Evangelism

By The Broken Messenger

brad@brokenmessenger.com

“Bring your friend to church!” Right there you have the constant battle cry of modern evangelicalism. Invite them, beg them, but by all means bring them. People need to experience the presence of God. People need to come to the house of God. Then they will understand. Then they will see God. And so goes the rationale of many as it pertains to Christ’s great commission to us.

Oh, if we could just get them here. If only they would come. And so we contrive, we plan and transform buildings to look like coffee houses, dance clubs, bookstores, restaurants and anything else that may lure and entice people to come in some Sunday morning.

And we do not stop there. We bait with the promise of food, and lively music, and themes, and promotions and entertainment. We promise that church won’t be boring or uncomfortable. We pander by conceding that a church should be agreeable at all times with smooth preaching and weightless sermons - all in the name of filling up chairs so that true evangelism might happen.

But is this our calling concerning evangelism? What did Jesus command?

"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." -Matthew 28:19-20

The command is go, not bring. Each of us who are in Christ are to bear the testimony of Christ who resides in us by the Spirit of God through the grace of God. We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices in order to testify Christ to others by our lives, by our deeds and by our words.

However, we simply do not do this. We've convinced ourselves that this call applies to others. So we put it on the shoulders of our pastor to perform - and who is expected to perform well, no less - each Sunday morning.

Why? More specifically, why do we not obey Christ? Is it because our church does not believe in Christ? Is it because we doubt that God could use our words or that they are not effective enough or that because we lack wisdom no one will hear our message? Have we been decieved? The well of excuses is vast deep, but they are indefensible, because the problem lies with us.

Now there are many objections to this stance. So let me insert a biblical one and discuss it.

What of the Samaritan woman (John 4) who invited her countrymen to come hear Jesus and of Andrew inviting Peter (John 1) to come see the Lord? Did they not bring others to hear the Gospel from Christ's own lips? They did. Should we not follow their imitation? Yes and no.

Yes, we should imitate them in the sense that we should be hosptiable, inviting and open to those who seek to hear more about the Gospel that we've proclaimed and lived. But the answer is 'No' in the sense that inviting people to church should be the primary means for telling others about Christ.

Remember it was Christ who first went to the woman and to Andrew so that the opportunity for an inviation might come. Jesus, sent by the Father, obeyed and went to those who were called. So just as the Father did the bringing as a result of Christ's obedience in the going, so God will draw others as we go. In other words, we have the same calling in imitation of our Lord.

It is also true that some have been given the gift of evangelism and others wisdom. God will use some to draw many. God will use some to draw few. But God uses all his children to draw his chosen and God uses all his children to testify of his Son before men. We who are in Christ Jesus are the light of the world. We cannot shrink back and hide this light, particularly when we are commanded to put it on a stand for all to see.

So those who were told about and heard Jesus and believed in Samaria and Israel the command to go and tell was for them, just as it is for us. “Come and see” soon became “Go and tell," and the moment Christ charged his disciples to go and proclaim him this became a reality for all who would follow him. We cannot shirk this duty by expecting others to fulfill it. We cannot hide behind our doubts and fears and leave it up to unregenerate hearts to follow us to church to hear someone we think more qualified or eloquent than we – unless of course we too don’t yet believe.

The church is where we are to become equipped and encouraged for the task of sharing the Gospel of our Lord. It isn’t that the Gospel shouldn’t be preached from the pulpit, it certainly should. It isn’t that no one will be saved Sunday morning, some certainly are saved in church pews. It isn't that we shouldn't invite a friend or family member to come to church with us. But our reliance upon our pastor for evangelism needs to be weaned, and the primary functions of what the Body of Christ is and does when it gathers together needs to be restored so that it can become what it was intended primarily to do: and that is to glorify Christ by gathering together to strengthen, train and convince us to go and preach the Gospel of our Risen Lord.