A SAMPLE OF ENDORESMENTS The following are some of the endorsements for Julian’s 900+ page book called Evangelism: Strategies from Heaven In the War for Souls. Some people are daunted by such a big book so Julian made a small book out of each chapter of the 900+ page book. What you are about to read is just one of the chapters of the larger work.
David Cole, YWAM Campaigns Asia/Pacific Board of Regents Chairman University of the Nations.
“This book is one of the most in depth looks at what Evangelism really is (and what it isn’t) that I believe has been written in the last century. I have been so inspired in my own calling through its content and often use it as a text book for teaching and imparting to young leaders in YWAM training courses as well as throughout other parts of the Body of Christ. Thank you Julian not only for such a valuable resource as well as for modeling the outworking of its content in your own life over the past few decades.”
Pastor Mike Smith, Melbourne, Australia
“An incredible book that all pastors should read. I have been a Christian for 28 years and a pastor for many years, and when I picked up this book, I thought, I doubt this will teach me anything new about evangelism. I was so wrong. It has revolutionised my thinking. This is an incredible book that all pastors should read.”
Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland
“The best book I have ever read. I am a solicitor (54) and a partner in a law practice. I unhesitatingly give my endorsement for Julian s book. Indeed, I would rate it as the best book that I have ever read!” Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland
Michael Angulo, Pastor and Church Leader
“Truly a work of Ministerial art. I really like this book and every true evangelist will love it also. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PUT IT DOWN, BUT WILL BE THINKING WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO READ IT AGAIN! A truly very well written book with good retrospective learning ideas. No true evangelist should be without this book. It is worth what it is worth and it will catapult you into great, deliberate PROVEN, ministry approach. Great book and I highly recommend it. Get this one, you won’t be disappointed!”
Acknowledgements I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the production of this Mini Series: Sheryl Kampenhout, who transferred a mountain of material from Power Point shows into Word documents and who served and encouraged me in such a loving and kind way; to Matthew Old, a faithful friend and fellow evangelist, who has been a Barnabas. He reached out his hands when the hills seemed steepest, loved me in spite of my failures, stimulated me with his sharp mind, and made me laugh when I wanted to cry; to Janice Teo, and her intercessory prayer team who are as vital to the ministry I direct as the heart is to the body; to the team of editors, including Ken Francis and Julie Belding; to all the financial supporters who have given so generously to me over the years. I especially want to thank Paul and Tina Richards, of Club Physical, owners of a gymnasium chain in Auckland, New Zealand, and Derek van Beynen, who have faithfully sponsored my ministry for over a decade. Few people have the privilege of being able to leave secular work to write and produce resources to further the cause of the evangelisation of the world, and to motivate and equip the Church to do the same. You, and all my other financial supporters, have made this possible; to those I live with who have not seen me for years because I have been locked away in my office writing, I give my sincere thanks. Special thanks to Neil Pollock. To Jenny Windeyer, the graphic artist, who designed the cover of the original 800 page book (which we’ve turned into this Mini Series), and to Jenny’s husband Drew for going beyond the call of duty so that Jenny could focus on this project; to faithful Bernie Anderson who has sacrificed and given way beyond what a leader would expect of a dedicated co-worker; to Eleanor Goodall and Sue and George Jeffrey who epitomise love and true friendship; to the team at ESI for keeping all the various aspects of the evangelism ministry moving forwards whilst I directed most of my time to write this Mini Book Series; for Dr Martyn Bowis who did all the programming for the electronic version of the gospel called “Proclaim it!”; for Henoch Kloosterboeror for producing all the brilliant
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drawings; Dr David Stewart, retired Principal of the Bible College of New Zealand for nearly two decades of encouragement and mentoring; Denise James and Anne Bartley, staff at the Bible College of New Zealand for helping with research; all those who have helped proof read the manuscript and given comment, particularly Dr Marie Sewell, Gill Donald, Gill Lukey, Donna Hansen, Ainslie Vines, Ann Hunter, and Miriam and Ted Martin; to the academic staff of the Bible College of New Zealand for giving me a grounding in theology; for all those who have given financially and sacrificially to pay for specific aspects of the publishing of this Mini Book Series; for my friend Ray Comfort, for his inspiration and encouragement. There are few evangelists today who have journeyed on the road of trial and tribulation to achieve breakthrough as Ray Comfort. For John Stott, the academic evangelist for his coaching and input via his many books. For all the people who we have trained in evangelism around the world who are out there doing it – you are the heroes in the battle for souls; for the many hundreds of pastors, leaders, and lay Christians around the globe who have contributed to my life as a Christian, and to this Mini Book Series; and finally, I thank Jesus Christ, whose amazing grace and love has inspired and kept me. All the revelations in this Mini Book Library about evangelism and the gospel were given by Him – to Him be all the glory.
