Pastors Circle - Steve Blakemore

Dr. Steve Blakemore, Executive Director of Third Millennium Faith and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wesley Biblical Seminary, joined the Matt Friedeman Show today to talk about Evangelism.

Describe to me what a sacrament is.

Historically in the life of the church...for protestants we've usually meant baptism...and communion.

A sacrament is a means of grace...in which we discover God is present with us in powerful ways. And we engage in these practices because we understand and believe that God has promised to meet us in these sacraments.

Can we start understanding evangelism as a sacrament?

I think about two scriptures. Of course there's the Great Commission. Jesus said Go...baptizing them and teaching them. He said that clearly as a commandment.

The other is I think about Paul's commandment...faith comes by hearing.

God is not telling us to pass on information. He's challenging us to bring people to Him.

I think that's the way we really ought to see it.

What are the key ways to evangelize?

I think first of all, the most effective evangelist layperson that I've encountered...were people that saw evangelism not just as their own private enterprise. They saw it as a community of faith that they were a part of.

They weren't just trying to pick people off one by one....instead they viewed their calling as inviting people into the church.

Those people also realized that we're not first and foremost called to speak the gospel. But we're called to live it out in our lives.

How do we balance evangelism and compassion?

If a person actually deeply cares about the welfare of another human being, we're of course going to care about whether they have enough to eat. But also about whether or not they have the bread of life.

We're going to be concerned about whether they have clothes to wear. But also whether they are clothed in righteousness.

If you have the love spread in your heart, you care about the unborn baby.

I think it begins with whether we have the love of God spread about in our hearts.

If we have a discerning heart, if someone's hungry, we're going to figure out how to address that.

Do we contextualize evangelism - do it differently depending on location?

In the small town evangelism, there is an awareness of people's lives that you don't have in the anonymity of New York City.

It seems more of this relational, going out with your neighbors, caring for your neighbors to be ready to give a reason for why you help the poor.

In New York City, I would think that just stopping to care for people in the anonymous morass of the city.