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I recently read an article about missionary work in China, written by a Chinese Christian. It was a lesson in sharing the gospel. Before encoutering Christ, the author, Bob Fu,  believed that Christianity was an “opiate of the people’s spirit” that was a tool of Westerners to numb the creativity of the Chinese mind. This attitude is not unlike what we encouter today in our own society. Christianity in America is considered by many okay for the uneducated and disenfranchized, but of no use to the educated and sophisticated.

Bob had been approached, unsuccessfully by the “give them a tract and a bible” crowd. He recounts: 

“One day I went to the apartment of a teacher who had been in China for more than three years, and I saw him playing the guitar, crying as he sang. He told me he was homesick for his family in California, and I was touched by his openness — such a contrast to the stern, cold teachers I had had before. The kindness and love he and his fellow Christian teachers showed was not to change China, but to offer life-giving truth in an authentic manner. Today’s would-be missionaries to China could learn a lot from them.”

Evangelism isn’t about passing out bibles and tracts. It’s about building relationships. Fu noted “Many of my classmates were more willing to share their personal secrets with our American teachers than with fellow Chinese students because they found the teachers trustworthy and caring. The American teachers I know said it took years living and interacting with the Chinese before their mission bore spiritual fruit.”

After Fu became a Christian he went to seminary. There he learned how denominational-ism grips the American church. One famous evangelist he encountered just wanted to know how many Chinese spoke in tongues.  Fu said, “Contrast this with the two Americans who showed up at the doorstep of my in-laws in a remote village in Shandong, near where legal activist Chen Guangcheng used to live. They rode bikes together with the villagers on the dusty roads. They prayed for my wife’s family members and other villagers. Those American teachers even learned how to share an outhouse with pigs! As a result, both of my in-laws came to Christ after my American teachers left.”

We need to give up on the numbers game. Most of us have rarely successfully “led a person to Christ.” What we need to do is develop relationships. We must learn where the lost are, physically, emotionally and spiritually, before we can lead them out of darkness.

Make a friend, be a friend, lead a friend to Christ, whether he’s Chinese or the Cajun down the street.