I was working as a waiter in a cafe just into my twenties. I remember this one fellow walking up to me and speaking to me about the end of the world. He told me that if I wasn’t ready, I’d be left behind. I bring this up because this fellow, who was telling me about the fire and brimstone of being left behind, thought he was doing something he wasn’t. He thought he was doing evangelism.

Why was he not doing evangelism? Wasn’t he sharing things in the bible to someone who he thought didn’t know things about the bible? Whether he was sharing things that were biblical is debatable but more importantly, he wasn’t evangelizing because he wasn’t sharing the Good News. The word evangelism comes from the Greek. It’s two words mooshed together. The first word is Eu (pronounced yoo). Eu means good. The second word is angelion. You can see the word angel in there. Angelion means news or message. As a side note, angel means a messenger. So Eu + Angelion = Good Message or Good News. This is where we get our word evangelism from. The eu became ev at some point but that’s language for you.
So we have some shmancy Greek talk about the word Euangelion, so what? The euangelion or evangelism is telling people good news. Telling someone that if they are going to be left behind if they don’t believe is not good news. Actually, it’s bad news. What’s the Good News? The Good News is this, no matter how good you are or how bad you are, God saves you anyways because of Jesus. The Good News is not about you, it’s about Jesus for you. The Good News is that, despite being a crummy Christian, Christ is perfect for you. The Good News is that no matter how long it has been since you’ve been to Church, Jesus will always welcome you back. The Good News is that if you have been hurt by the church, even by other Christians, there are still places that proclaim that Jesus loves sinners, even me and even you. The Good News is free for you because Jesus paid it all. The Good News is that a holy and righteous God sees perfection in you because of Jesus for you.

If you have a church, go there and listen for the Good News. If not or if you’ve been gone from the church for a long time, if you don’t think you’re good enough to go to heaven, if you have been hurt by the Christians, you are welcome to join rotten, hypocritical sinners like you at Good Shepherd. We preach evangelism every Sunday. In fact, we do Evangelism every day because sinners like us need it every day. For us, Jesus is the center of our service, our sermons, everything because seekers or not, we all need Jesus all the time. The Good News is Jesus Christ forgives you despite you. That’s Good News. That’s Evangelism.
If you would like to hear more or discuss something you read here feel free to contact me, Rev. Jaime Nava at Good Shepherd. 909-790-1863