Evangelism

I have been active in various forms of evangelism for many years now, but most of my activity has been focused on the lower-income kids populating the many depressed neighborhoods around my church. I’ve preached the gospel many dozens of times to groups of lost kids from 2 to 60. I did it again last night at our church’s Cola Wars outreach. I’ve also shared the gospel personally hundreds of times. And yet—with the possible exception of two or three of my campers at the Wilds nine years ago—no one that I know of has ever made a profession of faith as an immediate, direct result of my ministry to him or her.

One reason for that, perhaps, is that I am not reaching out to people who are most like me. We can all proclaim loudly that class doesn’t matter, that all men are created equal. But I’ve tried to bridge that gap for years and I believe it does matter. Love bridges that gap—and I love those kids so much—but the gap never quite goes away.

God has given me really just one way in my own life to reach out to people who, (again) providentially, stand on my side of the cultural gap: ultimate frisbee. I now know multiple people my age around Greenville who share a passion for ultimate. I played with some of them yesterday. I consider them my friends.

But how do I turn this into a gospel opportunity? I’m so accustomed to having the freedom to speak openly of Christ: kids come to my church ministries knowing that’s what I’m going to do. But I simply can’t be that direct during an ultimate game. The guys and girls I play with are my friends, and I did get to speak once with a few of them about Christ in a roundabout way. I’m not a mercenary pretending to like ultimate in order to witness; I really do like it! I’m just eager to turn the evangelistic corner this next year when my play picks up a bit again. But how?

Feel free to comment!