I have another confession to make. I have changed my approach to evangelism. I know I will get hammered by some of my former churches but I have changed! I used to be the Evangelism Minister at a large church in a metro area in the Southeast. It was my job to train our church how to do evangelism. Each week our pastor, who truly has a passion for lost people, had us turn in a list of people we had shared our faith with that week. The staff had to have a least three people listed and one had to be a gospel presentation. Because I was the "Evangelism Guru" I had to have at least 4-5 on my list. I am all about accountability, but this got to be a burden that the staff couldn't handle. We would go knock on doors in a very afluent area of town and offend just about everyone. The only people who liked us coming were already Christians, but even most of them didn't like our visits. In order to find 3 people to write on our list the staff would find contacts anywhere we could. We would write down the name of Abdul or Hank at the 7-11 if we handed our business card. If one week you had 7 contacts, you would "bank" 3-4 so you could put their names down on another week. I have the gift of evangelism. When I share my faith, more times then not people make decisions for Christ. Although, the way we did it here felt very fake or even shady. I felt like a Used Car Salesman trying to "earn your bidness!" Our goal was to get them down the isle and "close the deal!" I taught an evangelism program that is popular in many circles today. I was at a conference and 2 ministers asked me at dinner to show them how it worked. They dared me to share with the waitress. I went thru the process and she accepted Christ. Evangelism works, but I had no relationship with this lady and it was in Naples, FL so how could I follow up? I was able to put another notch on my belt but something is missing. I feel much better about how I share my faith today. I hang out @ Starbucks and other secular places in order to build relationships with the un-churched. A New Kind of Christian was a book that shared my thoughts. Today, I want to meet my neighbors and become their friends. And because I am their friend, I will tell them about Jesus. I'm no longer out to put more Notches on my belt!