Evangelism Being Real
Evangelism Dinner John 10:7-18 Psalm 37:1-11
How we view the word of God, will have a lot to do with shaping our views of evangelism, as to whether it is to be a positive or negative experience. The story is told of two new pastors who were in the same town. Each came to a congregation that had a 100 people attending service. At the end of the first year, one church had grown to 200 in attendance and the other had gone down to 50 in attendance. Each pastor was asked, what happened.
The first said, "Well we simply believe in preaching the Bible as the word of God. When you preach the word, they come flocking into the door. That’s why we have grown to 200 and hope to have 400 next year." The second pastor said, " Well I tell you, we simply believe in preaching the Bible as the word of God. When you preach the word, it’s going to drive a lot of people away. We’re down to 50, but we might lose some of the 50."
We live in a world that is success oriented but often with misplaced values. Too often we inadvertently place churches in the same success at any cost mentality.. We are told, "Forget about what problems you may be having internally and get on with reaching the world for Christ."
Evangelism is do doubt part of the great commission when Jesus said, in Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
In recognizing the call to go evangelize, we must be careful not to exalt this one area of the church’s ministry above all others, lest we unnecessarily discourage and belittle the ministry of our sisters and brothers who have different talents and gifts than we have. Too often the message given is "you are either an evangelist or you need to be one." Yet the word of God states in Ephesians that he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers.
Perhaps our focus should be on teaching people to be disciples of Jesus Christ rather than evangelists for Christ. The disciple is going to let his or her light shine which will open doors for people to ask why?. The disciple is going to be pro-active in reaching out to meeting the hurts and pains of people which again will open the door to ask why.. The disciple is going to want to bring others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ because he or she is going to be convinced that its in other’s best interest to know who Jesus is.
There is a great need for the person with the gift of evangelism, but we must be honest and recognize that just as everyone can do some pastoral functions, they are not called to be pastors, simply because most people can tell others who Jesus is, does not mean they are called to be evangelist.
The push for evangelism and larger churches has been a blessing to some parts of the body Christ, but it has also been a source of pain for other parts. The small church is not looked upon with great admiration in the Church Growth Movement. Everyone is being encouraged to break all kinds of barriers as though God’s will is truly reserved for the biggest and best churches. The message is, if you’re not growing, you’re obviously missing the will of God. But is church growth the only indication that evangelism is taking place?
Sometimes looking at only a portion of the Scriptures, will cause us to see things as normal that are actually miracles that happen once in a while. We read in Acts that after Peter preached his first sermon three thousand people got saved. A couple of days later, the number has grown to 5000. We say that’s evangelism. We tend to forget that most of these people had a foundation laid for 3 to 5 years of ministry by Jesus Christ himself.
It wasn’t that God was determining that wherever the gospel went, it would explode into large churches. After Acts chapter 8 you see evangelism taking place , but I’m not sure you can find another truly large church in the New Testament in the sense of a mega-church.
An unhealthy view of evangelism may cause us to despise what God has given to us in the church and to see the church in a way that God certainly did not intend it to be. Some of us have seen it as an obstacle that must be moved from over there to over here in order for it to be in the true will of God. Over there is usually measured in terms of members, programs, and budgets, and over here is usually measured in terms of larger members, programs, and budgets.
Jesus practiced some of the strangest kinds of evangelism. You would think that He would have been building a great movement for the kingdom of God, but just when the crowds got large enough to begin to have an impact, Jesus would go and say something that was true but some found offensive.
We find in John 6:46, "From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus." To make matters even worse, "Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them if they also wanted to leave. It wasn’t enough for Jesus to simply be an evangelist with good news, He also was a teacher who discussed the cost of discipleship.
