[wobbles]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2010/07/a ... elism.html
This was the post that sparked the question (provided by a friend of mine, so i'm not taking credit)

As christians we're called to go and make disciples of all nations, but not everybody enjoys being told that their beliefs are incorrect and that somebody else knows better than they do. This means that evangelism is often considered offensive by those being evangelised to. Should we as christians still be informing people of our beliefs in a 'matter of fact' way in an era of modern enlightenment where the average person is considered intelligent and intellectual enough to understand chrisianity (and any other world religion for that matter) and make up their own mind without being hassled by ignorant, narrow minded religious zealots, or is the average, non-christian or aethiest person more ignorant of their own beliefs than they are willing to admit, or are even aware of, and so need to be told our beliefs, despite their own arrogance

Discuss (:

[TingTing]

short answer no with an if, long answer yes with a but.
Evangelism isn't offensive if it is done in the right way and not in a 'ram it down your throat because i'm right and you are wrong' kind of way. When part of a Christian's approach to life and people, evangelism can be really effective.
On the other hand, evangelism is bound to be offensive. With it being defined as "practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs." a lot of the 'hard line' topics that are being covered during the evening sermons this summer could result in answers that are fairly offensive to a lot of people by telling them things like they aren't getting into Heaven just because they are a good person. But, these things have to be addressed and being offensive to some people is the price we pay to save others.

[Wetsy]

I liken it to cancer and cure for cancer.

If we think of sin as cancer and evangelism as the cure, then we do not love our fellow man if we do not try and evaneglise.

The problem is, our fellow man does not believe he has cancer, does not even believe there is such a thing as cancer in many cases, and considers the evangelist a bully for thinking he has the sole cure for this otherwise incurable condition.

So we have to convince our fellow man that a - there is such a thing as cancer, b - they have cancer and c - the cure is Jesus.

That's a lot of work with obstacles at each stage.