An Uncomfortable Evangelist

If you had told me a year or so ago I’d be getting a licensure in Evangelism… well I’m not sure I would believe you.

As a life long Episcopalian the idea of “evangelism” is uncomfortable to me. Now for many of my friends and readers who are part of a Christian or other faith that actively evangelizes this might sound odd but hear me out. Many of us life long Episcopalians have the idea of if people want to know more about us, they will simply seek us out.

And yet… I’ve been writing about my faith and thoughts on my faith for many years. It’s been a passive form of evangelism, even if I wasn’t fully aware of it. To be further honest, I felt uncomfortable with each word I wrote. Who was I to talk about faith? I don’t have a MDiv- I don’t have the education in religion to back it up. I’m not a minister.

I think this is one of the reasons I was interested in becoming a Deacon. It was around this time last year that I started the process of exploring becoming a Deacon, only to find that that wasn’t quite the right path for me.

It was also around this time last year that I visited a church elsewhere and was escorted out- because my baby was “distracting people from the Holy Spirit”. In any other part of my life I would have lashed out… instead I just simmered in my fury. I wanted to have the right Bible verses to prove this man wrong, to tell him that his view of God and the Trinity and Jesus and love was so warped to believe a baby could distract from it.

In retrospect, I was not any better than him in that moment. I was looking to weaponize my faith and the Word of Love. Which is what so many of us have fallen in to… and not the original intent at all, I believe.

So here I am. On this path to getting a license to evangelism. To get myself better educated, in a formal way, to tell all y’all about my faith and why I love being an Episcopalian. Because the Word is so simple, it really is, it’s us who have complicated it. Have found ways to turn words of love into weapons against one another. My purpose is not to convert because I know that I have many friends who do not believe – or have a belief in something else and I truly respect that. I do! But my purpose is to actively put my story out there in the world for those who want to hear it, who want to know more, who are looking for a place where they are loved exactly as they are.

This was also the year that I became an accidental “momfluencer”- with videos about my kids and I going super viral. It’s been a fun ride to share this lighter side of life with y’all… but there’s so much more to me than just a mom who annoys her kids by dancing in front of their rooms.

Consider this Day One- during Advent , a time of waiting- Day One of what I am aiming to be a year long project of actively evangelizing. Using this wide platform that I have to tell y’all not just the funny things that happens in my life but also about faith and how it carries me through it all.

I’m excited for the journey, and I hope you are too.