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Archive for April, 2009

Missions Strong, Outreach Weak

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Is your church strong in foreign missions but weak in local outreach? If so, you’re not alone. As they say, it’s easier to write a check than share your faith. If this is true at your church, here’s an idea that might help: a reverse missions conference.

A reverse missions conference puts the emphasis on “Jerusalem” rather than “the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The desire is not to weaken foreign missions — not at all. After all, the Mission of God involves all venues of the Acts 1:8 mandate. As someone said, “Missions is simply evangelism gone cross-cultural.” But such a conference, if your church holds an annual missions week, can help restore interest in the local part of the Great Commission.

Recently, The Philip Center helped lead a church through this kind of conference, and it went very well. Here are some of the details.

Title: Go Local!

Schedule:

* Thursday: Planning meeting for leaders of outreach small groups
* Thursday evening: Focus Group (click here for more)
* Friday: Church and town leaders meeting. The church provided lunch at town hall and asked the town leaders how the church might meet needs in the town.
* Friday evening: Video of on-the-street interviews about God and religion, followed by a discussion on how to reach spiritually lost people.
* Saturday morning: Men’s, Women’s and Youth Breakfast: “Sharing Your Faith”
* Saturday evening: Dinner and main speaker
* Sunday morning: Services with main speaker
* Sunday after the service: “Where Do We Go from Here?”

An essential element: have someone in place to keep the momentum going from the conference. If the conference is inspiring, be sure that you have someone in the church who can champion outreach and keep it moving forward. And then be sure to provide evangelism training so that those who are inspired by the conference are equipped to share their faith.

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Walking With Seekers

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

I’ve recently read I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp (IVP Books 2008). It’s a relatively short book (132 pages) written to help Christians understand the thresholds that many people cross as they move toward faith in Christ. The ﬁve thresholds are: trusting a Christian, becoming curious, opening up to change, seeking after God and entering the kingdom. Though the subtitle suggests that these thresholds apply only to postmoderns, I see this pattern beyond those who are typically postmodern — including the spiritual journey of a friend who just trusted Christ this past month.

The authors (both long-term campus ministers) are careful not to reduce the work of salvation to “a psychological phenomenon, an inner event that can be controlled…if we preach the gospel just right” (19). “But just as no farmer would spend all her time scattering seeds, or all his time swinging a sickle, we see such one-trick evangelism as foolish spiritual farming. There are ﬁve distinct seasons of growth that we’ve noticed again and again. Realizing this organic way that people make their way down the path to faith frees us to respond to our friends’ particular needs at the time” (21).

I recommend this book. It has helped me to understand those stages of a seeker — and act accordingly. As someone who loves to share his faith, but doesn’t easily see people believe, I need all the help I can get.

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Building Bridges

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Personal outreach takes time. Someone who is investigating a relationship with Christ often needs to develop trust, hear the truth in a variety of ways and see what belief entails in the lives of different Christians. This means we need to be patient as ambassadors of Jesus. In this article, we’ll address the importance of active patience as we create opportunities for the Holy Spirit to convict people of their need for Christ.

I will often have a spiritually-oriented conversation with someone and be disappointed that it didn’t go further. In those cases it’s easy to think “We’ll, that wasn’t very fruitful. I guess that person isn’t open to the gospel.” But patience in matters of the heart means waiting for God to work, in his timing — and not giving up in the process. It also means looking for ways to build a bridge to the next opportunity with that same person. When we come to the end of a conversation with someone, we should be thinking about the bridge to the next opportunity.

That opportunity can come in many different forms. Maybe you’ve perceived that your friend is in need of special advice. Who can give that advice even better than you? Or your friend may have a hobby or interest that someone else you know has. Do what you can to gently bring those people together. Or maybe it’s a book, a website or an event that would help your friend understand the gospel better.

This also applies to how ministry leaders should think about outreach events. Right from the beginning of the planning process, think about the bridges that need to be built after it’s over. How will you follow up those who are interested? Who is gifted at long-term follow-up? Can you set aside a follow-up team who won’t be involved in the large event itself so they will have the energy to meet with seekers after the event is over?

Building bridges takes into consideration the fact that God works in people’s hearts in his own timing. Sometimes it may mean leaving the conversation about the gospel alone for months and praying for your friend. Come back to it later.

Posted in Reaching Out | 1 Comment »

I Don’t Want to be Offensive!

Monday, April 27th, 2009

One of the most common obstacles to sharing our faith is the fear that we may offend. Most of us who have that fear won’t truly be offensive, but occasionally it’s a real concern. What can we do about it?

One of the best things we can do is be honest and genuine. If you worry about being offensive, say so to the person you’re sharing with. You might say something like, “You know, we talk about a lot of things, but hardly ever about spirituality or the Bible. It’s really important to me, but I don’t bring it up because I don’t want to offend you. Do you think about this stuff much?”

