The Joyful Burden

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accomplished by bringing in a visiting expert to "do evangelism" for the local church. It is not just for evangelists, pastors or church leaders, but is the responsibility of every believer. Evangelism does not consist of long or repeated impassioned calls for and pressure to make decisions. Evangelism is a work of God in which He uses us as instruments to take His word to people in whom the Holy Spirit works to bring them to the place of trusting in God for eternal life in Jesus Christ. Evangelism is not a system or program but is a personal involvement in the lives of people to help them know the things they need to know in order to believe. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Evangelism must include the message and the presence and lifestyle of the messenger. As the saying goes, many people are talking a lot about evangelism but not many are doing it. Much time and effort are put into many different plans and programs, but it seems that evangelism is still one of our weakest areas of ministry. There are two basic principles that should give us the starting point for an understanding of evangelism. First, the local church is central to God's plan for ministry in this age. This means that biblical evangelism centers in the local church and the ministry of the local church must focus on evangelism. Second, it is the responsibility of all leaders to be involved in training others in ministry and leadership. This would place great emphasis on the responsibility of the church and its leaders to train and equip its members to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4). Michael Green in his book on local church evangelism refers to three definitions that help us visualize the scope of evangelism. The first one he mentions is the word "overflow" and it pictures evangelism as a believer being so full of the joy of Christ that it overflows naturally to those around him. A vessel that has water continually flowing in will be continually overflowing. The second definition is the one made famous by Charles Spurgeon. "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread." The difference between the two beggars is that one knows where to go for bread and the other doesn't. The third definition is from Archbishop William Temple. He stated "to evangelize is so to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men shall come to put their trust in God through Him, accept Him as Savior, and serve Him as King in the fellowship of the Church." With these in our mind, we can develop some concepts and strategies that should benefit churches and pastors in the focus and involvement in evangelism. It seems to me in Ephesians 4 that the Evangelist is included in the list of gifted men given to the church to equip and train its members especially in the ministry of evangelism. Every church would greatly benefit from a staff member or other leader who is gifted in the ministry of evangelism and would see his primary ministry as that of training the members in evangelism. However if this person is not available it is the responsibility of the leaders to "do the work of an evangelist." They would be responsible to gather the necessary resources and material to enable them to train and equip all the members in the ministry of evangelism. I would also like to suggest six goals or strategies that would help develop a vision for evangelism and help us focus on equipping every member for evangelism. 1. The church should emphasize in their purpose and vision statements that evangelism is a primary function and goal of the church. We need a passion for evangelism. 2. The church leaders must be or become evangelistic. Only when the leaders have a passion for evangelism, can a church effectively train and model evangelism. 3. The church must develop and implement a strategy for evangelism. They must be committed to finding a strategy that will be effective and continually seeking to find or develop new strategies. 4. The church must believe in and be committed to a strategy to train its members in evangelism. This comes from leaders accepting the responsibility that the church must train and equip its members for ministry and leadership.
5. The church must develop and implement a strategy for discipling all new believers. This is the first step toward training for ministry and leadership. 6. The church needs to develop and be committed to ministry that focuses on relationships. Relationships are the bridge to and context of all effective evangelism, discipleship and leadership training. Much more could be said but time limits us. We do want to quickly look at some of the reasons people are not involved in evangelism and then close with the biblical motivations for evangelism. Without much elaboration the following is a list of some of the reasons people do not do evangelism: 1. Many do not believe it is their responsibility. 2. Many in the church may not really have saving faith themselves. 3. Many may not have any confidence in their own relationship with God. 4. Many are not walking in close fellowship with God and so not experiencing joy in their life. 5. Fear. 6. Many do not know how to do it. 7. Many are isolated from any relationships that give them opportunity. The major motivations to evangelism should be enough to give us all a passion for evangelism. First, the love of God is the primary motivation. "God so loved the world" John 3 :16. It is the very nature of the God we love, worship and serve to love the world. If we really love Him then we will also have a concern for the world. Second, we are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to go to the world. If we love Him and seek to obey Him we will evangelize. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Is not our desire to please Him and obey Him enough motivation to cause us to do what He has commanded us to do? Third, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling each of us as believers. This means that our life is to be directed by the Spirit and we are to "walk in the Spirit." One of the major aspects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ. If we are filled with the Spirit we will be filled with a desire to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and to tell others about Him. Many times we think if we just had a greater compassion for the lost we would be committed to evangelism. Actually what we need is a greater compassion for our Lord. It is not that compassion for the lost is not a good thing, but our primary motivation should come from focusing on God. A biblical viewpoint is that all things center in God. Humanism tries to get us to focus everything on man. For more information and challenge, let me encourage you to contact Larry Moyer at EvanTell or look at the Workshops available from Biblical Ministries Worldwide, Evangelism articles by Duane Anderson for IFCA Church Extension "Church Net" forum, or Article on evangelism in IFCA Church and Ministers Handbook by Alex Montoya. Jerry Smith is on the Board of Directors of IFCA International. He lives in Atlanta and is involved in Church Relations with Biblical Ministries Worldwide. Life can change in a moment! The Burden of Health Crisis Pat Miller
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The Joyful Burden

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