Evangelism Interview with Eddie Roman: Profile

This is part of a series of interviews of Christians experienced in evangelism. I hope this is an encouragement to others and spurs on more ideas and action in individuals and churches engaged in the Great Commission.

Me: This is Jon Neifert and I’m sitting here with Eddie Roman, of Living Waters. Eddie, you’ve been involved and engaged in evangelism for several years. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got started in evangelism.

Eddie: I became a Christian around 1992 and for the majority of my Christian walk I was involved in ministry, serving in the church, going on mission trips and doing a lot of Christian stuff but never really talking to the lost. My life was setup in a way where I just wasn’t around a lot of unbelievers. When I was around them, I didn’t talk a whole lot. I didn’t want to rock the boat or get into arguments, so I didn’t attempt to evangelize. Then one day I came across this thing called the Ambassadors’ Academy which is a weekend seminar that Living Waters does. You go and watch Ray Comfort and other guys evangelize, then you do it yourself. They have team leaders and a class situation. That weekend really changed my life, I saw what Biblical evangelism looked like. I watched it being done in a very gracious, loving, and Biblical way and I saw that you didn’t need to get into an argument every time and you didn’t need to be a weird person. It was not like some of the street preachers I had seen over the years and the obnoxious people I had seen giving their take on evangelism.

Me: Yes, Ambassadors’ Academy is an incredible experience in learning evangelism. It really gives you the right environment to learn and grow in many ways.

Eddie: Yeah, that was the beginning of my new life, as a Christian involved quite a bit in evangelism. Years went by, I was involved in evangelism, and I eventually began to teach classes at my church. Now I’m involved more in teaching at the Ambassadors’ Academy and other evangelism seminars. I love to give Christians that first opportunity to share their faith, because evangelism is not only something Jesus wants and commands all his followers to do, but also a blessing in the life of every Christian. I’m involved, both in full-time work at Living Waters producing videos, and in my free-time teaching at my church and leading evangelism teams in various ways.

Me: My first significant experience giving out gospel tracts was here at the Iowa State Fair. Having spent the last few days here, tell me what’s different about evangelism here compared to other places.

Eddie: I live in California and people are very different here, but everyone is the same in that they all have the same need. They are all sinners in need of a savior.

In California it is very common for people to walk down the street and not look you in the eye. If you try to ask them a question, even as simple as “what time is it?”, they might ignore you. In general, people in bigger cities can get used to people not treating them all that well, so they do the same in return. It can be a little more difficult to get into a conversation quickly. Here in Iowa, you may come to a stoplight and people will wait for you, smile, and wave for you to go by. In California everyone is vying for that first chance to turn. In general people here tend to be nicer and tend to have some kind of church background. Not all of them, but a lot of people I talk to here at the Fair are either Christian (but may not understand a lot of things about the Bible) or they came out of a Christian home and may have had some issue along the way.

Today, I talked to a couple of lesbians, both of them said the same thing. They were raised in a Christian family but claimed that the Christians they were with were so critical, mean and controlling, so she eventually left the faith. That could be just her point of view. Maybe there came a point where she decided she was a lesbian, and at that point she everyone talking against her sin and perceived it as being critical. At the same time, there are plenty of abusive people who call themselves Christians who shouldn’t be. There are churches that are abusive and controlling so it is a very real possibility that she came from a genuinely rotten church experience. Here, more often than in California, you tend to find people with some sort of religious upbringing, and generally more polite.

Part 1: Profile
Part 2: Defining Success in Evangelism
Part 3: Evangelism Ministry at Church
Part 4: Closing Thoughts and Encouragement