Skip to main content

Marks of A Healthy Church: A Biblical View of Evangelism By Pastor Kevin Feder

By




 When I first saw this title I said to myself, "oh no." Probably because evangelism perhaps highlights one of the weakest weaknesses of Glory of Christ Fellowship. Perhaps you might disagree, in that case it's possible that you have been faithful to practice evangelism by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with unbelievers. Good for you. I for one can grow in this area and I long to see the day when many people will come to know Christ and convert to Him through the witness of GCF. 

On the other hand, before I beat myself up too badly or set unrealistic expectations it is important to get a working view and understanding of how evangelism should mark the church. Let me say a few things about it.

First of all, if you are looking to do some reading let me highlight a few good resources. Mark Dever wrote the book titled The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. I have not read it but have only heard good things about it. If you are looking for a more theological treatise on the subject let me suggest Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer. 

What is evangelism? Most simply it is the sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who are not trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the fulfillment of all God's promises to them. In some ways we can look at this topic and wonder what on earth is so complicated about it. Couldn't we just leave it at that and tell Christians to go and do it? I suppose we could, let me offer a few suggestions about what evangelism isn't so that we can come to see more clearly what it is.

Evangelism Isn't Imposition: Many object to evangelism because it gets confused with imposing one's beliefs upon another person. Consider first that evangelism includes the presentation of facts. Scripture does call us to believe (Romans 10:9-13) but believing something doesn't make the truth of it any less factual. Somehow, using the word belief conjures up ideas of something mystical. That isn't the gospel. Indeed, the Bible reveals factual information. It is to be believed only because it is unseen, not because it is a fairytale. 

Second, Voddie Bacham always quotes this line: "I don't write the mail I just deliver it." When we think about evangelism we must remind ourselves that we are presenting facts that are self-existing, things we didn't create. In other words, we tell about God's truth and God's facts, not something we conjured up. We may believe them but they are eternally and timelessly true and stand independently so outside of us.  When we share the gospel with others we aren't sharing a plate of cookies that we baked ourselves. In this case we are left far more vulnerable to their opinion of the cookies. The Gospel is God's truth, it is God's plate of cookies. We only deliver the mail to people, we don't write it. 

Third, 1 Corinthians 3 tells us that God is the one who causes growth. Thus, we don't impose anything but we must realize how we are powerless to do so. Don't attempt to impose your beliefs because a) you cannot and b) it isn't what God calls you to and c) it is God's job to convert a human soul. Remember, you were not converted because someone executed an effective sales tactic, you were converted because you were presented with God's truth and the Holy Spirit helped you to see that Jesus is a beautiful savior.

Evangelism Isn't Apologetics: A lot of people fear sharing their faith because they confuse it with apologetics. Apologetics is about answering questions and objections that people have about the faith. This isn't the job of the evangelist. Your job: present the truth and appeal to their conscience. Trust the Holy Spirit to work from there if you are ill-equipped to properly answer questions (which we all are). 

Evangelism Isn't The Results Of Evangelism:  No, that isn't a typo. It is easy to mistake the results of evangelism with evangelism itself. Again, it is God's job to convert and regenerate a human soul, it is our job to simply present the truth. It is possible for a church to be faithful in evangelism without seeing a ton of fruit. Billy Graham said that God expects faithfulness, not fruitfulness. We cannot cause fruit to grow on the vine, that is God's job and when we truly grasp this it will free us in a number of ways to trust him and rest in him and find freedom to simply share what is true with people. 

There is many more things to say but let me just close this with a charge and an encouragement to pray for boldness and to share the good news that Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (1 Timothy 1:15). 

Pastor Kevin

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worship Songs, October 15, 2017

By
We post these worship songs leading up to the worship service so that parents may listen to them in the house or in the car within the days leading up to the worship service. Our hope is that children will hear the songs prior to and it will prepare them to participate in worship on Sunday mornings. My Redeemers Love Hope Has Come I Will Glory In My Redeemer Blessed Be Your Name Here In Your Presence Your Glory Be Still My Soul (In You I Rest) -- Sermon Text: John 11:1-16 That the next generation will set their hope in God and not forget the works of God (Psalm 78:7).
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations on the Glory of Christ: He Sits at the Right Hand of God

By
In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The seventh claim the author makes about the Son is that, having made purification for sins, he now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The words “he sat down” set the stage for chapter 7 where we’re taught that Jesus is both Priest and King. Prior to Jesus, no king offered his own sacrifices and no priest sat on the throne of David, for that wouldn’t be right. God had decreed that there should be a separation of powers between the priest and the king, but Jesus, unlike all before him, is worthy and able to fulfill both roles. So, on the one hand, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God after making purification for sins because the sacrifice he offered, namely himself, is sufficient. Other priests were always standing, as we see in chapter 10:11-14, because their work was never done. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins, so the priests could...
Post a Comment
Read more