No 17

(The Local Church)

True Christians are members of the Spiritual church of Jesus Christ and are called upon to serve as sowers of the Word; they are also members of a local church. So what role does the local church play with regards to the ministry of evangelism? I believe that there are no set rules that apply to this and each church must figure out, on its own, what extent it wants to get involved. There are extremes where some churches do nothing but evangelism and other churches who leave evangelism to the “gifted” and concentrate on other matters. I believe that balance is essential if we are to win the world to Jesus Christ. Our witness must reflect what is in our heart or, to put it another way, when our heart is right with the Lord, He will use us for the work He has to do on earth. There is no one method – personal evangelism, door to door evangelism, park evangelism, special evangelism crusades or camps, etc, etc; they all have merit in the eyes of the Lord.

God builds his Church with those who want to work. If there is strife and pride in a local church, how can God use that church to preach the good news of the Gospel? Jesus Himself said “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35). John echoed these words when he said “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” (1 John 3:23).

There was a church once that wanted to participate in a special evangelism camp. So when came time to see who wanted to participate, they discovered that there was so much animosity and enmity amongst the members, that no one felt worthy. So the Lord blessed them in such a way that they settled their personal problems and then participated in the camp; many people were restored to fellowship and many new believers were added to the Body of Christ. What a privilege it is to work for the Lord!!