Phone evangelism? | Roger Carswell

It is a very strange world we live in when a mobile phone ring tone makes it to be top of the pops — but that’s what’s happened with ‘the Crazy Frog’. However, there are lots of other things about phones that cause deep irritation.

You know the situation. You have just come in from work, or you are about to sit down for your evening meal and the phone goes. When you answer it, you find someone wanting to sell you a new kitchen or double glazing or advertising a life assurance or telling you that you have won a non-existent competition you never knew you had entered. It is very easy to just get irritated and simply put the phone down.

Hang on!

But hold on! Don’t hang up! I have found, with a little bit of patience, these niggling phone calls, can be turned into five star opportunities to talk to these people about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Very often the person at the end of the line starts by saying something like, ‘We have a wonderful offer for you…’, which leads naturally into a wonderful opening for the gospel. I listen for a while, try to answer politely and then gently say, without taking a breath: ‘Thank you very much for your phone call, but I’m not interested today, however I have an even better offer to tell you about. It’s all about God who made us and has provided a wonderful way by which we can come to know Him…’ Most of these people listen politely and then say goodbye. But with some I have had incredible conversations for Christ.

One call started with the words, ‘Mr. Carswell, I have some very good news for you. You and your partner have won a holiday for two in Yorkshire!’ Having told him that actually I already live in Yorkshire I then went on to talk about Jesus who said, ‘I will give you rest’. Many call centres are now in India and this man eventually gave me his address in Delhi and I was able to send him gospel literature. I actually had one man phone me back specifically to talk about Christ, and the call finished with him saying, ‘I’ve got to go now, my supervisor is coming’.

The key

The key is to be prepared, to be winsome and bold, if not a little cheeky. I never imagined I could be a missionary to India, the Philippines and the UK without leaving my own front door. Sometimes I can get half a dozen calls in a day. There was one memorable phone call from a UK call centre, and a woman spoke to me about a product she was offering. Then I went on to mention the gospel, to which she said with great glee, ‘Mr. Carswell, you used to teach me!’ How good it was to be able to speak of Jesus to an old pupil.

Oswald Chambers once said, ‘When we are walking with the Lord and there is a knock on the door, it is an opportunity, when we are not walking with the Lord and there is a knock on the door, it is an intrusion.’ These days it’s not so much about doors but about phones.