God's Not Dead

I don't think he needs to be humbled. You have proposed something quite strange.

I'm assume you mean to ask, "What are you afraid of...?"

I fear God.

I fear that you have hardened yourself against wisdom and sound teaching and will get yourself into a position where you will never repent until God has to break you violently or remove the breath from your lungs.

I also fear that you have gone off the rails and will make a horrific mess of your life to your own destruction and the destruction of others.

 

Oh?

Does Brother Washer go debate churches, have a dismissive attitude toward discipleship, spend his time pushing tracts and books over the scriptures, putting the Law on people who were not given the Law (the Gentiles), and get into unfruitful letter-writing campaigns and debates with whom he differs instead of proclaiming the good news?

 

His could be in apologetics though!

 

How about local witnessing thru personal evangelism and disciplining once Lord saves them?

 

I think that he thinks brother paul and Way of the master do though!

 

Really? How many people have you discipled in the last year?

 

I do not think street evangelism is really into doing that though!

 

I believe the point has been made about evangelist6589's evangelism ministry. I am still making up my mind about what the bible speaks to in evangelism, and I believe that it may be most beneficial if people were to share their own stories of evangelistic ministries if they want to critique others's works. That way fruit, not just words will speak to the situation.

 

Evangelism is simply part of the Christian life.

If one is a disciple of Jesus, learning to live life as he lived it, and experiencing the guidance and power of the Spirit in life transformation and ministry to others, evangelism happens naturally as part of that life. That's not to say that we should give no special thought to evangelism, but that evangelism should be seen as integrated with discipleship in both personal and corporate ways.

Individuals, Christian communities, and churches should all seek to spread the gospel in the world.

For instance, my church has recently begun working in local apartment complexes that house refugees from across the world, doing Vacation Bible Schools, Bible studies, personal witnessing, and practical acts of service to that community where there is both physical and spiritual poverty. A lot of people there are Muslims and are curious about Jesus - grateful that Christians are actually befriending them instead of vilifying them. In additional to the work with refugees, we have cooperative ministries with Spanish-language churches to evangelize and serve the Spanish-speaking community, as well as a heavy investment of people in the homeless ministry in this region. We provide practical assistance, organize donations, teach classes on all kinds of subjects, have a "game night" where we build relationships on "equal ground." In the process, there are many spiritual discussions with the clients where the gospel is spoken after it is demonstrated.

Individually, I seem to be a spiritual magnet for atheists and the occasional cultist, and I intentionally devote significant time and effort to work with and witness to people whom the Spirit is convicting. It all feels very natural, so I don't think about numbers or quotas, but I probably give a personal, verbal presentation of the gospel quite frequently. I also teach adult Bible study in church, as well as numerous other classes including discipleship training from time to time.

God has blessed my efforts since I stopped doing the door-to-door evangelism, tract distribution work, and Evangelism Explosion type of presentations. I didn't have much success doing things that way. I realized (after I became a commission salesperson to put myself through seminary), that those methods were simply sales methods used by mainstream society. By placing the gospel message in the wrappings of a sales pitch, I diminished the power of the gospel by putting it into a context that our society has trained itself to ignore because of the constant barrage of advertising messages. Instead, I went back to biblical methods that work in our culture. I gave up trusting a method and instead trusted the Spirit to make the appointments and provide the words, power and authority.