We met with a local pastor the other day who recently took a trip to Turkey to meet with church planters from around the Middle East. He was talking with one particular native missionary from Iran, and he asked him what he thought about Western Christians. Thinking that he would criticize Western avarice or laziness, instead the Iranian simply said, "Westerners makes things too complicated."
He decided to illustrate his point. They went to a local restaurant, and the Iranian warned the pastor that the waiter would invariably ask them where they were from and why they were here. The Iranian told our pastor friend to answer honestly - that he was American and a missionary. This spawned a whole conversation with the waiter, in which the Iranian finally and simply asked, "Who do you think Jesus was?" This opened the door for this waiter to here about Christ.
In this country, we have so volumes of books on how to do evangelism. In reality, I think God wants us to approach evangelism like anything else - as a child. We make things too complicated. The Gospel, in it's essence, is simple. This story has given us a renewed desire to share the simple faith of Jesus with people.
