gospel, let us step up and join the ranks of door-to-door evangelists, overcoming the obstacles to evangelism and reaching the very last household that has not yet heard the Good News!