BOOK 1 Evangelism Lost! Exposing The True State of Evangelism In Today's Church

A SAMPLE OF ENDORESMENTS 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.”

YWAM, University Of The Nations, New Zealand.

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!”

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Julian Batchelor, M.ed (Hons), B.Th, Dip.T’Ching

EVANGELISM LOST! EXPOSING THE TRUE STATE OF EVANGELISM IN TODAY’S CHURCH

Copyright Julian Batchelor Evangelism Strategies International Press Auckland New Zealand

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Acknowledgements I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the production of this book: 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, 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 writing this book; 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 drawings; Dr David Stewart, retired Principal of the Bible

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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 book; 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 book; and finally, I thank Jesus Christ, whose amazing grace and love has inspired and kept me. All the revelations in this book about evangelism and the gospel were given by Him – to Him be all the glory.

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How To Read This Book Truth is extremely important to Jesus. This book is about being aligned with Jesus and the Truth about evangelism and the gospel.

3 John 1:4 says “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” I know from working with Churches and Christians all around the world for the past 40 years that 98% are not walking in Truth when it comes to their understanding of evangelism and the gospel. This is a tragedy beyond words.

I want you to understand at the very start that the insights and revelations in each chapter are hierarchical i.e. chapter two builds upon chapter one, chapter three upon chapters one and two, and so on. Hence, the ideal is to try and read all the chapters in the book in sequence. If you skip chapters, or even parts of chapters, you might miss something vital, and open yourself to misunderstanding or even defeat.

Having said this, after you have read chapters one to seven, which are the foundational chapters in the book, each chapter thereafter is designed to stand alone. So, read chapters 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 chapter, 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 book and find out.

Start by completing the “Evangelism Fitness Test.” This is a diagnostic survey which will tell you the extent to which you are out of alignment with the Truth about evangelism and the gospel. Sit this test before you read anything. Then do the same test again after you have read all the whole book to check to see if your mind and thinking has been thoroughly re-aligned! Enjoy the journey!

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Evangelism Lost!

Exposing The True State Of Evangelism In Today’s Church.

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et’s face it, most Chrisitans struggle with “evangelism,”1 even the very thought of it.

Just the sound of the word causes the vast majority in the Church to shudder and recoil in horror.

Try blaspheming in a church service.

Today, you’ll get much the same reaction when you mention the “E” word.

There are reasons, and this book will reveal what they are.

If you are a Christian who struggles with evangelism what you’ll learn in this book will be the key to your personal breakthrough. I am going to introduce you to some revolutionary tools and strategies which will make evangelism easier than you ever dreamed or imagined - even if you are a shy, timid introvert, really elderly or really young, or disabled, or someone who has never engaged in evangelism ever before.

I will also answer most, if not all, of the hard questions you might have about this critical subject. For example: 1 By “evangelising” I mean the proclamation of the gospel or the spread of it through gospel tracts or some other medium like video. This is the biblical definition. There is currently tremendous confusion in the Church about what this word means. When I talk about “failing to proclaim or spread the gospel” I am referring principally to personal evangelism i.e. most Christians no longer go about their daily activities doing this as they go. Book Three is dedicated to defining evangelism. I also show how many wrong definitions of evangelism have infiltrated the Church, each hindering Christians from evangelising. In Book Four, I define “the gospel” and show how distortions of this phrase have also worked against our efforts to evangelise the world.

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• “How do I overcome my fear of evangelism?”

• “Why do I have this fear in the first place?”

• “Why do I feel nervous and worried when I think of myself doing evangelism?”

• “When I start a conversation with a non-churched person, how do I know what to say?”

• “Is everyone in the Church to evangelise, or only those with ‘the gift’ – what does the Bible really say?”

• “What is ‘evangelism?’”

• “What is ‘the gospel?’”

• “As a pastor, I have found motivating and equipping my people for evangelism extremely difficult. What do I need to do to remove the blockages? If all my people have the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit was given for witness, how come they don’t do it?”

• “In our evangelism today, why don’t we see signs and wonders like they did in the Early Church?”

• “What does the research say about creating an evangelistic church or an evangelistic culture? How have other churches done this successfully? What must I, as a leader, do to make this happen? Is there anything I am unknowingly doing and saying which might be putting my people off evangelising?”

These and other critical questions will be answered as we progress through each chapter.

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hat this book is really all about…

The main thrust of this book, however, goes much deeper than answering questions about evangelism and giving you access to revolutionary tools and strategies which will make doing evangelism easier.

What I really want to do is explain step by step how you can mobilise yourself and your whole church for evangelism. You’ll never be able to do this until your eyes have been opened to the 8

truth you are about to read in this book. In fact, it’s more than truth. It’s revelation directly from heaven, a gift imparted by the merciful benevolence of the Holy Spirit. What you are about to read could never have been arrived at by the cleverness of man alone, his intellect alone, or his senses alone. What I am about to reveal to you is a detailed critique of the cosmic battle which is constantly raging in the unseen world between light and darkness for the souls of men and women, and, most important of all, the glory of God. And why is this critique so absolutely critical? As I have just said, you’ll never mobilise yourself or your church into evangelism (and keep it going) if you don’t study and understand what is going on behind the scenes in this battle. It’s what is going on behind the scenes which is stopping you and the people in your church from doing evangelism. That is to say, this book unveils root causes.

And how do I know there is a battle going on? Well, you’re about to read statistics and facts which show beyond doubt that the evangelisation of the West is currently at its lowest point in the history of the Church. It’s under attack. It’s in crisis. As with any crisis, if we don’t isolate the cause(s), we’ll have no hope of fixing it. A good doctor carefully diagnoses a patient’s sickness before prescribing medicine.

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on’t be like an irresponsible doctor…

It’s the same with the current crisis in evangelism in the Western Church. Diagnosing why you and the people in your church don’t evangelise must precede prescriptive action.

At all cost, resist being like the irresponsible doctor who was quick to prescribe pills (e.g. “Oh quick, let’s run a seminar on evangelism!”) for a problem he had not thoroughly diagnosed.

If you are a pastor or a leader who is looking to mobilise all your people to evangelise their world, then let me tell you as 9

plainly as I can (after fourty years of experience) - pumping out a few rousing, tub thumping sermons and beating the drum from the front will never cut it.

Neither will organising a couple of training sessions to equip your people to evangelise. The current crisis in world evangelism is way too deep and complex for hype, or shallow, quick solutions.

My prayer is that as a result of reading this book, you’ll put to the sword what’s causing you to not do evangelism, and you’ll start doing evangelism yourself. Most important of all, you’ll know how to mobilise everyone in your church. That is to say, you’ll be ready to be used by the Holy Spirit to help cause a resurgence in evangelism in the Western Church.

