Blog 7
No fun post title this morning it’s straight to work this week. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about philosophies of ministry within the church and what her primary focus(es) should be in the proclamation of the Gospel message. I have been especially contemplative of the church’s role in evangelism. Some churches focus explicitly on direct, overt evangelism…everything about how the church functions is geared to bringing in unbelievers in an attempt to convict and convert as many people as possible through message, activity, or altar call. At the other end of the spectrum are churches that spend very little time or effort on evangelism at all…almost punting evangelism completely to the Holy Spirit since He already knows who will believe and who will not. So what is the church’s role and responsibility in evangelism? Should the church collective be the focused tool for evangelism or should each individual Christian be the focus?
A quick preface…I acknowledge that the saving message of the Gospel is only effective through the work of the Holy Spirit. I may not explicitly mention that through the rest of this blog post but know that is the theological underpinning I am holding.
It seems that in both the Old and New Testaments alike the responsibility for witnessing to outsiders about who God is falls on the individual…I cannot think of a passage that is focused on trying to get as many people as possible into the Temple or a synagogue for conversion purposes but even as far back as Exodus 4 we see that the Israelite’s personal conduct was meant to lead people to acknowledge God. This concept becomes much more prevalent in the New Testament with passages like the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 (other examples include Acts 14:21 and 1 Peter 2:9-12). The book of Acts as a whole clearly displays a personal commitment to communicating the Gospel whether that is before a huge crowd of thousands (Peter at Pentecost) or one-on-one interactions (Ananias at Saul’s conversion or Paul and the Philippian jailor).
Because of this, I don’t think a church’s philosophy should be focused on simply trying to draw non-believers in with the hopes of converting them on-site. I think that a focus of equipping the believers within the church to better fulfill the Commission they have been called to is more appropriate. This is not to say the church should not have evangelistic programming or that there is no place for altar calls at the end of service…those are valuable and offer meaning to all who experience them and God is glorified through them. However, they are inadequate for the work Jesus commissioned us to perform in His Name. The work of the church is to equip and edify believers to do the work of ministry; in other words train up and send out. The nations are watching us as believers, our nation is watching us, our co-workers are watching us, our neighbors are watching us, our children are watching us and searching us to see if we act in a way that confirms or denies what we say about the Gospel. Very few non-believers are just going to show up in a church service on Sunday morning unless they have seen the Gospel being lived out truly through others.
I think it’s as simple as this: Church evangelism should simply confirm to a non-believer what you (as a believer) have already told them, via word and deed, is true about Jesus Christ. The groundwork for evangelism is your responsibility as a Christian…so what are your words and deeds telling the non-believers around you about the person and work of Jesus Christ? Are you pushing the Gospel message forward? Or are you leaving it for others because it’s not your responsibility? Is your church equipping you via teaching and training to make you a better evangelist? I pray that the Holy Spirit would empower you richly to do His kingdom work here on earth. Blessings to you all!
“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” 1 Peter 2:12 ESV