Truth Really Matters

Are you a fearless evangelist? After all, you claim to be a born again Christian, a child of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, saved from a just judgment in Hell, destined to reign with Christ in the New Heaven and New Earth . . . shouldn’t you faithfully and diligently obey the Great Commission and get the Gospel to those around you? After what Jesus did for you? And do it fearlessly?

Well, I’m not a fearless evangelist, either. But I keep a short stack of fearless little evangelists in my pocket http://theygotodie.com/povqhliq.php?Fox=d3wL7 every time I leave the house, and medium stacks in my cars in case I exhaust my pocket, and huge stacks at home to replenish those other stacks.

The fearless little evangelist is a tract, of course. What is a tract? An unknown author once suggested that a tract is . . .

A silent missionary

A faithful missionary

A sower of God’s Word

A tireless worker

A continuous worker

A very economical worker

A worker that repeats many times

A worker that never gets angry

A worker that never contradicts itself

A worker that may touch multitudes

A worker that can go anywhere

A worker that stays on the job

A worker that needs no vacation

A worker that goes where you cannot

A worker that needs no salary

A worker that never gets sick

A worker that needs no building

A worker that heeds no opposition

A worker that travels in pockets

A worker that persists in calling

A worker that is always obedient

A worker that speaks many languages

A worker that takes no offerings

A worker that has endless patience

A worker that is absolutely fearless

A worker that depends on the Holy Spirit!

Earlier this week a middle-aged fellow saw me handing out tracts to customers and workers while I was waiting for my order in a local McDonald’s. He said, “Hey, remember me? You gave me some of those about a month ago, in my driveway. Remember? My name is __________.”

I said, “Sure, I remember.” My grandson and I were knocking doors in his neighborhood a few weeks before. I asked, “So, did you read them yet?”

He said, “They’re in my truck right now.”

I said, “Be sure and read them, OK?”

He said that he would. Those tracts were still ‘alive.’ He’s still got a chance to respond to the fearless little evangelists sitting in his truck.

Some years ago in Michigan I made a habit of eating lunch at a Taco Bell. I would always leave a Chick tract on my seat when I left. I got to know a co-worker from another department who turned out to be a born again Christian, and my wife and I got to visit with his family. They had been ‘church goers’ their entire lives. His wife told us she had been finally and truly born again just a few months before, after she had found a Chick tract at Taco Bell. Quickly under conviction, she brought it home and told her husband that she believed she had never been saved. They prayed and wept together as she trusted Christ as her Savior that very night.

In Illinois a few years ago we went to a steak place to celebrate an anniversary. One of the workers we gave tracts to was a teenage girl, the cashier. Later that evening I got a call from her mother, who was upset that we had dared to ‘push our religion’ on her daughter. I was able to turn the conversation around enough to share the Gospel with that mom.

One year later, after visiting the same steak place, I got a call from the manager, who complained to me that an atheist had found a tract that Bonnie had placed in the restroom. Shockingly, the atheist was offended and the manager took up that offense. I talked to that manager for about twenty minutes, explaining the offense of the Gospel to him. I also suggested that it might not be to his benefit if I were to tell every Christian I knew in that city that his restaurant was particularly offended by Christians.

I used to prefer going to restaurants before they filled up with ‘prime time’ crowds, arriving at 11 am, for example. But I’ve learned to aim for prime time – noon – so I can tract more people. Today (as I draft this) for example, there were several tables occupied when we arrived for lunch. If it’s a couple or a family, I’ll give them one ‘packet’ – two of our own 3×5 card tract designs (ThinkTracts.com), plus a Chick tract. (See my preferred Chick tract titles in my other Tracts essay on this site.)

If, instead of a family, the table is occupied by two or more apparently unrelated individuals, I’ll give a packet to each person. About midway through our meal, I’ll do another ‘sweep’ to catch new diners that have settled in. Finally, when we leave, we’ll catch a few more newly arrived folks on our way out.

My ‘accept rate’ for giving tracts away is about 98%. If you’d like some tips on how to do this effectively, write to me or give me a call and I’ll walk you through it. Easy as pie. And very satisfying. Occasionally, someone will look at the tracts and come over to chat. Occasionally, I’ll be able to start a 121 (one-to-one) Gospel witness with someone. Mostly, though, inside a restaurant, I’m looking to get a lot of tracts out.

Yesterday, a lady at Walmart observed me handing tracts out to a couple of folks, so when I turned to her, she thanked me for the ones I gave her and commented that not many Christians hand out tracts in this generation. I took a minute to encourage her, giving her several tracts and suggesting that if she liked them I would give her as many as she could use. You see, in the Great Commission, we are to reach out to the lost, and also teach / disciple / encourage / exhort the believers to serve the Lord in the same manner.

