Blog Posts - Evangelism

In his book Power Evangelism Wimber says articulating guiding principles for training people in the ministry of divine healing is like laying down the foundation for a building you want to build. What are some of the Biblically-based principles for equipping others (and yourself!) in the ministry of personal evangelism? The first guiding principle is simply that God wants to save people . In 1 Timothy 2:4 the apostle Paul says that God "wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." And in 2 Peter 3:9 the apostle Peter says "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." And Jesus himself says in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The second principle for evangelism is that we have been commissioned and sent by Jesus . "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 29:19). "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21). See also Luke 9:1-6 and 10:1-12, and also our free book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship where the task we are to perform as followers of Jesus is described in detail. A third key principle is that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit . "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses...to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We are to bear witness to coming kingdom by both words and works: "As you go, proclaim this message: 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons" (Matthew 10:7-8). Ingrid and I have both found that effective evangelism often begins when we pray for someone who is ill, troubled or tormented as we encounter people in the marketplace. Our final principle for doing evangelism is that trust in God is demonstrated by action . Studying the Bible is good, but doing the Bible is better. Jesus says that "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Matthew 7:24). He also says that only those who do God's will have the right to call him Father (Matthew 12:50). Application How can we apply all this to help us become more effective in sharing our faith? One way is to remind ourselves of these principles as we pass through our world. For example, when we go to work, enter a classroom, take our kids to the movies, wait in line at checkout in the grocery store, are greeted by the barista at a coffee shop, or whatever, we can recite a short mantra to ourselves to remind ourselves of these principles. Like saying this simple four-point prayer: Lord, I believe you want to save these people! Thank you that you've sent me to do your will! Thank you that your powerful Spirit is always with me! Please help me share your good news today! Of course if you’re like I am, then about ten seconds after you've recited the above and stepped into the world, you've completely forgotten it! But hey, that's just the world, the flesh and the Devil at work trying to inhibit and impede us. Get used to it and keep on moving forward in the kingdom :-) Blessings, —Mitch

I described previously some efforts I made a while back to try and rekindle passion in my Christian life for doing personal evangelism. I've also been thinking a lot lately about how those of us who are leaders can effectively train others in evangelism and (re)ignite passion in them for sharing their faith. I believe the answer to these two questions — how to motivate/equip both myself and others in areas like evangelism — can be found in the method John Wimber used in his book Power Healing . In chapters 9 through 12 of his book, Wimber describes a model he developed for equipping people in the ministry of divine healing. Wimber begins by articulating key principles underlying divine healing. From this foundation he then develops values, priorities and practices that can help make people become effective in healing ministry. The model can then be used to develop contextually-based programs for training people in divine healing. Wimber concludes by outlining a simple 5-step procedure people can follow when praying for the sick and demonized. Following in Wimber's footsteps and based also on several decades of my own involvement in leading/planting homegroups and house churches, I developed a similar model for home fellowship ministry in Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships . Beginning from first principles, I outlined in this book the values, priorities and practices that I believe are important for building healthy, Biblically-based home fellowships. I wrote this with the goal of helping people build and plant new home fellowships, the doing of which I believe will be a key part of bringing to fulfillment Wimber's vision for planting thousands of new fellowships (see chapter 5 of Bill Jackson's book The Quest for the Radical Middle for the story of how Wimber received this vision). In this short series of blog posts I'm going to try and do something similar for personal evangelism. My goal will be twofold. First, to provide church leaders with a framework they can use to motivate and equip their people for evangelism. And secondly — and more importantly, at least for myself — to provide some simple points of reminder that someone like me can use to help them become more effective in sharing Christ with others. Lately I've been feeling an urgency to address this important subject, both for the church at large and also for myself. For as Ingrid has said in the final chapter of Simple Kingdom: Discipleship , "A phrase keeps coming to my mind: the urgency of the kingdom." Do you too feel this urgency? Blessings, —Mitch