HEALTHY CHURCH: Presence, Proclamation or Persuasion
How should we evangelize and share the good news of the gospel? Many methods have been provided, such as the Roman Road, Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion, Evangelism in One Verse and Gospelize. Let me make this clear — train your people and show them how to share the gospel. Do not be guilty of giving them a challenging responsibility without showing them how to carry out that task. Decide on a biblical method and give your people the ability to share the gospel clearly, concisely and scripturally. Knowing what to do helps to remove some of the paralyzing fear in witnessing.
It is easy to always gravitate toward the method, but the greater obstacle, quite often, is the motivation. Why are so many believers unconcerned about reaching unbelievers with the gospel? Could this go back to an intentional focus on what became known as “lifestyle” evangelism? I Thessalonians 1:7 tells how the believers there became “ensamples, imitators, followers” to others because of how they lived out the truth of the Scriptures. Many began saying that you must not only “talk the walk but walk the talk.” Undoubtedly, your life must reinforce what you proclaim as truth, but is “lifestyle” evangelism enough?
I Thessalonians 1:8 speaks about how the Word of the Lord “sounded out” which speaks of how the message rang out and echoed for many more to hear its truth. God’s timing is challenging at times, but it can also bring great joy when you see His hand at work. Preparing for this article, I received a notice of a Church Answers blog posted by Dr. Chuck Lawless entitled, Living in the Tension of Great Commission Urgency. This was a great reinforcement to head in the direction God was leading. Why does it seem there is so little passion and pursuit of those doing life around us who are far from God and not born again?
This article is not about methodology, where you can so easily become paralyzed, but it is about motivation. No matter what your soteriological position is, Adrian Rodgers challenged all churches to have an invitation and if you “whistle Just as I Am, the elect will know what you are doing.” In Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally, David J. Hesselgrave wrote about the importance of communicating well, especially when it comes to a topic as eternally important as the gospel. In chapter six, he covers the “why” question that addresses every believer’s responsibility and obligation to communicate Christ’s story.
There are three terms he defines and clarifies — presence, proclamation and persuasion. Each term intensifies the assignment of every follower of Christ. Hesselgrave stated, “I will now argue that the early missionaries understood their commission to make disciples of all nations involved the ultimate in communication — not only reinforcing the Christian message behaviorally, nor simply delivering it verbally in writing or speech, but also persuading men and women to be converted and become faithful and fruitful followers of the Master.” Where does our responsibility as ambassadors for Christ begin and end?
II Corinthians 5:19-20 says, “…God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” Chuck Lawless said, “That’s the Great Commission tension the title of this blog post points toward. We cry out, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ (Rev. 22:20) even as we plead with others, ‘Be reconciled to God.’ We do want Jesus to come back, but we want our loved ones and friends to turn to Christ before He does.”
Are we to press those we proclaim the gospel to for a verdict, to make a decision? How motivated are we to do something about that tension? Lawless offered that this call to be reconciled to God drips with urgency. He offered that living with Great Commission urgency involves praying with urgency, turning from our own sin with urgency, recruiting prayer warriors to join us in praying with urgency, proclaiming the gospel with urgency and trusting God with urgency. Does this not describe Paul’s heart in Rom. 9:3, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Where is our urgency and passion to persuade unbelievers to be reconciled to God? Hesselgrave challenged every believer to see that in Acts 2:40, Peter did not stop with only proclaiming the truth of the gospel, but with many words, he continued to exhort (persuade) them to be saved. The Apostle Paul had this same passion to persuade, as clearly seen in Acts 9:20-29, where in verse 29 it states that he disputed with them. Then in Acts 26:27-28 notice Paul’s desire to persuade, not just proclaim, when he asked Agrippa if he believed. Agrippa’s response was, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”
Hesselgrave continued, “But one must ask whether we can legitimately attack this problem by soft-pedaling terms while emphasizing others (i.e., teach, instruct, proclaim), or by subsuming terms like ‘dispute,’ ‘reason’ and ‘persuade’ under the activity of teaching… Obviously, to be genuine and effective, persuasion ultimately must be the result of the activity of the Holy Spirit. Heis the ‘divine hidden persuader.’” We must not ignore the action verbs that point to our persuasive activity and not settle for “presence” or “proclamation.” II Corinthians 6:1 challenges us to urge others to not receive the grace of God in vain.
Allow me to hopefully persuade you by sharing a little more from Hesselgrave, “We have seen that are our biblical mandate is conveyed in clear words — preach, teach, witness, proclaim, evangelize, exhort, rebuke, reprove, beseech, warn, persuade. The missionary, therefore, is a witness. He is a bearer of good news. He is a teacher. But he is more than these. Whatever else the missionary is, he is a persuaded man persuading others.”
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Larry Barker
Director of Church Planting and Church Health Larry Barker submits a weekly column titled, Healthy Church Solutions, designed to strengthen and encourage the local church.
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