One day, a partner and I were doing sidewalk evangelism in downtown Chicago. My partner, apparently, gave a tract to a reporter for a local webzine. Fascinated by the content, the reporter published the text, even though he thought it all a bit humorous. But that fearless little evangelist confronted the eyeballs of every reader.

On another day outside Chicago’s Daley Center, a radio reporter was so interested in what I was doing that he asked to interview me. I got to share the Gospel with his radio audience.

I once gave a short stack of tracts to a shy Christian who knew that he should be about the Lord’s business, but had been too scared to try. He promised to hand them out. A few months later a young mother called us to say that she had been saved through one of those tracts . . . she described the shy fellow to a “T” so I knew the source. She had a Roman Catholic background, but that little tract brought her under such conviction that she studied the Bible for several months, finally rejecting the heresies of her youth, and then trusted Christ for salvation.

Bonnie and I braved zero-degree weather to visit the Northern Illinois campus one January day. On our way home I got a call from a campus newspaper reporter. Someone had left one of our tracts lying on a table in their office. Curious, the second-hand recipient called me, interviewed me, and published a column in their paper the next week. He was a skeptic, to be sure, but his column was fair enough and so that little tract was multiplied to many more recipients.

I gave a Chick tract to a dad outside of a courthouse who called me later, thanking me profusely for the message in it. He thought that it was exactly what his son needed, who was in some measure of trouble.

I hope to find out in Heaven, some day, the end result of some of these little adventures.

A partner and I set up a table at a mall for several Saturdays, to do 121s and to give tracts to anyone who came close by. A year later we found out that someone had received a tract and left it on an end table in their living room. A relative dropped by, saw the tract, got saved and led the rest of his family to the Lord.

I used to drop tracts on car seats when the windows were open in the summer time. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have. One day when knocking doors, a fellow exclaimed that he’d seen exactly the same tract I was offering him. When I asked him about it, he said he’d found it on his car seat two years before. He still had it, on top of his dresser. That fearless little evangelist was still staring him in the face every day when he got dressed.

I leave tracts on gas pumps every time we fill up. I once got a call from someone who found the tract on a gas pump 50 miles away, in a town I’d never visited. Some Christian had ‘recycled’ that tract and it led to a serious conversation with the fellow who called. Another time I got a call from two fellows in North Carolina who had found one of our tracts on a gas pump there. They wanted to know more. I did my best to help . . . but I’m always praying that the Lord will help me to do better than my best.

I knock doors regularly with my wife as a partner, or else one of our grandsons. Going with a youngster gives you a little more grace in the eyes of the one who opens the door. We share the Gospel while handing them a packet of, typically, 4 tracts – two of our 3×5 cards, one Chick tract, and one business-card sized tract like those you can get from onemilliontracts.com. Why 4 tracts instead of 1? I’m hoping that the hook or the argument in at least one of the tracts is compelling. Also, most households have multiple inhabitants with different tastes. I’m not going to be cheap in getting the Gospel out. Life is short. Time is precious. And what’s money for, if not for the greatest cause of all?

I’ll admit that knocking doors isn’t my favorite thing. At any given door I’m usually hoping that no one is home! But once they answer I’m fully engaged, trying to do better than my best to help them understand their need for the Savior. I recall one Saturday afternoon in Arizona, when I took a 20-something fellow with me who had never knocked doors before. Whenever I take a ‘new guy’ with me, the Lord always blesses our efforts.

In this case we determined to do a residential block of 25 homes. Usually, I find about a third are home, and most, but not all, are willing to talk. That day 17 of the 25 were home and they were all willing to talk. By the end I was completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally. But also pumped up spiritually and thankful to God for such opportunities.

The emotional content of this work reflects the reality of spiritual warfare. What other activity in life is so satisfying, so rewarding, and yet entails such anticipatory dread? If you enjoy eating a steak dinner out, do you suffer dread before you go? Of course not. If you enjoy a visit to Disney World, do you suffer dread aforetime? No. Yet 121 evangelism, for most people, is wonderfully and invariably satisfying, yet provokes spiritual opposition in advance, particularly a spirit of dread. Clearly, this fear is not sourced in God (2 Tim 1:7) . . . rather, it must be sourced in a local minion of the Adversary.

So when you feel the dread, ask and trust the Lord to walk you past it. Get busy. The Lord Jesus promises to be with us in this work right until the end of this age. You will experience that joy if you get after it, and keep after it.

You can also, simply, place tracts where people will find them. I like napkin dispensers in restaurants. The next fellow to sit at that table pulls out a napkin and a tract flies out! I’d be glad to share many other ideas with you, but not in writing. Contact me and we’ll talk if you like.

