The word that cannot be mentioned!

Most people have heard about the name that cannot be mentioned, at least you have if you are a Harry Potter fan or the parent of a Harry Potter fan. The name Voldemort carries such power in the books that the characters within the story refuse to utter his name, fearing what will happen to them if they say it. New revelations have developed to explain another reason why the name Voldemort was not to be uttered.

JK Rowling, the author of the books, has recently informed the public that we have been mispronouncing Voldemort’s name. Perhaps this was why no one in the books would mention his name, they were afraid of mispronouncing it! (Of course as someone with a difficult last name, I would have greatly appreciated if my teachers had refused to pronounce my last name as well and just gone with Todd, but that is a different story.) Evidently, the ‘t’ is silent in Voldemort, so it is really Voldemor, boy isn’t this blog so educational?

Now in the Main Line Denominations we have our own words that are not to be uttered. You know words like, pledges and stewardship etc. But there is one word that is clearly not to be mentioned, never ever, not once, nope don’t do it. But I am going to do it. So sit down, or cover your ears, or start with the “lahlahlahlah, I’m not listening” thing. EVANGELISM! There I said it. (Crickets chirping) Hello, is there anyone still out there?

Well, if you haven’t fainted or gone on to another website, let me continue. Evangelism will cause most Main Line Christians to feel agita or heart palpitations, or the cold sweats. It invokes images of handing out scripture tracts, or going door to door, or heaven forbid, having to talk to someone about our faith. Or it brings up images of more conservative churches who we think are too preachy and self-righteous.

But I have news for you, no matter how much you may want to ignore the word, refuse to use it or even refuse to talk about it, you cannot be Christian without evangelism. Let me repeat that, you cannot be a Christian without evangelism. Why? Very simply, the word means everything.

In the Greek, eugallion, means the Good News, and an evangelist is a bringer of Good News. Sometimes, instead of Good News, we also say Gospel. By definition, a Christian is one who follows Christ, one who shares the Good News about Christ, one who lives in this Good News. So, no evangelism, no faith. You are not an evangelist, well then neither are you Christian.

What does this mean, it means that we cannot get away from the word, we cannot refuse to utter it, we cannot refuse to live it, it is essentially who we are. Now, I recognize that some have attempted to co-opt this word for their own agenda, by making it seem like since they use this word theirs is the true faith. I also recognize that it is human nature to then shun this new interpretation of the word. But how can we give up on the Good News? We cannot. So we must reclaim it.

I dare you to begin to think about ways in which you can share the Good News, to share ways in which you let people know that God loves them, that we love them, because that is evangelism. Evangelism is not about just getting people into the church, heck the most effective evangelism has nothing to do with church. It is about letting people know about the Good News in their context.

Do you have friends who like service projects, or who asks if you know about any service projects? Then invite them to join in a service project of the church or community. Do you have friends who are searching for meaning? Then gather a group together and go out for dinner and share. ( You do not even need to talk about faith at this point!) Do you have friends or neighbors who want to make a change to help others? Then join with them.

These are examples of evangelism, because they are the Good News. And the best news is that we are not alone, we are not in this struggle on our own. We are not left to the whims of this world on our own. In Christ God has demonstrated that God is with us always. So if we are sharing the Good News, then we are sharing our lives and the lives of others so that they know they are not alone.

This is just a start, they are small steps but they are important steps. But first you need to be willing to utter the word Evangelism. Go ahead. It is not hard. It just takes practice.

Evangelism, see I said it.