Topic:  G) EVANGELISM

 

No 1

(Our raison d'ętre)

This is oftentimes misunderstood by believers.   Some think that evangelism is only by

a) Door to door canvasing or b) Personal contact or c) Playing music in parks or d) Crusades in stadiums or  e) on street corners or f) waiting for the unsaved to come to the churches by putting on special programs or g) pick children up in buses for Sunday School or h) Television or radio?.and the list goes on. 

You know, all these ways are good but the most important thing that a Christian must do is to make sure that he or she is actively practicing one of them with the Lord's blessing.  In heaven, it will be too late.  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 2:6: "now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation".

Evangelism is not an option it is our raison d'ętre.

 

No 2

(How to and to whom)

How long does it take for a new believers to witness to their families or friends?  More often than not, a new believer can talk about Jesus Christ almost immediately; the Lord does that, you know.  So how do we handle it? What do we say?  Sometimes, only your personal testimony is sufficient because you can't recite a ton of verses by heart; well, maybe one verse: John 3:16. 

To be an effective witness, you need only to remember four (4) simple words.

They are:  GOD   SIN   JESUS   REPENTANCE.

These four words or as some call them: "The four Spiritual Laws" are what Salvation is all about. 

1) GOD - everyone (well, almost everyone) believes in God or some superior being; this one is easy.  2) SIN - This one is a little harder so go easy and make sure the person knows that sin separates man from God.  Quote verses to support this: Rom 3:23 or Rom 6:23.  Again, don't go any further unless the person understands that his or her sin comes between them and God  3) JESUS - Insist on the fact that Jesus is the ONLY way to reach God and life everlasting.  1 Timothy 2:5 is a good verse.  4) REPENTANCE  If you've gotten this far, the person must see that he or she has a choice to make.  Praise the Lord if they respond positively. But don't push too hard; we don't save, Jesus does. 

That's the "How to"; now the second question: "To whom"

Well you see, this is the fun part because we don't know so it is up to us to speak to everyone that we are given opportunity and we let the Spirit of God do the preparation; remember the four soils?  Matthew 13:1-23.  This is one method of evangelism; all methods are good; the important thing is to be available and God will use you as an instrument in His hands to perform a miracle in someone's life.

 

 

No 3

(Can all Christians evangelize?)

When we were saved, a whole bunch of things happened to us.  We received inner peace, our sins were forgiven,  the Holy Spirit indwelt us, we became children of God by adoption, our salvation was secured, etc, etc, etc.   How many more reasons do we need to tell all our friends and enemies about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He can do for whosoever seeks Him in an honest way?

All this to say that anyone who is born-again can do evangelism, if only just to give a personal testimony of how you were saved.  One does not need to know the doctrine of sublapsarianism or be able to get up in front of an audience and preach eloquent sermons; just talk to anyone about Jesus.  You will see that the more you talk about Him the braver you get. Let's define brave.  I'm not saying to evangelize your boss during business hours and be a pain. He is paying you to work, not to evangelize.  I'm saying that bravery in evangelism has more to do with assurance and conviction. 

If you are convinced about Jesus, the people around you will notice this and will, of course, scrutinize you very carefully.  This is where Christian Living comes into play and we will discuss this in other studies. In closing,  let's look at a verse in Ac 4:31  -  “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”   Don't ever forget that the Spirit which was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost is the same Spirit that we have today.

 

 

No 4

(How to Break the Silence)

You're sitting around a table with some unsaved friends either at work in the cafeteria or at school at lunch break and you say to yourself: "How can I break the silence and talk to these people about Jesus?"   You know that your testimony to them will change the opinion that they have about you and you're afraid of failure and ridicule but you also know that they need to hear the Good News of the Gospel; the Good News that you have!

So what is a person to do?  It has happened to me several times and do you know what?  I get goose-bumps every time but they soon disappear when I "push it a bit".  What do I mean?

After having prayed silently and asked the Lord for guidance you just say something about the Lord or the Bible; anything!  You'll see the eyes and ears of your friends perk open and, from that point on, the Lord will take over; He will fill your mind with Bible verses.  This is where the four basic principles of witnessing come into play; do you remember?  They are:   GOD  SIN  JESUS  REPENTANCE.  You just make sure that the verses you use, even if you don't have a Bible, cover these Four Spiritual Laws and your job is done.

As we said before, the Lord is the one who saves and He uses us as instruments in His hands to direct unsaved, sin-sick people to Divine bliss and contentment.  He operates miracles in people's lives and He lets us be partakers in the joy of seeing someone become a child of God. The Bible says in John 1:12:  "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name". There is no greater an experience for a Christian than to be used by God in His wonderful work of reconciliation.           

