Tony Jones is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rich Hill, MO. This post first appeared on his blog.
Thom Rainer at www.evangelismrenewal.com is encouraging its churches to have more gospel conversations this year. They have set a goal of one million gospel conversations this year. There are, as of 2016, 47,272 Southern Baptist Churches in the United States. If every SBC church participated in the one million gospel conversations goal, they would have to average 22 gospel conversations for the year. If we take the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 as an example of effectiveness, that would mean 1 out of every four gospel conversations should land on fertile soil. That would mean an average of 5 conversions per church. Can you imagine what would happen if all our churches had 5 conversions this year. That would give the Southern Baptist Convention 236,360 conversions this year, and that would just be the base number because we know there would be more churches who would not stop at 5 conversions or 22 gospel conversations. I believe some church is going to explode in growth because their members started having more gospel conversations.
Our church has set a goal of 100 gospel conversations this year.
With this in mind, in this post I want to focus on attitudes towards evangelism in this post.
We come to all our experiences with preconceptions. We are trained in seminary to not read our preconceptions into our interpretation of scripture, but that’s easier said than done. We also come to the task of evangelism with preexisting attitudes. I’ve seen four such attitudes.
1) I don’t care. This attitude needs very little explanation. If you don’t care that there are people lost, dying, and going to spend an eternity separated from God, then you are not saved. We do not get to decide who’s lost and who’s saved, but I cannot fathom a Christian who does not care that his friends are facing spiritual death. If we have members of our churches who have this attitude, we can only pray for them.
2) Nothing can be done. This is a fatalistic attitude. Some of our church members look at the statistics and the state of the country and surmise that nothing can be done. They are like doubting Thomas in John chapter 11. Jesus tells His disciples that they must go to Bethany to wake up Lazarus. Thomas responds, “let’s go die with him”. The people who have this attitude cared at one time, but life and circumstances have beaten them down to the point that they are just hanging on till the end. They do not understand, or have not been taught that we serve a great big God who wants to do great big things with a bunch of sinners. We should pray for these church members as well, and pray that God will change their attitude and allow them to see conversions.
3) They know where to get it. There are those in our churches who will say, “They know what we have, and if they want Jesus, they can come here and get Him.” This approach used to work in the 50’s and 60’s, although I question how many true disciples were actually made through this approach. This approach worked when everyone had at least a passing knowledge of Christ. That just is not the case anymore. There are more people in our communities who know next to nothing about Christ and the Bible. There are people in some of our mainline denominations who know nothing about the true gospel. This is a different world than the one we all grew up in. We cannot have the attitude that says, “come and get it if you want it”. Paul writes in Romans 10, “But how can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” We have to adjust our attitudes and accept the reality that there are many people in our communities who have never heard the gospel. I’d rather be talking to someone who has never heard the gospel than to someone who has heard false gospels.
4) I want to be taught. This is the best attitude. This attitude is willing to have gospel conversations. This attitude recognizes the problem and wants to do something about it. We have these people in our churches. We should focus our efforts on training and encouraging them. My wife and I realized a few months ago that our conversations about church centered on those with the other three attitudes. We were not talking about training those with this last attitude. If we spent more time training the willing, the unwilling and the unsaved in our churches would feel less and less comfortable, and maybe God would surprise us by changing hearts and attitudes.
I hope to keep an update going on my blog about our church’s experiences with gospel conversations. Please pray for us as we try to penetrate the darkness in Rich Hill.
Tony,
There payable of the sower is not meant to reflect Gospel effectiveness.
Besides, it would be a pretty inefficient farmer if only 1/4 of his seeds got strewn onto fertile soil.
In my experience many church members can’t even articulate the Gospel much less have a witnessing conversation about it.
Therefore pastors I beseech you to train your people to know and speak the Gospel, having then practice it in church and Sunday School so that the people will have confidence to boldly proclaim it.
If they are too shy or reluctant to speak it in church they will no way be speaking it out in a hostile world.
I do believe it is meant to show how many will receive the gospel. The gospel is effective to save anyone who believes, however, when Christ said that the road is narrow and there will be few that find it, He meant just what He said.
