A Christian's Non-Art of Proselytizing

The subject of proselytizing, or recruiting, various people we as social workers may come into contact with has been brought up as a major concern in our discussions. If we, as members of an active faith based religion, as would might be the case in evangelicalism, are compelled to exonerate our views upon clients, how would we refrain from doing such a thing?

I can personally speak from my theology training as well as my own experience. I am a baptised Christian, an active member of a Lutheran community in Ann Arbor, having the goal of graduating from the MSW program and becoming a impassioned servant for others. Will I witness to this fact? Yes because I cannot operate my life without acknowledging my faith life. But witness and proselytizing are two distinct terms.

Based in the Greek, the Koine Greek New Testament uses the word euengellion as evangelical, meaning the "good news" or simply "good news." The word gospel comes from this word. Witness was derived from martyriew, and yes, you guessed it, martyr. Proselytize is closely related to disciple or follower, hence a pupil. Then there is the word angel which means messenger. All of these words and ideas are very closely related, but they are far from being the same. And it might explain why I would not, and have not, felt compelled to proselytized anyone, except myself.

To evangelize is to report good news in the midst of daily living. Good news is in context contradictory to bad news. It pinpoints and exercises hope for the future. It can be applied to any situation. For example,if your personality is positive and all your comments, ideas, etc are upbeat, you are said to be evangelizing just by being positive especially if your environment and the people in it with you are mostly negative. Your positive attitude becomes the gospel by which you draw on good news authority. It is on display, good or bad, for all to see and to observe for
themselves. Martyr, or witness, is a pretty strong word and it means that you will stop at nothing to maintain and share the good news. So if I am positive and upbeat, only speaking about people nicely, then I will be able to adhere to positive criticism concerning my understandings of my peers. I would have no problem making room for more positive aspects and I would tend to interject, for example, at the water cooler when a group of people are putting someone down. I would instead as a martyr add in the positive.

That gets tricky because one can fall prey to the rumor treadmill at a cost. But you will bear the consequences, though they may be extremely hurtful. I am that persons angel, as you might say, because I have brought good news about the person who was being talked of negatively and I have evangelized my gospel once again. The key here through all this word framing is to demonstrate that we impact a person's opinion of our faith everyday just by the way we act, serve or do not serve a person who comes
to us in need, without uttering a single word about God, or spirit, or whatever. All of us witness. The proselytiser is a student of a particular bend and in this case, learning more about his or her peers so that when the time comes, they can be spoken of in a positive light.

(Proselytizing also denoted physical form, as in bending over and bowing on postrate, or humbly and severely giving respect reserved for a "god." The act of it emphasizes the extreme willingness by which you will accept knowledge from a teacher).

Therefore, since I have argued that we are a witness to our faith, or non-faith, is a matter of default. We will do it without uttering one word! That is why St Paul writes about guarding the tongue and thought, and deeds, being careful of what you do because your on display 24-7. And then I do not have to go out of my way to word my faith as it is unnecessary and will happen naturally. Of course, there are bad and horrible implications to this idea because if you do verbalize your faith to a client in or out of context, whether they asked for it or not, might demonstrate a very huge contradiction. For example, if you say this and that about grace, etc and
then in the social work process fail miserably to apply it to them (your fault or not), grace will be seen as an idea, but not a reality.

Within this context I would like to conclude that no where in the Christian Bible does God ask us to convert someone. That is the business of the Holy Spirit. As I have always believed and said if Christianity is true in all its belief and writing, then the Holy Spirit would be active, correct? I mean, if Christianity is not true, then the Holy Spirit will not move in zehr word, rendering conversion impossible. Truth has a way of impacting us in ways which we have no control over.

So, if you ask me a direct question about faith an what it means to me and what I believe I will point blank tell you. I will not look for an opportunity in which to "convert" say Muslim to Christianity because I do not have to. I am already....

Just a thought

Dani Lugo