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ood news and bad news…

However, before I unveil the models and maps of the war zone, and take you right into the heat of the battle, I need to give you some good news and some bad news. Let me explain.

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rom 100% to 2% in 2000 years…

I was saved in 1984 and spent most of that decade studying.

After completing degrees in both educational psychology and theology, I went teaching, and was appointed principal of a primary school in 1990. But, after receiving a call to become a full-time evangelist, I never took up that position.

For the next eight years, I trained and motivated young people from local churches for short-term beach missions in New Zealand. They travelled to stunning beaches to take Christ to the holiday-makers, and hundreds of non-Christians were swept into the Kingdom. We ran exciting programmes for children, teenagers and their parents. At night teams gave Christian messages in marquees, and bands played Christian music. All kinds of performing artists supported the cause. It was a wonderful season in my life.

During this time I undertook a serious personal study of the 10

book of Acts. When I came to Acts 5:40-42, the Holy Spirit spoke powerfully to me: “His speech persuaded them. They called the Apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The Apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped proclaiming the gospel.”

(Acts 5:40-42).

What struck me was that the Apostles, the Church leaders, those who’d actually walked and talked with Jesus, the original twelve, were modelling an evangelistic lifestyle.2 These were men who has been personally mentored by Jesus for three years. One can’t get any closer to the fullness of the revelation of Jesus than that! Don’t rush over what I have just written here. It’s crucially important. Let me say it again. “Those who’d actually walked and talked with Jesus, the original twelve. These were men who has been personally mentored by Jesus for three years.” If you want to know what a true Christian leader looks like, put aside for a moment all the books you’ve been reading on Christian leadership, and meditate on Acts 5:40-42. These verses answer the question “What does a true Christian leader look like?” True Christian leaders deliberately leave their homes each day (or if you are a leader reading this, your office at church), eager to find lost people. Once they find them, they seek to explain the gospel to them. Essentially, this is what it means to be active in evangelism - daily seeking out lost/unsaved people, or those we meet as we go about the course of each day, and graciously/lovingly explaining the gospel to them. I am not saying that this is all that a Christian leader should do all day (obviously), but it ought to be their priority, 2 In Book Three I discuss in detail how I came to define evangelism as the proclamation or spread of the gospel.

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their ‘30-minutes-each-day-never-to-be-dropped’ hallmark. It was so when the Church was birthed in Acts, and it ought to be today.

Period.

After a careful study of Church history, I discovered that virtually the entire Early Church had been mobilised to do this (led by the excellent example of the Apostles) and they reached the known world with the gospel. Who says virtually everyone was mobilised? Church Historian Michael Green reports: “The biggest difference between the New Testament Church and our own,” he says, “is that every member was a witness.3 The responsibility of bearing witness to Jesus rested fairly and squarely upon every single member.”

It was a stunningly wonderful discovery to know that it was possible to mobilise virtually the whole Church to evangelise. It happened because the leaders of the day were leading by example.

I reasoned that if it had happened before, it could happen again.

Eusebius, the third century Church Father and historian observed how and why the Early Church grew so prolifically.

“At once, in accordance with the divine Scriptures, the voice of its inspired evangelists and Apostles4 went forward to the whole earth and their Word [i.e. the gospel message] to the end of the world. In every city and village arose churches crowded with thousands of men like a teeming threshing floor.”5 Wow! But how things have changed today! I found out that today personal evangelism in the Western Church is at an appalling all time low. Only 2% of Christians regularly engage in it. How do we know this?

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There is much confusion about what “to witness” means today. It means to proclaim or spread the gospel. It does not mean engaging in social action, not mowing one’s lawns on Sunday, or not smoking etc.

4 Some have taken this to try and prove that only those with the gift of evanglism and the Apostles did all the evangelism. This is not what Eusebius is saying. I discuss why evangelism is the responsibility of all believers in Book Eight.

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Michael Green. Evangelism in the Early Church. Highland Books. 1969. p 201.

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isten to what the experts say…

For example: 1. The late Bill Bright, Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, reported that only a tiny 2% of the Church body is currently walking in obedience to Jesus’ command to “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel” (Mark 16:15).6 2. According to Christianity Today, only 1% of its readers said they had “witnessed”7 to someone that day.8 3. American evangelist Greg Laurie reports 75% of people in Church do not even know what John 3:16 says.9 4. George Barna, Director of the Barna Research Institute, concluded the majority of Christians in the West had stopped proclaiming the gospel. He writes: “How ironic that during this period of swelling need for the proclamation of the gospel, the ranks of the messengers have dissipated to anaemic proportions. The world’s greatest gift (the gospel) is now faced with becoming the world’s greatest secret.”10 5. Widely-travelled author and pastor Dr John Piper, in addressing his own church on the subject of evangelism said, “Virtually every earnest Christian is grieved by his weakness in this area. Did you know that? There is not a zealous Christian in this room who feels content with his effectiveness in personal evangelism.”11 Other respected scholars and leaders confirmed what these leaders were saying.

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ited in: Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. The Way Of The Master. How To Share Your Faith Simply, C Effectively, Biblically…The Way Jesus Did. Tyndale Books, 2004, p.1.

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In Book Three, I discuss the difference between “proclaiming the gospel” and “witnessing.”

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ited in: Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. The Way Of The Master. How To Share Your Faith Simply, C Effectively, Biblically…The Way Jesus Did. Tyndale Books, 2004, p.18

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Greg Laurie. How To Share Your Faith. Tyndale Books, 1999, p.48

10 George Barna. Evangelism That Works. Regal, 1995, pp.22 – 24 11 http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper88/pipe001b.htm

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For example, Dr William Abraham, Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Texas, said: “One cannot gainsay the fact that there has been a steady decline in the fortunes of evangelism over time. The situation is one of serious crisis for the Church in the West.”12 Billy Graham said: “A few years ago, an official of the World Council of Churches stated at a consultation on evangelism in Switzerland that …evangelism was the most important task facing the Church. He pointed out that the Church was rapidly losing out in the world population explosion.”13 Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham Centre at Wheaton College, Illinois, says: “It is the view of the authors that gospel proclamation is in decline in much of the Christian world, especially the West. Books on church growth, conferences on church leadership, and even missions’ gatherings and writings give little ink or emphasis to gospel proclamation… the general talk [in the Christian world] is that gospel preaching is archaic and ineffective.”14 “Research shows that despite the extraordinary missions’ efforts of the Church, three out of four people alive on Earth today still have not heard the gospel,” says Kevin Swanson, president of Mission Aviation Fellowship.15

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e are a generation living in The Dark Ages of evangelism, and we don’t know it…

What Jesus intended to be the main thing is now on the brink

12 Dr William J. Abraham. The Logic Of Evangelism. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002, p.10 13 C ited in: Leighton Ford. The Christian Persuader. A New Look At Evangelism Today. Harper and Rowe, 1976, p.7 14 L on Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP, 2003, pp.23-24 15 Cited in: Challenge Weekly, A New Zealand Christians Newspaper. June 26, 2006. Volume 64, issue 24, p.1

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of extinction. Most alarming of all, most Christians, including leaders, are completely oblivious to this appalling situation, just as leaders in the Dark Ages were oblivious to the situation they were in. And here’s the thing - in the the Dark Ages16 (roughly the 1000 years between 500AD and 1500AD), the Catholic Church dominated.

