Evangelism

“‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” -Matthew 28:19-20

These verses are known as the Great Commission. They record the commandment of our Lord sending us into the world to preach the Gospel. It is the duty of every Christian to tell others about Jesus Christ. Now not all of us might be called to be evangelists or missionaries, but it isn’t only for evangelists or missionaries to TALK ABOUT the Gospel. Evangelists and missionaries are called to PREACH and SPREAD the Gospel, and they have received the Holy Spirit to do so. Others might be called to other forms of service, but we are all told to defend the faith and hope that is in us.

The Church of God is the body of Christ, and St. Paul the Apostle refers to this saying, “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?” -1 Corinthians 12:12-19

This whole point is emphasized to show that we all have different forms of service to offer God and the Church. The majority of Protestants today always talk about evangelism, giving it more weight and importance over prayer and other things vital to the Christian life. They teach all to be evangelists, but this isn’t right, because as St. Paul said, “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?” and so on. They criticize those who dedicate their lives to prayer by saying that they have cut themselves off from the world and have broken the Lord’s commandment. They forget that it was Moses who raised his hands while Israel fought in the valley, and as long as he had his hands raised Israel prevailed. This is a symbol of the spiritual war we are in as Christians, and how we are one body. Those whom Israel fought in the valley were symbolic of the spiritual powers that fight against us, and those from Israel who fought are symbolic of those who serve in the Church, whether Priests, Deacons, Evangelists, Teachers, etc. Moses was symbolic of those who pray for the service of the Church, and without him raising his hands, Israel was losing. This is symbolic of how we must have both service and prayer, but the service comes because of the prayer, without the prayer, the enemies prevail.

Today, we deal with much more people than any other generation before us dealt with in their lifetime. With all the schools, social networks, and text messaging, we have an opportunity to reach many people around us. But for some reason or another, we, especially the Orthodox don’t share our faith with others, even our best of friends. Why is it that we are not afraid to talk about sex, drugs, music, and gossip, but we are afraid to share our faith? I read in an article, I believe it was attached to the Orthodox Study Bible that said “the Orthodox Church is the best kept secret of America.” Now from certain aspects this is a very good thing, but from another aspect it means most people haven’t heard about us, and that is probably because we don’t share our faith. The Greek Orthodox have been here since the middle of the 19th Century, and there was a Russian Orthodox Saint, St. Herman, who preceded them and preached in Alaska to the indigenous tribes such as the Eskimos, in the 18th Century, while George Washington was still in office as President of the United States of America. St. Herman brought Orthodoxy to this continent, and translated the Bible for the first time to the language of the Native American tribes of Alaska. The Armenian Orthodox have been here since the early 1900s, the Syrian Orthodox since the 1950s, and the Coptic Orthodox since the late 1960s and early 1970s. It has been a long time since Orthodox Christians have arrived in America but not many Americans have heard about us.

Evangelism’s motive should be out of love, because if it isn’t out of love, it is meaningless, because everything God does is from His love, and if we cease to love, then we have cut ourselves away from God, because “God is love” (1 John 4:16) and also St. John says, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). So this means our goal would not be to show off how much we know about our faith, but to bring these people to the knowledge of Christ and give them the same hope that we have which is within us.

If one goes to the Orthodox Churches in America, depending on which culture is represented, for example Greek, Russian, Armenian, Syrian, more than likely one will not find anyone except those cultures in that church, so where is the evangelism? It makes it very hard for Americans to convert to Orthodox Christianity when the people in the Church don’t know English and when people come to visit, the laity don’t know how to explain the faith to them, and even worse, might end up explaining the culture to them! But the situation is getting much better, there are two of these cultural churches that have done more evangelism than the rest, these two (as to my knowledge) are the Greeks and the Copts (Egyptians). These two have spread themselves far and wide over the United States of America; others tend to focus themselves only in a couple of states. The cultural aspect has actually become a major problem in America for the youth of these churches, because many of the youth have grown up here while their parents have not. Not only that, but the fact that it is another culture within a country that doesn’t share the same culture, causes us to be bothered by each other and discouraged. Father Bishoy Andrawes, a Coptic Priest, compared this situation to many fish in small fishbowl, he said, “When you put some fish in a container, small container, they grow big, what are they going to do after that? They are going to eat each other. Yeah. They are going to just have nothing to do. They are going to bother each other… I think that is what we do in the Church, we grow fat, and then we start to criticize each other and blame each other, and judge each other. But when you put these fish in the sea… they breed, have a lot of children, they grow healthier because that’s what God wants. When you put them in the sea, in the ocean, they breed, they have lots of fruits.”

Let us remember the Apostles and their work of evangelism. Let us follow their example and bring people to Christ. And may God grant us His wisdom when we are asked about our hope and faith. And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.