Under Orders from the King

We were buying a house—a brand new house. It was about to be built just up the hill from the model home. Tina’s (my wife) mom came to visit; of course, we took her to see the lot and the model home. We were young; in fact, I was young enough to think that we would do a quick walk through of the model and then go to lunch. Can you tell I had not been married very long? Somehow Tina produced a tape measurer and she and her mother began measuring all the windows and sliding glass doors so they could get started picking out, and/or making curtains, drapes, etc. They were talking about colors and accents, and all the stuff I didn’t care about. So I sat down on one of the couches in the living room and watched the other people who came in to look the model over.

As I sat there enjoying the couch and listening to my stomach begin to growl for lunch, a man, probably old enough to be my father, sat heavily in the easy chair next to me. He was a talkative guy. At times I have been accused of enjoying the sound of my voice too, so we got into a conversation. Apparently, his daughter was looking for a house. I excitedly told him we had already bought one and it would soon be under construction. When we exhausted that line of conversation and our women-folk hadn’t reappeared, he asked me what I did for a living. I was in my very first lead, actually solo, pastoral assignment, so I excitedly told him that I was the pastor of Church of the Foothills, gave him directions, and invited him to join us any Sunday morning for worship.

He asked me what kind of church it was. I told him what I always say when people ask me that:  “We are a non-denominational church affiliated with the Church of God of Anderson, Indiana. It’s sort of a non-denominational denomination.” He said, “Just so long as it’s not one of the those evangelical churches.” I asked him what church he belonged to. He said, “I’m Jewish.” So I asked him what was wrong with “evangelical” churches, and told him that our church could be considered evangelical. He went into a rant for several minutes about how his daughter had been going to an evangelical church and they wanted her to become a Christian, and why couldn’t we just let people be what they were born to be. At the end of his monologue, he was pretty red in the face and he asked me if I tried to get people to become Christians. I told him I did, and he asked why I thought I should try to get people to believe as I do. After a minute or two he again stopped talking and I told him that the last thing Jesus did on this earth was tell His followers to go into all the world and make disciples. I told the man, we have to try to persuade people to join us. We believe God’s Son ordered us to do so. He huffed a time or two and then got up to go find his family. Tina and her mom came back and said they were ready to go about then and we left. I never saw that man again, but that conversation has stayed with me.

We are under orders to bring the world to Jesus. Doing the Great Commission is not something we can do when we get around to it. It is what the Lord calls all of us to do. Some people will laugh at you. Some will get angry. Some will avoid you. But some will believe. Praise God, some will believe! The proper way to share the Good News about Jesus is by building relationships with people who don’t know Him and sharing our lives with them. It is more than can be done in a few minutes on a doorstep … or in a model home. It’s about loving folks who need the Good News and earning the right to be heard. I didn’t have the opportunity to do that with the man on the couch that day, but I think someone was building that kind of relationship with his daughter. I hope at some time someone came into that man’s life and got to share with him on a deeper level than I had the opportunity to do. He was very resistant to me and, I think, to anyone at that time, but maybe later someone got the opportunity to help him know our Savior.

It’s a big job that Jesus gave us. If we do it right it changes lives, cultures, and history. It has done so in the past, and it can again. In recent months several things have happened that demonstrate that the influence of Judeo-Christian values has lessened on our society. That needs to change, but it won’t be changed by winning elections and passing legislation. If the change comes, it will be because hearts have turned to God. That only happens as we build relationships with neighbors, colleagues, teammates, whoever we do life with who don’t know Christ. It only happens when we risk being ostracized and even hated. It will only happen when people see Christ’s love in us. Remember, we are under orders. Jesus did His part on the cross. The Holy Spirit will help us. We must do our assignment.

Grow the Church by Sharing Your Faith the Way the Disciples Did

We have an amazing example from the disciples when it comes to sharing our faith. Well at least from one of the disciples: Andrew. You see, I believe the best chance, perhaps the only chance, for the church to influence the world in the 21^st century is to imitate Andrew. If we do that, Joe and Jill Christ-follower will share their faith with Josh and Amy who live next door, or share a cubicle, or go to the same fitness center, or who are involved with the same children’s school, sports team, or dance class. Even in this time, when communication is everywhere and unbelievably fast, when we can see and hear great speakers on our TVs, our computers, and our phones, the human one-on-one touch of a Christ-follower with his friend remains the most effective way to communicate with people who need the Lord. At this time, at least in America, other means of communication saturate our ears. We have learned to be apathetic, and even skeptical of the things we hear and see on mass media. When a friend shares not only his faith, but also his life, with a friend he has a chance to introduce him/her to Jesus. We have a blazing example of how this works in the New Testament. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was not in the inner circle like Peter, James, and John, and we don’t see him preaching in Acts, but we do see him witnessing one-on-one 3 times.

First of all, he witnessed to Peter (John 1:40-42). After Andrew heard what John said about Jesus and decided to follow Him, the first thing he did was tell Peter all about Jesus and what he believed about Him. The next thing he did was to introduce Peter to Jesus. That is all Andrew did; Jesus took it from there. So Joe and Jill Christ-follower simply need to introduce their friends and relatives to Jesus like Andrew did. Then they need to do another thing that Andrew did:  trust Jesus to take it from there.

