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

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 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

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