I’m not quite sure what you mean when you write …”

I thought it was pretty self-explanatory actually, but I’ll try to emphasize: “There’s much TALK of “equipping the saints for the work of the ministry,” as there should be. However, there’s not much expectation placed upon people in that regard.”

Most would affirm the biblical admonition, but the expectation is that the paid staff are to evangelize and the common (wo)man has been dutiful by inviting friends to church, whereby the professional can give them the gospel.

Phil wrote:

“When we say equip people, it is what Jesus did by discipleing people to reach the lost and disciple the saved.”

Praise be to God. Phil, you (pl.) are in the minority, sadly.

I was never equipped as a lad, but (through discipleship, in particular) we equip the saints to share the good news with a lost and dying world.

Brian,

Amen and thanks for the put-back.

I agree with you and have had the same experience as you have. This is why I make it part of my mission (actually it’s what God has commanded) to equip the saints for the work of evangelism and discipleship.

To: GUNNY HARTMAN

I’m not quite sure what you mean when you write,

“There’s much talk of “equipping the saints for the work of the ministry,” as there should be. However, there’s not much expectation placed upon people in that regard.”

When we say equip people, it is what Jesus did by discipleing people to reach the lost and disciple the saved. People are the only ones we can equip, nothing else. Has anyone taken the time to equip you, and if so are you now in turn doing the same? I don’t know if you are asking for an equipping model to follow or what. If you would like to explain more you are invited to do so.

Until the nets are filled….

Blessings,
Phil

There’s much talk of “equipping the saints for the work of the ministry,” as there should be. However, there’s not much expectation placed upon people in that regard.

The pastor was one of the people who said that!! Kind of hard to get people excited when the pastor himself see’s no strong desire to reach the lost. It is a matter of how much do you love God and how much do you love your neighbor?

John MacArthur does a great job of teaching in his church. He edifies the congregation so that they are equipped to reach the lost. That is why so many churches fail, because when all you do is give “feel good” messages, you have not equipped the saints. You have just given them an emotional high. Try going up to a rich person and telling them that God will give them a good life. He won’t see a necessity for it. Now try showing him God’s Law and how he has failed to keep it. Let him see that he is exceedingly sinful so that the message of the cross will make sense to him.

Great post here and some very good comments!
God bless
Brian

Thank you all for engaging in this dialog, as most in the church tend to have as must interest in the word evangelism as the world has for the word righteousness. Bill bright has shared that only 2% of Christians regularly share their faith with others. Imagine if 100% were being obedient to this calling. We must remember that evangelism is not a gift that some have and others were denied by God to have. Eph. 4:11, and Acts 21:8 are not support verses for evangelism being a gift, as both verses use the word Evangelist, which according to Eph. 4:11 is an office/role by which the calling of the evangelist is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (of evangelism). A substitutionary word for evangelism could be the word Love. Would we consider seeing a hungry person and loving them enough to give him or her bread translate into one that is gifted in feeding the hungry. Jesus called His church (made up of individuals) to feed the bread of life and the water of life to those that are hungry for the righteousness of Christ (Matt 5, John 4). Furthermore, evangelism is not just an individual thing, as the church went out preaching the gospel throughout the book of Acts, and we also read individuals doing so as well. A church should leave it’s manner of evangelism only if it is not biblical. Training churches is what the evangelist is called to do. This is the calling God has placed upon my life, and I am grateful to Him for it, although many do not receive a ministry as well that trains the church to go outside the “safe net” of the four walls of the church building, this however is our call and duty in the Gospel (Matt 16:15, Matt 28:19, Rom. 10:13-15, etc…).

Does God love or hate the sinner, well let’s defer to the Scripture once again, Rom. 5:8, John 3:16, also keeping in mind that God is angry with the sinner (wicked) daily (Psalm 7:11). can God not love those that are lost (Prodigal son) and yet be angry with them at the same time?

My questions to those concerned about this whole issue of sharing our faith with others, is this, Do you evangelize those that you know, and also go out of your way to regularly share your faith with strangers? How often do you share your faith, and what keeps you from doing it more often? If the fear of being rejected by others is what seems to freeze you in your tracts think of this: The worse thing that can happen to you, is perhaps being rejected (unless you live an area where real persecution takes place, then perhaps you could lost your life and be with the Lord in eternity). The worse thing that could happen to the unsaved is they will spend an eternity in Hell. Who has it worse. Let compassion swallow your fears and go seek and save the lost like Jesus did. Then disciple those that some into the fold. Make it your mission to reach and disciple at least one person. One thing you can never do in heaven is evangelize. Will anyone be in heaven because of God working His saving grace through your life, I hope so.

We are all called to the ministry of evangelism and discipleship. they are not gift, but commands given to the whole church. May God strengthen you and give you courage and compassion for the task at hand. Go fishing for souls. You can check out http://www.soulfishingministries.com for some tools to encourage you to go soulfishing for humanity.

Until the nets are filled…
Blessings to you all,

Phil Sessa

I have read through your posts on “evangelism.” I have found them to be very helpful. Thank you for directing me there. I also found your email address. I’ll shoot you an email directly.

Albert

Thank you for your reply. Philosophically, I wholeheartedly agree on all fronts, especially the fact that “evangelism is something that happens at the individual level.” It’s difficult not to. I guess the answers I’m looking for are more tangible. I will take a closer look at the resources on the on the sidebar and see if I can gleam more insight on the Grace’s “view of missions or evangelism” and “framework and paradigm”. Maybe the answer is just simply to read, meditate, and model after Acts.

I’m thrilled that Grace is growing not just through transfer growth. That is, unfortunately, not really the case with my church. Not that we don’t want more conversion growth (of course we do, so do most faithful evangelicals); an honest assessment of our church’s history will show that our efforts have been quite feeble. We seem to be very good at transfer growth and filling a hole in the church marketplace within our community. In full disclosure, my pastors are TMS guys, and we do not “market or advertise,” but it is clear that we have a “brand” that resonates with a certain population of the Christian marketplace.

I enjoy the possibility of dialoguing with you on this subject with you in the future. What is your role at Grace? If you’re willing to indulge me, I caution you that I can get annoying. Stock answers (no disrespect intended), like “we evangelize,” or “we just want to do what the bible tells me to do,” just doesn’t do it for me. I kind of take that as a given.

Finally, I am serious in my inquiry. I’m not trying to engage in debate or argue. I am just looking for tangible ways in which to equip, encourage, and exhort my local church family to fulfill their biblical mandate to take the gospel to Jerusalem and through Jerusalem – the world. I am honestly interested in seeing how Grace approaches this most crucial area.

God bless,

Albert

If you hit the side bar “evangelism” you can find some articles I have written specifically on how we reach our Jerusalem. However, I think this article pretty much covers that: we equip people to bring the gospel to those in their communities. While I can’t comment on other large churches, Grace sees transfer growth (people moving into LA and joining our church), as well as substantial growth through salvations. We have multiple baptisms just about every Sunday, and just about all of the testimonies are from those who got saved at Grace.

So, this article was pretty much about how we reach our Jerusalem. You ask if I think it has been effective, and I do. I listen to the baptism testimonies, and I see our Bible studies growing through new believers being added to the body. Our new believer’s classes are filled, and God is adding to our church daily, it seems. You can always be more faithful in evangelism, but I think the people at Grace are very faithful, and the Lord seems to be honoring that.

I’m sure you see “large mega-churches” that do somethings well, and I’m sure there are some crazy “organic churches” out there. The point of this article is that evangelism is something that happens at the individual level, regardless of the church or group that individual attends.

I hope that helps. Thanks Albert,

Jesse