 

No 5

(How the lost react to evangelism)

The mandate that the Church received from the Savior in Matthew 28 :19, 20 is, as we have seen, our raison d’ętre.  There is no other more important task for us to accomplish here on earth except , of course, to glorify God; but when people come to the Lord for their salvation, God is glorified.  In the years when I did door-to-door evangelism, one thing had always remained true.  No matter how hard we tried and no matter what system we used (The 4 Spiritual Laws, a survey, etc), God is the one who prepared the soil in which we sowed our seeds.  Often, I have seen people very receptive to the Gospel at the outset, but manifest no real commitment to Christ. The reverse is also true when much opposition is at first demonstrated but then a true commitment in the way of repentance comes forth; only the Spirit of God can do this.  In the parable of the sower, Jesus gave His disciples and us the best object lesson on evangelism any where in the Bible.  In Matthew 13 :1-24 there are six types of soil : three that don’t commit to repentance and three that do. Our job is simple; we have to speak to people about Jesus Christ and then, when a person reacts favorably to the message, we are to disciple them in the ways of the Lord.  We have no idea who is supposed to come to the Lord so we cannot pick and choose who we speak to.  There are two types of people in the world : the saved and the unsaved; thank God that we aren’t that ones who decide who is and who isn’t.  There is an evangelism crusade coming up this spring and summer; here is a great opportunity to see God at work in the hearts of people.  There is no greater joy for a Christian than to see someone who we spoke to, come to the Lord.

 

No 6

(What about those who never heard?)

In door-to-door evangelism, we encounter people who have legitimate questions about how God reveals Himself and to whom. Some of these questions are  :  « What about the Pygmies in darkest Africa? »  or  «What about people who are totally isolated in Communist countries like China? »  or  « How about tribes in the Amazon jungle? ». All these people, they say, have never heard of Jesus; so how can God send them to eternal damnation?  The answers to these questions are difficult to comprehend and, or to explain but we have a just God and He reveals Himself to those who truly seek Him out.  There are examples of this in the Bible and we will look at two of them. But first let’s look a verse that Paul wrote to the Romans after he explained to them that God’s wrath against the unrighteous will be revealed.   « For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse » (Romans 1 :20).   In the book of Acts there are two people who diligently seeked God and He faithfully revealed Himself to them.  One is an Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 :26-40 and the other is a Roman centurian, Cornelius in Acts 10.  God saw the hearts of these two people and sent someone to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ; they are, in order : Philip and Peter.  Now let’s look at an example that is not in the Bible but has the same pattern and the same outcome.  Once, a missionary made his way in the jungles of Africa in search of a certain tribe to which he wanted to share the gospel.  After many days of walking through dangerous terrain, he finally made it to this isolated tribe who, oddly enough were friendly to the gospel message.  During the presentation, the chief stood up and said emphatically, « that’s the God of the blue flower ».  As it turns out, the chief was walking through the jungle a few weeks prior to the missionary’s visit and had come across a beautiful blue flower; probably an orchid.  The chief had said to himself : « I would like to meet the God who made that flower ».  The missionary listened attentively to his story and of course used it to help the other members of the tribe understand the message of the gospel.  The whole tribe came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.  This story is another example of how God can revreal Himself to those who seek Him and maybe there is someone in your proximity who has said these very same words and is just waiting to hear the Gospel.

 

No 7

G) Evangelism  (The power behind evangelism)

There is no doubt in every Christian’ s mind that the power behind evangelism is God’s Holy Spirit.  The Bible is quite clear on this point.  In the gospel of John, Jesus explain this to His disciples in chapter 16 verses 8 to 10 speaking of the “Comforter”.  As evangelists (by the way, all born-again Christians are evangelists), we are to proclaim the Word of God to a dying world unequivically and without prejudice.  The Lord uses all circumstances to draw lost souls to Himself and prepares the soil way before we arrive in the picture.  Here is a true story that will help us understand that the Lord is soverign.  There was once a youth group on the beach in Atlantic City singing songs and preaching the Word of God to Jewish vacationers .  The day was drawing to a close and the group had started packing their guitars when along came a loudmouth who started yelling and screaming at the youth’s attempts to present Jesus Christ.  The youths tried to calm him down, but he wouldn’t and kept on verbally bashing them.  Unbeknown to them however, was a young Jewish man coming out of a casino where he had lost a small fortune and was feeling very depressed at this bad turn of events in his life.  He started walking down the board-walk and heard the loudmouth yelling at the youths; he stopped and came over to see what was going on.  The loudmouth finally left and the youths were able to present the Gospel to this young Jewish man.  Not only did he become a believer that day, but he went on to have a strong Jewish outreach ministry.  Now I ask : what drew him to Jesus?  The songs?  The preaching?  No!  It was the loudmouth.  How about that??!!  We can all be used of God as heralds of the Good News and everyone that has trusted Jesus Christ for their salvation is a potential witness to the miracle of regeneration.   God uses those who make themselves available and who are conscious of the Holy Spirit’s ultimate seal of approval.  We have no idea who is to be saved, so we just go out and preach the Word; God does the rest.

