Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Helping the Local Congregation Become Evangelistic

The following was written by Wes (son) and Jim Woodell (dad). You can read more of Wes' blogs by going to http://www.westcoastwitness.com/



Helping the Local Church Become Evangelistic

· Begins with Leadership
Leadership and teaching determines direction. Church leadership must determine that evangelism is going to be a priority and the vision for and high priority of reaching the lost for Christ must be clearly articulated. Evangelism should be brought up regularly in teaching. The goal is to get church members to internalize the message “my mission as a follower of Christ is to bring Jesus to a lost world!” Once a congregation internalizes that message, they’ll make it part of their everyday thinking and conversation – it becomes contagious!
Local evangelism needs the personal and united endorsement of the elders and staff. Jesus, himself, said “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28) All of the elders and staff must endorse and encourage evangelism as a priority this ministry to be successful.
Being “outwardly focused at the spiritual core” must include bringing the lost into the body of Christ, not just into fellowship with the local congregation.

· Leaders must model evangelistic priority
In addition to talking about evangelism, leaders must model what it means to be evangelistic. Church members should see leaders sharing Jesus with others themselves – this is the only way to give your call to be evangelistic credibility. All talk + no action = zero credibility and zero change in your congregation.
There is a difference between “evangelism” and being “evangelistic.” Evangelism is defined as sharing the gospel with a lost person. Being evangelistic is simply saying a word for Jesus that will lead people to open themselves up for evangelism. Every Christian is gifted to do one or the other. Just as some Christians are gifted givers, servers, mercy givers, etc. (Rom. 12:1-7) some are gifted to evangelize. It takes the whole body working together (Eph. 4:16) to build up the body of Christ.

· Evangelists and new converts should be recognized and encouraged
Time should be set aside during corporate assemblies (like Sunday morning) for the people who studied with a new convert to introduce them to the rest of the church. Baptisms should never simply be a bullet point in the bulletin – or, even worse – not recognized at all! Special attention and an extra helping of encouragement should be given to new Christians, and evangelists should be given plenty of pats on the back too.
Many congregations set aside time for baby blessings. Why not give equal time to recognizing those that are born again? This could also be a time for a testimony from the person coming from darkness to light; a time of encouragement to the congregation and others that might be struggling within the assembly. (A message from a life will change a life; a message from a mind will only change a mind.) Rather than have a “professional minister” testify for the new Christian, why not have the new Christian give his own life changing testimony?
o NOTE: Evangelists should be warned about impure motivations. It’s ok to feel good after being recognized for bringing someone to the Lord, but those pats on the back should never become the primary motivator for being evangelistic! Serving God should, seeing someone’s life change for the better should, and carrying out Jesus’ command to reach a lost world in His name should. All glory goes to God, and evangelists must check their motives. Satan will do whatever he can to puff someone up – evangelists must remain humble. There is also a need to recognize that in every conversion, almost with exception, there are multiple personalities that bring a person to the Lord. EVERY SINGLE ONE of them is of equal importance!

· Individual members should be equipped to perform personal Bible studies
If you want your church to truly be evangelistic at its core, intentional steps should be taken to equip members to perform personal, evangelistic Bible studies. The #1 reason most people say they don’t share their faith is because they’re afraid to, and the #1 reason they’re afraid to is because they don’t know where to start. Evangelistic Bible studies give a novice evangelist a starting point. Over time and with additional study, most who regularly practice sharing their faith will come to a point where it’s very comfortable for them, but they’ll never get there without starting somewhere. Ideally, we should all know Scripture well enough to study with someone without a study guide, but most people aren’t there. Thus, church members should be equipped with an effective evangelistic study to serve as a starting point for further skill development.
Start an ongoing class for equipping Christians to share their faith. Get a gifted person to lead a class on Wednesday nights for this purpose. As you raise the visibility of this opportunity the number of interested Christians will increase. Publicly promote this opportunity before the Sunday morning assemblies.
o NOTE: In the past, churches making the transition from being inwardly focused, and non-evangelistic, to being outwardly focused, and evangelistic, have set aside class time on Sunday mornings to take the entire congregation through equipping sessions by training them in evangelistic study. Churches that have done this have had great success. (This is just a starting point and serves best to raise awareness that the congregation’s leadership is serious about reaching the lost!)

