psychological toll of evangelism

[Pergamum]

Okay,

So....I have a Facebook page in another language that has several posts which have gone viral. Almost a million views and thousands of comments about testimonies of folks coming out of The Religion of Peace and becoming Christian.

And a whole lot of private messages insulting me and damning me to hell.

This brings up the issue of the emotional/psychological toll on the evangelist.

Fear of man or just fatigue over people being angered with you can be taxing. In Jer. 1:8 we see some of this:

Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.

It also seems that some evangelists have extra thick-skins or some evangelists actually seem to enjoy the confrontation (though this rarely seems to make them more Christ-like in personality). Some folks seem to invite such confrontation as proof that they are doing God's work. For that reason many young evangelists and missionaries can become sort of contrarian for contrary's sake (it is their calling to goad people they believe).

But for most of us, it can wear somebody down. I have encountered many angry people passing out tracts, and I've tried to give a gentle response and also not let it bother me. But sometimes hearing or reading about what people say about you can hurt. Especially as I get older and perhaps more mellow and merely want peace and quiet.


How do you handle this? And do you have any sermons, resources about this dynamic of the mental strain of people being in opposition to you because of your evangelism efforts. When are these feelings normal, and when do they represent a slackening in one's resolve to evangelize or evidence of a growing fear of man?

 

[MW]

Good thoughts, but I would not divide the ministry into "some" and "others." Whether one ministers at home or abroad, whether to a few or many, one has to develop a thick skin of loving indifference to being hurt for the sake of genuinely helping those who do not know what is good for them. Spend and be spent! It is the only pattern of ministry we have in Scripture. The modern psychology of healthy, wealthy, and wise is not going to teach a minister to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

 

[Pergamum]

Thank you. I agree. But I find that preaching in a church, most people are already predisposed to like me or at least give me the judgment of charity. Some evangelistic settings have a much higher degree of confrontation. Contexts are different.

 

[MW]

The Lord's words to Paul might be reaffirming: I have much people in this city. And his own response: I endure all things for the elect's sake. At the end of the day our judgment is with the Lord, and we are not even permitted to judge ourselves when it comes to the visible results of ministry. The day will bring it to light.

 

[Jack K]

The feeling of being worn down is common, I think, for missionaries and evangelists. At least, I've heard it from many of them. It's certainly not an unusual reaction to insults and persecution.

The only resource that comes to mind is Jack Miller speaking on Matthew 5, "Blessed are you when men persecute you and say evil against you... Rejoice and be glad..." If I remember right, his talk is a general call to missions as much as a discussion of insults and persecutions, but it is good enough that I still remember it several years after I first heard it. You might like it.