Friendship Evangelism?

"Live your life in such a way that people ask you why." "People don't care about what you believe until they believe you care."

I've been guilty in believing such concepts. I've even heard these teachings from fellow ministers of the gospel. Yes, Christians are called upon in the Bible to be both friendly, relational, and live exemplary lives, but those things certainly do not replace the biblically-sound teaching of the clear verbal expression of the gospel message. Anything that adds to the Word of God is to be preceded with caution.

Christians, don't ever believe into the lie that you need to establish a relationship with someone before being "allowed" to minister the gospel of Christ to them. That is a pitfall teaching of American Evangelicalism called "Friendship Evangelism" and it is NOT biblical. This kind of "evangelism" leads most to try to make others around them "see Jesus" in them, rarely ever leading to a clear and open presentation of the gospel. It seems that most American Christians are afraid to openly present the gospel to others they don't know, since they fear what others might think of them; they have inadvertently placed their own self-image before being a faithful witness to others. Consequently, they often default to the unbiblical method of Friendship Evangelism which they perceive to be "safer" and more culturally adept; "preach the gospel, use words only when necessary..."--- something Sir Francis of Assisi never stated. If your relationship with someone never actually leads to a clear presentation of the gospel message, you may have simply befriended them on their way to hell.

The gospel transcends culture; don't make changes to how it's presented. Follow biblical examples and go from there. I've never heard of anybody wanting the gospel of Christ to be presented to them because of a nice friend they have. After all, people don't go to heaven because you became friends with them, nor do they go to hell because you didn't.

"How are they to hear [the gospel] without someone preaching?" (Rom. 10:14).

#FriendshipEvangelismIsUnbiblical

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