Scripture reveals that the Devil hates anything that God has created. We see that scenario in Genesis 3 when he pursued Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. If you have not realized it yet, the Devil hates you with all his being. Why? Because you are a part of God’s creation and plan. Ever since Eden the Devil has not stopped pursuing mankind.

Then Jesus showed up on earth, according to the heavenly Father’s plan of course. Jesus preached the one true way to God and heaven, Himself, John 14:6. He paid for our sin and rose from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. He established His church Matthew 16:18 and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. So the devil cannot stop God’s plan, but he can surely try to hinder it or slow down Christians from advancing the gospel message to a lost and dying world.

How you might ask? Why thank you for asking. I strongly believe that the church, Christians, and the Southern Baptist Convention and other conservative Christian groups (those who believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, John 10:30) are under a major onslaught by the Devil. Why just stop and observe how many pastors and ministers have either fallen morally or lack integrity the last few years. Look at how the family is under major attack. Divorce, separation, adultery, pornography, multiple partners, teenagers involved in sex, drugs and alcohol, incest, molestation, loneliness and depression. Do I need to go any further?

It seems that Christians are so far away from God and Jesus that they do not really understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ today. The church acts more like lost people or pagans than it does the church.

As a Southern Baptist I sense that our denomination is under severe attack by the Devil. There are so many agendas and distractions that we have forgotten to do the most important thing! That is to tell people about Jesus Christ. We have become so misguided by a few who have become “the experts” on evangelism (by the way most of them are not doing evangelism or doing it wrong) that we are now afraid to tell an individual about Hell and Heaven. We are more concerned about hurting someones feelings or upsetting them by communicating the gospel, than having them upset in heaven because we didn’t tell them about Jesus. Remember, Jesus said that the gospel is a stumbling stone. People do not want to hear the true sometimes.

Remember the story that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus Luke 16:19-31. The rich man who had it all on earth, and when in hell he asked Abraham to send Lazarus to go to his father’s house and testify or witness to his five brothers that hell is a real place. He wanted to warn them. Why? The rich man was being tormented by the flames, according to Jesus. It is an awful place to be for eternity.

The church, Christians need to get back to our mission, our task, the Great Commission surge. The Great Commission is about evangelism and not money or power or who is in control. The last time I checked in the Bible Jesus was in control, He has the keys to Hades and Death, Rev. 1:18.

The joke I have learned in Southern Baptist life is that person with the “keys” to lock the doors of the church is usually in control. This is true for small churches which is the majority of SBC churches by the way.

Let me help point out something to every Southern Baptist regardless of your position. Jesus is the man with the “keys” to heaven’s gate and hell’s gate. He is the one who unlocked the gates and will lock them in the end times. Let’s not be fooled by the Devil that we are all we make ourselves to be. Ultimately, every single one of us will stand before the “Bema Seat”, Judgement seat of Christ to give an account of the things we did whether good or bad, and receive from Jesus the things we did.

I am not perfect by any means, but man I am trying to live for my Jesus, my Lord and Savior. I want to finish faithful. Yes it does make a difference now and then. Even lost people know how we are suppose to behavior. Honestly, they have told me that they hope Christians do succeed, because it gives them hope that they might have a chance for a better life one day when they get ready to do business with God.

So please join me in getting back to obeying Jesus’ mandate to be His witnesses. Let’s go win souls for Jesus sake. It will matter in eternity. It is a matter of eternal life or death for everyone.

My ministry allows me to travel and work with urban churches all across the United States and Canada. I see the world flooding into both countries. God is bringing the world to the edge of the property budding up to our church buildings. I believe He has allowed this because our churches have not been active or concerned to go and take the gospel to them. God is not so concerned if our country stays Anglo Christian as much as He is our country being multi-cultural Christian.

 This past week I worked with 60 seminary students. 15 high school students, pastors, denominational workers, associational directors of missions, missionaries, and laymen conducting a week long evangelistic out reach in the high risk, low income communities of Louisville, Kentucky. Praise God for the one thousand plus people who trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior.

 I was amazed to find how many different people groups live in metro-Louisville. There were many Muslims and Buddhists that we found living in there. It turns out that our government is relocating these folks from different countries from refugee camps. Some of the people were not open to receive material on who Jesus Christ is and how he had paid for the sins of the world. Yet we found others that were open to talking about Jesus and hearing about the “Truth”, Jesus and several trusted in Jesus.