It believed that salvation came through works, indulgences, and partaking in the sacraments etc. Salvation by grace through faith was there, right before their eyes in the Bible.

For 1000 years, this crucial truth was lost.

It wasn’t until Martin Luther burst onto the world scene in 1517 that the covers were dramatically pulled off, and the heresy of works righteousness exposed.

What amazes me is this - why did God allow this heresy to dominate for 1000 years, and for the truth about salvation by grace, held by the tiny remnant, to struggle? Why didn’t God raise up a Martin Luther 1000 years earlier? The answer? God works through people, and for 1000 years His eyes were roaming the earth looking for a man or a woman who would stand up and expose the heresy and fight against it (2 Chronicles 16:9). Why don’t you be that man or woman in your church/town/city who will stand up and fight for the cause of the gospel, evangelism, and the Great Commission?

Right now, our generation is living right in the middle of another Dark Age - this time the Dark Age of evangelism. Today, as I have already pointed out, only a remnant (2%) personally and regularly engage in it. Tragically, the error of non-involvement in personal evangelism now dominates Western Christianity, just as salvation by works dominated the Dark Ages back then. Today, God is looking for men and women who will stand up and be God’s Martin Luther in the current crisis in evangelism. That is to 16 There is wide and varying understanding among historians about what we mean by ‘The Dark Ages’

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say, men and women who will expose the crisis, and dedicate their lives to fighting against it. Will you be one of these people? As you read this book, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would speak to you to reply “Yes! I will be one of those people!”

How are you going with evangelism? Do the test…

The sources I have quoted so far which cite the decline of evangelism are reliable. Yet, there is a far more telling piece of research - the voice of our own conscience. When I am preaching in churches I explain what ‘The Gospel’ is,17 and what it is not, and give an example of a Gospel message.18 Then I ask the following questions of the audience: “How many of us, honestly, would have gone out of our way intentionally to give the full gospel to a nonChristian in the last twelve hours?” Usually, no hands go up.

“How many in the last 24 hours?” Again, no hands go up.

“How many in the last week?” No hands.

“The last month?” One or two hands.19 I then ask people in the church to look around to see how few hands have gone up. Most people are completely shocked. For the first time in their lives they realise that what they thought was happening was not happening at all.

Most Christians are aware they are not sharing the gospel but they are completely unaware so few in the rest of their Church are doing it. Replicate this experiment in almost any Western church and see for yourself.

What are some of the consequences, in the West, of a Church 17 I have found that I need to define all my terms carefully in churches, otherwise people think that having a casual conversation about God, saying “Jesus loves you”, “giving a testimony”, or even bringing up the subject of God is the same as “proclaiming the gospel.”

18 You can view this at www.biblein11.com 19 W e have also found that usually when the faithful few have raised their hands and are further questioned about what they mean by “proclaiming the gospel” they back down admitting that the message they shared with the non-Christian was not the full gospel at all. It was either their testimony (which didn’t include the gospel) or it was just a good general discussion about God and Christianity (which touched on aspects of the gospel but was not a clear, succinct full gospel presentation). This is why I show a clear example of a gospel presentation before asking the question.

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which has stopped proclaiming the gospel? First, more people are exiting the Church than entering it.

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hurch attendance falls…

A team of researchers from the University of Manchester found that church attendance in Britain dropped from 20.3% of the population in 1991 to 16.8% of the population in 1999.20 A 3.5% fall equates to 426,300 people who dropped out of attending church over an eight-year period. This is equal to 4,000 churches with congregations of 100 closing down. Take Australia as another example. Church attendance in Australia plunged from 9.9% of the population in 1996 to 8.8% in 2001 – a substantial 1.1 fall in just five years. A 1.1% fall equates to approximately 184,000 people who dropped out of attending church over a five-year period. This is equivalent to 1,000 churches with congregations of 184 closing down.21 Significant leaders in New Zealand are taking notice.

Pastor Tak Bhana, of West City Christian Centre in West Auckland has pastored a large growing church for almost 19 years.

“If I was ruthlessly honest,” he said, “I would have to admit there are hardly any more Christians in West Auckland today than when I started. I believe the same scenario is being played out in many parts of our nation. The end result is that the percentage of Christians in this nation has remained unchanged for the last 50 years.” 22 Rodney McCann, leader of New Zealand’s Baptist Churches agrees that: “overall the Church in New Zealand is not growing.” 23 20 S ee Maria MacKay. Faith In God Declining Faster Than Church Attendance. www.christianitytoday.com, 16 Aug, 2005.

21 A s per NCLS Research. Church Attendance As A Percentage Of The Australian Population. www.ncls.org.au, 2001.

22 Cited in: Challenge Weekly magazine. Volume 65, Issue 37. October 1, 2007. p. 8 23 Ibid, p.8.

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America fares no better: “The inescapable conclusion is this: the Body of Christ in America is not growing – either numerically or spiritually.

It is, relatively speaking, shrinking – burdened by the crass commercialism and the quest for power and glory by celebrity preachers.”24 According to pastor and author Jim Cymbala: “Despite all the Christian broadcasting, and high profile campaigns, the Christian population is not growing in numbers nationally.”25 Southern Baptists are equally alarmed: “In our own congregations, we see falling rates of baptism and other signs of concern. In 2008, Southern Baptist churches baptized more than 33,000 fewer people than in 1950 – and that was with more than 17,000 additional churches.

Baptism rates among teenagers have fallen dramatically, and many young people become disengaged with the church soon after graduation from high school. In 2008 we baptized only 75,000 teenagers.

In 1972, we baptized 140,000. Why? Research conducted

by LifeWay Research on the Millennial generation and research by Thom Rainer on previous generations indicate that every American generation from early in the twentieth century forward has been less evangelized than generations before.

Tracing generational patterns from the World War II generation to the Millennials, the estimated number of Christians has fallen from 65% to 15%. Churches in America

24 Cited in: Challenge Weekly Magazine. Volume 65, issue 3. February 5, 2007. p 2.

25 Jim Cymbala. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, 1997, p.90

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are losing ground with each successive generation.”26 Allison and Anderson report: “In 1992, the median adult attendance per church service [in America] was 102. By 1995, it dropped to 95 and in 1999 it fell to 90 – an eleven percent drop in seven years…. interestingly….during this time the number of Christians sharing their faith also declined.”27 Say Rusaw and Swanson: “Attendance at two-thirds of US churches has either plateaued or is declining.”28 Many denominations are haemorrhaging. Take, for example, the Episcopal Church.

