Personal Evangelism: a Surprising Book

Raw. It is a word with a lot of different connotations. It could mean, "Dangerous," like uncooked meat. It could mean, "Healthy," like a salad. It could mean, "Damaged," like flesh rubbed raw. When it comes to Evangelism, it can mean uncut, unedited, unprocessed. Yes, it can be healthy, but it can still be dangerous. And, the flavor of raw evangelism can be startlingly strong like raw garlic or raw broccoli. But, it is what it is. When people come in contact with other people, the interactions can rub a person the wrong way: particularly when those interactions take place in the midst of evangelism. The word, "Evangelism," comes from Greek meaning the spreading of "Good News." But, people have all sorts of hang-ups around the ideas behind evangelism and have a lot of different ideas about what is right and wrong. Sometimes, when you confront people with new ideas about what is right and wrong, those hang-ups can blow up in your face. Often, when people don't understand the finer points of right and wrong, they can do things that are wrong without meaning to do so, and the results can be touching...or frightening...and sometimes very funny.

The book, B-More Stories by Jeff Elkins, is a raw book. And, even if he wasn't thinking about it this way when he wrote it, it reflects the realities of personal evangelism. He calls it fiction, but it has a lot of truth in it...sort of like Pilgrim's Progress...except that B-More Stories isn't an allegory. Although everyone recognizes that the characters from Pilgrim's Progress weren't literal individuals in a history book sense, there was still a lot of truth in Pilgrim's Progress. So it is with "B-More Stories".  Although the characters in the book are not meant to be actual individuals, there is a lot of truth in the interactions between the characters.

The book has 21 short stories about life in Baltimore and many of the characters are involved in church activities or are actually pastors. The 21 different stories often re-use characters, and don't flow from one to the next. So, while it isn't really a novel, it is more than 21 individual stories. One of the stories captures the awkwardness of a white man getting his hair cut at an all black barber shop. At the end of the story, after the men in the shop have very candidly shown their feelings about a local church and the pastor at that church, the white customer reveals that he is a pastor, but breaks the awkwardness partially by telling them a joke. He shows the men he's with that he doesn't have any hard feelings towards them because of their dislike for abuse of church authority.

When I read/hear about "personal evangelism," I mostly find that the term revolves around training non-professionals in how to share the gospel with people one on one, but it also means building relationships. It means getting people comfortable with Christianity one-on-one or in small groups rather than confronting them with their sinfulness by yelling at them from a street corner. It isn't what is done from the pulpit, either.

Another story is about a pastor receiving a phone call from a man who wants the pastor to find a good Christian man for his girlfriend to sleep with. Yes, you read that right. I know, it doesn't make any sense...at least at first. However, as the story goes on, he reveals that his girlfriend won't have sex with him because he isn't a Christian. He thinks that sex is good. Since he loves his girlfriend, he thinks she should have sex. So, he's trying to find someone for her to have sex with.

As strange and twisted as that may sound, when I am out witnessing to people on the streets, I routinely hear things which make as little sense to me as the above described phone call. The strange and twisted things people come up with are often hard to believe. (As in, "I can't believe I just heard what I think I heard.") And, people often say such things using so much profanity it practically makes one's ears wilt. Is that hard to take some times? Yes. But, these people don't see any point in abstaining from profanity. And why should they? They don't believe the Bible, so what difference does it make to them if it says we shouldn't speak that way? So, they try to look cool and use lots of profanity.

The book also has some stories about some murders taking place in the area. I'm not sure exactly what to make of these. Maybe they are in the book to add "interest" for those not interested in just stories about lives of pastors. Maybe they are there to show that people sometimes do bad things out of confusion or confused motives. I don't know. But, on the whole, it was a very well written book. (Now, since I've put affiliate links on the page, if you decide to buy using my links, I could make a few cents. If that makes you think this review is suspect, fine. But, I really am trying to be honest about the book here. :-) Also, in the interests of full disclosure, my copy of the book was free in exchange for an honest review on Amazon. By reviewing it here, too, I'm going above and beyond my agreement. But, I think the book is worth it!) If you've read this book or would like to comment on any other aspect of this post, I'd be delighted to hear from you. Please contribute to the conversation. If you'd prefer to let me know what you think through twitter (@DaveDerPunkt), that would be great, too. Happy reading and God bless!