Oftentimes, there are things we already dismiss because we take them for granted.

Yesterday afternoon, four of my officemates and I had lunch and shared about our beliefs. In that instance, I mentioned that not all who attend church are believers. What was important, more than our religion, is our personal relationship with God. I was given an example yesterday evening.

Yesterday evening, I attended the third part of an evangelism class. Here we were taught the importance of sharing the Gospel. At the end of the evening, we were given a survey sheet, and were told to go out two by two to share the gospel to at least one person. I told my partner Therese to be the one to approach a person and conduct the survey, while I’ll share the Gospel afterwards. We didn’t go far from the building when I saw a girl sitting at an empty table, obviously waiting for someone. I told Therese to approach her but she was hesitant. What if she was a member of the church also? I thought there was nothing for us to lose and we obviously have to do our task. I asked the girl if she was busy and if it was okay to interview her. She agreed. Her name is Chiqui.

Therese was right. Chiqui mentioned that she’s a “born-again” and that she has been attending CCF, the church we’re also attending, for almost a year now. I thought to myself that we just had to go on with the survey and that I wouldn’t anymore share the gospel.

The last two questions were leading questions. We would be asking her if she is sure of her salvation, and lastly if she answered no, to ask her if she wanted to be sure of her salvation. I was surprised that she answered no when asked if she was sure of her salvation. And so she also said yes when asked if she wanted to be sure of her salvation. I ended up sharing the Gospel to her after all.

Although I know that this incident was not an accident, and that I felt overjoyed to be used by God to share the gospel to Chiqui, I also felt sad to find out that even though she has been attending a Dgroup, she still wasn’t aware of the gospel and is not assured of salvation.

And so I again realized that not all who attend church are believers. And so I hope that small group leaders would always emphasize the gospel in our discussions.