In February 2005, it announced to its members: “The most urgent message the Commission has to convey to the Church is not a happy one. Current data indicates we are going in the wrong direction. So far, what has doubled is the rate of decline in attendance. The numbers should alarm and disturb us.”29 And it’s not just the Episcopal Church which is squealing. It’s all denominations: “In 1960, mainline church members made up 14.4% of the American population. In 2000, mainline church members comprised only seven point four percent of the American population. Looked at as a percentage of the population, membership has decreased almost fifty percent in 40 years.”30 And is the Protestant presence in the U.S.A. declining?

26 “Embracing A Vision For A Great Commission Resurgence Among Southern Baptists. Final Report Of The

Great Commission Task Force Of The Southern Baptist Convention June 15, 2010.” Cited at: http://www. pray4gcr.com/historic/report.pdf 27 Cited in: Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic

Proclamation. IVP, 2003, p.30 28 Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson. The Externally Focussed Church. Group Publishing. 2004, p.27 29 http://www.episcopalarchives.org/e-archives/bluebook/13.html 30 Marth Grace Reece. Unbinding The Gospel. Real Life Evangelism. Chalice Press. 2008, p.25

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Yes. “Recent research from the University of Chicago shows the America’s Protestant majority is fading rapidly and will be gone by the time you hold this book in your hands.

From 1972 to 1993, the percentage of Protestants in the U.S remained fairly stable at sixty-three percent. However, by 2002 the number had dropped to fifty two percent.

Protestants are in steady decline.”31 What is the overall picture? At worst, “All across Western Europe, church attendance [1991-1998] has plummeted…”32 Dr William Abraham: “There is no going back on the thesis that the proportion of the population [in the Western World] who take Christianity seriously has shrunk drastically.”33 Are there other consequences for a Church in the West which has stopped proclaiming the gospel?

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elief in God among non-Christians falls…

The team of researchers at the University of Manchester, England, also found there was a dramatic decline in belief in God among non-Christians. All this disturbed me greatly. I had always had the impression from the songs we sing in church, the mission reports, magazines, books and general Christian information we read, hear, or see, that the Church in the West was a great army making massive advances into the kingdom of darkness, steadily and consistently taking ground.34 31 Ibid, p.26 32 Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP,

2003, p.29 33 Dr William J. Abraham. The Logic Of Evangelism. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002, p.13 34

Some churches are making great gains, and we rejoice in this, but their number is small compared to the total number of churches in existence in the West. It is perilous to conclude from observing the prolific growth of some churches in the West that all churches are faring well. The truth is, many large churches are growing at the expense of smaller churches i.e. people from small churches are simply transferring to the larger churches.

As such, much large church growth is actually transfer. I discuss this issue in Book Seventeen. Furthermore, many large ‘successful’ churches are growing not through evangelism, but through clever marketing.

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Discovering these impressions were shockingly inaccurate and left me feeling deflated.

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oincidence or consequence?...

I asked myself, “Are these declines in belief in God and Church attendance just coincidences, unrelated to the Church ceasing to do evangelism? Or are they consequences?” I believe they are consequences. How so? First, if the Church stops evangelising, the lost stop hearing the gospel. And not hearing the gospel, fewer are being saved and assimilated into churches.

Second, when the Church stops evangelising, Christians lose life, direction, meaning, and passion for their faith. Doing evangelism fuels all four aspects of a Christian’s life. And when Christians do not have these aspects of their Christian life fuelled, they drop out of Church.

I am not alone in my thinking. “There is a clear connection between [plummeting] Church attendance and proclaiming Christ,”35 say Allison and Anderson.

Their conclusion fits with Scripture; “…whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly” (2 Corinthians 9:6).36 I found myself drawn to the writings of many great Christian statesmen, authors and leaders around the world – men and women who had observed how evangelism was being hindered in the West.

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ignificant leaders are saying the same thing…

Billy Graham used the phrase “the un-seeded generation”37 to describe those who had never heard the gospel.38 He said this when he turned down an invitation to hold a 35 Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP,

2003, p.30 36 True, the context of the Scripture is money, but the principle still applies. We cannot expect a harvest from

a field not sown with seed.

37 In the Bible the gospel is represented as a seed (e.g. 1 Peter 1:23) and the human heart as the soil (e.g.

Luke 8:15).

38 Cited in: Jack R Smith. Fifty Great Soul Winning Sermons. Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, 1994, p.11

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crusade in a city where the non-Christians had not heard the gospel. This was because the Christians in that city had not been proclaiming it.

In using this phrase, he was effectively saying, “What is the point in expecting a harvest from a field not sown with the seed of the gospel?39 I don’t want to waste precious time and resources by going to such a city.” Graham’s comment now applies to virtually every city and town in the West.

In 1967 Dr John Stott wrote a book called Our Guilty Silence: the Church, the Gospel and the World. In it he spoke of the reluctance of Christians to go into the world and proclaim the gospel. There I was in 2013, reading a book written in the 1960s about a crisis that had apparently existed for decades.

Jack Hanes, author, pastor and missions’ mobiliser, wrote in His Last Command, Our First Priority40 that “35,000 people were dying daily without having heard the name of Jesus.” Hanes’ insights added fuel to my desire to write this book.

Mark Mittleberg of Willow Creek Church said: “Unfortunately, the work of evangelism has been pushed off onto believers by pastors, pushed onto pastors by believers or pushed off to those believers with the gift of evangelism.”41 Mark Conner, Senior Pastor of the 5,000 strong Waverley Christian Fellowship in Melbourne, Australia, said: “In most churches, evangelism just isn’t happening.”42 Greg Laurie, US evangelist said: 39 Notice that it’s the seed of the gospel we are talking about here. “Seed sowing” is a popular theme in church circles. We are often exhorted to sow the seeds of kindness, love, righteousness, purity, money, time or whatever. Such exhortations ought to continue. But the seed Billy Graham is talking about is none of these things. It’s the seed of the gospel. Only this seed is the power of God for salvation. Exhortations to sow this particular seed are becoming increasingly rare. In this book, you will discover why.

40 Jack Hanes. His Last Command, Our First Priority. Megalife Ministries, Kingswood, Sydney, Australia,

2002, p.17 41 Cited in: Bronwyn Hughes and John Bellamy. A Passion For Evangelism. Turning Vision Into Action. Open

Book Publishers, 2004, p.157 42 ibid, p.157

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“It is my personal opinion that most Americans – much less the rest of the world - have not really heard the gospel.”43 Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham Centre at Wheaton College: “The West, including North America and Europe, is post-Christian at best. Vast populations are unaware of the Christian gospel.”44 With so many significant leaders saying virtually the same thing, I knew this was a crisis situation, a new Dark Age. The Lord showed me it was not just Christian statesmen, authors and leaders who were concerned. I thought of evangelism ministries around the world with whom I had had contact who were trying to mobilise Christians for personal evangelism.

