Evangelism as Salty Grace

Colossians 4:2-6

Summary

Paul, the evangelist, the church planter, gives us his 30-second guide to effective evangelism. Pray for open doors, watch for open doors, and speak and act at all times in such a way that opens doors. In our regular interactions with non-Christians, we are to be delightfully graceful even while fully using every opportunity.

Be nutritious. Be delicious.

How to be incredibly annoying

Last week we talked about “doing everything in the name of Jesus!” Our faith in Jesus, our new life in Jesus, radically affects what we do. It causes us to stop doing some things. It radically affects the way we do everything else. Primarily this operates in three spheres of our lives: the church, our family and our workplace.

This raises a question which Paul turns to, right here at the end of the book. Many people, most people even, are not going to get the “in the name of Jesus” thing. In fact, if you tried it at all this week, you probably got some weird looks.

This has the potential to make you really weird.

I have spent most of my life doing embedded research on what it is like to be really weird. So if you ever thought “Dusty is weird…” I’m just doing research ;-).

We use that word in different ways. There is:

Unusual, surprising, but in a way that is interesting and intriguing

Or, awkward, slightly gross, or even offensive.

Cringing at the word “evangelism”. Feeling guilty.

Abuse of the word “witness.” Like Jehovah Witness?

Relational Evangelism

Colossians 4:2-6

2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

First in Prayer

It happens first in prayer. God opens a door.

We start with prayer. We are constantly in prayer.

We talk to God about our friends before we talk to our friends about God.

Paul shares his strategy: looking for open doors for the word (the mystery of Christ).

Open Doors

We can mistake a slightly cracked door for an open door. Someone is peeking out their door… and you go in full bore, try to kick the door open, smash it into their face, then rub their bleeding nose into the truth. YOU NEED JESUS!

Not effective.

The sign of a great metaphor is how much you can abuse it.

There are friends you know so well that you just walk into their house. There are friends you ring the doorbell and wait for them to answer the door. There is an awkward in between stage where you are kind of feeling out the transition.

You see a door that might be open. You walk up to it. You knock. “Is this door open?” You test it out. You half step in, looking around to see if anyone’s home. You listen for that “Come on in.”

In practice, what does this actually look like, closing the door on the metaphor?

Someone asks you a straight out question: What do you believe? What’s your favorite thing? (Jesus) What’s your favorite color? (Jesus) What do you think about this church shooting in Charleston?

More often, someone starts sharing their story, and you get to ask questions. And often they then ask your story. Tell them your story. Your story is part of His story.

Does it always work? No. Is it always easy? No, note that Paul is in prison

Using Paul’s Open Door Policy

Paul, then, I think challenges the people in Colossi to use his evangelistic strategy, and he sketches out the outline of it. It starts with this Open Door Policy.

In order to effectively use it, one has to be constantly on the lookout for these open doors. Wisely.

Literally: “Walk around in wisdom.”

This speaks directly to the “open door policy.” Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. Does barging in and attempting to shove Jesus in their face sounds like wisdom? Not so much. Does being “weird” in the awkward way that makes you unapproachable, offensive and a little gross sound like a wise strategy?

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders… as if each moment counts.

Making the Most of Every Opportunity

Then we are to “make the most of” every opportunity.

“Make the most of.” This is a Commercial association. When you see a fantastic deal, and you clear out the store. Extreme couponing, where they go in and the store pays them 10 cents to walk off with a shopping cart full of toothpaste and Windex. Score.

In this context, you are walking around, wisely, with eyes open to spot opportunities, what we called open doors, and then you make full use of the opportunity.

You say everything that can effectively be said as clearly as possible. I love Paul’s entreaty earlier to “say everything clearly as I should.” You can hear this desire in Obama as he says “Let me be clear” every 10 seconds.

You say everything that is wise to say and you do so clearly.

You do everything that wisdom in that moment allows. To do less would not be wise. It would certainly not be loving where you are sharing life with someone trapped in death, freedom with someone imprisoned.

We are one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

The Guiding Grace principle

To give practical shape to the “wisdom” piece, Paul adds this description of our interaction with outsiders. Another visual.

We are to fill that moment, that conversation, with grace. And when we do so, it is as if we are seasoning, salting our conversation… and making it delicious.

