Evangelism/Discipleship Smackdown, ii

E. Stanley Jones

"I believe that the discovery of the facts, when they are facts and not half-truths, is leading in one direction and in only one direction - in the direction of Christ.  Let the scientist, therefore, begin with the facts, and let him go far enough with those facts, and he will come out at the fact of Christ.  He may not get to Christ; he may stop short; but at least his facts will be point in the direction of Christ as their fulfillment."  (Christ of the American Road, 159)

Something old

In 1675 Phillip Jacob Spener published a booklet that criticized the regular church.  Titled Pia Desideria (Heart Longings) it contained the following for overcoming the weaknesses in the church.  He prescribed the following:

1)  The more general circulation of the Scriptures, with meetings in private for a thorough study of their meaning.

2)  The improvement and faithful exercise of the pastoral office; the laity to cooperate with the pastors in edifying one another, especially by means of family religion and prayer. 

3)  The serious truth that to know is not enough in religion; practical experience must be added. 

4)  Correct relations with errorists and unbelievers; controversy in the true spirit of love, with a wish not simply to convince, but to benefit, the one opposing. 

5)  Some way of studying theology which will make students as earnest in living Christian lives as in studying their books. 

6)  Some way of preaching, which will present as the chief truth that Christianity signifies a new man, the essence of his life being faith, and its activity consisting in bringing forth good fruits.    

Something new

Lifeway:  'Unchurched adults interested in finding a congregation aren’t nearly as likely to visit one in person as a church member who is shopping for a new congregation. That means effective evangelism must begin outside the sanctuary in relationships between Christians and unbelievers, according to research from several recent studies from LifeWay Research...

"The location of our evangelism needs to shift if we want to reach the unchurched and not just move sheep around," said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research. "At LifeWay Research we want to encourage churches to grow through conversion. To do that, they must not rely only of the unchurched visiting our churches. Church switchers are primarily the ones who visit churches. The unchurched stay home...

"So, if you build your outreach on recruiting and reaching church visitors you will often build a church on church switchers," he said.

Stetzer continued, "For several decades we have focused on come and see, invest and invite, bring your friends to church by attracting them with a great program. We call that attractional ministry. Now we are facing the reality that fewer unchurched people are willing to visit a Christian church.

"This will compel us to embrace a go and tell – or incarnational – approach," he said.

"Should we invite our friends to church? Sure. But should we be, do, and tell the Gospel to people in culture? You bet. It is not only biblical, but it is even more essential today as our culture grows increasingly resistant to the church."  More here.

Stop it with the numbers?

The late Richard John Neuhaus in First Things seems to think so:

A priest on Long Island tells me that, when he was newly ordained, he had the chance to visit with the legendary Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who was famed for, among other things, winning many converts to the Catholic Church. Sheen was in the hospital and, as it turned out, on his deathbed. “Archbishop Sheen,” my friend said, “I have come for your counsel. I want to be a convert-making priest like you. I’ve already won fifteen people to the faith. What is your advice?” Sheen painfully pushed himself up on his elbows from his reclining position and looked my friend in the eye. “The first thing to do,” he said, “is to stop counting.”

Another Perspective on Counting...

"It took 18 centuries for dedicated believers to grow from 0% of the world's population to 2.5% in 1900, only 70 years to grow from 2.5% to 5% in 1970, and just the last 30 years to grow from 5% to 11.2% of the world population. Now for the first time in history there is one believer for every nine people worldwide who aren't believers...we're talking about Bible-reading, Bible-believing stream of Christianity." (Ralph D. Winter and Bruce A. Koch/Perspectives)

Why we don't make disciples

1. Our world view is all wrong. "Be holy as I am holy" is not a core conviction.

2. We prefer the things that are "more exciting" - like worship, harvesting tithes, building buildings, getting on the latest trendy movement of evangelicalism.

3. Not intentional enough. We think Sunday school or the regular programming dynamic of the local church will do the trick to transform lives.

4. We read the gospels for many reasons but not to find the methodology of Jesus for changing the world.

5. Hard to brag about discipleship in the statistics manual of district conference.

6. It is hard work.

7. We were not discipled therefore we don't have a clue what And meant by discipleship or how to do it.

8. American society is a time stealer, and discipleship, alas, takes time.

9.  In Acts, they made disciples.  The secret was the infilling of the Spirit.  Do we take the third person of the Trinity serious anymore?


Luther

"Beware!  God will not ask you at your death and at the Last  Day how much you have left in your will, whether you have given so and so much to churches...he will say to you, 'I was hungry, and you gave me no food; I was naked, and you did not clothe me' (Matt. 25:42-43).  Take these words to heart!  The important thing is whether you have given to your neighbor and treated him well."  (Luther's Works  45:286)

Who said anything about safe?

In his book The Will to Live On, Herman Wouk tells of a meeting he had with modern Israel's first president, David Ben-Gurion, and how Ben-Gurion urged him to move to the newly planted nation of Israel.

The president:  "You must return here to live," he said. "This is the only place for Jews like you. Here you will be free."

"Free?" I ventured to reply. "Free? With enemy armies ringing you, with their leaders publicly threatening to wipe out 'the Zionist entity,' with your roads impassable after sundown—free?"

"I did not say safe," the old man retorted, "I said free."     Citation: Gordon MacDonald, speaker and author; source: Herman Wouk, The Will to Live On, (Cliff Street Books, 2000)