I was reading in Eric's blog today about one of Saint Francis' quotes and I started to write a reply, but it ended up being so long I thought it would be rude to post it to his blog, so I'll put it here instead:

You know, I really like the Saint Francis of Assisi saying: “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” It doesn’t give an excuse, it’s a command! I think Brother Frank was echoing Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:17-19 where he said: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” This is the point of living your life in honesty before your friends that aren’t familiar with the bible and ‘christianese.’ You have to preach the gospel by living it. This isn’t an excuse to not evangelize. On the contrary, if we aren’t preaching the gospel, we aren’t living it.
The other point that I think lots of folks seem to miss is what the definition of the gospel is. I heard a teacher elaborate once that we have a definition in Galatians 3:8 where Paul says: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed.” In other words, the gospel began to be preached all the way back in Genesis 12:2-3 where God tells Abraham: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In other words, we are to preach the gospel by telling/showing people that God wants to bless them as He has blessed us!
Another of Brother Frank’s famous quotes is:
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
I think this is a pretty good definition of preaching the gospel without using words. Do I always do these things? Of course not! Do I want to? Of course I do! The point is that we are supposed to make the effort, not just give up and say “I can’t make a difference” or I don’t need to do anything because I’m not supposed to use words. Saint Francis would get a real kick out of all the Christians that think they might offend people if we preach the gospel to them.