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How To Read The Mini Books In This Library This Mini Book is one of a Library of 27 Mini Books. The Library is a detailed critique of the battle between light and darkness which is relentlessly raging all over the earth for the souls of men and women. The insights and revelations in each Mini Book are hierarchical i.e. Mini Book Two builds upon Mini Book One, Mini Book Three upon Mini Books One and Two, and so on. Hence, the ideal is to try and read all the Mini Books in the library in sequence. If you skip Mini Books, or even parts of Mini Books, you might miss something vital, and open yourself to misunderstanding or even defeat. Having said this, after you have read Mini Books One to Seven, which are the foundational books in the Library, each Mini Book is designed to stand alone. So, read Books One to Seven first. This is essential. With respect to evangelism, if you follow the advice I am giving here in the pages of each Mini Book, you’ll position yourself perfectly to be used by the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus in ways you’d not imagined possible. How so? Read the 27 Mini Books in the library and find out. Along with Mini Books 1-7, I suggest you also purchase Mini Book 27, which is the “Evangelism Fitness Test.” This is a diagnostic survey which will tell you the extent to which you have been unwittingly influenced by the devil with respect to evangelism. Sit this test before you read anything. Then do the same test again after you have read all the Mini Books to check to see if all his devices have been thoroughly purged from your mind!
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Church leaders! How To Lead Your Church In Evangelism! (Part 1)
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evice 35. To persuade leaders that being accountable for their evangelism activity is legalism.
A favourite ploy of the devil is to insinuate that being accountable in evangelism is legalism. But what is accountability? One writer put it like this: “We don’t wake up every morning longing to be accountable—we wake up yearning to be autonomous. Being autonomous is the default mode, being intentionally accountable comes only with wisdom shaped by grace. It’s risky to be accountable. Performance reviews at work don’t always turn out well, and failing to merit a promotion can be disappointing. Having friends remind me that I have failed to keep a promise is disheartening—I don’t like failing my friends or myself. Realising as I have that long-standing patterns of dysfunction cause me to seek to control events and the people I love is not just humiliating but devastating. Yet the patterns remain deeply entrenched, and so repentance becomes tiresome and shameful since the same things arise, time and time again. I don’t even like 7
knowing these things about myself, so being accountable to you increases my discomfort. Yet, I have lived long enough to be convinced that I need to be accountable. I am not trustworthy enough to be autonomous. I need to find a safe community within which friends love me enough to ask thoughtful, probing questions that encourage me to keep moving forward towards flourishing for Jesus.”1 The devil, on the other hand, will remind us we are saved by grace and not by works, and that accountability is not necessary. It is true, of course, that we were saved by grace and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-10). But it is also true that we were saved for good works, the highest of which is proclaiming the gospel.2 You see, if the devil can prevent you from being accountable in evangelism, no one will ever know you are not doing it. And not knowing, our non-evangelistic lifestyle will not be an issue to anyone. This is a perfect result for the devil. He wants to keep our non-activity in evangelism off everyone’s agenda, and out of sight. Another advantage of being accountable is that it helps prepare us for final judgement. ccountability and final judgement... If wanting to glorify God and obey Jesus for all His goodness to us doesn’t motivate us for evangelism and to be accountable, then maybe the reality of final judgement might just be what’s needed. Romans 14:12 says, “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” This verse is speaking about final judgement. Jesus issued one of the sternest warnings in the New Testament about this event. Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only he who does the will of my
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Denis Haack. www.ransomfellowship.org.
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I detailed why evangelism is the priority of the Church in Mini Book Seven.
