It is a blessing that you have to look back to find issues with which your church
struggles. I agree that just about every church has an issue with biblical
evangelism in some facet or another. It was one of the issues that I mentioned for
my church as well. You mentioned your assertion that often it is better left for the
professionals to handle evangelism as being a major misconception in the church.
I could not agree with this more. When I mention evangelism as being the duty of
every Christian, I usually get some funny looks. a
Your belief to “ stress what evangelism is not” as being a necessary teaching is
right on. I grew up in a church that taught that that people I evangelized and led to
Christ was the fruit that I would be judged on. My salvation was in some way tied
to how many people I led to the Lord. This was a lot of pressure to place on a
young man and I often placed myself in bad situations and forced evangelism
because it was all up to me. What a blessing to learn that all I needed to do was
to be faithful and the Holy Spirit would do the rest. A spiritually healthy church is a
loving, bonded community of believers, which is the manifested body of the incarnate
Christ. The bond of love among the members of this church is evident in the relationship
that are demonstrated within and outside of the church. It is an expression of Jesus
Christ that reaches out to unbelievers and brings Christ to the world (John 13:35).
Members and new believers are taught, through the process of discipleship, how to
know,to grow in, to serve and to share Jesus. A healthy church intentionally seeks to
develop each Christian into the likeness of Christ. This does not happen by itself; it can
only be fostered by a spiritually healthy leader whose vision is “inward” and “outward”
evangelism. It sounds like you’ve had quite the mound of experience as fare as
different church environments. Indeed discipleship and evangelism are both vital
and grossly underused. “To evangelize is to declare on the authority of God what
he has done to save sinners, to warn men of their lost condition, to direct them to
repent, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”[1] This is the Commission that
Jesus has instructed His bride to do. Should we ignore it? It is not an easy task,
but it is the task that Jesus set before us. The other aspect that I 100% agree with
you on is the discipleship factor. Families are not discipling their children, but
leaving it to the church, fathers have been abandoning their posts as spiritual
leaders in their homes. Older men and women that should be stronger in the faith
and taking on disciples themselves are still on the milk as babies are. “12 For
though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you
again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk
and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the
word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are
of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5:12-14).”[2] This is not new, as we see, the
earliest believers dealt with this. It is our generation, and our task to disciple, and
evangelize the world, while God still allows.
References
Chessman, John. et.al., The Grace of God in the Gospel (Edinburgh: Banner of
Truth, 1972)
