Jack the Jewish Chiropractor

Several months ago, Lindsay and I and our dear friends, Ron and Connie, met a man outside Panera who made me realize just how much I need to learn about evangelism. Let's call him "Jack."

Jack, was a self-professed, part-time Jew who cracks backs for a living and couldn't help overhearing our conversation we were having outside about hell (ya know, just your typical 'Friday night conversation'). Well, we noticed him, noticing us and we began talking to him and invited him to pull up a chair. He had much to talk about, but it was what he wouldn't talk about that continued to frustrate me.

Everytime we began to address such topics as God, Sin, Christ, Truth, the Bible, etc., Jack would dodge the subject and dart down a different path. This became very frustrating, but we all did our best to speak lovingly and openly about such things, yet with conviction. We spent approximately 45 minutes trying to maintain a logical conversation, but to no avail.

We shared as much as we could, trying to share the gospel through any crack in the conversation we could find. Ultimately, Jack was satisfied in experiencing God in many ways and not taking "the easy way out" as he called it, in identifying with Christ. In his words, "we agreed to disagree," but ended shaking hands, exchanging business cards, and committing to pray for him.

Here's a few things that I learned as we walked away from an otherwise frustrating conversation:

1) Evangelism is First, a Proclamation

Before we said goodnight, after we had parted ways with Jack, the four of us (Ron, Connie, Lindsay and myself) prayed and thanked God that he would grant us the opportunity to bear witness and proclaim Jesus Christ as the only Lord, God, and Savior. Evangelism is extremely frustrating if we only view it in terms of invitation. It is first, a proclamation of who Christ is and what he has done to save sinners. The Spirit of God does the converting. Our work is the communicating.

2) Steering the Course is more important the Staying the Course.

In our effort to stay the course and spend time learning more about Jack and the things he had to say, we lost ground by not steering the course of the conversation back to the questions that he wouldn't answer and the topics that he didn't want to discuss. When it comes to conversations, some people are clever and some people are logical. Jack was very clever. When we speak with the "Jacks", we must remember that evangelism is most effective when we focus on the direction of the conversation more than the duration.

3) Always Seek to End on a Prayerful and Positive Note

Although we can't confuse love with being soft-spoken about Christ, it's also true that we should try not to leave a conversation with an attitude of anger and hostility. An effective goodbye is more than just agreeing to disagree at the end of the conversation. It's expressing a thankfulness to the person for taking the time to talk and asking how we might pray for them.

Pray for our friend, the Jewish Chiropractor, and all those who are seeking to be faithful and better witnesses in proclaiming God's Truth about God's Son to a world that desperately needs him.