Most were finding the task agonisingly difficult.

As if my concern from research was not high enough, in 1998 the Holy Spirit took me to new levels by giving me a vision of a waterfall.

A

vision of a waterfall…

I was standing next to a large waterfall, like Niagara Falls.

It was a calm, clear day. Suddenly, right before my eyes, the water was filled with people. Instead of water going over the falls, it was people. They were trying to stop themselves from falling into the abyss, but it was too late. The faces of the tumbling bodies were filled with terror and panic as they fell into the great chasm below, their screams and cries bloodcurdling. Some distance from the edge of the falls, way up stream and to my left, the river was filled with happy, carefree people frolicking in the warm sun and gentle current. Most seemed completely unaware they were nearing the 43 Greg Laurie. How To Share Your Faith. Tyndale Books, 1999, p.47 44 Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP,

2003, p.72

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falls.

Then I looked over to the other side of the falls. Mature trees were dotted around a beautifully manicured lawn. Sunlight filtered through the leaves onto the grass where groups of people were engaged in various activities. Some were worshipping, some were studying the Bible, some were praying, and some were prophesying. Some were praying for the sick while others just talked. Still others were listening to a sermon, and one group was dancing.

What I noticed particularly was that everyone faced away from the water and all seemed completely oblivious to the screams of the people right behind them who were tumbling over the falls.

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e are everywhere, but they are just not hearing…

Was this a picture of much of the Church in the West today? I believe so. While we are busy with many good activities, a spiritual disaster is happening right behind us.

Millions45 of unbelievers in the West are pouring into hell, never once having heard and understood the gospel. They’re not from some lost tribe. They’re your neighbours and mine, family members, co-workers and co-students. Christians, are everywhere, but non-Christians are just not hearing the gospel.

Overwhelmed by the situation, I went to prayer. I considered: • The vision of Niagara Falls.

• The research regarding the decline in gospel proclamation.

• The similarities between the Dark Ages and the Church today.

• The research showing the Church in the West had not

45 U sing the word “millions” might seem like a wild exaggeration which cannot be substantiated by research.

Not so. We have been surveying a large sample of non-Christians. After presenting the gospel to them, we have asked them the question, “Have you ever heard this message or anything like this message from somewhere else or someone else?” and their answers are remarkably consistent. Upward of 95% say “No.” If only 2% of Christians in the West are evangelising, then it figures that most non-Christians are not hearing the gospel.

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grown in real terms for decades.

• The observations of the Christian leaders mentioned above.

• The reports from ministries worldwide that were seeking to mobilise Christians for personal evangelism.

My conclusion? Most Christians in the West had stopped going purposefully and regularly into their world to proclaim or spread the gospel but there was no natural or logical reason for this.

F

or example...

It is not as if we lack finance. The Western Church has billions of disposable dollars. Our communication tools include the web, video, DVD and CD, TV, radio, satellite, Facebook, Twitter, Google, ipads, iphones, ipods, tablets of every make and model etc. We have wonderful graphic design and printing capabilities.

All John Wesley had was a horse, a Bible, and the Holy Spirit.

Power to proclaim the gospel is available. Acts 1:8 speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit, through whom there is power for every believer today (Romans 5:5). Jesus’ command to“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel” is not too complicated to understand. It is not as though we cannot find anyone to whom we can give the gospel.

There are billions (literally) of people who have not once heard and understood this message. Many of them are in the West where there is a church on every corner. Finally, we are not on our own for Jesus promised, “I will be with you” (Matthew 28:20).

So, how have we moved from everyone evangelising in the Early Church to only 2% doing it today? Who or what has caused this gigantic shift? How have we regressed 98% over 2000 years?

I clearly felt the Holy Spirit challenge me to find answers to these questions. For 16 years I sought God and undertook serious, prayer, study, and research.

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During this time I was working directly with churches all over the world so my findings are not theories. They are facts to which your spirit will attest as you read. Over this time He revealed 84 reasons for this dramatic decline. Behind each reason are principalities and powers.

P

rincipalities and powers to blame…

Each of these 84 reasons is a ‘device’ of the enemy which Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 2:11. A careful study of the word ‘device’ reveals that ‘devices’ are the thoughts, plans and schemes of the devil.

For 2000 years he has been sowing these devices into the minds of Christians with the purpose of stopping the evangelisation of the world. And what’s behind this? In chapter two, I discuss the motives of the devil in detail. You’ll be stunned by what you read.

Discovering that darkness is behind this collapse ought to be no surprise. Such a finding is entirely consistent with Scripture.

Ephesians 6:12 says: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

I am not alone with this realisation.

Listen to Dr John Piper: “From the cradle to the grave, life is war. Your soul, your mind, your body, your family, your career are fields of conflict.

Until Satan is finally thrown into the lake of fire our peace with God will have to be a vigilant peace.”46 To reverse the 100% to 2% swing, our focus in the first half of this book will be to understand how our enemy has done this.

Identifying the cause of a crisis will take us a long way towards 46 http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper88/pipe001b.htm

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solving it.

Why this focus in the first half? Well, think of a car which has broken down. The first thing a mechanic must do to get the car going again is isolate the cause of the breakdown.

Similarly, if we isolate how principalities and powers have caused the 98% regression, by God’s grace, we can, like the broken down car, get the evangelisation of the West going again.

In the second half of the book, I unveil specific ‘doable’ strategies which will, by God’s grace, go a long way towards fixing the crisis.

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o what’s the bottom line?…

These devices are like voices whispering in the ears of Christians, subtly putting them off evangelising. What’s really important to understand is that most Christians will not be aware they are carrying them. You see, devices operate by stealth. Many are subliminal. If a Christian under the influence of just one device will not evangelise, imagine how paralysed is one who is influenced by all 84?

This is the bad news.

The good news is that once a person becomes aware of them and how they are operating in their lives, they can be eliminated.

We can’t deal with a problem about which we are not aware.

Hence this book.

One of its goals is to bring people into a place of awareness so they can be truly liberated and set free to reap the rich bounty of benefits which come from being active in evangelism.

Another way to think of these devices is to compare them with computer viruses. Computers which host viruses eventually crash they stop functioning. Most Christians are unwittingly hosting these ‘evangelism viruses’ in their minds, so their evangelism activity has crashed - they have stopped evangelising.47 The Holy Spirit will work through this book and the other 47 Sadly, these devices are so pandemic, many have never started!

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Evangelism Strategies International resources48 to purge the 84 devices from our minds, just as anti-virus software purges viruses from computer hard drives.

