I recently overheard a conversation in which one well-meaning Christian man was trying to share his faith with a woman who looked increasingly uncomfortable and confused as he rattled through a collection of Bible verses which were aimed at helping her see her need for Jesus Christ. It was obvious that his little speech was well-rehearsed and had been committed to memory. What was also painfully obvious was how ineffective his approach was in connecting with this woman, who, seated in seat 12E, was pretty much a captive audience…and I don’t mean captive as in captivated. She was squirming uncomfortably and looking around—probably in search of someone to come to her rescue or trying to determine which emergency exit would be closest if the whole experience became completely unbearable.

You probably couldn’t fault the young man for Biblical accuracy of his message. But it all seemed so canned, so lacking in connection with the woman’s real life. And one couldn’t help but wonder if he was just “doing his duty” so that he could check it off his list. “Yep, I witnessed to someone today.”

The whole thing struck me as so hit-and-run that it was not really evangelism, but evandalism. In evandalism you quickly scrawl the message of salvation on the wall of someone’s heart and then make your exit. Mission accomplished.

This form of sharing about our relationship with God seems to me kind of like handing someone a piece of sheet music and expecting them to connect with it. “Here is the most beautiful music ever composed,” we might say, but unless they have a deep knowledge of music, it is probably just a collection of little symbols ordered on some lined paper.

Maybe, instead of handing people the "sheet music,” we should cock our head to the side and ask, “Hey, can you hear that?,” inviting  people to listen to the music that is already playing. For God is at work behind and within the world. His music is always playing. Maybe the first step in sharing our faith is just inviting people to listen to what we are hearing, pointing out the beauty of the melody and the rhythm that moves our heart and our feet. Perhaps evangelism is best understood as sharing the joy we have found in becoming part of the unfolding song.