Testimony: Duane Wessels

Duane Wessels, a You Can Tell It! master instructor for EvanTell, recently traveled to Nigeria and Ghana to equip ministry leaders to train their fellow believers in personal evangelism.

“The benefit of what God is doing is already evident. Church leaders are being re-energized to reach more and more unbelievers, not just fellow Christians. EvanTell’s new resources for children are enthusiastically received by the leadership. The demand is great. Thanks for your prayers.”

Effective Evangelism through the Local Church

If the church does not use today to reach non-Christians, we are missing a prime opportunity. The one word written across the faces of many non-Christians is the word insecurity. They are insecure about their jobs, investments, health, safety and their marriages. This is the day to tell them of the One in whom a relationship is so secure no one or nothing can change it.

To impact non-Christians in 2008 through the local church, every message a pastor gives cannot be directed to non-Christians. If it were, he would have a church full of infant Christians – people who know how to enter the Christian life but have never learned how to live it. But at the same time, if believers have genuine relationships with non-Christians, unbelievers should be frequenting church services on a regular basis.

How does one appeal to lost people in a non-evangelistic setting such as a Sunday morning service where the message is directed towards believers, not unbelievers? Articles two through five in this series on “Effective Evangelism through the Local Church” offer several suggestions that pastors throughout the nation have found beneficial understanding that the sermon is not the only place to make the appeal to the lost.

Don’t Give an Offering, Receive an Offering

Sometimes we need what Winston Churchill called “The genius for recognizing the obvious.” We overlook some of the simplest and most natural ways to make an appeal to lost people. For example, it can be done the way one takes up the morning offering.

One time a pastor said, “In a moment we are going to take up the offering. If you are visiting with us this morning, we request that as the offering plate is passed that you not place anything in it. Instead of giving a gift to the church, we would like you to receive a gift Christ has for you. Jesus Christ paid for our sins on a cross by dying as our substitute, taking our punishment and rising again the third day. Therefore, through personal trust in Christ we can receive His free gift of eternal life. Instead of giving, just sit there and meditate upon what God would like to give you. Right here this morning you could receive that free gift. Would the ushers please come to take up the offering?” Be creative. Try this approach. Try your own.

Reference the Gospel During the Reading of Scripture

It can even be done the way one introduces a paragraph of the Scriptures he’s about to explain. For example, suppose one were speaking from 1 Corinthians. It would be most natural and effective to say:

“I enjoy speaking from the book of 1 Corinthians because the person God used to write this portion of Scripture was a man named Paul who, prior to coming to know Christ, called himself a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violently arrogant man. He had every reason to think, I am too big a sinner for God to save. But he recognized that on the cross Christ did not die for some people, He died for everybody. Because He paid the price for our sins by dying in our place and rising again, God can now extend the free gift of eternal life to anyone who will simply put their trust in Christ. So if you think you are too big a sinner for God to save, rest assured that as we study this paragraph in 1 Corinthians, that is most certainly not true.”

Have someone else read the passage of Scripture. Represent every generation in those that read the Scripture and coach them on referencing the gospel during the reading of Scripture. It is a very effective way to share the gospel.

Share the Gospel Through the Conclusion of Your Message

A conclusion of a message has to appeal for action. God wants everyone there to act upon what has been said. Suppose you have been preaching on John 13:1-17 where Christ washed the feet of the disciples. That has absolutely nothing to do with how to get to heaven, does it? But what would be more appropriate than at the end of the message to encourage believers that a mark of greatness in God’s eyes is not how many servants you have but how many people you serve?

Then in a most effective way you can say to lost people in the audience, “My message this morning has been to believers. But maybe you are here today and you do not know for sure if you were to die you’d go to heaven. Before you think about how you can serve the Lord, may I encourage you to think of how the Lord has served you? Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, died on a cross to take the punishment for your sins and rose again the third day. Because the price for sin has been paid, you can receive eternal life as a free gift. If you have not received that free gift, I would love to talk with you and help you arrive at that point where you know beyond the shadow of any doubt that if you were to die, you’d go to heaven. But do not even think about you can do for Him until you have first received what He has done for you.” Now that is a powerful message!

You are Not the Only One Who Can Share

Someone else who can appeal to lost people is a person who gives a five to seven minute testimony. Why not on a fairly regular basis have people from your congregation give a testimony that clearly presents the gospel? That time is critical so it’s important to have them to write it out, allow you to read it, make any suggestions and then re-write it prior to giving it. Through a clear testimony, the lost person can understand how he, too, can come to know the Savior.

