evangelism |

“While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight, I’ll fight to the very end!” And these are the words I grew up with. They were spoken by William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army.

My grandparents were Salvation Army ministers, and my parents were entrenched in the fight for racial equality in a very racially tense Chicago at a Salvation Army youth mission. Even as a young girl,…

Won’t you please join for me for the rest of this piece at Anita Mathias’ lovely spot Dreaming Beneath The Spires?

It was an early Saturday morning and I had run to the grocery store just a few blocks from my house. The sun was shining, and the air was scrubbed clean from an overnight shower. With a to-do list as long as my right arm, I quickly loaded the contents of my grocery cart into the back of my truck.

A woman with a smile as bright as the sun walked toward me, a Watchtower in hand. I sighed. I really didn’t have time for this. My home was on the Jehovah’s Witness blacklist already, but they didn’t know not to approach me in a parking lot.

“Hello! How are you today?” She was cheery and inviting.

“I’m fine, thank you, but you probably don’t want to bother with me because I’ve been banned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.” I tried not to sound rude, but it sounded that way anyway. I just didn’t want to waste our time.

“Banned? I doubt that. Why do you say that?”

“Well, I invited the Jehovah’s Witness ladies who came by my house every week, to my house for a Bible Study so that we could discuss our differences. After a couple of hours, we all had more questions than answers for each other, and they agreed to return the following week. I baked some muffins and I cleaned my house, but no one showed up. There hasn’t been a knock on my door since…and I’ve seen them on my block. They just skip my house.”

We stood there discussing a few points.

And then she did it. She looked at me and very sincerely said, “Why don’t you go door to door? I’ve never had anyone (a Christian) come to my door.”

I have gone door to door, and I let her know that I have, but her confidence that I had never witnessed door to door alarmed me. Because of our lack of evangelism, she was able to without a doubt in her mind, assume that because this is an American Christian before me, I can assume that she has never done any witnessing.

We wished each other well, and I concluded our conversation with, a touch on her hand and these words, “I sincerely hope that our differences don’t end up meaning that one of us misses out on the eternal life God has planned for man.”

I got in the car, and turned the key. And the whole conversation made me wonder. What if I had gone to her door? What if I had beat the Jehovah’s Witnesses to her home? She was obviously hungry for something the day they came by. It almost sounded as if she wished someone had come to her home. If I had, and she made a decision for Christ, I wondered what she would be doing that early Saturday morning. Would she be standing in the parking lot too busy to talk to a Jehovah’s Witness? Would she be making a to-do list more of a priority than a person?