 Louisville saw a mass saturation of the gospel by witnessing teams, through door to door, block parties, festivals, food drops, concerts and back yard Bible clubs. Through each venue the gospel was shared with lost people. The greatest mistake at this time that the churches and entities can make is to feel that they can put their feet up and kick back. An aggressive approach needs to be taken to continue the work. Otherwise thousands of people will stay on the road to hell and there will be many missed opportunities to see more people born into God’s Kingdom.

 Lost people hearts have been softened, unchurched believers have been given hope by the witnesses. Pastors and congregations have seen that they can reach their ever changing and heart hardened communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The soils have been cultivated and the hard packed is now turned, the rocky and thorny soils have been worked, and fertile soil has been planted. Now is the time for the laborers to continue to go into the harvest fields and see an even greater harvest by the local churches. It is a mistake to stop now when so much work has been done. The work will never be done, until Jesus returns and the Judgment Day takes place.

 Churches more than ever need to continue prayerwalking their communities, doing door to door evangelism, street witnessing, and crusades. Believers need to continue striking up conversations as they are out during their daily routines and see if people are ready to hear about Jesus Christ. They need to continue to saturate their city with the gospel.

 One major law of the harvest is that you cannot see a harvest if you do not sow seed. Cultivation is another major component of seeing a harvest. In third world countries, farmers have been taught that they had to cultivate the soil after turning the soil and broad casting seed. The lack of cultivation resulted in poor fruit bearing corps. After the farmers learned how to cultivate they saw increased baskets of corps, far greater than they had been getting.

 Follow-up evangelism is a major component of a mass evangelistic effort. People will read the gospel tracts they were given. The Holy Spirit s working on the hearts of lost people. He is getting them ready to bear fruit, only if someone will care effort and continue the work of cultivation and harvesting. The work of evangelism will not be finished until Jesus comes to judge the world. Until then we must continue the work. 

 An assessment of the local churches needs to be conducted to see if they are ready to conduct follow-up. If additional training is needed to empower them to do effective follow-up then an extra equipping session should be conducted.

 The president of the Baptist seminary in New Orleans stated in his speech at the Southern Baptist Convention report for his institution that studies show if Southern Baptist continue to do things the same way they have been doing as far as evangelism that Southern Baptist will go from 16 million to 7 million by 2050.

 Let me make something clear, I know that is not about being Southern Baptist as much as it is about being saved, but God used Southern Baptist to reach me with the gospel and I am appreciative to God for using them and their faithfulness in the 1980’s. I owe God and the SBC much. I just want to continue the work that was begun in me. Thank King Jesus.

I have been involved in many evangelistic outreach in urban centers across America working with churches from coast to coast. I have seen hundreds of lost people trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. Many of these people were involved in hard core lifestyles and involved in hard core habits and groups. Others were suburbanites, and yet others were in the upper socioeconomic status. And just recently God has taught  me a lesson why it seems some individuals are more difficult to get connected to the local church.

Since February I have been assisting in mentoring a 44 year old man. He has been a business man during the week and a biker on the weekends. He confessed that he had been on some type of mind altering substance since the age of 14. He told me that he had been in rehab centers from Florida, to Virginia, to Tennessee and Georgia. He had spent thousands of dollars training to kick the habits, but he was not able to lose the desire to get high.

It was not until he was on the verge of losing his second wife, and had lost his job that God got his attention. He moved back to Georgia, to a suburb of north Atlanta and got into another Alcoholics Anonymous group.. This time he was serious about trying to lose the desire for drugs. His sponsor encouraged him to seek God, not a god, not a tree or a chair god, but God Almighty. I can gladly say that in his desperation he called out to God to take away the desire for any mind altering substance.  He asked God to forgive him of his sins. Just like that God took away his desire and he was a changed man.

During dinner on night this new brother in the Lord, told me that he could not explain why or how he had lost the desire to stop doing drugs. His only explanation was it had to be God, because he was not able to do it himself. This fellow went from not being interested in talking about God, not attending church and trying to stay away from Christians, to now he is consuming all the Christian books he can get his hands on and reading his Bible everyday. He prays regularly and needless to say is in church.

He had to be instructed/discipled on a nightly basis. He called my son who was mentoring him every evening after dinner by phone answering the many questions the new follower of Christ has. He had to be instructed to be baptized. I explained to him the why and the how of baptism. It was a joyous night to see our new brother in Christ follow Jesus in believer’s baptism.

