Proactive and Reactive Evangelism
By Michael Kelley
How do people come to believe the gospel? Of course, it happens through the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. But the mechanism the Spirit uses is much more common: People believe the gospel when someone shares the gospel with them.
Of course, that sharing happens in many different forms and on many different occasions. It can be an invitation to church, the gift of a book, or a casual conversation that turns eternally serious. But all in all, the mechanism for people hearing, understanding, and then believing the gospel is… other people.
And if you boil all those methods of sharing the gospel down to their simplest forms, you come to the conclusion that evangelism happens in one of two ways - proactively, and reactively. Both are valid. Both are necessary.
To speak of proactive evangelism means that someone shares the gospel with someone else without specifically being asked about the gospel. We find a good example in Acts 4, as Peter and John were freely sharing the good news of Jesus’ resurrection with any and all who would hear it. The response was so great that Peter and John were hauled in front of the Jewish leadership who leveled threats against them. Peter and John responded like this:
“Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).
That’s proactive evangelism. It’s when the good news of the gospel so affects us that it bubbles up into all our conversations. We talk about Jesus because we simply don’t have anything else to talk about - He has sunk deeply into our hearts, permeating every component of our lives. So we share, and we share freely.
But then there’s also reactive evangelism. That’s what Paul describes in Colossians 4:
Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person (Colossians 4:5-6).
Paul says to act wisely - not foolishly. He says to make the most of the time - to take advantage of the opportunities put before them. He says that they should speak graciously and not harshly. And that their words should be seasoned with salt - that is, they are articulate and winsome enough to make the hearer thirsty for more. And then he says that the Colossian Christians should know how to answer each person.
He says that the Colossians should be ready to answer. This is reactive evangelism. Paul is assuming that the manner in which the Colossians live is so different, so counter cultural, and so attractive, that they will be questioned about it.
If you go back and reread the previous chapter of Colossians and find all the different character traits and behaviors Paul has said to take off, and then all the different character traits and behaviors he has said to put on, you see a picture of a very different kind of life. Here, then, is a penetrating question:
It’s not, “How many people have you shared the gospel with this week?” though that is a worthwhile question. The question this text inspires is, “Is your life different enough to have inspired any questions this week?”
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
