Evangelism can be difficult. Many factors contribute to the difficult state of evangelism and I think most of them are internal, not external. I don’t write this as a fix-all for every evangelistic problem out there. I am commenting about a struggle I face as a Millenial.

I want to propose a shift in thinking about our evangelistic strategies and grounding. None of this is rocket science. If you dig very deep at all, I think you’ll find this reasoning in Scripture and church history. I propose a shift before we even get to evangelism. This shift must occur in our thinking, which will affect our method, but isn’t a method or style in itself. In fact, I think shifting our thinking will open up many different methods to us, whether it is a cold call style or a relational or whatever method you want to inject.

Are you ready for this?

We profess Christ because we think He is the way to God. When I struggle with evangelism, this thought returns me to a proper attitude and gives me proper motivations. I do not profess Christ for the numerical sake of our church rolls. I do not profess Christ for the financial gain of my denomination. I do not profess Christ because my evangelism professor, pastor, or spouse think it is important. Going a step further, the grounding for my profession of Christ is not even in the Great Commission.

I profess Christ because I am convinced He is the way to God. And because I am convinced of this, I believe His Word. And because I believe His Word, I act on His Word. And because I act on His Word, I commit to the commission.

When I shift my thinking from persuading because I’m supposed to persuade, to persuading because I think Jesus is the way to God and I want to see everyone I know reconciled to God, then talking about the Way isn’t hard at all. As a matter of fact, it feels as natural as anything else about which I am passionate. Star Wars, LSU football, and Christ become conversations that just happen. The Great Commission stops being the Great Commiseration and starts being Great Conversations about God.

If you find yourself struggling in a similar way, just remember this: I think Jesus is the way to God. I tell others about Jesus, not because I want to amass bragging rights, but because I think being reconciled to God is the most important issue facing humanity.

Steve Morgan is a graduate student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Morgan also serves as the Digital Communication and Marketing Coordinator at NOBTS.