Do People Have to Get Mad When You Share The Gospel With Them?

The 18th century Methodist preacher John Wesley told his evangelism trainees that, "...people should either get angry or get converted." I often wonder if that is the correct way to win souls to the Lord.

I agree though that people should be uncomfortable with the Lord. There should be a level of uneasiness when it comes to the creator of the universe who has the power not only to end my life, but also cast my soul into hell (Matthew 10:28). Even more uncomfortable than if we met the President of the United States. Conviction goes along way. But I got to thinking, did Jesus feel the need to always make people mad or converted? From what I read in the scriptures that wasn't always the case. No. He didn't intend to make people mad, it just happened. The anger didn't come from anything that Jesus intentionally said, the anger came from the one who received it. Their hearts.

Just like Jesus, it's not the goal of the preacher to make people angry. Anger is just the reaction of the person listening to the gospel. When I share the gospel, open-air-preach, share one-on-one, I'm not intentionally looking around and saying, "Now who can I piss off today?" But anger is just one form of emotion out of many from people who hear the good news. Along with anger came offense (Matthew 15:12), joy (Matthew 13:20,44), sadness (Mark 10:17-22), thankfulness (Luke 19:1-9), etc, etc, etc.

Why am I saying this? Because I really don't want to piss people off. Why? Because I want the Lord to be heard and not be the one that keeps that from happening. This happened when I met with the two Mormon Missionary boys Elder Leavy and Elder Crook. You can read what happened in my meetings HERE and another time HERE. After I decided not to continue the Precept Inductive Bible Studies and to focus on evangelism and discipleship, I prayed that the Lord would show me what I should do next and these two show up on my doorstep 10 minutes later. But after talking with them I just wanted to love these guys and really care about them. I love talking with Mormons, but in the past I wonder if the missionaries in the past really listened. I don't know, and will probably never know. But what happened while I was meeting these guys for two months by just loving these guys in truth, and sharing truth in love.

• They shared me their first names (John Leavy and Chandler Crook). 
• They took tracts from me and read them. 
• They enjoyed being there, and knew that I cared. 
• They got a better and honest understanding of what Christianity is, and what belief in that looks like. 
• They know and can describe the Trinity better than any of their professors or Bishops. 
• They didn't freak out when I brought out my Quad (Mormon standard works in one book). 
• I gave them both a Gideon Pocket Testament, kept them, and read them. 
• We had a dialogue and it was not a monologue. 
• In the end I gave them my card with my email and phone, and hugged each other. 

But these things happen when we both listen. Yeah, there was an agenda. They wanted to make me Mormon, I wanted them to see what it really means to be a Child of God. But we moved past it (or at least I did). What happened? They have a new and honest view of what a Christian is, and maybe they will consider reading the bible more, the Book of Mormon less; learning more about Jesus, and less of Joseph Smith. They told me that Christians have thrown them off of their porch. Cussed them out, damned them to hell...and so on,..and so on. Jesus cared, even for the Pharisees. I need to be like Jesus. I need to care, and to love like He loves. And I hope they contact me. I really do.