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What I want to talk today about is evangelism,
more specifically, personnal evangelism and why I think it is more important than church sponsored outreach, for the survival and growth of the local church
This issue
is of extream importance to me as I am now at a place where Personnal evangelism had not been
taught or even spoken of for the most part. The result being that good
Christian have become lethargic for
mission and ministry work within the church. So I think as a shepard my first
responsibility is to build within them the need and urgency of individual or
personal evangelism.
I was watching a Facebook stream in which a pastor was recording the city
of Philadelphia tearing down a church, and as he drove through the city he pointed to many
churches that were not well cared for. Leaky roofs, cracked walls, and broken
doors seemed to be the norm for many of the smaller churches in the city.
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And as he drove by, he suggested many different solutions to the problem,
mergers, ecumenical ministries, financial rescuers and most of these were good
ideas. but the one thing that was missing from all the solutions, and from all the failing ministries was God's plan, and God's agenda
You see I know many of the churches that was streamed in that video I know of them and I know what they were missing, but more importantly I know our church is missing, in Revelation 2:2-5 Jesus speaks to the Church at Ephesus and says;
"I know your works, your labor, and
your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those
who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. 3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for
the sake of my name, and have not grown
weary. 4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love
you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the
works you did at first. Otherwise, I will
come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you
repent." Revelation 2:2-5
You see Jesus is saying if you do not do what you first did, the things that
shows you loved me. doing what I required you to do. Matthew 28:18-20 it is haveing a heart for the lost.Jesus is saying if you stop doing the mission work, which is the first love of our savior. I will come and take that lampstand. In other words "I will shut you down",
and if there is one thing I think is unanimously true is that those churches
that have stop doing personal evangelism are the same churches that are failing. Personal evangelism is how the church survives
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When you consider the condition most churches are in, that is many empty or
nearly empty churches, You must consider as the only solution, evangelism, and more specificaly individual or personal evangelism. And why not outreach? I think it is absolutely necessary to separate individual missionary work
from Church Outreach service. for a few reasons.
1.
In failing churches most of the members will not, have
not, and even claim are not able to speak to any individual by themselves about
Jesus Christ.
a.
They haven’t spoken to family remembers. Co workers, and they most defiantly speak to someone they
do not know about Jesus.
b.
They are on fire for Jesus, it just they do all they can
never to let the flame catch hold of anyone else.
c.
However, the
problem with Outreach is, most of the time the very same people that refuse to
reach anyone for Jesus are the people we assign to our outreach.
i. So,
than we are taking an effective process of outreach and filling with
ineffective people. And the results at best can only be wishy washy
ii. True
Evangelism is when the individual decides to evangelize the small part of the
world that he/she can personally impact. and then being supported by the
his/her church to assist in discipling of the recent convert. And teaching
him/her to do the very same thing he just did.
2.
Outreach is a product of the church, and it does not
necessarily come from Christians that are kingdom minded but has its origin in
the church that is doing kingdom work.
a.
I would suggest that many churches outreach fail
because it is done with ineffective Christian when it comes to being bold for Jesus
Christ.
3.
On the other hand when a church sponsors an outreach
event and it is full of Kingdom minded individuals, those individual that have
a history of personal evangelism then that outreach is supported by
people that are not afraid to express the gospel and the result is almost
universally a successful outreach event.
a.
However, if the individual that work in the Church
sponsored outreach are not kingdom minded, and have not, cannot, or will not do
individual evangelism, than outreach becomes nothing more than a social event
where in the end no one is really reached for Jesus.
b.
I know this to be so, in our last outreach event we
calculated to have reached over 250 people that would have otherwise never come
to our church. But of the 250, not one (1) single person either committed
themselves to Jesus Christ or even visited the church for normal church
service.
It is this type of Outreach that I want to avoid, by first developing in
church members their responsibility to do individual, personal evangelism. Then
the church can develop outreach event that can bring the people to them so they
can do individual evangelism on a larger scale.
As individuals we must:
1.start where we are; 2.use what we have; 3.and do what we can to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.
1.start where we are; 2.use what we have; 3.and do what we can to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.
A church outreach is successful when it first teaches it memebers to do individual evangelism when it learns to complete small steps, before it attempts great things.
Outreach and revival is achievable.When Jesus sees we are faithful over the little talents (personal evangelism) He will make us rulers over the great (outreach) and then we can as a church enter into our master's Joy
Outreach and revival is achievable.When Jesus sees we are faithful over the little talents (personal evangelism) He will make us rulers over the great (outreach) and then we can as a church enter into our master's Joy
Your Brother in Christ
Dr TCharves Pearsall
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