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Father in Heaven.” The bible is clear about the criterion at final judgement - it will be the extent to which we did His will. Now we know, as I have just said, that we are saved by grace. This is God’s will. There is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation, or pay God back. We don’t have to prove we are saved. We can just rest and trust in the finished work of the Cross. When Jesus said “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36). There is no fine print here. I have had a revelation of Grace. I was going though a crisis in my life, and about 4 in the morning, I went to a prayer room. Crying, I flicked open my Bible and the verses I noticed were Romans 3:21-24. What happened next I can only describe as being transported into the throne room of heaven. The curtain was pulled back, and the full extent of being saved by grace was revealed to me. In summary form, I believe God said to me “Julian, if you lay down on your bed for the rest of your life and watched TV and ate jelly beans, never read your Bible, never went to church, never tithed, never prayed, yet you clung to the finished work of the Cross for your salvation, you’d be saved.” I argued with God and said “I can’t believe that. It sounds heretical. It can’t be that good, surely?” He said, “Julian, it is that good. And what’s more if you try and prove you are saved, or try and pay me back, or in any way work for your salvation, you grieve me. The more you cling only to my finished work on the Cross, and nothing else, the more you’ll please me.” The veil, as it were, closed, and I was flooded with a supernatural peace and joy. I ran out of the prayer room telling everyone we were saved by grace! They all agreed, but none was excited by the fact! For two years after that I preached “grace” everywhere. It was truly a honey moon period in my Christian life. Now here is the thing. A true understanding of being saved by grace didn’t cause me to lie down, watch TV, eat jelly beans, etc. On 9
the contrary, it turned me into a fire ball. I thought “If the gospel is this good, I want to tell everyone!” From that day on, by God’s grace, I have been telling everyone! What’s my point? Someone who is truly saved by grace will show this has truly happened by demonstrating a life of obedience. If we know what the priority of the will of God is (i.e. the evangelisation of the earth), and that the mark of genuine faith is obedience to His commands (John 14:21), wouldn’t it be the highest mark of wisdom to establish the habit of evangelism in our lives, and ask someone else to hold us accountable? Even if you haven’t had a revelation of the grace of God like I have had, believe it by faith. Just because you have not had this revelation does not mean this Truth is not True for you as well. It’s as True for you as it was for me, only you just didn’t get all the divine feelings which I felt that day in the prayer room. Yet it’s true whether you feel it or not. We are going to be accountable after death, so why not prepare for that great day now? It was Martin Luther who said: “There are two days in my calendar: This day and That Day.” And here’s the thing - the Christian life is about spurring each other on to a deeper and closer relationship with Jesus. This is what being accountable is all about. Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says to, “…encourage one another and build each other up…” In Mini Book Fourteen, I cited the research of Thom S. Rainer. You’ll recall he interviewed the pastors of 100 evangelistic churches. He wanted to know what factors create an effective evangelistic church, and top of the list was “the issue of accountability in personal evangelism.”3 How should we conclude? To ask a loving friend to hold us 3
Dr Thom.S. Rainer, Evangelism And Church Growth. Zondervan, 2001.p.162
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accountable for our activity in evangelism is not legalism. On the contrary, it’s a mark of true wisdom. It’s saying to our accountability partner “Help me get ready for That Day”. It’s also saying to Jesus “I want to be the best I can be for you while I run this race on earth.” How good is that!4
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evice 36 To persuade leaders that if they find evangelism difficult it must not be their calling, and that personal evangelism should be left to those with the gift.
This suggestion contains both truth and error. The error is to believe that evangelism is the sole responsibility of those with the Ephesians 4:11-12 gift. We showed how this was not true in Mini Book Eight. The truth is, some people who don’t have the gift of evangelism think that those who do, find it dead easy. Not so. I certainly don’t. However, some people do find evangelising easier than others – probably because of differences in personality, gifting and disposition.5 The general truth is that evangelism can be difficult – even laborious. esus warned us that evangelism would be hard work… Look at the account of Jesus leading the Samaritan woman to faith in John 4. If we interpret verses 34-38 as Jesus’ commentary on what just happened with the Samaritan woman, He points out that this opportunity to bring her into the Kingdom may have been helped by the laborious efforts of others who had sown the gospel in her life beforehand. “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for,” Jesus said. “Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour” (John 4:38). The ‘hard work’ referred to is a translation of the Greek word
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We have some excellent resources to help you with accountability. Please email me: julian@esisite.com
5 But don’t get the impression that introverts and quiet people cannot do evangelism. As I have mentioned before, we made a DVD of the testimonies of three introverts who have become very skilful and effective evangelisers. It is called ‘The Confessions Of Three Introverts,’ available from www.esisite.com.