Without bringing awareness of these devices and then purging them from the minds of believers, we’ll never mobilise the Church in the West back into evangelism.

So how can you as a pastor bring awareness of these devices to the people in your church and purge them of the same? There are three ways to do this.

1. Host “The Six Lost Truths” one day conference at your church and have all your people attend.

2. Access the book you are reading now on-line, and have people start reading it.

3. We can visit your church and deliver a 6-8 week series on evangelism on Sunday mornings or you (i.e. the pastor) can do the teaching and we provide the Power Point slides and handouts. This is the best option of the three because your whole church will then be united, moving forwards together, and your people will not have to come out to another meeting.

Plus, if it’s coming from you, the pastor, your people will listen up and take it seriously.

When you expose your people to this material, the Holy Spirit typically imparts: • A fresh vision for the Great Commission.

• A revelation of what it means to be united to Jesus and His mission.

• A new heart and mind for the lost and a renewed passion to reach them with the gospel.

• Fresh excitment and joy into your church. There will be a new Holy Spirit inspired buzz in the air!

• You’ll witness the lost being saved and joining your church.

48 See www.esisite.com for further details.

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Grasping the main point...

The main point I want you to grasp is this - bringing awareness of these devices and purging them from the minds of your people must precede equipping them to evangelise. From my fourty years of experience mobilising churches back into evangelism, I have found that if a pastor wants to mobilise 100% of his people into evangelism, they must take their people through 3 distinct phases: 1. Prepare their church for evangelism. This means teaching them the 84 devices of the enemy and giving them time to process what they have discovered.

2. Equip their church to do evangelism. This means giving them tools and resources to do evangelism and showing them how to do it i.e. leaders leading by example.

3. Maintain evangelism momentum by implementing specific strategies which will keep a church flourishing in evangelism - or if you like, keep the momentum going until evangelism becomes as natural for your people as having breakfast each day is natural.

To take your church through all 3 phases is to move in great wisdom. I reiterate, in this book, I am passing onto you the lessons I have learned from fourty years of experience. That is to say, if you are someone who want to mobilise others for evangelism, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel.

Uploading new programs (i.e. teaching people how to evangelise) onto hard drives riddled with viruses (i.e. the minds of Christians) just won’t work. The computers will just keep crashing i.e. if you equip your people to evangelise without first purging their minds of the devices, they will exhibit enthusiasm for the evangelisation of the world for a while, but over time they will all default back to their non-evangelistic way of living. The long term effect of this?

Your people will be resistent to further attempts to mobilise them.

They will reason “Oh, we tried that before and it didn’t work. Let’s 29

not waste time trying again.”

Jesus talked about the folly of trying to overlay the new on top of the old in the parable of the wine skins (Luke 5:36-39).

Please also understand this - the revelations unveiled in this book will not just bring Christians awareness of the devices and purge them of the same. The Holy Spirit will work through them to create (to use computer language again) a fire wall to stop the devices infiltrating again. This is essential if you are serious about mobilising the people in your church to evangelise and retaining 100% of them in the habit.

The 100% to 2% shift in the wrong direction can be reversed.

Together with God we can come out of this appalling Dark Age of evangelism.

By reading this book, you are about to become part of the solution.

S

ummary

• The hallmark of a genuine Christian leader is that they model personal evangelism before their families, and the people in their church. This fact is attested in Acts 5:40-42.

• The Church in the West today is currently living in a Dark Age of evangelism and it doesn’t know it, just as the Church in the classical Dark Ages (500AD-1500AD) was living in darkness regarding salvation by grace through faith and didn’t know it.

• Virtually the entire Early Church was mobilised to evangelise (because they saw the Apostles doing it) and they reached the known world with the gospel.

• Today only 2% of Christians in the West engage in evangelism.

• The number of Christians who are attending church in the West is in rapid decline, so are the numbers of people who believe in God. • Many Christian statesmen and scholars are noting these 30

appalling declines.

• The vast majority of non-Christians in the West have not heard the gospel and are dying having not heard it once.

• Fixing this crisis is going to first require careful diagnosis of its cause.

• Behind the collapse of evangelism in the West are principalities and powers. And behind them is the devil himself.

• He has sown 84 ‘devices’ (2 Corinthians 2:11) into the Church over 2000 years to cause the collapse.

• The good news is that God in His grace has given us a three phase strategy which when implemented will help reverse the 100% to 2% decline i.e. cause a resurgence in evangelism.

CTION POINT: You might be saying at this point, “How can I help?” Here are some things you can do. Start spreading awareness of the issues raised in this booklet to other Christians you know. Email it to everyone on your address book and encourage them to do the same. Send them a PDF file. If you are reading a hard copy, you can obtain a PDF copy by sending an email to julian@esisite.com.

What’s next?

In chapter two, I explain why we must take the devil seriously, and what is motivating him to try and shut down the evangelisation of the world.

Criminologists will tell you that establishing the motive for a crime is a key to solving it. The insights you are about to receive in the next book are crucial if you want to activate yourself and your church into evangelism.

Are you ready to be used by the Holy Spirit in this way? Great!

Then let’s go to chapter two!

A

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Real Life Story Prodigal Daughter on A London Train London

One Sunday in London, England, some friends and I went to All Souls’ Church in the middle of the city, where John Stott, the famous author and theologian, used to be on staff. He has since died and gone to glory.

To get to All Souls, we had to catch an early train. I wanted to share the gospel with someone before church - but not at the train station, because I didn’t know how long I would have before someone’s train might come. It is awkward interrupting the presentation of the gospel in full flight. So I opted to give out a few tracts to people waiting on the platform.

The train came and Vera, one of my friends, suggested we sit in the front carriage where the seats on both sides of the aisle face each other, with two people sitting opposite two people. There were four of us, so this left another four seats across the aisle free. I deliberately sat nearest the aisle so that I could talk to whoever sat on the vacant seats across from us. I had also forewarned the other three who were with me and told them to ignore what I was doing if I started giving someone the gospel. Nothing spoils a situation more than other people staring. For evangelism to work well, you have to learn to set the situation carefully.

The trip into London was about 40 minutes. After about three stations a woman got on, taking a seat on one of the four empty seats across the 32

aisle. I let her settle down and then, after a time, leaned across the aisle and asked her quietly with a smile if she could help me with something.

Whenever I share the gospel on public transport, I do so as discreetly and privately as possible, to minimise any embarrassment to the person listening. Other than our group of four, there were few others in the carriage. She was happy to participate and we worked through the 10-question ice-breaker which leads on to the gospel. Her name was Susan, she was in her mid-twenties, and she told me she was en route to London to do a quick job for her boss.

