Engaging a person with the Gospel is always daunting.  Such questions as “who is this person?” “what will they say?” “what if I come across to them in a confusing way?” These and many other similar trains of doubt can derail evangelistic purpose and action.  In combatting this challenge, I have been helped by Herman Bavinck’s focus on the heart, though not to the expense of the mind. 

He writes in The Certainty of Faith (page 23),

The shape of one’s thought is often nothing more than the history of his heart.

In an article entitled Head and Heart (1892) we find something similar

The system of our head is often nothing but the history of our heart.

This follows from a quotation from a certain Johan G. Fichte in his Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and Other Writings

The kind of philosophy one chooses therefore depends on the kind of person one is.

In the article referenced above, Bavinck writes,

Consciously or unconsciously, his heart gives the direction in which his thinking and willing will move.

All of this is to assert the primacy of the human heart in the directing of the totality of our lives.  We must not merely look for intellectual understanding (i.e. rote knowledge) to give us value, to solve our problems or direct us to the whole-ness that we crave.  Hearts must be changed to bring transformation to the whole person and lead to their filling with the things of God that satisfy and stimulate action.

So as I approach people seeking to share the Gospel with them my thinking must not revolve around the uncertainties of the encounter.  My heart must be engaged in the love of God.  My heart and mind must consciously love the person opposite me.  And the awareness that God has had dealings with them (i.e. their heart), prior to my appearance in front of them, encourages me all the more to target their heart with the life-transforming Gospel!