Every Christian a witness…
September 11th, 2007In the September issue of Christianity Today, Tim Stafford writes about evangelism. He says that for the past 50 years when a person thought of evangelism two things came to mind. One was going door to door and sharing the Gospel with people who allow you in for a visit. Second, was a crusade and most thought of Billy Graham as the example. He goes on to say that things are changing. Stafford says that the cutting edge method of evangelism today is planting churches. In Southern Baptist life it is the vision of church planting leaders to see SBC churches grow from 45,000 to 100,000 by 2025. Statistically the claim is made that new churches reach more people with the Gospel than older established churches.
While crusades and knocking doors is old school we dare not give up on these methods. They still work when done properly. However, you will find week-long revival/crusades are as scarce as hen’s teeth. Most are Sunday through Wednesday efforts or one-day events. I rarely go in a home these days without an appointment. It does happen on visitation nights but not often. People seem to like to know you are coming. Gated communities have made visitation more difficult just to get in the door.
Church planting is indeed a great way to do evangelism. And America needs more Bible-believing churches. Our large cities and sprawling suburban areas are often a wasteland when it comes to Gospel-proclaiming churches. Olive is seeking to be a part of this church planting movement. We are involved in a church plant in Cleveland, Ohio. And in a few days a recommendation will come to the church that we join the effort to plant a church in San Diego. There are three mains action points in this involvement.
1. Prayer
2. Funds
3. People involved in the ministry on the ground
Every member of the church is to do the work of evangelism. Let me ask you some questions:
1. Do you know the names of the people who live around you?
2. Do you know the spiritual condition of those neighbors?
3. Do those neighbors know that you are a follower of Jesus?
Evangelism begins next door.
Pastor Ted Traylor
October 15th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Thanks for the awesome reminder that we’re all missionaries, even (especially?) if we don’t move away from home!
It is really easy for a church body to focus on its buildings rather than how effectively it uses those buildings. We’re blessed with a pastor who doesn’t care so much about more buildings as he does about filling and using the ones we have. He’s leading the way in getting into the community to meet people and go to them rather than expect people to show up because our buildings are there and open. Change is rarely quick, but we’re starting to turn.