When we think of evangelism, we should consider our motives for why we do what we do. Is our motivation coming from a desire to bring those who are lost to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.? Are we eager for evangelism now because we have no alternative in that we see on paper that we need more people to help pay the bills that we have or the doors of the church will close.? Do we think that if our church doubles or triples in size, that we will be more about the business of doing God’s will than we are where we are right now? Are we chasing an elusive dream that there is right size for us to be as a church and we know its bigger than we are now or are we seeking to obedient in reaching others for Christ.? If our contentment is not found in God, we will be forever chasing that elusive goal just like the world chasing for the American dream to find fulfillment.
There is something about God’s love and God’s will that cannot be measured simply in terms of numbers. In the parable of the lost sheep, we saw the joy in the finding of the one. This doesn’t mean there was not joy in the 99, it simply means that the one has a lot of value.
A pastor of a very large church said, "Any thing that’s alive is growing. If a church is alive, it ought to be growing in three ways, numerically, spiritually and financially." At one time that statement seemed right on target. We were determined to prove that we were an alive Presbyterian church. We were in the three categories, but the numerical growth was being canceled by those who were making their way out the back door.
Today, I can no longer buy that by simply examining three parts of church’s life can determine if its alive, dying or dead. A baby is alive in the same that a teenager, an adult, and a senior citizen is alive, yet we do not expect the exact same things from them.
A church of 25 people in rural Pennsylvania, can be just as alive as a, church of 125 in Sayre or a church 2500 in downtown Philadelphia. They can’t all do the same things in terms of evangelism, but they can all do what God wills for them to do in their location and setting. Their evangelistic outreach will take on different forms and produce different results, but they should not be forced into any single mode. . Just because a church is not growing, does not mean that its people are not reaching out to others for Jesus Christ.
I found it interesting that in 1 Corinthians which was written about 55 AD, Paul mentions Priscilla and Aquila and the church that meets at their house. Either Priscilla and Aquila had a very large house or a church that did not number a whole lot of people. Some today may have called it a cell group or small group but definitely not a church. Paul called it a church.
In the book of Romans which was written about the spring of 57 AD, Paul mentions Priscilla and Aquila again, and it appears that they have not launched their major building campaign, because he again he refers to the church that met in their house. Yet from the little we know of Priscilla and Aquila, they were reaching out to others with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
On still another occasion in Colossians 4:5, we do not find The Colossian Cathedral or Colossian Worship Center, but rather we find the church that meets in the home of a lady by the name of Nympha. Now we certainly hope that there was a Colossian Cathedral or Colossian Worship Center, but its not mentioned in this book. In Philemon the church also met in the home of a few of the believers.
My point is not that large churches did not exist, but that if they did, smaller ones coexisted with them, and both were expressions of the will of God for them at that particular time and place. It appears that a church a could be faithful in carrying out the great commission without necessarily adding the kind of numbers to membership that we are told to strive for each year.
Every problem that we face in the church today, with the exception of the copy machine not working or the microphone system being screwed up, was faced in the early church. But there is not a single complaint made by any of the New Testament writers over the issue of how come the church is not growing. We know they had money problems, because Paul talks about the need to sow and reap and to take up collections.
But Paul never said, "If you all would grow as a church, you wouldn’t have these financial problems." In our first inner city church, we found that if all the members lost their jobs and went on Welfare and tithed their welfare checks, our offerings would increase two and half times. If all Christians tithed, churches could pay full time salaries. Paul’s emphasis was more on changing the hearts of those who were already present in that they were not giving as they should, rather than seeing evangelism as a way out of paying the bills.
Perhaps what we have done through the years is that we have redefined the church and have attempted to impose on it, something that God did not intend. In so doing, we cannot look upon the small church or the plateued Church as a gift from God, but view it as something which must be changed in order for it to do God’s will. Changed is defined as making it grow whatever the consequence.
One church growth leader was quoted as saying, "The best advice I can give pastors in small, traditional churches is to move. Such churches won’t accept a pastor who trains others to minister instead of doing all the ministry himself. Plant your own churches. You’ll never change one that already exists."
