I just thought I would briefly share a quote with you that I found this morning by Charles Spurgeon (my personal favorite preacher).
“Let eloquence be flung to the dogs rather than souls be lost. What we want is to win souls. They are not won by flowery speeches.”
First Corinthians 2:1-5 says,
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
From experience, I can safely say that when we as Christians get motivated or inspired to witness, the automatic thought is "Hey, I oughta learn how to witness better." What Paul is saying and Spurgeon is seconding is that we don't need more knowledge or training courses; we need action. The model we see in the book of Acts is that evangelism was a natural outflow of what God was doing in the believers' lives. So, if you are one of the people like me and you want to memorize all of the "right answers" to those difficult questions that unbelievers ask before you witness, this is for you. God has already given you everything necessary to effectively witness: power, knowledge, and support straight from the throne room of the Almighty. God's truth doesn't need eloquent and polished speech to enhance it. Do we need to be constantly in the Word as our source of truth? Yes. Do we need to be prayed up? Absolutely. Should we have an idea of what we are going to say? Probably wise. That said, we (I say "we" because this is something I struggle with) will never be effective evangelists if we are constantly in preparation and never in practice. There needs to be a balance. I hate to say this, but no matter how many books you read and how many times you rehearse your delivery in front of the mirror, you won't get it right every time. Nevertheless, we serve a God who is capable of using us despite our shortcomings. The application is simple and direct: get out and do it.