We proceeded to go through the gospel. About a third of the way through, I noticed tears streaming down her cheeks. When she reached for a tissue in her bag, I stopped the presentation and gently asked her what was wrong. My friends, too, had noticed what was happening and were praying (not our loud!). Through her tears Susan explained she was a backslidden Christian. Her parents had spent time in Uganda as missionaries and all of the rest of her immediate family were zealous

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Christians.

Susan confessed she was living with her partner and was the black sheep of the family. Her life was falling apart and she was at crisis point. She invited me to keep going through the presentation.

The tears continued to flow and I gave her more tissues. From time to time we stopped the presentation and talked about her life, her situation, and her torn heart. She couldn’t believe God would arrange to send someone 24,000 miles from the opposite side of the world to speak with her on a train to London.

She asked me some penetrating questions.

“Does Jesus love me so much in the midst of my sin and rebellion that He would send you to me?” she said. The story of the Prodigal Son came to mind.

When I finished sharing the gospel, she allowed me to pray with her. The train stopped and I invited her to come to All Souls’ Church (picture on the right) with us. She said she hadn’t been to church for some time and the thought of it was quite scary.

Still crying, she explained she would be about an hour doing the work for her boss and that she would think about coming to church after she had finished it. I told her it was okay to be late and that I would wait for her outside the church if she decided to come. We hurriedly swapped phone numbers and email addresses. She went her way and we ours.

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En route to All Souls, we prayed for her as we walked the streets and gave out tracts to people who passed us on the footpath. I honestly didn’t think we would hear from her again.

As we entered the church my cell phone beeped with a new text message. It said: “Susan here. I am coming to church. Can you wait for me? I’ll be 10 minutes late.”

Vera reserved seats at the back of the church and soon Susan came bouncing around the corner, spotted me, waved and smiled.

We entered the church and I picked up the Order of Service. I was astonished and delighted to see the sermon topic: “How valuable are we to God?” What’s more, the text for the day was Luke 15 with the parables of the lost sheep, the lost penny and the lost son.

Which one did the minister focus on? The lost son! And all the songs were about the lost coming home, the Father’s love for those who have strayed and the lengths He will go to find His precious children. I could hardly contain my joy. Susan sang the songs, and wept quietly through the sermon.

I was disappointed she did not respond to the altar call, but I knew God had done -- and was still doing -- a huge work in this young woman.

To bring her back fully to Jesus, I reasoned, might take a while; but if the Creator of the universe had gone to such lengths to arrange the events of this Sunday morning, I had confidence He would bring her home at just the right time.

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Julian’s comments.

This real life story gives us a lot of valuable insights into the strategies of those doing evangelism which prepares them for success. For example the person doing the evangelism: 1. Didn’t want to start giving the gospel to someone on the train station platform because he wouldn’t have time to finish it. He’d thought this through so he didn’t enter into a failure situation.

2. Had thought about where to sit on the train so as to be in the best position to give the gospel.

3. Had forewarned the others in his party not to stare and watch if he started giving the gospel. He’d thought it through.

4. Was discreet. He wanted giving the gospel to be as private as possible so as to eliminate any embarrassment factor for the non Christian.

5. Did a smart thing swapping phone numbers and emails. It meant he could keep in close contact with Susan should she decide to come to church. Once again, he’d thought it through.

Conclusion? Successful evangelism is a thinking, planning, strategising exercise, not just the communication of vital Spiritual information. Also, God set the whole occasion up. I find this incredibly encouraging. In a very real sense, God was playing chess with Susan and the person doing the evangelism, moving them around on this divine chess board with perfect timing so they would meet just at the right time. How he was able to do that without either party knowing what He was doing, and get the timing right?! It’s mind blowing i.e. Susan and the person doing the evangelism had to get the right train, on the right day, and sit in the right seat. How does He (i.e. God) do it! It’s called the sovereignty of God. I firmly believe that God uses those who are willing and wanting to share the gospel to accomplish things like you have just read. Those who are not willing and wanting to share the gospel miss the thrill of Christian life. They miss being used by God. How tragic! They are like a chess piece glued to the chess board, making themselves unavailable to be used.

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The Full List Of Books In ‘The Truth About Evangelism’ Mini Series is as follows Book One

Evangelism Lost! Exposing The True State Of Evangelism In Today’s Church

Book Two Seven Deadly Motives Exposing How The Enemy Is Shutting Down Evangelism.

Book Three

The Sorrowful Collapse Of The Great Commission- A Dangerous Redefining Of Evangelism

Book Four Evangelism Redefined? Six Subtle Yet Devastating Redefinitions Of Evangelism

Book Five Confusion Busters 7 Things You Should Know About The Gospel Message

Book Six

Six Ways To Move From Gospel Confusion To Gospel Clarity

Book Seven

The Evangelisation Of The World Is The Ulimate Purpose Of The Church. 7 Irrefutable Reasons It Is Time To Prioritise

Book Eight

A Gift, A Call, Or A Commission. Are All Christians Commanded To Evangelise

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Book Nine

12 Keys To Fearless Evangelism In The 21St Century

Book Ten Take Them Down. 12 Road Blocks And How To Get Through Them

Book Eleven

The Key To Victory. Start Viewing Evangelism As An Event, Not A Process

Book Twelve

Confidence In The Gospel, Come Back! Four Essential Steps To Reclaiming Lost Ground!

Book Thirteen Prepare To Be Amazed! What Jesus Really Taught About Evangelism!

Book Fourteen

What Leaders Must Do To Cause A Resurgence In World Evangelism

Book Fifteen

A Plan Of Action To Cause A Resurgence In World Evangelism

Book Sixteen

Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 1)

Book Seventeen

Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 2)

Book Eighteen

Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 3)

Book Nineteen

Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 4)

Book Twenty Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 5)

Book Twenty One

Climb On Board! 4 Reasons Why Doing Evangelism Will Help Create A Better World!

Book Twenty Two

Devastation! How Pseudo-Conversions Hinder Evangelism And What You Can Do To Stop The Rot!

Book Twenty Three

“Friendship evangelism.” What’s good about it, and what’s heretical?

Book Twenty Four

Unholy Grief! Five Ways Evangelists With The Gift Can Grieve The Holy Spirit

Book Twenty Five

The Highest Motive For Doing Evangelism? You’ll Be Amazed What The Bible

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Teaches!

Conclusion

Book Twenty Six Appendix One : If We Fail To Evangelise, We Fail. Period. By Dr K.P. Yohannan

Appendix Two : The Pastor Evangelist. By Dr. Roger S. Greenway

Appendix Three : True Gospel Must Be Heard, By Kevyn Harris

Appendix Four : This We Believe Signatories

Appendix Five : Device 84. “I don’t like being told to do evangelism!”

Book Twenty Seven The Evangelism Fitness Test

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L i s t

o f

D e v i c e s

According to the Greek in 2 Corinthians 2:11, a ‘device’ is a thought, a plan, or a scheme of the devil. The devil has sown ‘devices’ into the minds of believers all over the globe to stop them evangelising.