 

No 8

(The rewards of evangelism)

The Lord gave us a mandate in Matthew 28 : 19, 20; I won’t repeat it because we already know what it is, right?  Telling the story of Jesus is not only a privilege and a blessing, it also has rewards.  The first reward, what I call “the warm feeling inside” is when, unexpectedly either in a restaurant or at work, we talk to someone about the good news of Jesus Christ.  It is a most pleasant surprise and we feel good about ourselves because God allows us to spread the Word of peace; the Bible says that when we do this, we have “beautiful feet” (Romans 10: 15b and Isaiah 52: 7).  Our feet are not beautiful but they are when we fulfil our duty as Christians.  Another reward is the joy that we experience when a person becomes a Christian.  When someone else brings a person to the Saviour, we are happy and greatly rejoice with this new citizen of heaven.  But, when we are the instruments in God’s hand, there is no greater joy here in earth than to see someone to whom we spoke of Jesus, turn to Him for his or her salvation.  As wonderful as these rewards are, the greatest rewards that evangelism brings are the crowns that we receive as soul winners.  The “incorruptible crown” when we “make ourselves servants unto all that we might gain the more” (1 Cor 9 : 19, 25) and the “crown of rejoicing” when we see saved people “For ye are our glory and joy” (1 Thess 2:19).  The apostle Paul did whatever he had to in order to preach the Gospel; we are to do the same. These crowns along with a few others are rewards for our diligent work here on earth and, one day, in the presence of Jesus Christ we will be called “overcomers” (Rev 2 : 7, 17, 26;  Rev 3 : 5, 12, 21; Rev 21 ; 7).

 

No 9

(The Great Commission)

The Lord Jesus Christ gave His Apostles and, by extension all believers, an order to spread the Good News of the Gospel to all nations.  He appropriately began this monumental statement by saying the word “Go”.  He didn’t say, “wait until” or “could you please?” or even “organize an evangelism committee and….”; He gave marching orders to the 11 Apostles. “19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19, 20).  Mind you, the Apostles didn’t go right away, they prayed and waited until the Holy Spirit came down on them (Acts 1:8); that’s OK.  Even then, they stayed only in Jerusalem; it was only until persecution came (Acts 8:1) that they actually went out to Judea and Samaria; that’s OK too.  But at least they went!!  When will the churches in North America do the same?!  Oh, there is some evangelism going on, but it is not the priority in the majority of our churches and there are missionaries being sent to far-off lands but our Judeas and Samarias are neglected.  Here are a few excuses that churches give to avoid the uncomfortable task of knocking on doors and speaking on street corners:  1) “We can barely handle the people in our church now, how are we going to minister to new converts?”;  2) “We just don’t have the time”; 3) (this one is a classic) “We have no experienced evangelists in our church”; 4) “The results of door to door evangelism are very negligible”.  Here is an alarming statistic I once read in a Christian publication – only 2% of the churches in North America have evangelism as their prime directive. Some churches don’t even have an evangelism committee!  We are missing the point, folks.  We think that because little or no results are obtained, that is reason enough to not have regular, weekly, church-backed evangelism programs.  Our job is to speak the words, God handles the rest.  He is the one who prepares the hearts, His Spirit convicts the sinners and it is His Word that saves the unregenerate. Nowhere in Scripture are we asked to pray for the salvation of a loved one or a contact; however, the Bible does command us to “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest” (Matt 9:38   Luke 10:2)  and  “I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” (John 4:35b).  When a church does not evangelize, it will fossilize.  Jesus said about the Church in Ephesus  “thou hast lost thy first love” (Rev 2:4b).   Our first love is speaking about Jesus and what He can do to a life; let the Lord worry about ministering to new believers; or providing “experienced” evangelists; experience comes from doing evangelism.  Let’s not kid ourselves, the Lord will build His Church in spite of men!!