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kopos which means “intense labour united with trouble and toil; grief, sorrow, weariness.”6 Yes, evangelism, a labour of love, will cost us personally. Sadly, in today’s Church, most pastors shy away from teaching or saying anything too challenging to their people, for fear of losing them and their tithe. Yet Jesus said ‘Don’t hold back!” Remember Matthew 10:27? “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” Jesus said if we want to experience the truly ‘good stuff’ (i.e. warm fuzzies) we must go through the ‘hard stuff’ (sacrifice, pain, trouble, hardship, labour etc). We can’t escape this if we are the real deal.. He said so in many places. Here are just two: “…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” John 12:24 (NASB). “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it (Mark 8:34-35). What Jesus is teaching is that going through the hard stuff leads to experiencing the good stuff7. Without the hard stuff, there is no good stuff. That’s been my experience too. reak out of default mode… Such is the nature of the battle. The devil, of course, delights to highlight as much as possible the difficulty of doing evangelism. Don’t give in to this stream of negative thinking. It is a great challenge to learn to control our thoughts and not let them rule our behaviour. Don’t default to the easy and the comfortable. Whether you are gifted or not, or whether your personality is suited or not, enter into this labour of love. “He who rules his spirit [is better] than he who takes a city”
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Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon.
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This is a generalisation. Some people die as a result of doing the hard stuff e.g. the Martyrs.
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(Proverbs 16:32 NKJV). Learning to control your emotions is a strategy from heaven in the battle for souls. Leaders, let’s count the cost and set an example in our churches of being a man or a woman who can rule their emotions. Let’s be the first in our churches to be seen in the non-Christian world labouring and sowing the gospel. Let’s show people how to control their emotions for the sake of His glory and Name. evice 37 To convince leaders that evangelism need
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only be a passive activity.
The devil loves it when leaders think the gospel needs to be proclaimed only on Sunday morning, or when someone wanders into the church for help, or at a funeral. But we err if all we do is wait for non-Christians to come to us to hear the gospel. At the World Congress on Evangelism, Berlin, 1966, George Duncan said: “So often the gospel is preached within the walls of our churches, to congregations where there are few if any unconverted people, and little effort is made by the majority of Christians inside to reach out and bring in those on the outside. Instead, the attitude today seems to be to sit within the [church’s] four walls and complain that the outsider won’t come. But nowhere in the Word of God do I find any suggestion that the outsider will come: indeed the emphasis seems to lie in another direction altogether. The command of Jesus Christ to the early church was ‘Go ye into all the world.’ While the church complains ‘they won’t come,’ God can justifiably complain concerning the church, ‘they won’t go.’ ”8 how your people how you go and search for lost pennies and sheep… The parables of the lost penny and the lost sheep teach that it is we who should go and search for the lost (Luke 15). That is active
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8 George B. Duncan. One Race. One Gospel. One Task. World Congress On Evangelism. World Wide Publications, 1967, p.58
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intentional evangelism and, as leaders, it’s crucial we model the ‘going’ If our evangelism is passive, the evangelism of our people will be passive too. Paul reminds us to “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). The devil has twisted this scripture so that some people believe being prepared is all God requires. So they think, “don’t go to the unchurched. All you have to do is be prepared. Wait for them to come to us.” ecoming active and urgent… Gordon Fee, a New Testament scholar, says of this verse: “[It means we should] stay at the task… whether it is convenient for us or not. And we should preach the gospel whether or not the preaching comes at a convenient time for the hearers.”9 Fee is saying our evangelism, biblically, must include the active and urgent.10 Sadly, many of us have become so sensitive and politically correct, not wanting to offend or upset anyone, that direct personal evangelism has almost become passé! ake the most of opportunities… Sometimes, however, evangelism can be a passive activity. Non-Christians come to us where we work or even to our homes – like the story of the tradesman who came to my house, back in Mini Book Ten. When this happens we can steer the conversation to spiritual things and graciously invite them to hear the gospel or give away a www.biblein11.com card.