The next time we meet Andrew is when Jesus spoke all morning to a crowd and then challenged the disciples to feed lunch to everyone (John 6:1-13). They were dumbfounded. Finally, Andrew told Jesus about a little boy in the crowd whose mother had packed him a lunch—five barley loaves and two small fish. I don’t know how Andrew knew about the boy’s lunch. He must have made friends with the boy and perhaps the boy showed him the lunch he brought. The point is, Andrew introduced the little boy (and his lunch) to Jesus. Jesus did the rest. He took what the little boy brought and made an amazing miracle.

One more time we see Andrew witnessing in this way (John 12:20-26). It seems that Phillip didn’t know what to do with the Greeks who wanted to meet Jesus. They were different. They weren’t “their kind of people.” Andrew did what he had done with Peter and with the little boy. He simply introduced the Greeks to Jesus then stepped back and let Jesus do His thing. (He told the Greeks they would need to follow Him and serve.)

In each of these instances Andrew simply introduced Jesus. Today Joe and Jill Christ-follower need to step up and simply introduce their friends to Jesus. Andrew didn’t need to know all the answers. He didn’t know what Jesus would do with Peter, with the boy and his lunch, or with a group of Gentile Greeks. He didn’t have to know. All he had to do was introduce Jesus and believe that Jesus would do whatever else needed to be done. That’s exactly what we need to learn to do. Too often we make witnessing complicated; really it’s not. It’s simply telling what Jesus has done in your life and inviting your friends to believe in Him, too. Now, more than anytime since its founding, the United States is ignorant of the Bible, and of the Jesus who came to give them hope, love, and eternal life. The calling for all of us is to be Andrews and introduce our friends to Him.

Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust Evangelism

“Three yards and a cloud of dust” is an old way of describing a football team’s offense that concentrates on moving the ball down the field a few yards at a time. While it is considered a rather old-fashioned approach to football, I think it can describe the evangelism strategy churches can utilize today. The three yards and a cloud of dust offense desires to move the ball steadily down the field a little at a time until a touchdown is scored. The alternative is a passing game that relies on long range so-called “hail Mary” passes which attempt to score the touchdown by throwing a long pass. The “hail Mary” seldom works, but when it does, it’s spectacular.

In earlier times, the evangelism style of choice was similar to the “hail Mary” offense. Until about 1970, many evangelical churches relied on revivals, crusades, and other special worship services where a gifted speaker vigorously presented the Gospel. Many people made the decision to follow Christ that way. In the day before cable TV, the revival was the biggest show in town for the week and many non-Christians and nominal Christians attended, and some of them made major commitments. The Holy Spirit greatly used the revivals and crusades. However, as entertainment became more accessible, it became more difficult to get people who weren’t already Christians to attend revivals. Also, while revivals and crusades saw many people respond with a decision at the meeting, most of those who made decisions did not become disciples. The percentage of decisions that led to discipleship largely depended on the quality of follow-up by church members. This meant church members had to somehow make a connection with people they may not know that would allow them to help the new believers become fully devoted followers of Christ.

As revival evangelism faltered, a different kind of “hail Mary” became prevalent. New tools like “The Four Spiritual Laws”, “The Roman Road”, and “Evangelism Explosion” enabled individuals and small groups of Christians to share the Gospel and pray with folks to receive salvation. God used this approach for many years to bring people to follow Him. Often churches would train members in the use of these tools and provide opportunities for them to use them to reach their friends, neighbors and people who visited their church. Here too, follow-up was the key to turning decisions into disciples. Many times follow-up was difficult because the person who presented the Gospel and the decision-maker were strangers and may have had very little in common.

Both of these “hail Mary” methods were very effective at times. The problem was that, like the long pass in football, both these methods needed the situation to be just right. These methods were effective where the people the church hoped to reach held the Bible as sacred. It also helped if the prospect had respect for the Christian worldview.  

Most of the people the church today needs to reach are not familiar with the Bible and are ignorant, or perhaps even suspicious, of the Christian worldview. One night at a great worship service may cause them to start thinking (if you can get them to one), but getting a commitment is very difficult in that circumstance. It is the same with the old individual methods: one conversation, no matter how well thought out, guided, and backed up by scripture, seldom brings someone to Christ.

For these days we need to use a “three yards and a cloud of dust” evangelism approach. We attempt to move our friends and neighbors toward Christ with our conversations, the testimony of our lives, and lots and lots of prayer. We must work together and pray that the persons we hope to reach will meet other Christ-followers who will also move them toward Christ. Working together we can help people toward the goal, which is salvation. As we move down the field, there are opportunities for the prospect to see Christ working in our lives, to learn the Christian worldview, and the importance of the Bible. Sometimes, using the “three yards and a cloud of dust” approach, the team moves down the field toward to the goal line fairly quickly. (The goal in evangelism is our friend becoming a disciple.) And, sometimes it takes a lot of time.

Evangelism tracts and learned outlines will be handy tools along the way, so can evangelistic worship services. However, instead of either being the strategy for evangelizing our community; they are part of the strategy. The strategy is actually based on Joe and Mary Pewsitter becoming friends with people who don’t know Christ, loving them and sharing life with them. It is seldom fast, but it has a great chance of making new disciples rather than simply getting someone to make an empty decision. Follow-up is natural, because of the relationship that has been established. It is friend-helping-friend learn to follow the Lord. This strategy is not a program of the church; it is a way of life. I think it was the way of life for the New Testament Church. It doesn’t depend on a fiery evangelist or a perfected presentation. It is all about us loving them until they become part of us.