Because I have grown up going to church, I have been through "Evangelism Trainings" "One Verse Methods" Been down the "Roman Road" out the ying yang it seems like. And although I know the Lord has and does use these "methods" to see thousands come into personal relationship with Him, there is one thing that really rubs me the wrong way about the way I was raised to "evangelize" The death question!! You know what I am talking about. The lead question of "If you were to die tonight, and standing before God...." Or sometimes much more detailed of "If you riding home, and were in a car wreck, and were mauled by a tiger, and vultures came and picked your body apart, and you were standing before God..." Personally, I don't like this for two reasons. 1) You simply do not see Jesus spend a lot of time talking about it - Death. (Maybe 1 time to Nicodemus in the middle of the night) He spent His time talking about the kingdom and the HERE and NOW!! "The Kingdom of Heaven is NEAR!!" and 2) It is just a weird way to approach strangers, no? "Hey what's your name?" "Bob" "Well, hey Bob even though I don't even know your last name or anything about you, I want to talk to you about your death experience!!" "Seriously!!" Plus, most of the people I am talking to are in fact NOT thinking about death or dying or things like that, and don't really want to be. That is why I call it Hospice Gospel!! Asking someone about their death would be a great question in hospice because they are probably thinking about it. For those not in hospice, maybe their is a better lead question. My problem is that it is so ingrained in my DNA, that it often becomes my default when sharing my faith. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the benefit of eternal life, and think it is AWESOME!! But I think the Life Jesus came to give us (John 10:10) begins when we begin a relationship with Him. And I think it is time for that to get some props in our evangelism.