Does God call us to only go into situations in which we will be successful? Does God call all pastors to build great churches. Is the size of a church evidence of one’s faithfulness and dedication to God or of the amount of work that one is putting into ministry in terms of evangelism. Let’s be honest, personal holiness, number of hours worked plus desire to please God does not always turn itself into dramatic church growth.
Evangelism should not be viewed as a separate arm of the church’s ministry, but rather as part of the bloodstream that runs throughout the church.. The Men’s Group. the Women’s Group, The Choir, The Special Programs provided by the church, and all the church’s activities should have evangelism as a sub component to explain either the group’s existence or the reason for the activity taking place. One of our last new members came to our church at a Men’s Car Wash. She was so befriended at the car wash, that she felt compelled to come back to the church.
God is going to work in different ways in different churches because they’re made up of different people.
Do you recall the parable that Jesus told about the servants who received talents. Jesus gave one five, one two, and one one. The first two came back with different amounts, but both heard well done. Is it possible, that some of us are five talent evangelist, some four, some three, some two, and some one?
There’s no shame associated with having what God has chosen to give you. Is it also possible that some of our churches are five talent evangelist churches, some four, some three, some two and some one. If it’s God that distributes the talents according to His own choosing, why should we try to force everyone to come up with the same results.
Remember what Paul said to the Corinthians .1 Cor 3:5-8 " What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor." Your evangelism efforts will often times seem fruitless but that doesn’t mean they are. Keep reaching out for Christ. We may be interested in building the Presbyterian Church USA, but God is more interested in building the body of Jesus Christ.
We have helped many people to get back on their feet and bring them into the life of the church. Just when it seemed as though they were ready to be of greater use to the church, out of the blue they decided to become a part of another church. Was the kingdom of God benefited by our initial action? Yes. Were we hurt to see them go to this other church? Yes. But we must confess, that sometimes what we claim we do simply to spread the kingdom of God, we really do out of selfish interest for our own church.
Now there are some situations in which our churches don’t grow because our people have made the choice for them to not grow. Lyle Schaller in an article "Why Church Don’t Want To Grow" in Leadership magazine gave five reasons why some churches do not want to grow. 1. A church that is not growing offers stability to people’s lives. They see the church as one place that’s constant and predictable. 2. A church that’s not growing offers continuity in faces, customs, events and officers. The same people will often tend to do the same thing. 3. A church that is not growing or plateau may have less financial pressure in that in a growing church, there is a two year lag between the attendance curve and the income curve. Therefore when a church starts to decrease, it takes about two years before the impact of less income begins to hit the church.
4. A church that is not growing is usually less complex than one that is. The vast majority of people prefer simplicity. 5. A church that is not growing may receive a substantial portion of pastor’s time and energy focused on the congregation rather than reaching out to potential new members.
If evangelism is going to be made parallel to church growth in its definition, then evangelism asks people to give up things that they find to be very meaningful in their lives. However if evangelism is understood as a component of each organization and program, then it may not be perceived as some group going out to bring others in to change our church. We must also deal with the reality that some people are in our churches because they like what they have found in the church. If through our evangelism we have brought others in, yet pushed those that are in out, then we have not been as evangelistic as we had hoped.
If we are going to reach the world for Jesus Christ, we must accept that in some situations, we’re going to need new congregations to do it. Our denomination started almost a 150 new church developments between 1991 and 1994. This is where much of the growth in our denomination is taking place. Evangelism needs the new churches as well as the older ones to do all that Jesus instructed us to do in the Great Commission. Too often we tend to think in terms of either or in what’s needed in the realm of evangelism when if fact both may be needed.
Steve Bierly in Leadership Magazine quoted a speaker as saying, "Churches don’t grow if their pastors aren’t growing. A pastor who is afraid to stretch and take risks goes nowhere." Steve pointed out that such speakers usually define stretching as leading churches through the necessary painful changes that bring numerical growth. The implication is that if you are not doing that, you’re stagnant.