Variety is often called the spice of life. It also is the spice of evangelism. When one uses varied ways to appeal to non-Christians in a non-evangelistic setting he ends up making an eternal difference in the lives of those who don’t know Christ.

Spend Time with Unbelievers

Another way to regain concern for unbelievers is to examine our lives and make some necessary adjustments. Ask yourself this question: Am I living life in a bubble? A Christian bubble is any comfortable place that affords shelter from non-Christians.

“But I’m not really comfortable around non-Christians,” one might remark. But God never asks, “Are you comfortable around them?” God asks, “Do you pity them?” Jesus was moved with compassion for the multitudes that followed Him and longed to be their Shepherd and gather them into His fold (Matt. 9:36). If we share that compassion, we must spend time with lost people in hopes of leading them to the Savior. If we are living in a Christian bubble, we don’t have contact with unbelievers. Without contacts, personal evangelism becomes impossible. How do we speak to people we never see?

Once we come to know the Savior, our desires and interests have a way of changing. We find that it’s more enjoyable to be around believers and hear them speak of prayer, Bible study, or a bit of nourishment they have received through Christian radio. It’s fun knowing those who realize there is more to life than a new house and a new car. Even church becomes a place of fellowship with Christians of like mind instead of our spending time with those of a different mind.

List several non-Christians you know and ask yourself, “What can be done now to have the kind of meaningful contact with them that could result in conversations about Christ?” Remember to make the most of every opportunity (Col. 4:5).

Evangelism is a Privilege, Not a Pain

The first thing that Christ taught His disciples was not how to manage money or raise a Christian family, as important as those are. It was something bigger. Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). A fisher of fish takes something alive and makes it dead. A fisher of men takes something dead and makes it alive. Jesus was in essence saying, “With Me, your life can have eternal perspective. It will count for something that will last forever.” Furthermore, “I will make you” implies, “I’ll teach you everything you need to know. Just follow. I’ll do the teaching if you’ll do the learning.”

“Wait a minute,” someone might say. “I grew up in a church where evangelism was a means of determining if you were a Christian. You had to evangelize or you weren’t saved.” Another might say, “I was made to feel that I had to present the Gospel to everyone I met. One man I knew pigeonholed people and immediately confronted them with the Gospel. I just can’t do that.” Remember that we do not have to live by the impression we receive from others, especially if those impressions are unbiblical. God tells us to follow Scripture as our guide and gives us freedom to be ourselves.

A biblical perspective on evangelism will help us develop healthier attitudes toward it. We can learn to profit from the good in our past experiences (such as recognizing a person’s concern for the lost), while freeing ourselves from mistaken assumptions. Too often people bring baggage into evangelism that isn’t biblical. Seeing evangelism from a biblical perspective can really set a person free.

God is in the business of populating heaven. If you’re interested, He will let you in on the privilege of assisting Him. The fruit of your life will last into eternity.

Church DNA

What is Church DNA?

To answer this question, we have to first establish a standard definition of DNA from which to begin our discussion. DNA is best described as the basic genetic building blocks that determine who we are and ultimately what we will become.

Many in church leadership and consulting are using this concept of DNA as a benchmark for assessing church health and direction. Every church has building blocks that determine its current practices and its plans for the future.

This purpose of the Church DNA blog is to help church leaders discover and evaluate the DNA that drives their values and priorities and to champion evangelism in every conversation.

Dr. Larry Moyer - Grace Conference

Dr. Larry Moyer has a burden that the church today will not be known as a church that talks about the lost, but rather it will be known as a church that talks to the lost. Recently, Dr. Moyer spoke at the Grace Conference in Chicago, Illinois. His message was a challenge to church leaders to have God’s heart for lost people. Dr. Moyer made it clear that if a church is going to be evangelistic, then the church leaders must be evangelistic. God is not saying bring the lost to Christ - God is saying bring Christ to the lost. If you do the presenting, then he will do the persuading. And the power is in the message, not in the messenger. Churches that operate from that conviction will be churches committed to declaring the Gospel of Grace worldwide. Listen as Dr. Larry Moyer encourages over 450 pastors at the Grace Conference in Chicago, Illinois.