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Chapter 2

Befriending Others

Dianne Davis

What images come to your mind when you hear the word evangelization? You may think of Saint John Paul II or Billy Graham speaking to crowds of thousands and thousands of people. Or missionaries giving up everything, life as they knew it, going to some remote area of the world with no water, electricity, or food, to live with pagans and somehow teach them about God.

Or maybe your understanding of evangelization may be more like the following scenario. After a long week, you are looking forward to a lazy Saturday morning where you can sleep in a little later, enjoy some coffee, stay in your comfortable pajamas, and watch Netflix. As you walk down the stairs, you look out the window and see some cars pull into the neighborhood. Out of the cars come teams of people, walking two-by-two to your neighbors’ houses. You know who they are. They are the evangelists! As quickly as you can, you close the blinds, turn off any sounds of life in your house, and hide. If they think you are home, they won’t leave until you answer the door. You know they aren’t Catholic, because most Catholics don’t evangelize door-to-door!

Yes, all of these are examples of evangelization. But as Dave mentioned in the previous chapter, evangelization is also meant for people like you and me. Evangelization is not reserved for evangelical preachers, popes, or foreign missionaries.

In his book Move It Out, Fr. Tom Forrest wrote the following regarding evangelization:

Salvation has come, and by some strange and wonderful plan of God, we are its messengers! We have been sent by God himself with the best message ever communicated, and our job is to carry that message not to a particular nation, but to every creature and country of the entire world.¹⁴

Evangelization is actually the duty and responsibility of all baptized Christians, but don’t think of it as a burden. It is an opportunity to be part of God’s work! It is sharing God’s invitation with the people who are in our lives to have a personal relationship with him. In fact, it’s a joy and a privilege!

Friendship Evangelization

The method of evangelization we are presenting in this book is best described as friendship evangelization. Friendship evangelization is usually done one-on-one. It’s like sharing with a friend a good book that we’ve read or a new restaurant we’ve found. What we are presenting here is simple, and it’s something we all can do. We begin with befriending and loving the people the Lord puts in our path.

I was raised in what I considered to be a devout Catholic family. We went to Mass every Sunday. At dinner, my father would often tell us about Jesus’ miracles. My sister and I completed religious education and were confirmed. I look back on those years and know I loved Jesus, but I always sensed that there was more and something was missing in my life. I thought I could find the answers in the world through material possessions and my career. I was blessed in many ways with a wonderful husband, two adorable sons, a nice home, and a great career. I had all the things the “world” told me were important. However, inside I knew I was empty, so I began searching for the true meaning of life.

At the time, I was working in banking. One day two women, Deb and Robin, came to my office looking for a commercial mortgage. As soon as they walked in, I knew there was something different about them. Their eyes were bright, and their faces glowed. When they spoke, there was a joy and peace about them that drew me in. I remember thinking to myself, “I’m going to approve their loan, but I’m not letting them leave my office until they share with me what’s different about them.”

At the end of our meeting I said, “There’s something different about you, what is it?” Their response was, “We have a personal relationship with Jesus.” This was the first time I had ever heard someone talk about Jesus this way. Intrigued, I invited them to share more about their faith in Christ. They shared the Gospel with me and gave me a simple prayer to invite Jesus into my life. I left our encounter a bit skeptical. I knew my Catholic prayers, but I had never heard of the prayer they gave me. For the rest of the day I thought about what they shared with me, and later that night, after I put my sons to bed, I repented of my sins and committed my life to Jesus. My emptiness was filled with the love of God. My life has never been the same since. I have fallen in love with Jesus. Later I came to realize that the personal commitment I made to Jesus as Lord and the release of the Holy Spirit I experienced in my life were in fact a personal yes to the baptismal promises my godparents had made for me as an infant.

Do you remember the first time you fell in love? Didn’t you think about that person all the time? Didn’t you want to tell all of your family and friends about him or her? That’s what happened to me with Jesus — and it’s still happening today, more than fifteen years later!

Beginning with Love

I am not a theologian or Scripture scholar. In college, I took one course in world religions and one in Catholicism, both to satisfy a core requirement for my business and finance major. I share this with you because you don’t have to have a degree in theology or any special training to evangelize. All you need is to be in love with Jesus. As your relationship with the Lord grows, your desires will align with the Lord’s desires. More than anything, the Lord “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). The truth is: Jesus loves each of us and wants to be in relationship with us. He spreads this message using us, the people who know him. That’s evangelization!

A Scripture passage I believe all evangelization must stem from is, “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12). This passage is the foundation, because all evangelization begins with simply loving the people the Lord puts in our path. This includes both casual and intimate relationships. We will meet people in the regular places we visit — the grocery store, our hairdresser, the coffee shop. God has placed many people in our lives: coworkers, neighbors, friends, and, of course, our family. We all know someone in each of these categories who does not have a relationship with the Lord. Some of the people closest to us, those we love the most, will be the hardest to evangelize. Pray for them and ask the Lord for opportunities to talk about Jesus. By the time you finish reading this book, I believe the Lord will open a door for you!

In the Gospels, Jesus shows us many examples of friendship evangelization. In the Gospel of Matthew, to take a key example, God the Father reveals Jesus’ identity to John the Baptist, a prophet who has been on the lookout for the Messiah: “And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and behold, a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Mt 3:16–17).