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Gordon Fee. 1&2 Timothy. Hendrickson, 1984, p.88
10 As a ministry we detest the idea of harassing anyone with the gospel. In fact we have always stressed the importance of being gracious, kind and thoughtful, picking the right time and place to carefully present the message. Yet 2 Timothy 4:2 jolts us into comparing the passion, zeal and urgency of the early Christians with our own commitment. The early Christians had a natural and overflowing excitement to share the good news with people, and they were urgent about getting it to everyone, everywhere – even when it was inconvenient for the person delivering it.
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Over the years that I’ve been an evangelist, the times when someone has come and asked me to explain the gospel to them have been few - less than half a percent. The truth is, unless we are pro-active the proclamation of the gospel will usually not happen. That’s why Jesus and Paul place such an emphasis on the word “Go!” (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Romans 10:14-16, etc). Norman Nix, Director of National Ministries for the Baptist churches in Australia, said: “We are well aware that people who generally do not go to church do not want to come to us. They don’t spend much time thinking about God, Jesus or the church. This means that if they are to be reached, we must take the initiative – in fact, many initiatives.”11 Really, when one thinks about it, it’s oxymoronic in the extreme (and terribly sad) that I should be writing to other Christians having to justify why they should go with the gospel. For a genuine Christian, going and telling the gospel to the lost ought to be as natural as breathing. Yet, it isn’t. Such is the state of health of the Church. evice 38. To dupe leaders into assuming that
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everyone under their care and authority knows the biblical definitions of ‘evangelism’ and ‘the gospel.’
If we want to co-operate with the enemy, let us start by presuming that the people in our churches already know the meanings of these key concepts. Actually, when I go into a church and mention the words ‘evangelism’ and ‘gospel,’ I now know these words evoke a wide range of responses and images in the minds of the congregation. Don’t ever presume, when you say these words, that everyone will understand them the way you do. 11 Dr Bronwyn Hughes and Dr John Bellamy (Editors). A Passion For Evangelism. Turning Vision Into Action. Open Book Publishers, 2004, pp.115-116
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ne right meaning, many misunderstandings… For example, when you mention the word ‘evangelism,’ one person will see a man on a soapbox shouting, with no one listening, and people giving him a wide berth. Someone else will see a picture of a starving child in Africa being fed by an aid worker, a person praying for the lost, or a Christian playing golf with a non-Christian. Yet another person would see Billy Graham preaching at a large crusade, or someone handing out food parcels. Only one of these examples (Billy Graham) fits clearly the biblical definition of evangelism. But the people in church will not tell you what they are thinking. So your first task, when mobilising the church for evangelism, is to define your terms. Don’t skip this. It’s extremely important. One pastor, when we were discussing the idea of mobilising his church, said “Whatever you do Julian, don’t define evangelism or the gospel. It will create controversy.” For Jesus and Paul it would be unthinkable to hear a church leader say such a thing. 3 John 1:4 says “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” If we invert this verse, it says “I have no greater sorrow than to hear that my children are not walking in the truth.” John 18:31-32 says “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” By saying what he said, this pastor is showing that He is really not Jesus’ disciple and he is going to lead all his people down the same slippery slope. As workers who “correctly handle the Word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15), we need to define our terms carefully and biblically. If we don’t, people will make up their own definitions. Then, when we preach a powerful message about how people in our church need to reach the lost with the gospel in our city, those who are listening to you will say in their minds (but rarely aloud), “Praise God, I am already doing it!” 16
It’s not hard to imagine how the devil rejoices when we think we are motivating people for evangelism, when we are only strengthening misconceptions.
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evice 39. To persuade leaders that when the gospel is proclaimed and there is no immediate result, the exercise was a waste of time and resources.