I am also mentoring another new believer, who trusted in Jesus the second week of March. He had voluntarily stopped being involved in drugs and alcohol but he still felt empty. He knew there was something more to life. He was seeking God. He attended church occasionally and even had prayed the sinner’s prayer at church. But yet he said that he did not feel anything nor did you desire to come to Bible study or church on a regular basis. He said he felt nothing.

I visited him at his home one evening and shared my testimony how I came to have my sins forgiven and how I invited Jesus to be Lord and Savior of my life. When I asked him if he wanted what I had, he said, “You have a freedom that I do not have and that is what I want.” I explained that trusting in Jesus and asking Him to forgive our sins would set him free. He prayed and said afterwards, “I feel different”. I know that faith in not a feeling but from my own experience and from the testimonies of many others salvation does make you feel like changed. I explained it was the weighted of our sins taken off of us and put on Jesus.

Three weeks after trusting in Jesus, he was struggling with being worthy to be baptized. He had to be taught that a Christian is only worthy because of what God has done and not due to anything we have done. We explained that he was now a child of the King, and a child of God. He had been born again by God’s Spirit. He got it and is going to be baptized soon. You can see that a change has taken place in this man.  I think of 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature…”

We had to work hard to teach and disciple these two new brothers to help them understand what God had done in their lives and what was the next step. They did not have the history nor the association with a local church or body of believers to know the next step. I believe many new believers who come from hard backgrounds are in the same situation. This is the lesson that God has taught me in recent days. As I wrote in the last article, even Jesus had many leave Him. He even had to question His disciples if they too were going to leave as well.

Evangelism is hard work and so is discipleship, do not let anyone tell that it is not. If you do not believer me then stop and examine all the churches that have membership roles filled with delinquent members who have not attended worship nor Bible study in months and years. We must go out and intentionally follow-up with people. Just like Jesus had to do, especially with a new believer. There is a battle going on between the flesh and spirit within each one of us. Anyone who says he has conquered this battle is either lying, or they are in heaven with Jesus.

Okay, I have had it with all the surveys, all the research, all the books, the blogs, the articles, the sermons, the speeches, all the emergent ideas, the postmodern thought, and whatever and whoever else is aiding the devil in trying to quench the evangelistic mandate Jesus Christ gave  us over 2,000 years ago. I believe that the Bible and Jesus words are still relevant today, tomorrow and forever. If Jesus said it, that means it counts today, tomorrow, and forever.

I am tired of all the nay-sayers who are doing nothing but discouraging the church, the followers of Jesus Christ by telling us that evangelism does not work.  I have found that those who say that evangelism does not work, is because they are not doing it the correct way. They either need to prayerwalk the field more or they need to allow the Holy Spirit lead them in the witnessing encounter. They need to stop trusting in a method or in themselves and allow the true evangelist, the Holy Spirit work through them. He will instruct you what to say (John 14:26: 16:13).

So what if 60 percent of people polled months ago wouldn’t let you even conduct a spiritual survey. Let’s stop looking at the 60 percent who are not willing and instead let’s keep knocking until we find the 40 percent who might. And what if 50 percent of that group does allow you to conduct a spiritual survey that leads to the gospel? What if 10 percent of that group trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior? If you were in a town of 100,000 people and 40,000 people were open to hearing the gospel and 4,000 got saved, praise God.

By the way, my research has shown as well as research by the Billy Graham Association that between 10 and 11 percent of decision makers will get plugged into the local church. How many pastors, church planters would be overwhelmed and excited to have an additional 400 people join their church. Talk about a church growth and expansion.  When you study the gospels, even Jesus had thousands leave Him in John 6 after He preached that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood. I wonder how many today would also leave Him if He challenged us. He even asked His own disciples if they too were going to leave Him.

I am for motivating the church to witness rather than trying to discourage the church from not sharing their faith. The only person I know that gets any glory when the church is not witnessing is the devil. Based upon Matthew 28:19-20 not to witness is a sin. Jesus already gave us a command to go and make disciples of all nations. Being a Greek Scholar that I am “all” means all.

The greatest need of the world today is for Jesus followers to commit and carry out the service of soul winning. Evangelism is the hope for every lost person of the world. Jesus is the hope for a better social order and for a better world.

If Jesus is the best thing that has ever happened to you then why are you keeping Him to yourself? Jesus never intended for the church to go into the closet. The church is not a covert group. We have been called out by Jesus, our author of the faith to go and make disciples. We are not being a New Testament church unless we are functioning evangelistically and making disciples in the image of Jesus.