 

No 10

(The Great Commission, Part Two)

Let’s look together at what the second part of the great commission is all about and what is required to fulfill it.  We saw last time that evangelism is main idea behind the passage in Matthew 28:19, 20 but evangelism is not the only emphasis; there is another very important aspect and that is teaching.  When we saw the gifts of the Body, the Bible has three lists that they are found in Romans 12: 6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:18 and Ephesians 4:11.  All three lists are different but it is significant that the only gifts that are repeated in all three lists are prophesy and teaching (by prophesy, we mean speaking out).  That tell us that the gift of teaching is most important to the Body and by extension, it is important in accomplishing the Great Commission.  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matt 28:19,20).  The Lord commanded us to make disciples and a disciple by definition is a person who “helps spread another’s teaching” (Merriam Webster’s dictionary).  So if this person is to spread another’s teaching, he must be taught by someone who is familiar with the subject in question.  This can only be accomplished by diligent teaching of the Gospel and all that God instructs us in His Word.  Therefore, it could even be said that teaching is more important than evangelism for the Body of Christ if we consider the fact that salvation and regeneration are the work of the Holy Spirit and teaching and preaching are left to us, as Christians.  By the way, it is not necessary to have the gift of teaching to teach someone; it could be just sitting down with a new Christian and looking at passages of the Bible. The Bible, however does warn about teachers in James 3:1  “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

 

No 11

(Our family and friends)

The first reaction for anyone who has become a born-again Christian is to tell their family and friends about the wonderful inner peace they now enjoy because of their new relationship with God and about the certainty of their place in heaven.  However, as we have all seen and witnessed, our family’s reaction to our newfound zeal is oftentimes ridiculed.   Our friends’ reaction is even worse; they don’t want to be with us any more; we’re like on cloud nine or something.  So what is a person to do….?  Well, once we have clearly explained the Gospel to our family and friends (assuming they gave us the opportunity to do so, of course), we back off.   We don’t continue to push it because what happens to the unregenerate when we bombard them with verses is that they sometimes become so hostile to us, they avoid us altogether; so what’s the point?  What we must do is to live our Christian life so that they see Jesus in us and want to have what we have; don’t forget, our job is sowing, not saving.  The Bible says in Isaiah 55:11  “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”  The Bible also says in 1 Corinthians 1:18  “  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”.   We back off but we never give up!    When we discuss our lives with our family and friends, we could start off our sentences by saying :  “The Lord permitted me to….”  or we can say  “Lord willing I will go....”.  They must see a difference in our lives; then and only then will we have an impact on theirs.  Of course there is nothing sure about this method because only God knows the hearts  “for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7b)

 

No 12

(Creation Evangelism)

The creation/evolution debate has been going on for a long time and only until recently has creation been brought to the forefront of the debate because of the overwhelming scientific evidence that points to a supernatural Creator.  A young earth; the absence of the missing link in the fossil record, DNA; these are just some of the recently-discovered proofs that there is order in creation.

So I ask you – why not bring this topic up in a family gathering?  Say something like “Did you know that earth is only 6000 years old?” When the people around the table stop laughing, you can explain to them all that we have looked at so far in our studies in creation.  Explain to them that the theory of creation is far more reasonable than the theory of evolution.  Don’t get caught up in scientific arguments unless you are well equipped; otherwise, bring the conversation in line with what God and His redemptive plan for humanity is about.  Creation evangelism is challenging and very exhilarating because you will hear people say to you “Wow, I never heard it said like that before!”  Most people just go with the flow when it comes to our origins but, here’s the thing….   People are desperately looking for answers to the following questions:  “Why am I here?  What am I supposed to do?  What are the rules?”   The Bible has answers to all these questions; may we use the resources that are made available to us to give sound Biblical answers to all these questions and may we jump on the opportunities that the Lord gives us and  “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”  (1 Peter 3:15).

 

No 13

(What is the best method?)

We have touched on this before and we saw that any and all methods are good just as long as we are active in God’s work.  But when we have spoken about Jesus to all our family, to all our friends and to all our co-workers, what is a Christian to do?  Jesus gives us the answer in Luke 14: 21-23    “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.   22  And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.  23  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”  Jesus has just explained to the Pharisees that when a certain man had made a feast and all the people he had invited had something else to do, he proceeded to call perfect strangers to his feast.  This was allegory to the offering of the Gospel to Israel and their subsequent refusal.  The same situation applies to us when we have run out of persons to talk to about Jesus; we must go to perfect strangers to proclaim God’s wonderful gift of salvation by grace.  

