Thank you for your honesty, friend. I have a few thoughts for your consideration:
1. You must take a hard look at the motivation behind your evangelism. Why do you wish to share the gospel among your friends? Let's assume you want them to be saved and go to heaven. This is a noble reason. But consider this: You could be doing more damage than good because you are leading them to a false understanding of Christianity. Christianity is not just about going to heaven when you die. In fact, if a person claims to be saved, yet has not repented of his sin and thus continues to live in sin, he is not saved (Matthew 7:16-23). In other words, your friend's verbal confession of Jesus as Lord does not always necessarily indicate a repentant heart. Christianity is about trusting in Jesus for your salvation, repenting of your sin, and following Jesus with your entire being. Make sure you are preaching the gospel and not something else (Galatians 1:9).
2. You must ask yourself whether or not you are evangelizing people as a way to earn your salvation. Sometimes, the desire to evangelize is rooted in the desire to please God in order to secure our salvation: "If I evangelize enough people, I'll be a good Christian and God will accept me." This is NOT the true gospel. As Christ-followers, we obey Jesus (and evangelize) others because we are accepted in Christ already - not because we need to earn his acceptance. Telling others about God should come naturally in the sense that it joyfully overflows out of our hearts: "I want to tell others about Jesus because He's done so much for me and I can't contain it!"
3. I'm not sure what you mean by "deep relationship." I assume it could mean one of three things:
a. If you are going through a rough time in your faith journey, this is natural. There are periods of frustration and confusion in our lives, and we should not allow those to stop us from doing God's work. God often uses our weaknesses to display his power (2 Cor. 4).
b. If you are starting out your journey as a new Christian and have the desire evangelize others, this is commendable. I would challenge you to continue to grow in your walk AS you evangelize others. 1 Cor. 1:17 teaches us that the gospel's life-changing power does not depend on OUR ability: "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." God can communicate it through us despite of lack of wisdom, ability or eloquence.
c. If you have no desire to have a deeper relationship with Christ, you're doing more damage then good. After all, you can only lead people as far as you've gone yourself. If you evangelize a friend- yet lack the personal desire to grow with Jesus - what kind of Christian faith do you think your friend will have? Not a very passionate or strong one.
In summary, I encourage YOU to get to know Christ deeper and better - first and foremost. You won't be able to evangelize effectively, passionately or authentically if you don't even know what you're evangelizing about.
[Answered by Pastor HM]
