For some reason we have not had any door to door evangelists visit us since we have lived in Oklahoma, while in pagan Maryland we had visitors “witnessing” to us as often as dandelions pop up on a spring lawn. I enjoyed having a little fun with them sometimes, so I would generally tell them that I was a priest at a nearby church. In Maryland if that is all you tell someone, they are going to assume you are Roman Catholic. Then I would let them start their spiel and I would interrupt saying “Let me get my girlfriend up here so she can hear what you have to say too.” This would invariably be met with an exchange of uncomfortable glances by the two black suited evangelists who would then beat a hasty retreat to my neighbors’ house.

Our gospel starts out telling us that John was sent as a witness to the Light. So it got me thinking about all the different kinds of ways in which we witness to the Light. There is the random approach: If you knock on enough doors, someone out there will invite you in. Some missionaries go door to door wearing starched white shirts and black suits like my visitors in Maryland. Then there is the “spray and pray” approach: If you spew enough militant Bible verses at perfect strangers and pray for success, someone might convert. And finally we have the “big brother knows best” approach, where typically a group of experts goes to a foreign country to dig a well, build a school or treat illnesses. Sadly, the vast majority of missionary attempts fail soon after the missionaries leave.

John was a witness to the light, the very first sign of God’s action in creation – “Let there be light.” John’s life and ministry served as a sign pointing to or revealing God. Even Jesus in John’s gospel reveals the nature of God. And we are also signs and witnesses pointing to God. After the resurrection, Jesus meets the disciples in the upper room and says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The word mission simply means to be sent. Those on a mission are sent somewhere by someone. If the majority of Christian attempts at mission fail, how are we to serve as witnesses to the light?

The fundamental problem with traditional witnessing, mission, or evangelism is that the missionary does all the talking and none of the listening. If we go out in the world thinking we have the answer for them, whether it is Jesus Christ or a GED diploma, what good do we do if we do not meet people’s needs? If someone is drowning, do we throw them a sandwich?

To be effective witnesses or evangelists, we need to listen to people, discover their needs, and start there. If you recall the big miracle stories in the Gospel, you will quickly realize that Jesus did NOT say “OK, I’m going to give all 5,000 of you people some food, but you must believe in me first.” He did not say that to the people he healed or raised from the dead either. He met their needs without condition or qualification. And, as in the case of the ten lepers where he healed and only one turned around to say thank you, not everyone will thank us or even recognize what we do.

Let me summarize how mission typically fails, and then we will talk about how it succeeds. Witness and mission most often fails because we get in the way. We think we have all the answers and we do not listen to the real needs of the other person. Secondly, most Christian mission efforts come with strings attached such as “we will only help you if you will attend our church.” For example, the pastor of a local church went to an elementary school and performed magic tricks for the children. I have no problem with that. Next he invited them to his church that night to see more magic. When 80 kids showed up that night, instead of magic tricks and entertainment, they got 2.5 hours of hard core guilt-inducing altar call preaching.

Jesus never attached any strings to his invitations and neither should we. Finally, the very way we evaluate mission and evangelism is inappropriate at best. We use worldly measures to gauge our success such as: How many people attend your church? How many people did you preach to in Guatemala? How many meals did you serve? How many people did your physicians heal? How many teeth were fixed, eyes examined, and so on and so on. Staff salaries for people who work at churches are based on these models and they are all wrong. They are not God’s ways.

Then what are Biblical models of testifying to the light? You can break down every action of Jesus in three steps: Listen, Give, Love. We have certainly listened to the needs of those in the community who are hungry. We feed people through Meals on Wheels and our own Servings of Grace programs. We give people food with no strings attached. We do not preach at them while they eat nor do we make them feel guilty if they don’t attend our church. We just feed them. These are healthy examples of testifying to the light.

We had a wonderful GED program running for 29 years. There are some conversations now about providing educational assistance. Should we start by providing after school tutoring? Should we consider starting a school? Whatever we do in new mission areas, we must listen to the needs of the community first.

We are beginning to get the idea of witnessing through our connections to the wider community. We have had very positive outcomes at the Chili Cookoff, Cardboard Boat Race, and most recently the Christmas Parade. We tell the community who we are by being present, by participating, by smiling, by engaging children in positive ways. Now we are handing out bookmarks that tell a little more about who we are. These serve as low key invitations. No guilt, no pressure. Try us out some Sunday; we are different than the others.

The physical appearance of our buildings and property is another aspect of how Grace Episcopal Church testifies to the light. If you haven’t seen our chapel at night, I encourage you to drive by and check it out after dark. If you go to the corner of Broadway and Sixth and view our property across the parking lots you will get an entirely different message. One that says, “We are run down and dilapidated. You cannot even know our name unless you can find the two tiny little rusted metal signs. You are welcome here but don’t trip on the broken up sidewalks. You will have to guess how to get into the church from here.”

An architect from the state of Oklahoma visited us last week. He is involved with the city on a long term plan to improve the appearance downtown. As he toured our property, he was astonished to learn that the parking lots to the south of the church actually belong to us. He thought they belonged to the car dealer. Although his office cannot do our design work, he did provide encouragement (and references) for our integration of our south parking lots and signage into the overall renovation plan.

How do we testify to the light? We are doing a terrific job of renovating how Grace Episcopal Church relates to and connects to our local community. We will be renovating these buildings very soon. If we can change our thinking and understand that our front door to the public is the south parking lots, then perhaps we can renovate our front door before Easter rolls around.

We do not renovate these buildings primarily for ourselves. We do it for others as part of our mission. We do not grow as individual Christians primarily for ourselves. We do it because at the end of our days we will be judged based upon what we have done for other people. So I ask you, can we renovate our front door for others too?