Equipping University

Every year seems to produce "the greatest witnessing opportunity in decades." However in relying on events instead of a biblical understanding of evangelism, very little lasting impact is made. As Bayly tried to explain in his parable, the church spends too much time on outreach methods that are grandiose and highly visible, but often impersonal and ineffective. It appears we have drifted from the original plan given to us by Jesus.

We have looked at two marks of a healthy church the last two chapters: the gospel and conversion. Both have to do with a biblical understanding of salvation. Now, we are prepared to look at a third aspect of salvation: evangelism. There is a biblical way to do evangelism and healthy churches understand this. A healthy church is not pragmatic in its approach to anything, especially evangelism. A healthy church understands that theology matters because what you believe has an immediate impact on what you do and why you do it. That is why we studied the gospel and conversion first. Now that we have a biblical understanding of both, we are prepared to discuss how to share the gospel with others. We will do so by considering four simple questions: 1. Who should evangelize? 2. Why should we evangelize? 3. What is evangelism? 4.How should we evangelize?

If you have traveled overseas, you know you must convert your money into the local currency. It is almost always the case that vendors in foreign lands do not recognize or accept American dollars. So, the traveler must go to a bank or currency exchange to trade in his dollars for Euros or rupees or pounds or liras or francs or pesos. You end up with the same amount of money relative to that culture but the money has been fundamentally changed.

In the same way, the conversion of a lost, unsaved individual requires a fundamental change within that person. Change is necessary to be a Christian because of what men and women are naturally from birth. Of course, without this change, we remain exactly as we are and that is not good news. Hearing and responding to the gospel brings about the change called conversion. Conversion is defined as "our willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation." The word conversion itself means "turning" and here represents a turning from sin to Christ. The turning from sin is repentance and the turning to Christ is faith. If you are truly converted, you cannot have one without the other. As we saw last time, both are necessary responses to the gospel.

The message about the redeeming work of God in the atonement of Jesus Christ is the greatest information this world has ever received. It is more than news; it is good news. What is this news? That is the ultimate question. People everywhere disagree over the definition of the news and even evangelicals have a difficult time coming to an agreement over what is the gospel and what is not the gospel. The gospel is not meeting physical needs, it is not irrelevant, it is not privatized religion, it is not simply that "God is Love," it is not the path to health and wealth, it is not therapy, it is not moralism, and it is not all about you. The thing that truly distinguishes Christianity from all other belief systems is not its moral code or practicality. The difference lies in Christianity's story - the story of a holy Creator, rejected by his creation, yet stooping do reconcile them through the death of his Son. Christianity is not just a worldview, a way of life, or a program for personal or cultural change. Christianity is news. It is the report of something that happened that will forever change those who truly hear it. As witnesses and messengers of this news, our job is simply to get the story right and report it to all with whom we come in contact.