Evangelization

Last week, I closed my overview series on the core Gospel message. Bishop Donald Hying of Madison once summarized this message as: God created everything, our sin messed everything up, Christ brings salvation, and we must make a personal response. But precisely because each of us must make a personal response to the Gospel, this message must be presented before everyone. This is why one of the core elements of our faith is Evangelization, sharing the message of the Gospel with those around us.

Evangelization is a word that makes many of us uncomfortable. But before we talk about our fears of evangelization and the very real challenges we face, I wanted to emphasize the why of evangelization. If we are doing evangelization right, it is an act of excitement and love. Excitement, because we have been given a great gift: the saving message of Jesus Christ. And love, because we want to share that gift with others. We are used to evangelizing for a great tv show, or a sports fandom, because getting other people to love the things we love increases our own enjoyment. Some things are made greater in the sharing.

Challenge: What's something (a tv show, a book series, a health program, anything) you've "evangelized" for in the past couple months? What can that experience teach you about sharing the Gospel?