These devices have been so successful, that now only 2% of Christians in the West ‘do’ evangelism.

Below is a list of the devices we have discovered so far.

Device 1 2

Chapter 3

3 4

To have us believe that evangelism equals the winning of souls

To mess up our definition of the word evangelism To have us believe that personal opinion has as much authority as sound scholarship To have us believe that every activity that brings a non-Christian closer to the point of conversion is evangelism Chapter 4

5 6

To have us believe that we are evangelising when we do good works.

7

Manipulate Christians into viewing evangelism as a team event where only one or two members in the team actually do evangelism

8

To blur the distinction between ‘sharing your faith’ and ‘proclaiming the gospel’

9 10

Have us misinterpret Matthew 24:14

To blur the distinction in the minds of Christians between normal and non-normal evangelism

Mess up our definition of the word ‘witnessing’ Chapter 6

11 12

Have us proclaim ‘other gospels’ instead of THE gospel

13

Blur the distinction between the general use of the term ‘gospel’ and its sharply-defined New Testament use.

14 15

Persuade us that the words of the gospel cannot be defined

Cause Christians to confuse the words of the gospel with its works and effects

To persuade us to water down the words of the gospel in order to preserve unity.

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16

If Jesus intended ‘hell’ to be a necessary component of gospel preaching, the New Testament writers would have made this truth clear in their writings. Acts and Paul do not mention hell at all. How can we then say “hell is a necessary component of gospel preaching” when it appears on the surface that the Apostles and Early Church don’t mention it in their preaching?

Chapter 7

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To scramble the priorities of the Christian Church Chapter 10

18 19 20

Persuade Christians they are inadequate

21

To convince us that by leading a good life and being a positive example for others is to be equated with evangelism

22

To persuade Christians that they are incompetent in evangelism so they will say nothing

23 24

To persuade us our faith is a private matter and should not be shared

25

To persuade us that God sometimes says things to us personally that

26

To persuade us that ‘love is the ultimate thing’ and that the most powerful way to express our love for non-Christians is not to preach the gospel but to meet their practical needs

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To persuade us we should not share the gospel unless our life backs up the message

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To persuade us we should not share the gospel unless our motives are right

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To persuade us we should not share the gospel with strangers. We should befriend one or two people and walk with them until they become Christians. Why? This enables them to witness our life not just hear our message. The success of our gospel message is dependent on people witnessing the authenticity of our lives

To misquote great Christians from history To persuade Christians they must earn the right to speak into someone’s life before sharing the gospel with them

To persuade us that God is there primarily to bless us and prosper us.

Doing His will and serving His purposes are secondary contradict what is written in the Bible

Chapter 11

30

To persuade us that evangelism is a process Chapter 12

41

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Have us think we are proclaiming “the” gospel when really it’s been another gospel we have been communicating

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Have us pay little attention to delivery issues so we give “the” gospel a bad name and stop using it

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Have us over-react to the charge we are all talk and no walk

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Convince leaders to create a new image of Christianity where the hard sayings of Jesus and the evangelisation of the world are taboo Chapter 16

35

To persuade leaders that making a point of doing personal evangelism regularly is legalism

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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

37 38

To convince leaders that evangelism need only be a passive activity

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To persuade leaders that when the gospel is proclaimed and there is no immediate result, the exercise was a waste of time and resources

40 41

To persuade leaders that all roads lead to God

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 business

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To persuade leaders that people who have never heard the gospel will eventually be saved anyway

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To substitute evangelism for sustained prayer, intercession, and fasting

To dupe leaders into assuming that everyone under their care and authority knows the biblical definitions of ‘evangelism’ and ‘the gospel’

To target leaders with extreme Calvinism and an unbiblical understanding of the theology of grace

To make leaders afraid of being less than competent and afraid of opposition from non-Christians Chapter 17

46

To persuade leaders to delay equipping their people for evangelism until they are ready i.e. “on fire”

47 48

To persuade leaders that personal evangelism is too confrontational

49

To persuade leaders that worship in a church is evangelism

To persuade some leaders that the only valid form of evangelism is one in which signs and wonders follow

42

50

To persuade leaders the most effective way to evangelise the world is through big events and tent-type meetings

51

To persuade leaders that when we die our souls are simply snuffed out and that hell is not a place of eternal conscious torment

52

To persuade leaders to equate evangelism with discipleship Chapter 18

53

To persuade leaders that personal testimony and evangelism are the same thing

54

To persuade leaders that the gospel is not as powerful as the Bible makes out

55

To whisper in the ear of a leader “the reason the gospel works for Billy Graham, Bonnke and Edwards was that they were special people with the gift. You don’t have the gift so there is no point in you proclaiming it.”

56

To whisper in the ear of leaders “the simple gospel message cannot effectively penetrate the post modern mind”

57

To persuade Christians they do not need to check that the non-Christian has understood the gospel message – that it is enough merely to proclaim it

58

To persuade leaders it is not biblical to talk about hell in an effort to move non-Christians towards the point of conversion

59

To persuade Christian leaders the most important thing to tell nonChristians is “Jesus loves you”

60

To cause local church leaders to resent evangelists and cause evangelists to resent Christians who don’t evangelise Chapter 19

61

Have leaders who are evangelising mix regularly with non-evangelising leaders

62 63

To target the leader with positive distractions

64 73

To persuade leaders that it is better to hang out with Christians

74

To make a leader feel threatened and insecure at the thought of making evangelism centre stage in their church

75

To cause leaders to see “the gospel” and “the gospel of the Kingdom” as two different gospel messages

To hit the leaders with a tidal wave of other work to stop them evangelising To persuade leaders to go away on a retreat or enter a season of prayer and fasting to seek God about direction for their church or to formulate their vision statement

43

Chapter 20

76

To persuade a leader that he/she must feel that they must “love God more than anything or anyone else” before obeying Him in evangelism so that when they do start, their motivation is right

77 78

To cause leaders to become out of balance in the expression of their faith.

79

To cause leaders to think that promoting the need to do evangelism is to be equated with doing good works in order to get closer to God

80

Our culture is different to what it was 50 yrs ago and this affects our approaches to evangelism. People are now sceptical to the truth, rejecting moral absolutes and have resulting indifference towards religion.

81 82

To convince us that Christianity is about being, not doing.

To persuade leaders that “bringing the Kingdom to earth” is the new priority of the Church

Teaching that we have to obey the commands of Jesus (e.g. the command to evangelise the world) is taking us back into legalism and the law!

Chapter 22

83

To lull leaders into thinking the majority of people in their church are already genuine Christians Chapter 26, APPENDIX 5

84

Have us react negatively to the thought that we are being told to do evangelism

44