EVANGELISM – BREAKTHROUGH OR BREAKDOWN?
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Have you ever noticed that evangelism never was a great issue in the New Testament? You never read about Apostles exhorting, scolding, planning and organizing evangelistic programs. No 10 point follow through. No. ? The early church had no evangelistic planning because so many of its members had a propensity for not shutting up. Indeed, they ran around opening their mouths so often about Jesus that many were eaten up by the mouths of lions.
In the Apostolic church, because so many were on fire for their faith, evangelism was somehow assumed. Which brings us back to our question time again - are you on fire for your faith? Or at least a glowworm? Or are you just comfortably, silently satisfied?
It was 1948 when Gulag Irkutsk, a Christian believer in Siberia, received a 25-year sentence. After refusing to work on the Sabbath, he was ordered to stand in a 3 x 4 foot cell for 10 days with only water for nourishment.
For a year Irkutsk went through the same routine; in confinement for 10 days and out for four days. After a year, a general came to inspect the prison camp and found Irkutsk in solitary confinement. When the general inquired about his confinement, the prisoner explained about the Sabbath. “I am a believer in God. A sign of my loyalty to Him is to rest on the Sabbath. However, I am prepared to work twice as much the day before in order to have the Sabbath off.”
The general took him at his word and Irkutsk was ordered to carry enough water for the 1,000 prisoners – filling the reservoir by transporting well water. Prison
officials provided him with an ox, and for 10 years he and that ox
followed the same routine of working twice as fast the day before and
resting on the Sabbath.
Later Irkutsk was released for his outstanding work record, but the ox remained and assisted another prisoner as he transported water. When the first Sabbath came, that ox lay quietly chewing his cud. Nothing would move the beast – neither shouting, pulling, threatening nor beating. Every Sabbath the same drama happened. Finally the exasperated jailer told the prisoner, “You will never change the ox’s behavior.
The Sabbathkeeper has made the ox into a Sabbathkeeper. And Sabbathkeepers are very, very stubborn!”
Jesus was not crucified in an air conditioned church but rather on a hot humid hill. His death took place where life and death came to meet, at the crossroads so to speak. And this is where evangelism has to take place, not in talking places but living places.
A
new, young Christian, for sometimes old-time-Christians lose their
zeal… a new, young Christian once pressed his cause for Christ with a
bit too much fervor. The man to whom he was speaking finally said, “Why don’t you just mind your own business?” The
young layman then more gently replied, “Perhaps I did come across too
strong, but you see, ever since I became a Christian, you are my
business.”
How should you talk about Christ? Well, certainly don’t believe that spiritual and stuffy are soul mates. Don’t talk about Him in such a way that a Theological library is needed to understand what you just said. Most likely, many you might talk to may be suffering from callouses on the soul. So when you talk about Christ to the man on the street, remember K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid.
Many claim they would evangelize, but they don’t know how.
The last movie you became enthused about, did you have to take a communications course before you told someone about it? Does it take a Doctorate in Evangelism to say, “Christ is my Savior” or “I need the church and so do you, my friend?”
Or if you really can’t easily share such phrases, then offer something
like, “Our preacher is preaching on…whatever he is preaching on…. This is an invite.” Why is it people have no problem spreading gossip, but so much trouble spreading God?
Perhaps the church must once again earn its right to speak. Maybe it needs to be different - not in the way that repels, but in a way that attracts. Christ preached under-standing, but there is no understanding when church members move from church to church because of misunder-standings. Or stay together but fuss and fume in a most unholy alliance.
Mahatma
Gandhi once said, “I could have believed in Christ if it hadn’t been
for the people in my land who claimed to be His followers.” Yes, perhaps the church has to keep earning the right to speak.
Our Christian faith does not just give us noble precepts. It defines God. When
I quote Jesus’ words of love, describe His miracles, affirm His
reincarnation, I have drawn an earthly picture of a heavenly Creator. When
I talk about death and accept the fact of the Resurrection, I have not
just said “yes” to a Reality, I am on the way to the absorption of a
Power.
There is no such thing as an objective outlook toward life, but there is a Christian one. Anyone can stand on a hill, but when that hill is Golgotha it becomes more than just another view. It becomes a way of life.
Because of what we find to believe there, we begin to make some
outlandish statements and develop some strange and wonderful attitudes
and beliefs.
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varying subjects) (3 times a week added to)
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