Neighbour Evangelism – 3

Our goal is to share Christ with our neighbours by being good neighbours to them.

As we do so, we should keep a few things in mind.

First, be willing to meet people where they are, and seize the opportunity when it’s given. I say this because a lot of the time when we’re thinking about evangelism, we’re thinking about doing it in an optimal setting. Ideally, it will happen when we’ve got time in our day, there are no distractions, and both your neighbour and you are feeling relaxed and talkative.

But real life doesn’t usually happen in an optimal way. Instead, you’re feeling rushed today. And your neighbour hasn’t combed his hair, and you’re kind of embarrassed about standing next to him in public. You’re outside finishing up the lawn and your kids are in the house, probably getting into trouble. But suddenly you and your neighbour are chatting.

Grab this moment, because it might not come again for a while. Meet your neighbour where he is.

A second thing to keep in mind: you have to get to know your neighbour. You might want to get to deep theology with him, but you can’t really do that before getting acquainted with this person. Ask questions, be curious about them.

And be a good listener. What do you ask them about? Who are they, where are they from, what was their family like, growing up? These can be great windows into finding out who a person really is.

I read somewhere that another good entryway into a meaningful conversation can be asking about a person’s tattoos. Lots of people have tattoos. And tattoos are usually about something personal, about a hard memory in their life, or a strongly held belief. I’ve tried it—not getting a tattoo, but asking people about theirs. And it’s true: it’s a doorway into a nice conversation. So ask them to tell their story. And then get ready to share what you believe.

Third, when it comes to witnessing to our neighbour, we do have to know the gospel. Say your dental hygienist asks you one day what your church is all about. What do you say? If you’ve never had the opportunity to share, I can almost guarantee that you’ll stumble for words and end up sounding quite dumb, or end up overwhelming them with theological jargon and mystery language. It takes a bit of thought: what do we believe?

Even just one sentence: The Gospel is the Good News of what God has done in Christ to secure our salvation. 

Fourthly, I want to give a caution. And that is that our interest in other people should be genuine. We should actually care about them. We want to enjoy them for who they are and love them sincerely. They’re not just my little evangelism “projects.” If the only reason I am befriending people is to “bait-and-switch” with the gospel, I am not really loving them. Then the relationship may well hinge on my neighbour’s response. But when love is my great motive, when I love this person because I love God, then gospel opportunities will almost certainly come.

A final thing is taking the time. I’m embarrassed about the times that I have ducked into the house when I saw my neighbour across the road. I was pressed for time, and I preferred to avoid the 15-minute conversation. We live in a fast-paced world in which it is easy to run past the needs of others. But you simply can’t be a good neighbour if you don’t take time for them.

We need to slow down enough to stay aware of those who are around you.

The nice thing about “evangelism through being a good neighbour” is that it basically destroys our favourite excuses for not witnessing. That’s what we’ll say: I can’t go to the event being organized by the evangelism committee because that’s my night for playing pickleball. No time. I can’t attend that apologetics course because I’m an elder right now. No time.

But “evangelism through being a good neighbour” is something we can do wherever we are, something we can do where we live, and where we work, whatever day it is.

We just have to take the time.