Seasoned with salt

Efficient and effective evangelization
By José Bernardo

What makes the communication of the Gospel efficient and effective? This is a challenge! We live in terrible times, marked by individualistic fragmentation: everybody trusts solely in their own particular truth; the Church is forced to be tolerant and to say what is politically correct; Humanism infects everything; what matters are the needs, desires and choices of people; religion is reduced to helping them get what they want.  Even worst, we live immersed in an ocean of words, where one more speech hardly stands out. How does the Bible help us?

It could not be more precise or bold: In a continuous flow, Paul told the Colossians to devote themselves to prayer, offered himself as an object of intercession, and presented his utmost request. His desire was to be able to proclaim the mystery of Christ and do it clearly, as was his duty. Paul wanted people to “…know the mystery of God, namely, Christ” Col 2:2. He then turned to the believers and taught how they also could communicate the Gospel efficiently and effectively:  “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Col 4:5,6. The man chosen to spread the Gospel throughout the world, in a colossal cross-cultural effort, provided five key signs of quality in evangelization.

Foto: S. Elayaraja, Indian artist, Tamil woman cooking (detail) 

First, we communicate the ‘mystery of Christ’ clearly, that is with quality. This means that our communication has to be: objective, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders” – believers must relate to outsiders with wisdom (clarity), which speaks of a well-planned and objective approach; opportune, “…make the most of every opportunity” – literally to make the best buy, to find out how to take full advantage of all available time; gracious, “Let your conversation be always full of grace” – grace and joy have the same root, the good mood that fuels generosity and happiness, and it should set the tone of any evangelistic conversation; interesting, “…seasoned with salt” – to season is to carefully prepare a conversation making it attractive; personal, “…so that you may know how to answer everyone” – knowing by observation (perception), therefore treating people in a personal way.

Efficient and effective communication of the Gospel focuses on the person of Christ, and is objective, opportune, gracious, interesting and personal. Paul’s letter to the Colossians is a good example, being strong remedy against the evil heresy that infected the young church. It demonstrates each of the five signs of quality in communicating the Gospel. This letter presents the person of Christ with flying colors. It teaches us how worship can be the best way to evangelize. It also solves our dilemma of how to communicate the Gospel to people of different ethnicities, religions, cultures and social status. In doing that the apostle to the Gentiles nailed it: “…Christ is all, and is in all” Col 3:11.

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Jose Bernardo is the OneHope vice-president for lusophone countries. OneHope is a global agency of the Bible that has worked in 145 countries giving the Word of God to every child.