Simply saying "Merry Christmas" is NOT Evangelism

First I would like to point out what evangelism is not. (1) It is NOT merely putting a sign on the front of your yard that reads “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”  (2) It is NOT responding to the cashier at the store with “Merry Christmas” when she greets you with “Happy Holidays.” (3) It is NOT putting on a campaign to remove the “X-mas” signs from Main Street.

                While each of these activities has their own purpose and may do some good in getting the message of Christ across, we cannot stop at this point. Concerning the first point above, there are many people who display a sign saying “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” with no knowledge of what Christmas is all about. They like the slogan because they are slightly convicted by the greed and obsession with presents that is so prevalent during the Christmas season and feel that it is more pious to think of a cute little baby rather than Santa. But while they promote the babe in the manger they have no real understanding about who that baby is. Yes, Jesus is the reason for the season, but we cannot stop at simply reminding people of that fact.  Concerning the second point, there are still many unregenerate people who use the term “Merry Christmas.” There are many reasons for using it, not the least of which is simply tradition. “That’s the way we said it when I was a kid,” the old-timer would say. Yes, it is good to keep the word “Christ” in our greeting, but going around saying “Merry Christmas” is not a statement that we are a Christian. The same thing applies to the third point. Simply because you seek to keep Christ in Christmas does not give the world around you the complete message of what the birth of Christ really means.

                So, how do we evangelize this Christmas season? Quite honestly, the methods don’t change from any other time of year. We are still supposed to live a life that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called (Eph. 4:1) which is to be “holy and blameless before him (God)” (Eph. 1:4). We are also to continue to verbally share the love of Christ (Matt. 28:19).

                My point is, don’t stop at saying “Merry Christmas.” That is not evangelism. It may be making a statement of some sort, but it is not evangelism. By all means say “Merry Christmas,” but follow through with that and tell people what Christmas is really all about.  That is, tell them about the Christ-child that was born in Bethlehem and tell them why he was born. He was born to take away the sins of the world.