Share the Gospel

Have you had a moment where you see your work from a few years ago and it makes you cringe? You see your skills with fresh eyes that can only come from a few years of practice and growth.

A while back that happened to me and it actually helped unlock new meaning from a passage of Scripture, which I’d like to share.

One of the ways the Church tries to reach people with the gospel is by advertising its literature. As part of my job, I have designed some of those ads, specifically ones which get printed and are included in the loose-leaf collection of ads you find in the middle of newspapers around the country. When I first got involved in this project, I created a design that I thought would work well. Over the course of a few years we used that template to advertise various church booklets. After analyzing the data those first years, they decided to run the best-performing ads again but with a larger audience. Going back into the very first design files to update them is when I had that cringe moment, seeing my work with new eyes.

My dad’s career has been in print marketing, so I was explaining to him how I updated the designs, making them more attractive, with better photography and color palettes. “That’s usually the kiss of death,” he joked. “The best-performing ads usually have the worst color schemes and the cheesiest scissor clip-art on the thick dotted line where they are supposed to cut off the coupon.” We both laughed. We both died a little inside . . .

But while it might offend my artistic sensibilities to think of ugly ads doing a better job than something beautiful, the question that matters is: Which works better? At the end of the day, which ads got the most people to respond?

And that mindset jumped off the page to me when I was reading one of Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church.

Are you compelled to preach?

In 1 Corinthians 9, you can sense some hurt from Paul as he defends himself on multiple points. Some apostles (like Peter) were being funded by the churches directly for their work, while Paul and Barnabas worked side gigs to support themselves as they went. This caused a bit of a stir in the early Church: “the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast” (1 Corinthians 9:14-15, New International Version throughout, emphasis added throughout).

And then he continues: “For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (verse 16).

This attitude saturates Paul’s writing: His utter and complete commitment to spreading the good news that God has defeated death to redeem humanity through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And for Paul, there is no alternative. He is compelled to preach that message, no matter his own feelings. This attitude reminds me of the prophet Jeremiah’s plight: “If I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:9). 

For the prophet and the apostle alike, they could not hold in the message that God had given to them. Whether they were in the mood or not, the need to preach overruled any personal feelings they might have had. 

I half-jokingly think of it like my two little boys and going to the bathroom. They get busy playing, and ignore the feeling they have to go for as long as possible. But at some point, it doesn’t matter what else they’d rather be doing; it’s happening.

So allow me to ask the question to you, dear reader: Are you compelled to preach as Paul was?

Asked another way: Has the understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection so completely transformed your life that you feel as if you have no other choice but to share it with others?

If that makes you uncomfortable to imagine, let’s continue reading Paul’s letter to discover his thoughts on what that might look like.

Make it all about people

Paul continues: “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law . . . so as to win those under the law . . . To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:19-22).

What jumps off the page to me is how he chose to put his own ego aside, making it all about people and their needs. And what do people need the most? The gospel. So Paul adjusted his approach when speaking to every person, to give the message the best possible chance for them to hear in a way they’d be most likely to respond to.

So I ask, when you are compelled to preach the gospel, are you able to set aside your own ego and deliver the gem each person is most likely to respond to in that moment?

This is a mindset shift. It’s a change from an inward-focused way of thinking (my taste, my opinions, my values) to an outward way of thinking (their needs, their best interests).

For Who? So That __?

I was listening to a podcast by someone who has a very successful business as a writer. He explained the typical mistake most people make when trying to make a living as a writer is to write about the stuff they are interested in, then go hustle to try to find an audience for it.

Instead, he advises to start with what people actually want to know. What are people interested in, what are they looking for answers to, what are their pain points that you can help solve, what ways can you help them? Figure out those things, and write that, and you will find an audience much more quickly with much less hustle.

His advice for writers, which I think can guide us in all our communication with others, written or not, is to ask two questions before beginning any new writing exercise: “For who? So that _?” Know whom you’re writing to as much as you can—their needs, wants, background, pain points. And have a specific, concrete outcome you want for your readers to take away from your writing. 

In our personal interactions, we do this automatically in some cases. We talk to adults at church differently than we do our friends at school or than our siblings. Extending the principle to how we present the gospel to others when the opportunity arises, we should train ourselves to be attuned to communicating in a way that gives the gospel its best chance to land in someone’s mind. Not changing the gospel, rather the way in which we share it and the specific way we might present it to someone.

As I’ve been on this path to learning to be more successful in these areas, it’s required me to undergo this mindset shift. That shift has been learning to set aside my ego, and opening myself to understanding the needs of other people, so I can meet those needs with the life-giving message of the gospel.

So I leave you with two questions from Paul’s passage in 1 Corinthians 9: Are you compelled to preach the gospel? And when you do so, are you able to set aside your ego, your desire to be right and to have the last word? All to make it about people, who need to hear the gospel, so you can be the vessel through which God speaks to them.