Evangelism

I went to a conference this weekend. The general topic was about “power evangelism.” The flow of the discussion was: this form of evangelism is legitimate, it is available for anyone to engage in, people can be successful at it, but there is fallout to deal with. We discussed a bunch of the fallout in the previous posts about availability. For example, there is risk. Risk is important, but how do we respond when we take the risk, and we fail?

But it does make me think …

When Jesus left this world after his death and resurrection, he gave us marching orders. What were these orders?

They were NOT:

• To plant churches.
• To multiply services.
• To multiply campuses.
• To power evangelize.
• To friendship evangelize.
• To kindness evangelize.
• To have crusades or campaigns.
• To have missions.

Jesus’ orders were to make disciples. To work for the development of people who will learn, grow and obey Jesus. This list above does not comprise bad things. Maybe all of them need to be practiced by God’s people. And maybe there are more things.

Every member of God’s family ought to be involved in his mission, in completing his marching orders. Making disciples involves:

• Planting ideas that will grow into conviction and decisions to follow Jesus.
• Walking with, explaining and modeling ideas and lifestyles that agree with Jesus’ teaching.
• Facilitating growth, exercise, a proper atmosphere, healthy inputs – physical, psycho-emotional, spiritual, social and cultural.

There are a number of plans, methods and practices to promote godly transformation of individuals, societies and cultures. God’s people need to be involved in all phases. To use an agricultural metaphor, they need to be there to cultivate the soil, to plant seed, to water, weed and fertilize, and, finally, to reap. As well as storing, cooking and eating. And each branch of Jesus’ family should be involved in all plans, methods, practices and phases.

I guess I am encouraging of viewpoint of “there is no silver bullet.” There is faith, love, risk and obedience, with no guarantee, as I act in this moment, of success.

For the sake of clarity:

• The goal is not churches or decisions, but men and women who choose to follow Jesus and are growing in all ways of doing and being that.
• All followers of Jesus should have direct involvement in the processes of persuasion, assimilation, training and stimulating growth.
• There are multiple means to accomplish this. None should be rejected, as long as the method obeys Jesus.