Thread by @JoshDaws

At the pool this morning, some neighbors were speaking favorably about increasing covid restrictions. I kept silent because I disagreed. I guess I worried it would hurt my witness to disagree over non-essential things. 1/

Later, at the ball field, I was talking with one of my son’s coaches and he launched into a rant about covid restrictions. I shared his frustrations and we had a good conversation. 2/

It later hit me that in each situation the other person just shared his or her opinion without a care about what I thought. I didn’t. This led me to a bit of an epiphany about relational evangelism. 3/

I’ve long been a proponent of relational evangelism; the idea that you build a relationship with non-Christians in the hopes that you can one day share the gospel when you have enough relational capital. 4/

To that end, I’ve found that I tend to avoid anything that might introduce disagreement in those relationships. My neighbors don’t know what I think about most things because I worry they won’t like some of my opinions and I’ll lose the opportunity to share the gospel one day. 5/

I realized today that this relational approach to evangelism, at least the way I’ve been doing it, has made me a chameleon. I don’t change what I believe around others but I do change how I speak and what I’ll talk about around others. 6/

This is completely counterproductive to building relationships in the first place. No one wants to be friends with a vanilla person who only has polite answers and never lets you know what they’re thinking. 7/

This thread is just me thinking through this for myself but I do wonder if this is a wider problem in broader evangelicalism. In our efforts to be winsome are we becoming people no one wants to know? It’s like the kid in middle school that is just trying too hard to be liked. 8/

Would it not be better to freely share our thoughts and opinions (without being a jerk of course) and let nature take its course? Some people are going to be naturally drawn to you and others won’t be. I think that’s okay. Invest in the ones you click with. 9/

God is sovereign. It’s not up to us to win everyone. Be yourself and let God use you, your likes, and your opinions.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10 10/10