Sincerity in evangelism

I rediscovered this essay from my blog of five years ago. I was probably even more of a scared, cloistered elitist bookworm then than I am now. But this piece amazed me, and the sentiment convicted me.  I even remember trying to narrate it to a friend. I can see images all mixing in from Phil Garvin, John Bunyan, "Jerry West", and G.K. Chesterton to be squeezed into the four corners of a reflection paper for philosophy class. Enjoy.

Sincerity in evangelism

How is the disciple to act as a “commercial fisherman” rather than a “sport fisherman” when spreading the good news? Most undesirable is the pushy salesman attitude who wants above all else to lead his friend in some fideistic “sinner’s prayer”. Also undesirable is the one who starts out with an intellectual apologetic, meets unbelief and turns into a small-mouthed apologetic intellectual. Both these lack a sincere, pure heart that is supremely interested in the interests of God and of his friend. Part of this is comes from self-reliance, not devoting oneself to prayer and the Scriptures. Another part of it is not being frank about one’s own sin.

Moving on from fishing, another analogy of the sea is the rescuer of a shipwreck. Bits of treasure, gold coins, fallen timbers scattered on the shore. The treasure is the problem of pleasure. Smashed shivers of timbers, the chill of the waves, are the problem of pain. The shipwreck is the world. It is civilization, nature, and the natural Mansoul. Drowning in sin. This shipwreck is the whole reason for the gospel.

And now, when I awake and find myself picking through debris on the beach, imagining if this might have been Admiral Drake’s galleon, forget both that it actually was, that his Patron is at this moment in Portsmouth, designing and financing a new vessel – and that my comrade is still unconscious, trapped in the sinking bilge.

This is the amnesia of the disciple. It is not that I merely believe the Resurrection; I am convinced of it. My weakness of heart, my iniquity, my amnesia, is as much a proof of the cause of the shipwreck and the certainty of my mate’s doom as is his own heedlessness to belief. He doesn’t see the danger because he cannot. I must remember what I was convinced of, so as to “rescue” him and myself for the service of the Patron, on the future Galleon. Don’t expect him to believe, expect to convince him of the danger.