The devil invests heavily in this device. He wants to hide certain truths from us: • that the highest motive for evangelism is the glory of God, not the saving of souls. So when you spread the gospel or proclaim it, and no one is saved, don’t beat yourself up. It’s OK. God has been glorified, and that is what matters. • that the gospel is a “seed.” Just as seeds in the natural realm take varying amounts of time to sprout and grow, so it is with the gospel. To evangelise is to engage in the highest form of worship. You’ll read about why this is so in Mini Book Twenty Five. If we truly understood these truths, we would never interpret “no immediate salvation” as failure. A farmer in the natural world would not think he’d failed if he didn’t see the seed he planted instantly strike and grow the moment it was planted. So on the basis of the above, how true is it that evangelism is a waste of time and resources if we do not see an immediate result? We must conclude it is not true at all. Think about this - true evangelism, when executed with love and grace, is one of the most powerful and potent ways of “…filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord…” For when we evangelise, Jesus is lifted up, exalted, presented as a hero, honoured, and magnified. Quite simply, evangelism is an act of worship which glorifies Jesus Christ. Check out Habakkuk 2:14: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (KJV). According to the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), glorifying Jesus is the main purpose of the Christian life. I am motivated to 17
evangelise when I think that my giving the gospel covers the person listening with the glory of Jesus. If all Christians were to take up personal evangelism, we would, spiritually speaking, “…fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord” irrespective of whether the person listening is saved or not. What higher thought could there possibly be than this?
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evice 40. To persuade leaders that all roads lead to God.
Surprising though it may sound, some church leaders don’t teach that a non-Christian can only be saved through Jesus Christ. Yet the Bible says clearly: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6) ll roads do not lead to God… In the research carried out by the Billy Graham School of Missions cited in Mini Book Fourteen, a common factor in effective evangelistic churches was the belief held by the leader that lost people are damned without Christ, that only Christ can save, and that hell is a literal place. Some church leaders are now reluctant to preach these truths lest they lose people from their churches. The belief that only Jesus saves is customarily known as the exclusivist position, because it excludes the availability of salvation through other means. Exclusivists tend to be branded as “intolerant bigots,” and their message, it is said, produces strife and discord. In a day when tolerance is perceived as the highest value, especially in religion, ‘exclusivism’ is worse than the plague. on’t cut the nerve of missionary motivation… Read carefully the following statement from Dr John Piper: “Are some people quickened by the Holy Spirit and saved by grace through faith in a merciful Creator even though they never hear of
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Jesus in this life? Are there devout people in religions other than Christianity who humbly rely on the grace of God whom they know only through nature or non-Christian religious experience? The answer of the New Testament is a clear and earnest ‘no.’ I affirm again that the contemporary abandonment of the universal necessity of hearing the gospel for salvation does indeed cut a nerve in missionary motivation… therefore the church is bound to engage with the Lord of glory in His cause. Charles Hodge is right in saying that ‘the solemn question, implied in the language of the apostle, how can they believe without a preacher? should sound day and night in the ears of the churches.’”12 Sadly, the belief that there are others ways to be saved other than through Jesus is remarkably common. If Christians don’t believe Jesus is the only Saviour, why should they evangelise anyway? Those who think there are many roads to salvation quickly lose their motivation to proclaim the gospel. One of the reasons evangelism in the West is in crisis is that many leaders have stopped proclaiming that we can be saved only through Jesus Christ. The idea that all roads lead to God, and that hell is not a literal place of eternal punishment, has already seeped into many of our churches. If you as the leader of a church hold to the ‘exclusivist’ position, your attempts to mobilise 100% of your people are on track, and you are headed for success.
