After the current section of Isaiah we are going to do something thinking about evangelism.
I'm really keen for comments on why we find it so hard to share our faith in our culture. Also suggestions of key topics worth considering related to this issue.
I can't promise anything that will make evangelism easy, but it would be good to help make it easier.
4 comments:
Simply put, we are either not converted (or else we'd see that we are saved from wrath and our loved ones are in a perilous situation) or fail to understand that God chooses to work through us (at least He does alot of the time). We don't like this last point because we have to do something.
Many Western Christians are converted primarily via the mind-assenting to a 2 Ways to Live document or similar. This is not necessarily the same as meeting the risen Lord Jesus. Early Christians (and many in other parts of the world today and even in the West!!)met Jesus in such power they simply could not hold back. Such was the case with Jackie Pullingers ministry in HK more recently (and a major factor in my own conversion when reading about it). I had been brought up in the Anglican church/confirmed etc but the Jesus who was acting in such power in the lives of these outcasts I had NEVER met! I was thirsty for Him as this Jesus was REAL and ALIVE!
In nearly 7 years at PBC I have NEVER heard teaching on the glorious miracle of the Holy Spirit being poured out on believers-with fire and with power. We don't invite Him in-we hold him at arms length - fear? In Sydney the HS is the very poor cousin of the Father and Son and confined to certain roles while other aspects of His ministry to believers are completely ignored. Even being charismatic with a seatbelt on is not allowed.
Perhaps I am completely wrong (and I know there are many who could shoot me down in flames with their intellects!)but I felt compelled to comment.
On Evangelism itself we clearly don't understand that being a Christian means being saved from something, not just following the Truth or coming along to church to get some spiritual guidance and a feel good hour or so. We probably need conviction of sin and some kind of understanding of God's holiness. Its all too Í'm alright Jack, God's a good bloke and while I'm at it I'll ask him to sanctify all my worldly choices and spend morning tea chatting about those choices. We have very little concept of God's holiness and need the Holy Spirit to come and convict us of sin (one of his main tasks).
I wish I were more eloquent as I do feel some of these points have merit and I am not able to express them adequately due to constant distraction.
I would love to continue this discussion and do anything I can to encourage the above.
Hi there its Cathy again
I'm not sure if the first part of my post got through....
Another thought I had was the 'too busy' reason for not evangelising. Or at least for not supporting official church evangelistic endeavours. I suspect that if we did a poll on why people did not come to IG we would find the 'too busy' reason coming up frequently. Thats not to say evangelism is confined to church led programs.
The 'too busy' reason can easily be dismissed by logic. If God intends us to evangelise then we have clearly made some wrong choices in our lifestyle. Our priorities simply cannot be Godly if there is no room to be Christian disciples. Obvious exceptions are illness, birth of a child etc...
Do we really come to God with our time and ask Him to help us apportion it? Or do we give him whats left over? This applies to finances as well.
There seems to be a link here with other areas of our Christian lives together such as prayer, attending church, giving. If we have made our lives so busy and tied up our finances then its litle wonder theres no time/money left.
How to teach on this is tricky-it would need lots of application and that can lead to legislation. Maybe we could try what JS sometimes does with breaking the teaching into 3 parts and having small group discussion in between as part of the service. We could have questions which encourage us to be specific about how we personally evangelise/ideas for church based evangelism etc and so on. We all need lots of challenge to be specific and intentional and there's nothing like having a captive audience to encourage us to tease out these issues. That might bring out more of a sense of why the prevailing attitude to evangelism.
There must be ways of teaching application without being completely prescriptive?? Otherwise how would many Christians have found out that evangelism was a normal part of the Christian life, tithing was a good starting point in giving, praying together was normal for God's people etc etc.
Another point is that talking about Jesus involves personal disclosure- something our culture doesn't make easy. We are much more comfortable chatting over sport/family issues or whatever. I guess we need practice! I find it nearly impossible these days to turn conversations to Jesus (or even the sermon)at Morning Tea, so much so that for a while I disappeared at the end of church because I felt it was just a social gathering and could have been for any interest group. Thats clearly only my experience and I'm sure others have more edifying conversations that would distinguish our fellowship as Christian. Instead of only talking about the overseas holiday, public/private schooling, and home renovations perhaps we could use these areas of life to encourage one another to make our decisions in these areas Godly. I personally need to be constantly held accountable to the word of God as I find our culture has seeped right through into the fabric of the church. How to live counter culturally might be another angle in teaching?
A final point (for now at least) is that evangelism is also work, joyful and important work to be sure, but it demands sacrifice. Praying and speaking the gospel takes time and effort. Inviting people to church or IG takes effort. Perhaps we are so saturated with grace that we feel their is no onus on us to do anything.
An example of this is when IG was held at the Manse about 5 years ago. Using logic, if I believe that people need to hear the gospel to be saved and I care at all about their eternal destiny then I must do all I can to pray/invite/bring them along. For me personally, if I didn't at least pray and invite being prepared to go along each week, it would prove to me that I didn't care about their salvation. Quite possible my logic is faulty but its what I used and continue to use when tempted to not bother in the area of evangelism.
I hope this is of some help...
Cathy D
This topic has got me obsessed!
Another reason it is difficult to evangelise is discouragement. After trying many times to pray/invite/go it does get discouraging when there is a lack of response. Even though it is encouraging if someone comes along it quickly becomes the opposite if they are not converted.
It is very encouraging when other PBCers are also praying/inviting I find, though the local mission field is 'like ploughing concrete' as recent numbers at Introducing God will testify to. Hard to believe that in a church our size, so few people came to the course. Nothing new here, even fewer came to the Manse when it was run 5 years ago. And same for an evangelistic series of 3 sermons on 'the difference Jesus makes'. Again, hard to believe that, assuming everyone did their inviting virtually no one outside the church came.
How come they are converted in the 100's and 1000's over in China? I hear they fall on their faces on approach to the meeting with the presence of God and conviction of sin.
Is it possible that God withdraws His mercies from certain nations at certain time periods? Probably highly unbiblical but it sure looks like it!
Cathy D
Thanks Cathy - I'll try to pick up on some of these comments in the evangelism series.
The only comment I'll make for now is that it is impossible to be too saturated with grace! I think the problem is that we have too little grace, not too much. If we really understood that our salvation is not deserved (at all) then we'd be out telling others all day. Implicit in our apathy is that (probably subconsciously) we think that we deserve God's love but others don't.
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