· Identify your church’s evangelists, and get them to train other members
Get your evangelists to reproduce themselves by bringing other church members along when they’re studying with someone. This is the best way to help evangelists-in-training overcome the jitters. When going through a study, the person being trained should be required to take notes to hand to the person being studied with at the end. In addition to being useful to the person being studied with, this practice will help the trainee internalize the message of the evangelistic study. The note taker should write legibly, and the person being studied with should be instructed to go home, look over the notes, and write down any questions they might have to be dealt with next time.
· In addition to Bible studies, each member should learn to use their own story to share Jesus with others
Everyone has a story, and stories are meant to be shared. No two stories are alike – all are unique. Some people’s conversion stories are very dramatic (like Paul’s story leading up to seeing Jesus on the Damascus Road) – others are less dramatic, but still very powerful (like the disciples who recognized Jesus on the Emmaus Road). Time should regularly be set aside (once a month or every six weeks) for testimonies to be shared in the assembly – especially those of new convert’s. Unless someone is an experienced public speaker, it would be a good idea for those sharing to meet with a leader ahead of time to structure their testimony in the form of an outline, and it would probably be a good idea to encourage them to go over it a couple of times in advance. Those too shy to share in a large assembly can do it in a small group, but ideally testimony should be shared with as many people as possible (like on Sunday mornings). This serves three main purposes: 1) it keeps the congregation focused on its evangelistic mission because they’re constantly hearing about lives being transformed around them. 2) Its good practice for believers in articulating how Jesus saved them. Their story will be a very powerful tool in their own personal evangelism. 3) People sharing their faith in Jesus publicly are making a profound declaration in front of a lot of people – they’re saying that they’re living their lives according to God’s will, and God will bless that confession and encourage others through it. In addition to that, they’ll be expected to walk what they talk. Because of this, it’s a good idea for new converts to share their testimony in front of as many people as possible as soon as possible.
· Outwardly focused small groups should be part of your evangelistic strategy
Often, small groups will be your initial contact point with outsiders, but only if church members involved are actively befriending outsiders and regularly inviting new people. When a relationship exists, outsiders will often be more likely to attend an informal Bible study in someone’s home before they’ll attend a Sunday service or before they’ll agree to a personal study.
Small group leaders need ongoing training and emphasis on reaching out to the lost. (Luke 14:12-14). Also there is a need for encouraging the spawning of new groups when a group consistently goes over 16 in number of attendees. Almost all the experts say a small group ceases to be a small group when the number of attendees exceeds 12.
· Effective evangelism involves more than simply passion – it involves skill
In his book The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren points out the fact that effective ministry takes more than passion or want to – it takes skill. The same is true of effective personal evangelism. Yes, some of your church members have a gift for evangelism and will be very comfortable exercising it freely, but all of your church members should be evangelistic regardless of their giftedness. That being said, effective evangelism takes a certain amount of skill, and skill must be developed. Skill development takes dedication, time, and, most of all practice! Most of your church members will be incredibly uncomfortable when initially engaging in personal evangelism, but the more they do it the easier it will become. Familiarity brings comfort, and when you consider the fact that Jesus Christ is the only avenue for a lost world to come into contact with the Living God thereby being saved, we as God’s people should be very familiar and comfortable with sharing the Good News with others, and if we’re not we have a responsibility to remedy that! The more experience in personal evangelism a person has the more skill they will develop, and experience only comes with practice. Fear is overcome by allowing the message of Jesus to overflow – share it!
WHAT PLAN DOES YOUR CONGREGATION HAVE FOR REACHING THE LOST?

The desire for God to have the lost saved is clearly stated in Scripture (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus came into the world to “save sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15). Jesus is credited with saying in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” In the KJV the wording is, “…preach the gospel to every creature.” The accepted outline for fulfilling this directive from GOD is Acts 1:8, “…JERUSALEM (your city), AND IN ALL JUDEA (Surrounding County), AND IN ALL SAMARIA (Your State/US), AND TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.” That is the whole world. Have we seriously considered this mandate? Do we have a plan to fulfill God’s call to get the lost saved?


This is submitted as a beginning point. Your feedback and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. If you take this plan and implement it with your congregation please share the results. Thank you for your interest in saving the lost!

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