Do not Judge Mozart by the Musician’s Performance: Lessons on Evangelism

The long-awaited evangelism conference has taken place. More than 100 people from our church attended and received solid training and encouragement for evangelism. A few words about the speaker: for a conference like this, it is absolutely essential to have a preacher who personally practices evangelism. That is exactly what Dr. Timothy Beouger was like—clear, practical, and full of illustrations.

Here are a few practical conclusions, observations, and personal lessons I took home.

Let’s begin with Mozart. On that very day, one of the brothers from church and I went for a walk in the neighborhood around the church with the goal of both talking with each other and witnessing to those we met. Two people we spoke with about the Gospel both mentioned that their reluctance to submit to it was due to the fact that believers and the Church are not a good example. This is the classic shifting of responsibility from oneself and one’s unwillingness to change onto others. Of course, we gently redirected the conversation to the necessity of examining one’s own heart. But later that evening, when Beouger shared a strong logical illustration, it really struck me. When someone rejects the Gospel by pointing to the failures of believers, we can use this illustration: do not judge Mozart’s compositional genius by a poor performance of a musician. The fact that a musician plays Mozart badly does not give us the right to say that Mozart is a bad composer.

Here are several shorter but practical notes that both encouraged and equipped me for evangelism.

“In stores, they don’t sell DVDs teaching grandparents how to talk about their grandchildren, or how to overcome fear in talking to others about them, or how to turn any conversation into a conversation about their grandchildren.” You probably already understand the point. For grandparents, it is natural to talk everywhere and always about their grandchildren whom they deeply love. They do not need lectures or seminars on how to talk to neighbors about them. This is natural evangelism. And this is exactly what should be the key that frees us, as Christians, for evangelism!

A commonly misused phrase is: “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.” The speaker said, “That’s like saying, ‘Feed people, and if necessary, use food.’” We are deeply convinced that it is not our good works that save people—though they should testify to God’s grace—but the message that the cross of Jesus Christ reconciles sinners to God!

During evangelism, many well-known evangelists say that we should let people speak 80% of the time. We need to learn to ask the right, precise, and deep questions that help lead people to the truth.

When encountering an atheist, it can be helpful first to move them toward deism. This is not yet submission to the Gospel, but it is a step in the right direction. How? By pointing out that the atheist often thinks narrowly, like a traditional fundamentalist who immediately refuses to consider other ideas or perspectives. In other words, use the same reasoning they apply—accusing believers of being narrow-minded fundamentalists—because that actually describes their own thinking. A deist, at the very least, is open to the idea that God or some higher power exists and governs the world, even if they have not seen or personally known Him.

The Dead Sea is a body of water where nothing lives, unlike the Sea of Galilee, which is full of fish. Both receive water from the Jordan River, but the difference is that the Sea of Galilee also gives water out—it has an outlet. The Dead Sea has none. A Christian who does not pass the Gospel on to others will sooner or later become like the Dead Sea. It is dangerous to be only a receiver of truth and not a giver of the Word to others!

At one seminar, a preacher tried to ease the conscience of the audience by saying that they actually do not need to evangelize, since it is not their spiritual gift. That gift, he said, is specifically given to evangelists, and therefore those who do not have it are not responsible for preaching the Gospel. After the seminar, Beouger offered that pastor to come as a guest preacher for two Sundays. “On the first Sunday,” Beouger said, “I will preach about giving, and I will say that if people do not have this gift, they can stop giving to the church and feel no guilt—after all, they don’t have the gift. And on the second Sunday, I will explain to your members that they do not need to serve in the church and should not feel guilty about it, since they lack the gifting.” The lesson was clear: evangelism is the responsibility of every believer, but those who are gifted simply do it more effectively.

“Gospel shopping” is one form of evangelism. Timothy’s wife naturally speaks about Christ while shopping for clothes. We do not need to create extra obligations for evangelism—we should use the opportunities we already encounter.

Today, people know much less about God, so we are no longer living in Acts 2, but in Acts 17, where we must spend more time explaining who God is and what He expects from people.

We must not become “soil inspectors” based on the Parable of the Sower—we are called to be the sowers. Some believers take on the role of determining who will respond to the Gospel and who will not. We have no right to evaluate people’s readiness to respond to truth. Our responsibility is simply to share it.

Ultimately, we do not preach religion, because religion is an attempt to climb up to heaven by one’s own effort. True Christianity is God coming down from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ so that in Him we might be in heaven. That is the Gospel!

My prayer is that I personally, and all of GFC, would not waste time on endless arguments, debates, or the busywork of refining every theological nuance in our understanding of one another, but that we would zealously, sincerely, and consistently carry the Gospel into this world. That is the true measure of love for God and for people.

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"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification."
Romans 6:11-19