I challenge every Christian to begin to obey Jesus and let’s go out and tell lost people about Jesus. Let’s give them hope, the only real hope that will last for eternity. Let’s be the church that Jesus had envisioned before the beginning of time. Let’s go tell someone about Jesus. Amen?

Recently, I was part of a training for churches in an area that had been hit by hurricane Katrina. It has been three years now and the churches and the community are still recovering from the impact of the effects of Katrina. What we found was that in a crisis the churches struggle with the same phases of emotions as the people do, of shock, denial, anger and survival.

We found that most churches in this gulf coast community have stayed in the survival mode. They are not focusing on reaching out to the community with the gospel. Instead the churches are almost frozen in time and are complacent  and do not have a passion.  The churches had become co-dependent on the disaster relief teams to do the work of evangelism and meet their needs. But three years later, they are still seating and waitng almost in a coma or semi-sleep. Now this is not to criticize them but to making an observation about the state of the churches in post crisis situations. This is not true about all the churches but a percentage of churches.

A 2-day training for churches was conducted for the churhces in the gulf coast region. The components consisted of prayerwalking, several methods of evangelism, using the evangecube, how to use a gospel tract, and writing out their personal testimony. The results were amazing. The churches that participated went out for 1 1/2 hours of community evangelism and six people trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Wow! They had a wake up call. One of the key leaders among the churches said that the training was exactly what the churches needed. He even suggested that more trainings of similar type be conducted for other churches in the area.

I recently heard the president of a theological seminary whose school had been hit by Katrina that he had been working so hard on getting their school up to normal operations that last three years. Now he was ready to refocus on the what was happening around him. He revealed that a his denomination’s churches were on plateaued and declining.

A study had been conducted of churches who had baptized one person in January and one in December of the same year. Fourty percent of the churches surveyed in this study were in the fourty percent. He then made a statement that made my heart stink from my stomach to my feet. He said that God revealed to him that it was happening on his watch. I felt sick to my stomach. I was sick because it was happening on my watch too!

I have made a re-commitment to God that I am going to be more intentional than I have ever been. I will do all that God allows me to do to help turn the ship around before it is too late. I do not want someone to say that our denomination became a has been denomination, like others who had once been strong and evangelical. I need to do what Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all peoples, teaching to obey what Jesus has taught us.

I get another opportuntiy in 2009, another year to live for Jesus and be His witness. I get 365 days, 12 months 4  weeks per month, 7 days a week, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in one hour, 60 seconds in one minute to tell someone about Jesus Christ. Praise God for the salvation He has given me. I do not want to waste it. Join me in telling as many people about Jesus as you can in 09. Pray that I will be bold in sharing Jesus with lost people. I am praying for you that you will have the blessing of sharing Christ.

Have you noticed that churches all across the country are plateauing, declining, dying and closing their doors? As a follower of Jesus Christ, I hate to hear about a church that use to reach its community with the gospel dwindling down to nothing.  Some of these churches are down to just a handful of people and have to cease functioning as an extension of Jesus Christ. Maybe that is the problem that the churches stopped functioning as an extension of Jesus Christ ministry which He began when He was on earth doing evangelism.

The other day my son found a Christian church about 5 minutes from his home that is for sale. I thought it was funny that the community has not gone low income, maybe a little middle income. Also just around the corner from his home is a subdivision of “Mac Mansions”, homes in the 700,000 price range and this church is for sale. What could have gone wrong?

I have discovered since I have been in ministry for the last 18 years that when a church, when believers stop reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ they will eventually die out. (Victor’s quote). A church’s mission is to evangelize the community it is “planted in.” Then it is to seek to grow by putting out a root system into the lives of the people around its church with the gospel seed. When the church plants the gospel seed the church will see a harvest. Sounds too easy? Will that is exactly what Jesus came to teach His followers and then He showed them by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. Unless a seed dies, it cannot reproduce. It must be planted in the ground in order to see a harvest.

According to the 2007 Annual Church Profile/ACP put out by Southern Baptist Convention, their baptisms were down for a third year.  Although the SBC added 473 new churches and gave more than $1.3 billion to support mission activities around the world, there’s no escaping the disappointing fact that Southern Baptists are not reaching as many people for Christ as they once did. The numbers show that baptisms were down again 5.5 percent, 345,941, compared to 364,826 in 2006. (Lifeway. com)

Their goal for the last three years and soundly promoted and sounded by the denomination has been to see one milion baptisms in a year. Praise God for godly leaders who accept God’s call to lead a denomination to return to its roots of evangelism and making disciples of Christ. If Jesus came back today, would He scoll us for forgetting out first love? I think He would. We seem to talk about everything else except the One who loved us unconditionally.  

