Peter Sammons explores aspects of outreach evangelism
WHAT? WHY? WHERE? WHEN? HOW?
Setting the Scene
It’s a privilege to tell people about Jesus. In fact for the Christian* it’s more than a privilege, it’s an absolute requirement of belonging to Jesus’ family.
* by “Christian” we mean someone who has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, a person dedicated to following Him, and someone who has made a conscious decision to do so. Such relationship is generally demonstrated through the rite of baptism. The single term that best describes such a person is “born again” (John 3:3 and John 3:7). Another term in common use is simply “Believer”, and this comes direct from Jesus as well (John 11: 26). Finally – and perhaps most profound of all – is the word “disciple” (John 13: 35).
Jesus’ “great commission” to His disciples as He left this world and returned to His Father was straightforward: “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”. (Matthew 28: 19-20)
To whom was Jesus speaking? The text in Matthew 28 makes it clear He was addressing the eleven remaining disciples, but it is an almost universal understanding that Jesus was issuing this plain instruction to all His followers, at all times. Sometimes the institutions we refer to collectively as “church”* display serious confusion about the evangelism task and how it is to be fulfilled. In this series we seek to break it down relatively straightforwardly, and we hope, logically.
* by “Church” we mean collectively the global community of true believers. The church is an organism rather than an institution. There is ONE church whose members cover all the ages since Jesus returned to be with His Father, until He returns again. Expressed at local level in the from of local gatherings (ekklesia in Greek, assemblies in English, but the common word “church” covers both ideas, albeit it arguably is incorrect!). In this series of articles we use the word ‘Congregation’ interchangeably with ‘church’, and we trust that readers will appreciate that this can be a creative way of understanding our relationship with our Saviour God, and what it means to ‘witness’ before Him and about Him.
Six honest serving men!
Rudyard Kipling penned this: “I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew); their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” We need enquiring minds to get successfully through life, and we need to be focused, thoughtful, and business-like as we go about fulfilling Jesus’ “great commission”. We can use Kipling’s idea as we consider, basically, the question of outreach evangelism:
What?
The task is to tell people about Jesus, and to make “disciples”
Why?
Because * Jesus instructed us to do so * it’s profoundly good for those we tell and * it’s good for those who do the telling!
Where?
Anywhere and everywhere
When?
“In season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4: 2)
How?
In ways that are relevant, understandable, and helpful
Who?
Anyone who is a true Believer (see above)
Confusion
In principle this should be relatively straightforward, but two points of confusion are common:
Confusion 1 – not knowing what evangelism is
Your author was once at a meeting of several local churches that wanted to provide a public Christian witness and presence at a major civic event. In discussing what evangelism tasks there might be and how the differing churches might contribute to them, one lady said “our church will give out free cups of tea”. A pastor responded after a brief pause, “well, it depends on how you define ‘evangelism’ ”. Some people perceive evangelism as doing nice things. Some see evangelism as doing social work – indeed there are some today who perceive the church as the religious arm of the welfare state!
However the apostle Peter was clear when he reminded all Christians that we are pilgrims living in a foreign land, (1 Peter 2:11) and the apostle Paul equally clear that to many people the good news of Jesus will be received as “the stench of death”! (2 Corinthians 2: 16).To all too many people the good news of new life in Jesus is perceived as thoroughly bad news, and those who bring good news are dismissed as ‘God botherers’. “For they preferred darkness to light ….”
Confusion 2 – thinking that ‘evangelism’ is someone else’s task
In Ephesians 4: 11-12 the apostle Paul outlines five types of ‘minister’ within the broad church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. It is easy to think of these as being tasks and roles of ‘professionals’, or even that they are somehow all rolled-up in the task of the ‘priest’ or ‘minister’ of a local church. That idea tends to reinforce a false division between ‘clergy’ and ‘laity’ in some people’s minds.
Two things need to be stated. First, that “the five-fold ministry” does not imply that separate individuals must hold a singular ‘responsibility’ for these distinct tasks, and indeed an individual might be gifted and anointed in more than one of these ministries. The second is that any mature Believer might be expected to display leanings towards undertaking these tasks and be anointed by Holy Spirit in doing so. The key point we are bringing out is that all mature believers should expect to undertake ‘good work’ of this nature. Furthermore, the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12: 4-11, and also 28) suggest that God graciously equips us for all the tasks we are required to do.
Evangelism, then, is everyone’s task, as the Spirit directs. Yes, some will be more gifted and sometimes deliberately set-apart in this task of evangelism, but we are all required to play our role, no matter how small that role may be.
Different types of evangelism
In what has been described as “Jesus’ manifesto”, the sermon on the mount (essentially Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 collectively) we get many insights into what it means to live the Christian life, and how we are to live in a world too often profoundly ill-disposed towards us and our message. The way we live our lives in this “foreign land” might be described, in a sense, as a form of evangelism, insofar as it points away from us and points towards our Lord – Jesus.
But there is something more intentional and deliberate about outreach evangelism, and that is the subject of this series of articles.
Please see Part 2.
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