The Gospel is a Spoken Message
The gospel is a spoken message--meaning it is communicated in verbal and/or written formats. The gospel is not communicated through interpretive dance, random acts of kindness, or mimes.
"How then will they call on him of whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!' But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?' So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:14-17).
With 160,000 people dying every day, and the vast majority of them facing God's judgment (Matthew 7:13-14), it amounts to depraved indifference to wait for the lost people around us to see something special in us and ask what's different about us. We are commanded by God's Word to go (Matthew 28:18-20) and preach (Mark 16:15) the gospel to as many people as we can, whenever we can, as often as we can (Acts 1:8). Time is far too short to wait for what will never happen--spiritually dead and blind people seeing Jesus in Christians, believers who are still clothed in sinful human flesh.
It is also rather arrogant, self-righteous, and self-absorbed for the Christian to think he or she regularly looks like Jesus. Jesus was and is God (John 8:58; John 10:30; Philippians 2:6-11; Hebrews 2:5-18). The Christian is not. Jesus was and is without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Christian is not. Jesus was and is perfect (Hebrews 1:3). The Christian never will be perfect this side of Heaven. And since an unbelieving world hates Jesus, the spiritually dead and blind are going to see in you what is most appealing to them (Romans 1:28-32; 2 Timothy 3:1-5)--your sin. People are also going to look for you to sin in a failed attempt to justify their own unbelief (Luke 10:29; Luke 16:15).
Friendship Evangelism makes Friendship More Important than Evangelism
My friend wrote:
"I'm certain that my approach will mean the end of life-long friendships."
The tragic result of "Friendship Evangelism," as Christians most often practice it, is that friendships often become more important than the souls of friends. Christians have been wrongly convinced that they must take time (often lots of time) to cultivate relationships with people so that, someday, they may gain the lost person's permission--to "earn the right"--to share the gospel with them. So the Christian invests time, energy, and resources sincerely trying to establish loving and caring relationships with people. Is it wrong to do that? No. But the all-too-often tragic result of the practice is that if the Christian ever feels the desire to share the gospel with his lost friend, he won't. Why? The Christian doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize the relationship he has worked so hard to build. So, again, the friendship becomes more important than the soul of the friend.
Upon closer inspection, this is really selfish behavior. Does the Christian believe that he is so valuable that his lost friend can't live without him? Or is it that the Christian derives so much pleasure out of the relationship, from what his lost friend does for him, that he doesn't want to ruin a "good thing"?
Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). If Christians truly love their lost friends they will give up everything, even their very lives and certainly their relationships, so that those same lost friends might have eternal life. Or do Christians really want their friends to be with them in this life more than they want them to be with Jesus having received eternal life?
