Prospecting and Sharing the Gospel

I was reminded over Easter break about the power and nature of sharing the gospel with others. The good news of our salvation is, in fact, the best news anyone can hear. Jesus calls us as Christians we are called to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. When we withhold this gift from others, we are the most selfish individuals ever. Even if we have good intentions, our sinful nature often gets in the way of this.

I believe evangelizing and prospecting have a lot in common. While God is the one doing the work in a person’s heart, we are still commanded to share the gospel with everyone. Likewise, when prospecting, salespeople must share their product or service with as many people as possible. In both cases, the salesperson and evangelist aim to share their passion with others with the end goal of the customer/person benefiting. The customer and person’s heart always come first in both selling and evangelizing. The mere act of evangelizing involves caring about someone else enough to risk social approval and other worldly things for their sake. Furthermore, selling and evangelizing can both have “negative” outcomes, where the conversation is awkward or where the prospect completely rejects you. Even more than this, evangelizing can lead to becoming a social outcast and to persecution. Both roles require a strong buoyancy and ability to work with normal “No” answers and aggressive “No” answers. However, while the salesperson can move on after a No, close the file, and move on to someone else, the evangelist must continue to pray for the person they just interacted with. The stakes of the latter role are much higher because they involve life and death decisions. With God’s help, the evangelist can share the good news and continue to pray for those who persecute them. Likewise, salespeople must share their product and adapt to negative responses.