The first step in doable evangelism is to notice other people. This is also probably one of the hardest steps because to notice other people we have to stop looking at ourselves. We live in the most targeted and marketed time in all of history, and so we have been trained to believe that if we do not look out for ourselves and our families no one else will. Commercials deceive us into think that every gadget and gizmo created was made with me (or my kids) in mind.

That is why the first step in doable evangelism is to notice someone else. It is to notice that there are other people in this world.

Mark 8:23-25 is one of my favorite stories in the Bible—for two reasons. First, Jesus spit on guy! But secondly and more importantly, this story demonstrates the process of noticing other people.

He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.

When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like tree walking around.”

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes.

Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 

Jesus encounters a blind man, and helps him see. But it takes time for the man’s eyesight to develop. The man was so used to not being able to see other people that at first he thought they were trees, but as his encounter with Christ continued so did his ability to see more clearly.

As we begin to look outside ourselves and our home, and start noticing other people we will realize that God calls us to engage other people, and genuinely care for them.

As you go about your time this week try to really “notice” people. Look the neighbor, the receptionist, the store clerk, or even the homeless person in the eye. Try to wonder how someone else is doing. Who did you notice this week?