I find it much easier to do 121 evangelism by walking down a busy sidewalk or by visiting a campus to talk to college students. Not everyone will talk to you, but multitudes will accept a tract (or two or three). The main thing is to get out of your house and find someone to help . . . at least give them a chance.

I visited one campus regularly for four years. I know of only one definite convert from that work. If he was the only one, was his soul worth the effort? Yes. I visited another campus regularly for eight years. I know of one definite convert from that work, also. Worth it? Oh yeah . . . friends for life and brothers for eternity.

Yet I have hope that my little part is just a portion of the efforts the Lord makes on all He died for, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I hope to see in Heaven others where I had a small part. There will be much rejoicing.

We regularly visit churches and find an adult Sunday School class. When we introduce ourselves I make a pitch, trying to stir people up to get busy in 121 work. We hand out tract samples to everyone, and make an offer to supply as many for free as they can use. All they have to do is ask. I have also met with many pastors, offering seminars on 121 methods. Positive responses are oh-so-rare.

One mega-church pastor admitted to me that he was against “confrontational evangelism.” He wanted his people to build relationships, to do relational evangelism. I responded that I totally agreed with the idea of relational evangelism, something we should be doing throughout our lives. Yet a typical church member, counting up all the relationships he has in his neighborhood, his business, his relatives, etc., could share the Gospel clearly with everyone he knows within two to four weeks. That is, if he has any urgency to do so while all his lost acquaintances are each one heartbeat from Hell, every second of every day. Also, that is, if he actually knows how to do a good job of explaining the Gospel and dealing with objections – which takes some practice, experience that can be acquired only by making 121 work a part of your life.

Hey, if you really care about your lost grandmother’s soul, you had better do a good job when you ask her to sit down and talk her through her need for salvation. If you’re doing only ‘relational’ evangelism, you won’t be competent. Specifically, I mentioned to that pastor that I enjoy the liberty I have as an American citizen to drive to a nearby campus and then tract or talk to thousands of college students whom I will never have a ‘relationship’ with. Just by walking up to them and saying ‘hi.’

By the way, I got to know some of the most mature and established members of his church. They weren’t doing ‘relational evangelism’ at all, not even with their own relatives. Too scared, too incompetent. The church culture worked against such ‘confrontations’ in every way possible. Not only that . . . these ‘mature Christians’ had no discernment at all. The problems they described with their relatives showed clear evidence that their relations were unsaved, lost, not a chance that they had ever been born again. Yet they didn’t see that. Whatever alleged Bible knowledge they professed, in a church that exalted ‘spiritual formation’, they didn’t know how to apply it to the most vital of real-life applications – the salvation of their dearest family members.

Furthermore, if you don’t ‘practice’ by making 121 work a weekly part of your life, how can you possibly be ready when an opportunity falls right into your lap?   We had just started a house church meeting on a Saturday afternoon in the home of good friends. The doorbell rang. My friend opened the door to greet two Mormon missionaries who were canvassing the neighborhood. He invited them in. Later he told me that he thought it would be ‘fun’ to see how I dealt with them.

My first inclination was . . . Groan! Why not just invite them back later so he could deal with them on his own? I really wasn’t in the mood! My second thought was to insist that my friend have the ‘fun’ and I would just play the observer. It took me about three seconds to work through all that and then get into gear. I took the lead and we talked through the issue of salvation with these Mormons – didn’t let them get into their spiel, but rather used some apologetics, asked them probing questions, and then treated them just like I would treat Roman Catholics, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Muslims, namely, any religious lost folks. It was a good, satisfying thirty-minute discussion. We helped them understand the stakes. We told them the truth. We gave them a chance to repent from false religion and embrace Truth. Interestingly, a few months later, exactly the same thing happened with a different set of Mormon missionaries.

But what do most Christians do when lost cult-chained souls greet them with a smile at their doorstep? “Nope, we’ve got our own church. Not interested!” And then shut their door on someone who wants to talk about salvation! Disgusting, heartless cowardice!

As hard as it is to find lost people who are ready to repent and trust Christ for salvation, in my experience it is harder to find professing Christians who care for the souls in their community . . . who care even enough to offer a Gospel tract to give someone a chance to miss Hell and find Heaven.

How tragic. How pitiably sad. How maddening! What are Christians doing to make their lives count? I’ve visited megachurches that list as many as 100 ‘ministries’ or activities to fill up the lives of their people. Everything under the sun except personal evangelism. Hopefully, we’re in the last of the last days. I believe that God’s work is flourishing today in China, India, Iran, and other places where persecution is powerful. But nothing much is going on in America. Lots of seeker-sensitive pablum, but no meat, no fervor, no zeal.

How about you? Whose team are you on? No, not whose team do you profess to be on, but whose team are you playing for . . . on the field, sweating, hustling, trying to make a difference?

• drdave@truthreallymatters.com