So if we ask the same question again in this context : What is the best method of evangelism?  The answer is somewhat different.  Here are some methods that have been practiced by many Christians in the past and the Lord has blessed – going door to door in groups of 2, preferably a man and a woman or having a table of free reading material in a shopping centre or singing songs in a park or similar location.   There are many ways to reach the lost and the Lord promised us that He would be with us “even to the end of the age”  (Matthew 28:20b).

 

No 14

(By Human Means)

“Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” Luke 5:4

We learn from these words the need of human means for the Lord’s work.  This miraculously large amount of fish was caught by the fishermen, in their boat and using their nets.  Jesus could’ve commanded the fish to pile up on shore and it would’ve happened; He created the whole universe, surely a few fish could not stop Him from showing His power.  But Jesus wanted these fishermen to participate in this miracle and experience His power first hand; the same thing applies to the work of evangelism here on earth.   Jesus could just say who is to be saved and, immediately they would be in heaven for eternity but no, He chooses to use human beings to proclaim the Gospel of grace.  Our abilities in speaking the words of salvation are also meaningless.  “Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.”  Why was this?   Were they not experienced fishermen?  Did they lack skill?  Did they not have the proper equipment?  Was there a deficiency of fish in the water?  Certainly not to all these questions because at the command of the master, the fish swam to the fishermen’s net in great numbers.  Why did Jesus use this lesson to demonstrate His power?   The answer lies in the following text of scripture “for without me ye can do nothing.”  John 15:5b.   When we speak to others of Jesus Christ and what He did for humanity on the cross, He is glorified; He gave us His Spirit for that very reason “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8.  Forgive me for repeating myself (last week) but we cannot afford to let one day go by without speaking to others about the Gospel; for those who can’t get out and do that work, they are called to “pray without ceasing”  1 Thess 5:17.

 

No 15

(Follow ups)

The Church was appointed by Jesus Christ to spread the good news of the Gospel to all of creation “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  Marc 16:15.  It’s a heavenly-appointed mandate that we, as Christians, ought to take very seriously.  In the Bible, the Lord does not really give us a specific method of how to actually speak to the people we encounter; He leaves that up to the Holy Spirit who indwells all true believers.  When we see a person, especially one of our contacts,  who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus we couldn’t be happier for there is no greater joy for a Christian than to see another person become a child of God.  From that point on, this person has no idea of what he or she gotten in to; all they know is that they have this inner peace which came upon them at the time of their conversion.  This inner peace is, of course, brought on by the Holy Spirit and it is up to the mature Christians to help this new babe in Christ learn of his or her new-found faith. 

The Bible gives us many examples of how this is done; here are a few:

 

U     “So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.   And many more believed because of his own word;”   John 4:40, 41    Jesus

U     “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Acts 2:42  The Apostles

U     “And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. …..Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. Acts 10   Peter

U     “…the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied….. And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months”  Acts 19   Paul

 

It is a wonderful privilege to speak to others about Jesus Christ but it is our duty to ensure that these new believers are well taught in the doctrine of the Lord.  I believe that if the Lord truly saves someone, He will ensure that this person gets the proper attention.  Of my own personal experience, the person who brought me to the Lord, travelled a good distance and made sure that I found a Bible-believing church in my area.

 

No 16

(Today)

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”  (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,” refers to works that are possible. There are tons of things that our hearts find to do which we never shall do. It’s OK that it is in our heart, but if we want to be useful, we must not be content with forming plans in our heart and talking of them; we must carry them out today. One good deed is worth more than a thousand brilliant theories. Let us not wait for large opportunities or for a different kind of work, but do just the things we “find to do” day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the future has not arrived; we will never have any other time but the present time. Then, may we not wait until our experience has ripened into maturity before we attempt to serve God. May we endeavour now to bring forth fruit and serve God now but may we be careful as to the way in which we perform what we find to do.

May we do it promptly; not letting our life go by in thinking of what we intend to do tomorrow as if that could recompense for the idleness of today.  No man ever served God by doing things tomorrow. If we honour Christ and are blessed, it is by the things we do today. Whatever we do for Christ, may we throw our whole soul into it and not give Christ a little labour here and there, done as a matter of course now and then; but when we do serve Him, may we do it with heart, soul and strength.

Where is the might of a Christian?   It is not in himself, for he is perfect weakness.  His strength lies in the Lord of Hosts. Then let us seek His help; let us proceed with prayer and faith, and when we have done what our “hand findeth to do” let us wait upon the Lord for His blessing. Whatever we do will be well done, and will not fail in its effect if we depend on God.   (Taken from the writings of CH Spurgeon)

 

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!!