But should we force all of our churches to go through the changes that will lead to growth, or allow them to face their own future as it unfolds. None of the churches that were mentioned in any of the epistles of the Bible are in existence today, but does that mean that they failed as congregations or that they were not doing evangelism properly. Sometimes, the most difficult thing we have to come to grips with is that the body of Christ is much larger than the Presbyterian Church. Simply because there is no Presbyterian Church in an area does not mean that there is not a faithful witness to Jesus Christ in the area.
Part of evangelism means knowing when its time to fold up the books and go somewhere else that God may have us be. Paul did not meet with establishing a successful church into each city that he went preaching the gospel. Part of being a good steward with what God is giving us is knowing how to turn it over to someone else who may be more effective. Sometimes the most effective evangelism for a church to reach the community around it that’s of a different culture is to support a ministry of one from that culture and make the church available for a worship services for that group without trying to make them Presbyterian.
Of course that means entering into a new dimension of ecumenicalism. There are probably times in which we could have reached more people for Jesus by simply giving them the building and moving on, than going through a redevelopment project. But that would cause a kind of allegiance to the universal body of Christ universal that many of us are unwilling to consider.
We have many options available to us when we think of evangelism. The one option we do not have is to consider evangelism as something someone else was supposed to do. We do need to see evangelism as a natural part of everything that we do as disciples of Jesus Christ. Keep in mind that Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations, not just converts.
Counting the number of decisions that were made for Christ is important but counting the number of people who three years later continue to pick up their crosses and continued to follow Jesus Christ is a greater indication of how effective your evangelistic outreaches truly are.
Evangelism is about churches reaching people for Jesus Christ, but let us not turn it into simply trying to be bigger for bigger sake. God does not always use the biggest, nor is He partial to the small.
Our goal is to bring people to Jesus Christ, not necessarily to our particular church. John the Baptist put it this way, when others let him know that Jesus was beating him in the evangelism outreach movement, "He must increase, and I must decrease. " Wouldn’t it had fit better in our theology if only John had said, "He must increase, and the bigger he gets the more blessed I am going to be."
If our desire, even though it may only be very subtle, is to make a name for our church, then our reasons for evangelism are not truly sincere. We are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Success in evangelism should be defined as being used by God, not achieving great things for God.
So often we think that the church is made up of willing and able soldiers ready to march forth into battle. All that needs to be done is to get an evangelism vision from God and begin to march in step. The reality may be, we’re trying to march with an army that’s wounded, missing ammunition, afraid to death of the enemy, and missing key divisions that said they would be there, but will never show up.
All the yelling in the world about the need to shape up and be concerned about the souls of others is not going to get the job done. We will have to attend the needs of the army, before we go and launch an attack to bring a vision into reality. Simply announcing here is what we’re going to do, does not mean the majority are going to do it with you. Remember this, "the one who leads with nobody following is merely taking a walk."
One of the things about God is that God is sovereign. Why did God choose to allow James to die early and for John to live a long time? Why did God choose Joshua and not Caleb to lead the people into the promised land? Why did God send some people to your church and others to the church next door? Why did God bless them with three great musicians and your church is struggling to find one decent one?
Is God playing favorites? These are some questions we just don’t know the what the answer is. Does that mean we give up and say, well God it’s all in your hands. If this church is going to do anything you’ve got to do it. Well that’s a good place to start, but not a good place to finish.
Before we do evangelism, we should answer three questions The first question we should as is 1) Who are we. The congregation needs to know who it is before it can formulate a plan to do anything. Knowing whether you’re a cat or a bird will help you decide whether you’re going to run or fly to get to your destination. The second question is 2) Where Do We Live? A fish is a fish when it jumps on land, but if it doesn’t get back into the place it belongs, it will not last for long. 3) What is God calling us to do? God is not calling you to be a duplicate of first, second or third church around the corner. If He was, you may not be needed?
Evangelism involves us reaching others for Jesus Christ, using that which He has blessed us with, in a way that allows us to be free as believers in letting our lights shine before others and sharing with them, just how good God is.
