(These notes of sermons/studies originally commissioned by World Vision are not copyright. They may be adapted by preachers or small group leaders and used with or without acknowledgment).

Shalom! Rowland Croucher

EVERY HEALTHY CHURCH regards the world as their parish (as John Wesley put it). Biblical mission involves three concerns: compassion for those the New Testament calls the lost (evangelism); compassion for the hurting (mercy) and compassion for the powerless (justice). These three concerns are highlighted by Micah (6:8) and Jesus (Matthew 23:23) as being essential to an authentic faith. Mission in the Bible involves three modes: word (what we say to others for God); deed (what we do for others in the Lord’s name); and sign (what God does to corroborate his word through our words and his works through our deeds).

EVANGELISM

In the apostolic church ordinary Christians wandered around sharing the good news with those they met. Churches everywhere are healthy or unhealthy to the extent that their members are verbalizing their faith. Where this is left to ‘professional’ clergy or evangelists, those churches are diseased.

Evangelism is ‘one beggar telling another beggar where to get food’ (D.T. Niles). Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The Lord… wants all to turn away from their sins (2 Peter 3:9). It is God’s desire that all hear the good news in such a way that they will turn from idols, i.e. living for anything other than God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). In the terms the New Testament uses, people either ‘perish’ or are ‘saved’ according to their response to this good news. And we, his people, are commissioned to preach it. What an awesome responsibility!

Peter Wagner (Your Church Can Grow) says 10% of all Christians have a special evangelistic gift, but only about one half of one per cent are actively using it. Why is that? The other 90% are also ‘gifted’: all the spiritual gifts are meant to lead persons to Christ.

The most overtly ‘evangelistic’ Christians are the fundamentalists, who have a more literal view of hell. As we move towards the ‘universalist’ end of the theological spectrum (‘everyone will be saved’; ‘if there is a hell God will empty it’), evangelism becomes almost non-existent. Three other theologies which hinder evangelism are ‘hyper- Calvinism’ (God saves who he wants to save and rejects the rest; there’s nothing we can do about that); anti-proselytism (‘even if they are only nominal members of my church, don’t you preach to them’); and syncretism (‘all religions are valid; Christianity doesn’t have all the answers’). What is your view?

Good evangelism is more than apologetics, which attempts to give a reasoned defense of the Christian faith. Apol- ogetics cuts down trees; evangelism builds houses! Evangel- ism is more than imparting organised doctrine. As John Stott puts it, you have to win a person’s confidence before you can win their soul! Do what Jesus did: minister to a ‘felt need’ first — for example, loneliness and poor self-image, sickness, hunger. John Stott told a conference on evangelism in Britain: ‘Christians are more like the pharisees than Jesus. We keep our distance from people. We do not want to get hurt or dirty or contaminated.’

But good evangelism is more than being friendly: I come across ‘friendly’ churches that can’t name many people who have committed their lives to Christ in the recent past. (Reason: new people change the chemistry of the group and we unconsciously freeze them out of our social life). Good evangelism is more than inviting your neighbour to a ‘mission’ at the church. (Although these are valuable: your church ought to have regular special evangelistic efforts, appropriate to the culture of the people you are aiming to reach). Evangelism is relating as Jesus did to people day by day, week by week. The best evangelism is done by new converts: they still have the most non-Christian friends! And the best evangelistic churches are where people truly love one another, especially across racial, social, cultural and other barriers which previously divided them.

The size of a church is not an infallible measure of spiritual health. Some small churches are healthy, others malnourished; some large churches are healthy, others fat! However we can say that all healthy churches are experiencing additions by conversion, i.e. they grow! Some of these growing churches give themselves away by adopting a ‘mission mode’, sending their trained members away to plant other churches, and so may not, over time, experience net numerical growth. That’s alright. But I would be worried if my church were not causing the angels to have a party from time to time as people come into Christ’s kingdom! The church at Antioch (Acts 11, 13) experienced rapid growth, both numerically and spiritually — though not all churches grow both ways at the same time!.

The acid test: list all the young people and adults who have come to Christ, joined the church and are growing in their faith in the last, say, ten years. Write down their names. In the ‘great commission’ (Matthew 28:19-20), there are four ‘action verbs’: going, making disciples, baptising and teaching. But only one (‘make disciples’) is in the imperative mood, the main command. Our central purpose is not merely to win converts, but to make disciples!

In the end, an evangelistic lifestyle arises out of the reality of our experience of Christ. If he has really changed our lives, that’s great news and we’ll want to share it!