Or maybe you find yourself in a spiritual conversation and your friend seems to grow uncomfortable. That’s the time to stop and say, “You seem to get frustrated or uncomfortable when we talk about God. I don’t want to make you angry. Can you tell me why this is a difficult topic?”

The theology behind speaking openly and honestly about the gospel lies in the incarnation. Christ became a man so that he could share in humanity with us and through his death and resurrection save us. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).

When we share our faith, we need to remain human — to sympathize with our conversation partner, to understand his feelings and talk about them. So often we try to become a perfect evangelism machine when we share the gospel. And that will likely make us offensive.

So when you’re afraid you might offend your friend by talking about the gospel, say so. Keep the ground of your conversation human and discuss not only the content of the gospel but how you both feel when you talk about it.

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Keep the Evangelism Balloon Inflated

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

I’m not much of a golfer. I’ve played a few dozen times in my life, but I haven’t inherited the natural talent of my grandfather, who I hear was a great one. There are too many things to think about all at the same time — foot position, hand position, head, shoulders, club face. It’s way to much to remember!

Church life seems that way some times. And when it does, it’s time to remember the basics. What is the essence of church life? In this article, I’d like to particularly address those of us who give leadership to church activities. It’s important that as we busy ourselves in the activities of church life, we also keep an eye on the big picture of the purposes of a church.

Understanding the essence of a thing is very important to me. What is the essence of marriage…of education…of the church? I’m uneasy pursuing activity in these areas of life until I have some grip on what its fundamental purpose is. When the Westminster Shorter Catechism states “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever,” it’s making a statement about the essence of life.

I like what Wayne Grudem says about the essential purposes of the church: “We can understand the purposes of the church in terms of ministry to God, ministry to believers, and ministry to the world.” (Systematic Theology, ch 44. C). The problem is, it’s difficult to maintain these ministries in balance as we seek to nurture healthy churches.

Have you noticed how helium-filled latex balloons deflate in a day? They’re the old fashioned balloons that end up floating just above the floor the morning after a party? But it seems like the shiny Mylar balloons last for decades! The church’s ministry toward the world — our calling to reach non-Christians with the gospel — is like the old-fashioned latex balloon — it deflates faster than the other ministries.

How do we keep the outreach balloon inflated? For starters, we must believe that evangelism is as essential to the church as worship and discipleship. And believing that the purposes of a church include evangelism rests on our understanding that mission is first of all God’s mission, and therefore it is the church’s mission. We go into the world because Christ came into our world. We leave our comfort zone just as Jesus did — taking the form of humanity and becoming obedient to the point of death on the cross. The story of history is the story of God’s work of redemption. That’s why it’s the church’s mission.

Given the multitude of barriers to personal evangelism, church leaders must give a disproportionate amount of attention to outreach. Keeping that balloon inflated as fully as the others will require more input. How is your evangelism balloon? Does it need more air? Keeping it inflated will help you maintain the health of your ministries of discipleship and worship.

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Outreach Begins in the Heart

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

It’s easy to convince myself that I’d be better at sharing my faith if my skills were better, or my knowledge broader. And it’s true that both need improvement. But I know that the best hope I have for fruitful outreach lies in the depth of my own heart.

Consider what Martyn Lloyd-Jones says about the methods of evangelism: “In the Scriptures from beginning to end, the emphasis is on the messenger, not his external methods — on his character and his being and on his relationship to God” (from Sanctified Through the Truth). Lloyd-Jones captures the truth of John 15:5 — “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

While we may need to sharpen our skills and increase our knowledge, the greatest hope we have for fruitful outreach is abiding in Christ. This means then that the greatest barrier to evangelism is not, as we often assume, lack of knowledge, poor communication skills or irrelevant evangelistic literature. It’s not even fear, busyness or opposition. The greatest barrier to evangelism is distance from Christ.

One of the best ways to seek for fruitfulness in outreach, then, is to examine our hearts. Is there sin that’s blocking the power of the Holy Spirit in my life? Am I at odds with a Christian friend, with whom I need to be reconciled? Has my love for Jesus cooled off?

As ministry leaders, we need to ask the questions, “Are we addressing issues of the heart clearly and directly? Are we integrating our outreach with our teaching about spiritual growth? Fruitful evangelism can’t be separated from a clear call to holiness and a love for God.

What’s the link between my spiritual health and my outreach? For one thing, if I am weighed down by unconfessed sin and unresolved conflict, I lose my energy and desire to tell other people about the freedom that comes from the gospel. But when I do repent, humble myself and seek to restore my relationship with God and others, I am all the more eager to share that experience with others.

I do need to improve my outreach skills and I do need to increase my understanding of God’s Word. But more important, I need to draw close to Jesus and remain there, as if life depended on it. That’s the best hope I have for leading my friends to Christ.

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