My wife , Nellie , Jo and I recently kept five of our grandchildren for the weekend . One of the younger ones , who will remain unnamed , has a propensity to turn upside down any room he goes into . Rugs are moved . Chairs stacked on top of each other . Sofa cushions scattered on the floor as make-believe rocks on quicksand . For some reason , this time the television screen was facing the wall .
I had gently reminded this grandchild not to destroy the room as he had done previously . So when I walked into the room and saw the latest disaster he had wrought , he knew he was in trouble . He was caught red-handed . Alone . None of the other grandkids was even on the same floor .
When I asked him how the chaos had unfolded , he deflected the responsibility to his sister . “ She did it ,” he said with remarkable certainty and conviction . When I reminded him that his sister wasn ’ t even home at the moment , he quickly shifted gears .
“ Well ,” he said , “ it ’ s a miracle .”
Nope . There was no miracle . As much as my grandson tried to avoid accountability , he alone was responsible for the mess .
Christians can be quick to deflect responsibility , especially when it comes to evangelism . As the new pastor in my second church , I decided to have a question-and-answer time for a few minutes after the worship service . When someone asked me about my vision for the future of the church , I began to gush about seeing dozens of church members eventually sharing their faith .
I was quickly interrupted by one of the older ladies in the church .
“ You can forget that , Pastor ,” she said indignantly . “ That ’ s what we pay you to do .”
That was the only time I ’ ve ever heard a church member say those words out loud . But I know that many Christians have a “ hired hand ” view of evangelism . They don ’ t share the gospel because that ’ s what they pay the pastor and staff to do . They couldn ’ t imagine doing otherwise .
Another convenient deflection is often articulated like this : “ It ’ s not my spiritual gift .” Though some scholars debate whether evangelism is a spiritual gift or an office of church leadership , let ’ s assume for argument ’ s sake that it ’ s a spiritual gift . This would mean that some gifted believers are better able to articulate the gospel , and perhaps will see more people become followers of Christ . But does it mean that other Christians are thus excused from the Great Commission mandate ? Absolutely not !
I don ’ t have the spiritual gift of mercy . Does that mean I am excused from showing mercy to others ? Again , the question is rhetorical . Though spiritual gifts may point Christians toward specific areas of service , no one is excused from demonstrating the qualities of Christian character , even in areas where they may not be particularly gifted .
The Great Commission is a general commandment to all believers . Jesus didn ’ t select only certain Christians with specific gifts or callings to share the gospel . He gave the mandate to all believers — from the first century to the twenty-first century and beyond .
As described in Acts 1:8 , believers were to share the gospel “ in Jerusalem , throughout Judea ,
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