Have you ever encountered that person that evangelizes with no grace in their words? Someone we met that preaches the gospel and does more harm than good? Where they see people as projects or points on a belt, instead of as human beings. That’s not the heart of Jesus. Jesus was a messenger of the gospel because he loved people. At the foundation of graceful evangelism is love. Those that are filled with love have effective communication with other people and the power of the holy spirit. We must also learn what it means to have biblical and graceful evangelism.

What Graceful Evangelism is

Graceful evangelism is filled with love and emotion for the other individual. Not just preaching at the individual. Yet, graceful evangelism also has the objectivity of the Gospel. Graceful evangelism combines both the emotional and factual makeup of God’s love. The goal is to bring both two worlds together. We want to able to communicate God’s heart, and God’s biblical Word in evangelism.

What Graceful Evangelism is Not

Graceful evangelism isn’t false grace. It doesn’t mean that we manipulate the message. We don’t water it down. We make sure we communicate effectively the Good News to our audience. But we don’t change major biblical truths. Such as sin, judgment, eternal consequences, and the cost of salvation. We don’t change the message of who Jesus is. But we don’t preach as a tool to hurt and criticize people.

Identifying People Ready for Evangelism

It’s important to know that not all people are going to respond to the Gospel the same way. We want to have a strong prayer life of love and compassion when we evangelize. We want to be filled with love. You also want to realize that evangelism is essentially a two-way street. It’s not always related to how well we preach, but it is also dependent on how much faith somebody has. Everything that starts with a faithful surrender to Jesus. Faith is 100% of our life given to Jesus. Not 50% or 10%.

Graceful evangelism is also finding people that already operating in that faith. Sometimes people have faith, but might not show it. An illustrative tool is seeing if people reflect a Red Light, Yellow Light, or Green Light.

The Red Light is somebody that does not want anything to do with Jesus. When we mention His name, they have a has a very big issue with Jesus and will not follow them. It’s best to leave these people alone and continue praying for them. Do not invest a lot of time in people that are completely filled with hatred towards Jesus.

The Yellow Light is open to learning more about Jesus. But their openness does not mean commitment. They normally need to get to know you first, the messenger. Before they want to know more about the message, Jesus. Invest no more than 20% of your time into these individuals. They do not want to be disciples, nor follow Jesus. This is the outer circle of Jesus, not his 120 disciples or 12 apostles.

The Green Light is someone that is 100% committed to Jesus. They want to repent of their sins, be baptized, and become a disciple. These individuals should have 80% of your ministry focus. Discipleship movement is founded on new disciples that are 100% souled out for God. Most people go wrong when they focus so much on the Red and Yellow Light and forget about the Green lights. Green Lights are found in any country, context, open or persecuted country. As a reminder, they are disciples already, they were lost now they are found. Being able to identify Red, Yellow and Green Lights helps you to discern who is the Holy Spirit working with.

Responding to People Not Open to Evangelism

How do you respond to people rejecting Jesus? Take a step back and continue interceding for the individual. Continue praying for God to move in their hearts. Pray for their hearts to be melted like wax. At the same time, you’re interceding for them and asking the Holy Spirit to send more people to them – wave after wave.

Yellow Lights might come to Jesus the more faith and inspiration you sow into them. Learn their storyline. Discover where they’re from. What are their problems and obstacles? Crises is often before the harvest. If none, stay in their life for the opportunity for Jesus to impact their life.

While you’re in a relationship with them, you don’t have to be a direct or verbal witness. Being a silent witness with your lifestyle can be powerful. Be edifying, or build them up, in every interaction with them. Doing this reveals the love of Jesus to them. The prayer is that at one time that they will become a Green Light and become a disciple of Jesus.

Grace Evangelism Leads to Natural Discipleship

Once we identify Green Lights, and they respond, we need to invest in them. This is where strong connections are made. Which calls for most of our attention, the 80% of focus. It is very important because you’re working towards their fullness in God. After you gracefully evangelize someone, then naturally disciple them.

Conclusion

In the end, graceful evangelism is founded on love and relationship. It leads to natural discipleship. It takes trust over time in prayer and relationship to become eternally fruitful. By discerning those that are open to the Holy Spirit we can invest into those whose hearts are fertile soil. This allows us to strategic and focused on evangelizing others in a graceful natural way.