A Witness of the God of Pink

As one who has a passion to reach lost souls, I am often pretty hard on myself when I let an opportunity to share the gospel go by (it happens much more often that it should). I like to carry the books I am reading around with me, hoping to spark a conversation on the topic. Yesterday, just such an opportunity arose.

I have been digging through J.C. Ryle’s Holiness and two people asked me what I was reading. I was excited for the chance to explain the gospel and then quickly frustrated when I stumbled over my own words to the point where the askers were no longer interested. The exchanges lasted no more than 30 seconds and I felt like a failure. All I was able to do was state how awesome and holy God is, but not a thing beyond that. Then a new thought began to creep into my mind.

In my zeal to be faithful in evangelism I realized how many opportunities I had passed up because of my simple failure to be a Witness. Being a witness to me became the goal of explaining the entire gospel to every person I could. If I couldn’t get through sin, righteousness, judgment, heaven, hell, the cross and the resurrection, then it seemed to be a wasted opportunity. I then realized that perhaps I hadn’t failed so miserably; I did manage to voice my love for the powerful and holy Creator of the universe. So I began to formulate some definitions in my mind:

Witness: testifying to the work of God in your life in actions and words, crediting God for that work and being prepared to give an explanation for the hope that lies within (1 Peter 3:15). Webster says a witness is an “attestation of a fact or event” or “one who has personal knowledge of something.” So basically, to be a witness is to simply to serve in your life as an attestation of the fact of Christ’s work.

Evangelism: the term comes from the Greek word Evangelion; meaning “good news.” Therefore evangelism is intentionally explaining the command for all people to repent (Acts 17:30) and faith in Christ who died on the cross as payment for the sins of all who believe (John 3:16).

The distinction is where my frustration tends to occur. I treat every single mention of God as if it had to be a call to repentance. Situations worthy of God’s praise become challenging as I determine to turn it into a proclamation of the gospel. Quickly, a person like me with this outlook becomes perceived in a negative light.

Many people in my life know that I am crazy about my church and they just don’t get it. Whenever the topic comes up they quickly try to change the subject because they are uncomfortable with it. It is true that the gospel is a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:23 ) and the aroma of death (2 Corinthians 2:15,16) to those who don’t believe. The message is judgmental (John 3:18) and intolerant (Matthew 7:14), but I should be seen as a satisfied customer, no longer condemned and placed on the narrow way.

During a Q&A session at the 2009 Desiring God Pastors Conference, Matt Chandler discussed how we make Christ look appealing. We don’t water down or ignore the difficult demands of the gospel (sin, judgment, hell), but we also don’t forget to always proclaim the fantastic goodness of God. Chandler shared how his daughter loves the color pink, so he always tell her that God is the God of pink and they thank Him for that. How good, beautiful, and great is God that He gave us pink? He is the God of candy; the God of beautiful weather; the God who gives friends; the God of marital intimacy; the God who gives a giggling infant; the God of chocolate cake and whatever other simple pleasure we receive in life. Those we are trying to reach need to see our joy, the joy of our salvation (Psalm 20:5), and know what a pleasure it is for us to obey God’s commands (1 John 5:3). The more we display our joy in Christ as a witness to the world the more comfortable we will feel when we get the opportunity to explain that hope within by expounding on the details of the gospel. If you are afraid to be faithful in evangelism, simply start by proclaiming your joy in Christ more often.

I do not intend in differentiating the terms witness and evangelism to split any theological hairs, condemn those who don’t differentiate the terms, or start any programs based on the difference between the two. My goal is to encourage believers to live as a more bold witness, clearly living Christ-like lives while telling of His goodness in all things, which will lead to more evangelism opportunities, conversations with a clear unfolding of the gospel message. Too often we are afraid to obey the command to tell the gospel to every creature because we feel we aren’t articulate enough to explain the entire gospel. Instead of opening our mouths and simply testifying to the good work of Christ in our lives, we clam up and say nothing at all.

So here is a start; just try to be more deliberate to mention God and thank Him in front of others throughout the day. This may not be evangelism (by strict definition), but it lets the world know who you are and what you are about and may lead to an opportunity to explain yourself more. By then you will be more prepared for it; the gospel will be proclaimed more naturally as you have already established credibility and your joy in His power of transformation. You may be surprised that though you have been trying to reach a specific person for months, you may suddenly find yourself in a gospel conversation with a stranger on the bus simply because you expressed joy in God on a cloudy day.