Evangelism

Evangelism
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-20

 I have spent way too much time on Facebook this summer. And I have been fascinated by what appears to be a sea change in who affiliates with which political party. I’m not trying to choose sides here, but I have observed that there seem to be many more Democrats becoming Republicans than the other way around. Because of the way Facebook algorithms work, this could well be a skewed observation. But it kind of seems to me that what Democrat leaders are doing has stopped working, and they haven’t noticed. So they just keep doing it.

Why am I talking about this? Because I think it can be readily applied to the Church and to the question of Evangelism. We started a book about Evangelism a week ago in Sunday school. Obviously, we haven’t gotten all that far just yet, but I do know that the main thrust of the book is that we need to stop expecting programs and business models to help us with evangelism and get back to the basics. When we keep doing stuff that isn’t working, we have sort of lost the plot. The point is to bring people to Jesus, and that’s sort of what the Church is for, so it’s pretty important. Ultimately, without evangelism, we lose the Church itself, right?

So what to do? I have two thoughts on this. The first one is something a principal I once worked for used to say: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” We do not bring people to Christ by getting all worked up on the finer points of theology. That can happen later. Infant baptism versus believer’s baptism is a conversation for believers, not lost people. People desperate for truth don’t need a lesson in the history of the Reformation. And, in the name of all that is good and holy, don’t mention the doctrine of election to someone who is seeking God. Just…don’t. The main thing is the gospel. Stick to that.

My second thought is this: Most of us are not Billy Graham. The vast majority of evangelism happens in the context of relationships, not in stadiums. So talk to people. Love them enough to tell them the truth of the gospel. The truth is that God loves them; that He sent His Son to die for them; that sin and death have been conquered by Christ; and that in His great grace and mercy, He offers them eternal life with Him. Making disciples is part of the Great Commission, but we must have believers to disciple first.

There’s a lot of pain out there, friends. There’s a lot of confusion, too. And there are huge numbers of people who are looking for a place to belong, to be accepted, and to be loved. The Church can and should be that place. So go and make disciples.

Peace.
Jackie