Roadblocks -vs- Detours

One of the joys of the Christian life is being around people who are excited and enthusiastic about sharing their faith with others. Most of the time these are people who have just recently taken the step to follow Jesus their forgiver and life’s leader. Sometimes it is those who have been Christians for sometime but who have just gotten serious about living out their faith. Every once in a while it is an older follower of Jesus who did not let themselves fall into the pit of evangelistic inactivity. Either way, it is a blessing to be around and work with people who want to share the good new of Christ with others.

I can say now it is a joy to be around such folks, however, that is not the way it always was for me. Early in my ministry I did not enjoy these supercharged Christians because their desire to share Christ with everyone often embarrassed me. There desire to have other Christians as excited about sharing the faith often brought about a sense of guilt in my life because I was not involved in personal evangelism.

Many times these people would come to me for advice and encouragement in how to better share their faith. I am convinced they assumed I knew what I was doing simply because I was a pastor who had been to seminary and made my living serving Christ in the church. Although they were coming to me for advice, I did not have much to help them. I was trying to encourage them in their obedience while at the same time hiding the fact that I was a failure at evangelism. I had a choice to make. I could continue in guilt and shame or I could learn to do evangelism in a way that fit me. I chose to learn.

I learned a lot as I studied but one thing that had a great impact on me was when I understood the difference between spiritual detours and spiritual roadblocks. A spiritual detour is anything a person thinks or does that slows them down in their journey to faith. A spiritual roadblock is anything a person thinks or does that stops them in their journey to faith. There are thousands of spiritual detours but there are only five spiritual roadblocks that can keep a person from salvation. They are:

1. They will not believe Jesus died for their sin and rose from the grave.
2. They will not admit they are a sinner.
3. They will not agree to turn from their sin.
4. They will not acknowledge Jesus Christ as their forgiver and life’s leader.
5. They will not accept God’s free gift of salvation.

It is easy for people to get sidetracked on detours in their lives and never address the roadblocks. As we learn to share our faith with others, it is liberating to realize that we do not have to have the answer to all their spiritual questions to be an effective witness. We do not have to deal with all the detours. All we need to do is ask questions about their spiritual beliefs to see if there are any spiritual roadblocks keeping them from salvation. As we become genuinely interested in their spiritual beliefs we soon know where they stand with the gospel and what roadblocks need to be dealt with. It then becomes our task to keep focused on the spiritual roadblocks in their life. As people begin to deal with their spiritual roadblocks, Jesus deals with the detours.

Many have admonished us to “keep the main thing the main thing”. When it comes to evangelism, we do not need to deal with all the detours in life. Let’s keep the focus on the roadblocks and the detours have a way of taking care of themselves.

David Sundeen
Director of Evangelism
Minnesota Wisconsin Baptist Convention