4 Pactical Things in Evangelism
In my previous article. I wrote about the first part of don’ts in evangelism. I am so glad to receive a comment from a brother in Christ that 3 out of 5 are not relevant to their country. I consider it as a constructive criticism which will make my writings to improve more.
People grow better when they learn to accept criticism and turn that negative criticism as part of their learning. Just as our evangelism, we can achieve and grow more a Christ’s witness when we allow our friends to evaluate us. We aren’t perfect, we always have flaws. And it doesn’t mean we are going to fail over the same mistake over and over again. So I pray that what I have learned from other people whom I share through these write ups will help more they help me.
So here’s another help for your evangelism:
1. Don’t rely on your ability, powers of persuasion or knowledge of Scriptures
Recently, we have faced one of the greatest challenges in our church. There are new church goers who attend every Sunday on our church services. As they show interest in the ministry and in faith they got involve in Bible Studies and some part of the ministry. They have built friendship with other members and some of the old members are left behind. They got offended and gradually become cold in their relationship with brethren until such time we can no longer see them attend church services. The elders of the church have talked about the matter then they came up to a decision of visiting the sister in Christ. Because we know exactly what the family is facing we have brought some goods and talked to them about returning to the fellowship. Week after, still we are facing the same problem, no one that family member showed up in the church.
The next step we have done is to include the family in prayer during our Midweek Service (Prayer Meeting). We cried out to God that we can no longer do it on our own. So Lord, take charge. The following Sunday our Sister in Christ had shown in the church.
One of the greatest temptation we have is to make God our last resort. We call to him when no choice left and no power left in us. And that is exactly the greatest mistake of most Christian.
The point is before we are going to any ministry we are to do (Not Just Evangelism), let us make sure that God work with us in our work for Him. Zechariah 4:6 says, Not by might, not by power but the Spirit of God.” Do you hear what the Bible is saying? It is not about how eloquent you are, it is not about how persuading you are, it is not just about your ability, it is about the whole work of the Holy Spirit.
My question is, “Do you rely on Him or do you rely on your own?”
2. Don’t become impatient
They said, Patience is Virtue. Last month I thought about planting sweet apple (Atis in Filipino) on our backyard. I researched on how to choose seeds, the perfect soil and how long they will germinate. Then I made a nursery for the seeds. It was rainy season when I sown the seed so watering is not my problem. The article I read stated that it will take 15-20 days for the seeds to germinate. After 15 days not even one of the seeds sprang up. I am so discourage wanting to destroy the nursery but I put hope that seeds will show a sign of life. Days past and one of the seeds started to show tiny stem.
Patience is needed in evangelism. It doesn’t mean that a person you are witnessing rejected the gospel now will mean he will reject the gospel forever. I witness a lot of I evangelized who do not accept my testimony about Jesus but soon I found that they started to attend a church because someone had invited them. Don’t be impatience, if you are not seeing any manifestation of interest from a person. Keep praying, keep evangelizing because God has His own right time, not your time.
Another encouragement I will say is a quotation from a well know preacher and I quote, “God will welcome his children in heaven and say, ‘Welcome thy good and faithful servant,’ He is not going to say, ‘Welcome thy successful servant.’”
God will not ask us how many converts we have while on earth but we are going to give an account to Him on what we did to the Gospel.
“Only one life will past, but what you did for Christ will last.”
3. Don’t break when someone is witnessing.
Oops! Let me ask you a question. If you are going to see a person witnessing about their religion and not of Christ. What are you going to do? I think you are going to confront that person about his wrong teaching even in front of the people. And what if you have seen your brother, real brother in Christ evangelizing a lost but have some vocabulary problem about your theology. What are you going to do?
Sometimes we are being motivated by our jealousy that others can evangelize and we cannot. So the tendency we are going to intervene when someone is witnessing and instead of being an help we are causing disturbances and confusion.
If we see some Christians witnessing to the people, our duty is not to disturb but to pray that God will grant wisdom and open the mind of the listener.
Don’t be motivated by your own made convictions.
4. Don’t be discouraged by apparent failures.
Last time, I had an opportunity to talk to some of young people from another church. While we are talking I found out they had a great struggle regarding evangelism and discipleship. During the last months they were able to evangelize and invite young people to their church. But the saddest part is these young people who were invited have gone and never return to that church again. I really see wondering in their faces at the same time disappointments and frustration.
In response to this, I asked them this question, “after that experience, do you still evangelize? They answer, “Yes.” Christians do often not evangelize because they do not see any result. If there is result, if just give them a temporary excitement to go to the next stage.
But one is for sure even if it happens. God had worked in the heart of some of the people we evangelize. Maybe we cannot see the result of 30s, 60s or 100s at the present but God is still at work.
I have a friend whose passion is to evangelize during his high school life. He entered all the rooms in their classroom whenever it is possible. If you could ask me if he evangelize everyone, I can say “NO” but He evangelized most of the students. The reality is none of those students he evangelized had come with him in church and remain. But the good is, after so many years, some of the students he evangelized sent him a thank you e-mail for the gospel he shared. Some of the students he evangelized is serving God to a church where God put them.
Brother you might be sowing now and the harvest might be later.
Feel free to comment your insight below!
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