2024 01 28 Sermon
What if Evangelism Means Conversations, Not Conversions?
What if Evangelism Means Conversations, Not Conversions?
(based on the book Evangelism Without Additives by Jim Henderson)
Sermon Series 3 of 4
4th Sunday after Epiphany
Mark 2:13-22; Proverbs 18:13; James 1:19-21; 2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
When I began serving as a pastor in my first church back in Pennsylvania, there was only one restaurant in town—Jo-Lee’s Restaurant. It was the kind of place where you could take the pulse of the community because everybody ate there. When you walked through the front door, there was an L-shaped lunch counter with a row of single stools in front of the kitchen, and past that was the main dining room with tables. The first time I went there, being new in town, I didn’t know anybody. I took a seat on an empty stool, right alongside all the regulars who were eating, smoking, drinking coffee, and talking about whatever was on their mind. Even though I didn’t know anyone, it wasn’t hard to join in. Besides, I was impossible to ignore; the place wasn’t big and everybody knew everybody else.
The conversations going on weren’t particularly deep or weighty. To borrow the phrase used by Jim Henderson in his book Evangelism Without Additives, the people were talking about the “middle issues” of life (p. 56), the “small talk”—things like jobs, house repairs, an upcoming trip, the kids, what they did last weekend, and of course the weather. Pennsylvania is where I learned that rain is just “liquid sunshine”.
These middle issues may not necessarily be deep or weighty—but that doesn’t mean they’re not important. They are actually very important, because “small conversations are what builds relationships, and relationships are necessary to gain a person’s trust (p. 148).” So, talking about the “middle issues” is what allowed an outsider like me, eating at the lunch counter for the first time, to start becoming part of the community.
The lunch counter at Jo-Lee’s wasn’t exactly a gathering of tax collectors and sinners like we hear about in today’s gospel. But similar to the dinner Jesus ate at Levi’s house, it was a collection of all different kinds of people, all sharing a meal and a conversation. People were accepted just as they were, they took an interest in each other, they showed that they liked each other because they listened to each other—and so they built a community. I think that really does sound like what Jesus was doing, as he invited the tax collectors and sinners to become part of the community known as the Kingdom of God.
In its own kind of way, that lunch counter at Jo-Lee’s was a reflection of the Kingdom of God that Jesus began building among the people in Galilee. In the culture of the ancient Near East that Jesus lived in, if you ate a meal with people that meant you accepted them. And it’s notable that Jesus—the Son of God, the very reflection of God’s own holiness—did not have advance requirements before he ate with people. He did not require those tax collectors and sinners to repent first before they could hang out with him. Jesus accepted them first, by eating with them and showing that he liked them. He gave them the gift of God’s kindness; and as he did that, Jesus knew that perhaps some of them might become interested in learning more about him and his ministry and the things he was doing. They might become interested in serving alongside Jesus and the disciples, and seeing up close for themselves what it looked like and felt like to be a follower of Jesus. In these small but important ways, Jesus was nudging them towards experiencing God’s love, and forgiveness, and new life, available through faith.
I guess it’s no surprise that Jesus was a great evangelist! And while he did perform miracles, and heal people, and forgive people, and teach them, and walk with them—he also spent a lot of time just listening to people, taking an interest in them, talking about the things that were on their mind.
As I reflect back on my experience eating lunch at Jo-Lee’s Restaurant, I have to say, the presence of Jesus was there. And his Spirit was working through all of these “middle issue” conversations, the small-talk. And I found that have by these conversations, over time, some people would open up—if they were in the mood to, and felt they could trust you and that you wouldn’t judge them, and you liked them. One man even told me about how he used to go to church, and he still considered himself a Christian, but he stopped going because people would say one thing but then act a different way.
Another man was someone I actually became very good friends with. It began that first time I walked into Jo-Lee’s. A couple of stools away from me, he was eating toast, drinking coffee, smoking—and talking with an Irish accent. I found out that he was from Galway in the west of Ireland, so I told him about how I had studied for a semester of college in Ireland, and that I had visited Galway. So we talked about some of the places there. As he was getting ready to go, Patrick told me: “That’s very interesting, young man; if you don’t try to convert me to your religion, then we can be friends.” So I said, “Okay.” Over the next six years, I never tried to convert Patrick to my religion, but I spent a fair bit of time with him. And when he became afflicted with a rare disease, and had only a short time left to live, I was humbled and honored to receive a call from his wife, asking me to come and give him last rites in the hospital.
As James chapter 1 says, the Lord really is at work when we are “quick to listen, slow to speak”. The Lord is at work when (as Proverbs says) “you hear before you answer”. When you give the gift of God’s kindness to others by giving them something (your attention) rather than asking them for something (like a decision or a conversion), the Lord is at work. God has already given us his kindness, in sending Jesus to live among us. And because Jesus is risen, he promises to hear us in the conversations we have with others, and in the conversations we have with God through our prayers.
So if evangelism means “just being yourself”, then this week let me suggest that you count conversations, not conversions. After all it is the Holy Spirit who gives people faith; none of us can make anyone else have faith or believe; we can simply be vessels that the Holy Spirit might work through. And one way the Holy Spirit can work is through our conversations.
So see how many “middle issue” conversations you can have this week. Maybe even try to strike up a conversation with someone you’ve never talked with that much before. Let them experience God’s kindness through you, and as you do, look for how the presence and goodness of God is already within them. You never know where the Holy Spirit might take things. Amen.