Barriers to Effective Evangelism of the Gospel Message: Language

You know, it's easy to go to evangelism conferences and hear about effective ways to evangelize. Our church, as well as many other churches around the world, have participated in the successful Alpha program/course, which has inevitably helped lead many people to the saving power of Christ's death and resurrection over the years. I have read many books on evangelism and preaching and witnessing, and if you have read this blog long enough, you'll know one of my personal interests is in the whole area of Biblical apologetics; that is, Gospel defence. Now, I will re-iterate that I acknowledge that I shouldn't get my shorts too much in a knot over what happens after the Gospel is presented. After all, at that point, it's up to the Spirit to take over, and our job is more or less done.

You would think that with all the tools available to us, through books, courses, internet tools, etc., that evangelism may be a little too over-analyzed. Perhaps that is true, since if you look at the Billy Graham association (one of the few Christian ministries that I have wholeheartedly supported in my 16 years of being a believer), they really don't use marketing gimmicks or tricks or flashy techniques in order to reach people with the gospel. I really admire that. It's simply taking Jesus' plain words in Matthew 28 to heart, to go into the world and preach the Gospel to all nations. Now, it is easier when you have a massive evangelistic organization with thousands (if not, tens or even hundreds of thousands) of workers in many countries across the world, doing the work of the church. However, what I'd like to talk about today is something that has been on my heart for years; it is much more personal, and it really brings out the fact that my notions and ideas of witnessing may have been over-simplified throughout the the years. Witnessing may not be much of a challenge if you have the natural spiritual giftings to preach or teach. But the Bible teaches in the epistles that everyone has different gifts (I believe 1 Cor. 12 is a good starting point to look at this, though you can find references to spiritual gifts elsewhere).

So here's where my mind is at these days, and I'll give you some context to help frame the discussion. My Great-Grandfather (my Mom's Mom's Dad) lived a very full life and passed away in 1991 at the ripe old age of 102. That is an incredible life lived, especially given today's lifespan where people are fortunate if they get to 70 or so. Seems to me that things like cancer or freak accidents or other illnesses creep up unexpectedly, prematurely cutting short lives. Anyway, it was through a series of events in 1990 that I deem much more than just coincidences (I'll tell my spiritual testimonial later on another posting) that led to my Great-Grandfather accepting Christ as his Saviour, and shortly after that, his health took a turn for the worse, and he died a few months later. That whole process of how my Great-Grandfather became saved, I believe became a catalyst (among other events in my life at that time which were more than coincidental) for the process in my own path to salvation. I really miss my Great Grandfather - he was really a true gentleman - and reminded me so much of the old world mannerisms and way of living - he was from the U.K., always dressed in a top hat, wore suspenders, walked gracefully with a cane (he was fairly tall too) and was always gentle and content, keeping himself in shape in his mid 90s by walking everyday). I am glad that he became saved and I will see him again one day.

Fast forward to 2007 and I've been thinking for many months about my paternal Grandma, who is one of the two Grandmas left in our immediate family (my maternal Grandma is in her late 80s as well and lives in Western Canada). Unlike my maternal Grandma, who has made the decision ot accept Christ as her Saviour years ago, my paternal Grandma, who is 89 or so now, has not make a decision. My wife and I try to meet up her on a regular basis for lunch and visiting to see how she is, something she has told us that she appreciates since she said that not many of my relatives visit her too often. During these visits, aside from sincerely being glad to see her and having see her face glow at seeing our little boy, one of her Great-Grandsons, it has been constantly on my mind how I can possibly witness to her. I believe my role is to share the Gospel message to her and it's up to her to make a decision and for the Spirit to assisting in softening her heart. However, there is one problem.

She does not speak any English. And my Cantonese, while passable in typical basic conversation, absolutely sucks when it comes to talking about anything abstract or theoretical or philosophical or spiritual. Just like any other discipline of knowledge, there is, unfortunately, a set vocabulary or industry nomenclature that goes with the area of knowledge.

There are other problems. My Dad is not crazy about me preaching the Gospel to her. He says that she may want to hear it before she passes, but I also know that not too many people will know when it will be their time. I am not sure if my Dad is saved (I'm pretty sure my Mom is, and neither my brother or sister are), but there is not going to be a huge amount of spiritual support for me to witness to my Grandma. My cousins in Western Canada are all saved as are my maternal Aunt and Uncle, but geographically it is obviously going to be tough to find a way to get my Aunt (whom I would consider a very spiritually wise and mature believer) to come to Toronto. I remember spending about 1.5 hours in a conversation in the basement of my Aunt's house last year, when we went to visit my relatives, where her and I prayed over the situation and she suggested to me that I should just explain the message with the words that I have to use, even if my vocabulary is limited. I think that I am close to doing this and was about to start the process this morning as I called my Grandma to invite her out to lunch today, but she has a friend's birthday party she is attending today, so I made plans to meet up with her next Saturday.

In the meantime, I've thought about a couple of things that may be helpful. My Mom and Dad's long-time pastor (a Chinese dude) suddenly resigned quietly this past year, and as a result, he's not available as a resource. I actually just thought this morning about this and realized that our church's (a multi-ethnic and multicultural church) building is physically connected to a Chinese community church - we share the same building though we have different sanctuaries). They have a fairly young senior pastor there, but I am thinking that I'll make some time to meet up with him to discuss this. I could really use the wisdom of a pastor who has been in both the Chinese and Westernized cultures, who can give me some advice on this.

I could sure use prayer as I go through this process of preparing myself to witness to my Grandma. I would hate for my limited Cantonese to cause problems, but remember that Moses was worried about whether he was properly equipped speech-wise to talk with Pharoh, and God told him to simply follow His lead and He will provide the words for Moses to speak. If God can help Moses overcome his anxiety in speaking boldly, and if God can help give confidence and boldness to timid guys like Peter in the New Testament, surely He can provide the strength and wisdom that is needed to present the Gospel to my Grandma. I'd appreciate your prayers as I ponder and consider this process.