Our church has had a guest speaker off and on for the past few months who has focused on evangelism. The Great Commission spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew reads, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” I placed an emphasis on the verb “go” because it is this part of evangelism I’ve struggled with as a busy mother, and what I want to talk about today.

I suppose Jesus could have instructed us to simply share the message of Salvation with the people who come into the doors of our churches or for us to come up with creative ideas on how to bring people in so that we can share that message.

But that’s not what He said. We are told to “go and make disciples of all nations…” The unsaved aren’t supposed to come to us. We are to go to them.

How are busy families supposed to fit that in when they are already pulled in a million different directions each day? Here are some suggestions:

Discover outreaches offered by your church or other local churches.

I’m a firm believer in not recreating the wheel. Local churches–especially large ones–often have outreaches in place you can volunteer for. One thing our little church is getting involved in for 2014 is a service of delivering meals to shut-ins. Several Catholic and Protestant churches already participate in this program that encompasses several communities. We would be tagging on to a well-established program, needing to donate only of our time and the cost of gas.

Invite neighbors to your home for a Bible study.

If you enjoy entertaining, invite your neighbors over for a barbecue or light lunch and hold a short Bible study before food is served. It’s best to inform people when you invite them that a Bible study will be held.

Carry a pocket Bible with you.

You don’t always know when you’ll be given a chance to share your faith with others. I remember being asked by a friend one day while we were on the phone planning a sleepover for our children. It was unexpected. He knew I was a Christian and we had taken his daughter to church with us several times. He said he wanted so much to believe, but just wasn’t sure he could. We talked for a very long time and the next time we saw it other, I gave him a book written by a local author, a former atheist who became a Christian after many years of questioning our society’s common perceptions regarding Christianity. While this first conversation took place on the phone in the comfort of my home, several more conversations took place afterwards, so I learned to keep one of my Bibles in the car. If you carry a pocket Bible with you or download the Holy Bible App for your device, you’ll be ready to share your faith whenever it arises.

I’ll leave you with one other thought on this topic–one that hit home for me. Church planter, Tim Brister, wrote two articles on “everyday evangelism.” He believes the “busier we become, the less we think of the lives, hurts, and needs of people around us.” Brister refers to 2 Timothy 2:4, where Paul admonishes Timothy not to entangle “himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” When we are too busy to evangelize, we are putting our mission ahead of God’s mission. Seeing evangelism in this light, helps us realize that God’s mission comes first. I know it helped me seriously consider how best I can participate in The Great Commission.