You’re right, that would be a pretty crummy farmer. Thsnkfully John Deer has helped the farmers with that problem. Lol
Tony,
Even if only one fourth of the earth is to be saved, it doesn’t mean that one fourth of the people you or I witness to will be saved.
The parable is not intended to convey a 25% rate for individuals or congregations or even denominations.
If one stretches a parable beyond its intended meaning it distorts truth instead of enhancing truth.
Yes, ‘to know an speak the gospel,’ is the present hurdle of the Church today.
1Cor. 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
&
1Cor. 1:24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
To the Jewish mind the gospel is a scandal. To the Greek mind the gospel is foolishness.
The Church needs to try to understand why this so, so it, the Church, can know ‘what the power of God and wisdom of God’ is all about in the Gospel.
Jim,
That’s a good word brother!
Thanks John. God’s people need a re-awkening to the revolutionary truth of the Gospel’s message. He rose from the dead never to know death again. That message changed the entire course of the History of the World forever.
Jim,
Why do you think it is so that to the Jew it is scandal and to the Greek foolishness?
Hello Mike and thanks for asking. I will simply give my background understanding.
In that same passages as the two verses I quoted it says that the Jews ‘request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom.’
This is intense stuff so I’m simply trying to try to get the bike pedaling. That ‘sign’ the Jews request goes right along with their request from Jesus, Himself. Jesus left them hanging about a specific sign to them about who He was and where He was leading things. He mentioned the temple being destroyed and in three days raise it up. He also mention the sign of Jonah about 3 times. He also told them it is a wicked and perverse nations that seeks a sign. These things are easy to look up.
The point is, the Jews wanted a outward display of power like they knew particularly in their history with Moses over Egypt so they could accept Jesus as their Messiah. As if God’s preservation of them through he centuries was not enough and the work already Jesus was performing in their midsts. This whole ‘sign’ things was being reduced down to one simple point, POWER. This is the very thing the rest of the World valued above everything else. They were valuing what the world was valuing instead the ‘true God,’ Who Jesus was revealing in the flesh. They ended up saying to Pilate, “We have no king but Cesar.” They then took the side they’d be on. Without Jesus showing them a mightier Power then Cesar, they chose Cesar.
The thing is, Jesus did show them a mightier power then Cesar. It was the ressurection from the dead. He defeated the greatest power ruling over them, the Jews, over the Rome Empire, and over all creation.
This is a lot right know. Hope it’s a start.
One additional point that needs to go with the above. Yes, Jesus defeated death, but he did it through the most scandalous act of the world at that time, crucifixion. For their Messiah to be crucified is not the kind of ‘sign’ they’s were expecting of their Christ to lead them to the promised land.
Jim,
Thanks for the reply.
The sign of the resurrection doesn’t inform everyone.
1 Cor. 1 18 tells us those perishing see the message of the cross which includes the resurrection as foolishness.
But only those being saved see it as the power of God.
That truth should aid us in our evangelism.
We are proclaim-ers of the message of the cross, but only God opens the eyes of those He is saving.
Mike,
Yes, you’re right, the resurrection doesn’t inform everyone but the principle behind the scandal by the Jews and the foolishness by the Greek does inform us about the barriers man puts up accepting the truth about the resurrection, the Gospel. Understanding that will help in evangelism.
The Jews did not deny a resurrection. They just could not accept it when it was through crucifixion.
The Greeks on the other hand, their aim was about ‘wisdom.’ It think that is a little more abstract. That was their affection, the practical. Their background in philosophy, mathematics, and logic: Resurrection just didn’t fit into any of those categories. It was foolishness.
Another point you’re pointing to is that of the Spirit’s work in evangelism. His work alone can cut through those barriers. Our is to live and communicate the message clearly.
Two good books teaching any Christian to share their faith:
“Share Jesus Like It Matters” by Steve Gaines
“Share Jesus Without Fear” by Bill Fay.
They make great textbooks in evangelism.
David R. Brumbelow
Aside from our CEF activities that have led to hundreds of elementary kids professing new faith, we just hired a new minister of missions and outreach who has started teaching T4T to the congregation. We have also sent a son of our congregation to Portland to plant a church there. He worked with our new missions pastor when they were both journeymen in India. I don’t know how anyone couldn’t be excited about what God is doing on the home front.