It's Take and Make Time!
A reassuring guide to sharing the gospel... no matter how you’re wired!
Take and Make
Do you have a saying that you repeat to yourself to get you pumped up?
There is a scene in a silly movie called “Talladega Nights” where the two main characters are car racers. Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jnr. When they are about to race, or pull off a dangerous move they repeat a little catch phrase.
One character begins by saying, “Shake!”
Then the team mate says, “And Bake!”
They as they fist bump each other they say together, “It’s Shake N Bake time baby!”
Well, I have a different saying I use for Evangelism...
“Take N Make! It’s Take N Make time!”
My Story
My life radically changed after a week of youth conferences. In a moment of full surrender I was baptised in the Holy Spirit, and I was now fired up!
Everywhere I went I wanted to share the good news of Jesus!
I wanted to go to Bible College so I quit my full time job, and found a part time job at a Target store in the City checking peoples bags to make sure they weren’t stealing. It was during this time I learned to share the gospel in every day life.
Every day I would meet lots of colourful people. Burning with the love of God I looked for ways to bring Jesus and my faith story into my every day conversations with staff and customers.
I wanted to TAKE every single tiny opportunity that came way to share the gospel!
If someone asked me how my weekend was, I’d say something like,
“I went to Church and I know this may sound crazy, but a few months ago I had a radical encounter with God and now I’m totally different…”
The conversation would easily transition into them asking me more questions, or me asking them questions like, “Have you ever had a spiritual experience?”
Other times I would comment on peoples cross necklaces. I’d simply say,
“I love your cross! Are you religious?”
If someone shared that they were having a tough time, I’d share my testimony of how Jesus brought me out of a dark place, and into a life full of love, joy and passion.
I’d offer to pray for them and told them God could make a difference in their life because He had done so in mine!
My “Jesus-Sharing” got to a point where I was running out of people to share the gospel with! That’s when I began to MAKE opportunities to share the gospel.
Inspired by the early Salvation Army I began delving into street preaching. I loved the feeling of sensing fear, then stepping through it. Whenever I did I felt God’s presence, and so this became addictive.
I found some friends and we started to share the gospel all over the city. Our sharing became increasingly bold...
We would preach:
In trains, trams and taxis.
To drunks, satanists, and party goers.
We created opportunities to interrupt peoples every day life and share Jesus with them.
We copped a fair bit of criticism over some of the things we did. What we were doing looked so foolish and so brazen some didn’t think our faith was genuine or effective.
But as crazy as our efforts may have been, countless people gave their lives to Christ on the streets. We saw God do miracles and the more we saw God move, the more we kept moving to the extreme.
Take and Make
Take and Make refers to two ways we can do evangelism.
We can TAKE opportunities to share the gospel.
And we can MAKE opportunities to share the gospel.
Take
In this approach you
wait for an opening and
are responsive.
It’s far more relational, and is a more of an “as you go” approach.
Make
In this approach you
create an opening and
are pro-active.
It’s more confrontational, and is a more of a “go get them” approach.
There are countless stories of Jesus modelling both of these approaches throughout the New Testament.
There were times when He took opportunities,
And times when He made opportunities.
The problem is that when the everyday believer thinks of evangelism, we think of the evangelists who are out there MAKING opportunities.
We think of the Street Preachers and big Conference Speakers.
We see the guys on the soap box in the middle of the city, or those who are loud and proud and often looking pretty foolish and we think,
“There is no way in the world I will ever do that! Besides, how effective can it really be?”
Sadly, many stop there…
The Way Forward
But what if we enlarged our understanding of evangelism from simply “MAKING” opportunities, to “TAKING” the opportunities?
What if we simply committed to looking for the opportunities each day to share the goodness of God with people?
When someone asks what you did on the weekend
You respond with a story from Church…When someone shares their pain with you
You love and comfort them…When someone shares their struggles
You offer to pray with them…When someone shares a need
You generously meet it…When someone shares their hopelessness
You share your story of how God saved you…When someone does something amazing
You encourage them and point it out…
When we begin looking for opportunities to share the good news of Jesus, we will find that there are hundreds of opportunities to TAKE every day.
Some people have the grace to MAKE opportunities.
If you are one of them, keep going!
But some people are just not wired that way…
And that is perfectly fine.
Instead of looking to the evangelists who are out there on the streets MAKING opportunities, simply set apart your every day life and TAKE the ones right in front of you.
Could you imagine what would happen if every Jesus believer did this? The world would be turned upside down!
So what are you waiting for?
It’s Take and Make time!
Let’s Go!
James