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evice 41. To target leaders with extreme Calvinism and an unbiblical understanding of the theology of grace. The evil one squeals with delight when a believer holds and extreme position on some Christian doctrine.13 Since John Calvin believed God’s grace was irresistible, some extreme Calvinists 12 Dr John Piper. Let The Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy Of God In Missions. IVP, 2003, p.154 13 Except “love”
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reason like this: “If God’s grace is irresistible, and He has predestined only the elect to be saved… (i.e. God is going to save His predestined ones, no matter what we do or don’t do)… then what is the point of doing evangelism? We are better off spending our time and money on other things.” xtreme Calvinism is wretched and deformed… Some church leaders run their churches with this theology at the core. Dr Leighton Ford writes: “The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is a shining biblical truth, which at its best compels us to evangelise to the glory of our divine King. But any doctrine can be wretched and deformed… We must beware lest the biblical basis for God’s sovereignty be divorced from the biblical teaching of man’s responsibility, so that Calvinism is distorted into a kind of fatalism. When Spurgeon was asked to reconcile these two truths, he replied, ‘I wouldn’t try. I never reconcile friends.’ ”14 In my observation, the more Christians lean towards extreme Calvinism, the less active and effective they are in evangelism. Their theme song is: “Sit down, oh man of God, The Kingdom He will bring Just how and when and where He will; You cannot do a thing.”15 It is a tragedy Calvin would never have wanted to happen. illiam Carey saw through the folly of extreme Calvinism… William Carey, the great missionary to India, was confronted with this kind of theology. One author tells of how Carey proposed to a ministers’ meeting that they consider “whether the command given to the apostles to evangelise all nations is not binding on all succeeding ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying promise is of equal extent.”
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14 Dr Leighton Ford. The Christian Persuader. A New Look At Evangelism Today. Harper and Rowe, 1976, pp.18-19 15 Cited in: Dr Leighton Ford. The Christian Persuader. A New Look At Evangelism Today. Harper and Rowe, 1976, p.19
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J.C. Ryland, one of the ministers, expressed the common attitude of the church when he interrupted Carey impatiently. “Sit down, young man, sit down and be still!” he exclaimed. “When God wants to convert the heathen, He will do it without consulting either you or me.” Carey sat down, but a vision of far-away lands and of multitudes in darkness haunted his soul, and he could not be still. In season and out of season, in conversation and in sermon, he dealt with one allabsorbing theme, namely, the responsibility of the Church to launch out on its long-neglected, world-wide mission.16 ow to build resilience to keep going in evangelism… According to J. I. Packer, former Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Vancouver’s Regent College, anyone who is ‘big’ on the sovereignty of God ought to be ‘big’ on evangelism: “There is abroad today a widespread suspicion that a robust faith in the absolute sovereignty of God is bound to undermine any adequate sense of human responsibility. Such a faith is thought to be dangerous to spiritual health because it breeds a habit of complacent inertia. In particular, it is thought to paralyse evangelism by robbing one both of the motive to evangelise and of the message to evangelise with. The supposition seems to be that you cannot evangelise effectively unless you are prepared to pretend, while you are doing it, that the doctrine of divine sovereignty is not true… This is nonsense… Far from inhibiting evangelism, faith in the sovereignty of God’s government and grace is the only thing that can sustain it, for it is the only thing that can give us the resilience that we need if we are to evangelise boldly and persistently, and not be daunted by temporary setbacks.”17
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16 Eugene Myers Harrison. Giants Of The Missionary Trail. Scripture Press, Book Division, 1954. Reprinted with permission by Fairfax Baptist Temple, Burke VA, 1993, p.28 17 http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/James-I.-Packer/1/index.html
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wrong theology of grace can torpedo evangelism… A similar device the devil uses is to sow into leaders’ minds a misunderstanding of the theology of grace. They reason like this: We are saved by grace alone. 1. The thought of doing evangelism makes me feel uncomfortable. 2. A loving God would not make me feel uncomfortable. 3. Not doing evangelism will not affect my salvation. 4. God loves me just the way I am. 5. Therefore, I am not going to do evangelism. Points one, four18, and five are true, and number two is often the case. In the Christian life we don’t have to do anything except live and rest in the grace and love of God in order to be saved. However, I believe those who are genuinely saved will want to obey Him – and will obey Him - so much so that they will walk into discomfort for His sake. Jesus marks this as a trait of true discipleship (Luke 9:23; John 14:21) To use grace as an excuse not to labour in evangelism is to misunderstand Scripture. For example, Paul writes to Titus: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people. It teaches us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12). This verse teaches that grace ought to naturally result in a godly life. And what is a godly life? It’s a life marked by obedience to the commands of Jesus. And what’s the priority of His commands? By now you ought to know the answer.
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evice 42. To persuade leaders to view evangelism like a business venture. If we don’t see souls saved and won into our church immediately, we close down the 18 Having said that, Jesus did seem to make a connection between a willingness to evangelise and genuine faith: Luke 9:26: “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
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