People love to be shown grace. Grace is unmerited favor, getting something you don’t deserve. Someone walks up and gives you a random parfait. Thank you, everyone loves parfaits!

I am going to spend every moment I have with you speaking and acting in the name of Jesus, showing you what the love and grace of God looks and feels and tastes like. When the Holy Spirit whispers to you that there is more to life than you’ve been living, when my changing life raises unanswerable questions within you, then you will ask me to be a witness…

Then I will rip apart your worldview with vicious rhetoric and memorized philosophical arguments!

Or not. Then I will share my story.

Continuum: Grace vs. Opportunity

So we might have a tension here. If I am to “fully take advantage of every opportunity” I might have to be a little graceless. Some of us really identify with the merchant, go in and SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY. In this context, it means I have to get the whole gospel story out there and be so effective that I bring them right across the “finish line” and they become believers right then and there, and I better not take a breath until they do because the door might close and I might miss out on even part of this opportunity! That’s me, by the way.

On the other side, some of us are naturally salty. Full of grace. We want to be at peace with everyone, not ruffle feathers, not annoy anyone, and certainly we don’t want to be “pushy.” You can be so allergic to being “offensive” that every opportunity slides by. “I see the open door… but I don’t want to intrude, I don’t want to impose. I don’t want to share my story…”

Now these are the extreme endpoints, but we could all find ourselves somewhere on that line. But this isn’t one of those where we have to balance in the middle, we have to encompass the whole enchilada.

John chapter 1 says Jesus was “full of grace… and truth.” He did both. In his teaching ministry, he spoke powerfully, clearly, took full advantage of every opportunity… but was always full of grace. He could speak hard truths… but prostitutes and tax collectors loved hanging out with him. He was all about the “outsider”, inviting them in, eating with them. But they weren’t just comfortable with him, they were transformed by their time with him, they were transformed by His story.

He was delicious! Everyone wanted more Jesus (just like Communion here at Next Step).

And He was nutritious! He fed their spirits, he was truth and life.

Full of grace and truth. Delicious and Nutritious.

Paul’s Full Method of Evangelism

Pray for Open Doors. You talk with God about your friends before you talk with your friends about God!

Walk around wisely, wise in the way you speak and act with outsiders, on the lookout for opportunities.

Then you take careful but complete advantage of those opportunities. They are an open door, accept the invitation.

And at every step along the way, be delicious. Be full of grace. Sprinkling everything you say with grace… ooh, that is salty and delicious. Being sure that every action is full of grace, delicious!

Now I love how simple this is… but I want to lock it in our minds, because I think this is so powerfully effective! So I made a little decision tree:

Our Vision for Outreach

To me, this is an exciting, effective model for evangelism. And it isn’t new.

We have this vision, our vision, who we are as a church. And it includes this about “Outreach:”

We will share the gospel one person and one family at a time, in the places and relationships where God has strategically called us.

Every believer has the responsibility to be light in the midst of darkness where ever God has strategically placed us in our family, neighborhood, workplace, school, friends, etc. We must so live our lives that others are attracted to the gospel. And, we must be prepared to tell others the plan of salvation by grace through faith. The next step and first step for unbelievers is faith in the person and work of Jesus.

Light in the darkness. That is a beautiful picture. Be a perfectly salted, perfectly seasoned steak. That is a beautiful picture. Or, for my vegetarian friends, a perfectly salted, perfectly seasoned grilled zucchini.

Be delicious.

We are going to pray now for open doors.

This week, I want you to walk with wisdom, walk with open eyes. You encounter people who need Jesus every-day. And I am going to trust that God is going to crack open a door in your walking around this week. In the grocery story, at lunch at work, in the coffee shop. It is a question, it is a story, it is a shared experience. Share your story. You have one. It helps to write it out in a short paragraph. If you are in Jesus then he has rescued from sin and death and given you new life. That is a beautiful, dramatic, interesting story. Share it with someone this week, full of grace, seasoned with grace. Then, please, tell me about it. I would love to hear your story about your story.

This process becomes a habit. And when we have this habit, taking every opportunity, but filling up that moment with delicious grace… then we “know how to answer everyone.”

There’s no guilt. There’s no embarrassment. There’s no confusion. There are only open doors, people coming to faith in Jesus and us… being delicious.