According to Lifeway Christian Research findings “Unchurched adults interested in finding a congregation aren’t nearly as likely to visit one in person as a church member who is shopping for a new congregation. That means effective evangelism must begin outside the sanctuary in relationships between Christians and unbelievers.” 

 Jesus commanded us to go and tell. Churches all over the country for years have had an attitude that the go and tell approach did not work as well, some even alluded to that it was counter productive. Jesus never makes mistakes. He is God and we are not. I guess it all boils to just plain obedience. We just need to go and do it.

In my book Breaking the Evangelism Code, I deal with methods of evangelism, approaches that I have used since  the days of being discipled to witness. The very approaches that some believers mocked because they were used to see hundreds of people come to faith in Jesus, I discuss in my book. 

The book Breaking the Evangelism Code reveals that evangelism is not in some type of code that we must first decode and solve before we can go tell someone about Jesus Christ. We just need to read the Bible, believe what it says and then go do it. Imagine that, believing the Bible like a child and just obeying our heavenly Father’s words.

Could it be that the church today is in the state it is in, decline, and dying because of a simple thing like obedience. We do not need any more evangelism tools, methods or strategies, we have enough to go and tell  the entire world about Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, I have written my own witnessing approach that I hope to get out soon. We just need to pick one, two for three and then just go and tell.

Will you have resistance to the gospel? Sure you will, I have been reading through the book of Acts and then are many instances where the discisples were met with resistance. LIike said in my book, Breaking the Evangelism Code, the main thing is that they did not quit proclaiming the Good News. The problem with today’s church is we encounter some elderly lady or some young business who resists us and we tuck our tail between our legs and we want to go home and quit. I praise God that Jesus did not quit half way up Calvary’s hill and go home. I am glad that He went all the way to the cross and then rose from the dead.

Let’s follow in Jesus’ footsteps and let’s go all the way and go and tell as many people as we can about Jesus. That is how we can impact our community, our city, and our country and the world with the gospel. let’s stop the hymerging, the declining and dying churches. We can turn it around in Jesus name! Amen!  

To order a copy of the “Breaking the Evangelism Code” email Dr. Victor Benavides at evangeman@comcast.net. $25.00 plus Shipping and Handling.

I was a part of an evangelism team that was asked by the Colorado General Baptist Convention and Mile High Baptist Association to do mass tracting with the thousands of Democratic National Conventioneers August 24-27. We got to see a slice of American culture that most people outside of this area see.

On Sunday I was invited to preach at East Boulder Baptist Church, man did I see a lot of people going to worship, the trees, mountains, and creation instead of the Creator. I saw more tide dyed t-shirts, leather braided head bands, and sandals in one town since growing up in the sixties. I felt like I had gone back in time.

Sadly, many of the Baptists in these two towns had gotten to the point of viewing their culture and the people as not reachable with the gospel. This is a common mistake many evangelicals make as they are continually bombarded by the liberal news media that God and Jesus are not relevant anymore by our society.

The 20 plus witnesses found that the people where ”different” in the sense that they were at a higher level of being Bible illiterate, but who is the blame for that? Is has to be the church because it is not doing what Jesus commanded us to do, to impact the world with the gospel. By mid week we saw about 50 people who had trusted in Jesus Christ and by the Saturday 146 had trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

We heard some usual remarks from people when we tried to engage them in a witnessing conversation. When we offered people gospel tracts some iof comments we heard were such as, “a tree had to die for so you could make that booklet.” Another man began to ridicule us for “wearing plastic shoes” which were made out of oil from the middle east.

One of my acquaintinces from another state asked me if we had Democratics get saved, that was not the heart of the matter. The issue was lost people coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and 146 did exactly that. 

We were blessed that many of the local churches were involved in serving the over 4,000 law enforcement officers brought in to help keep the peace. We also had several church members who came out to join us in the witnessing efforts during the week. I read email from one church member who participated with the evangelism team, a lady say, that she wished many of the churhces could have seen the impact and the openness of the people we encountered during the week.

Another minister who helped lead the efforts is encouraging the pastors and churches to be open to what God wants to continue in Denver and in Colorado. God is up to something bigger than us and we just need to get involved where God is working.

We are scheduling a debriefing meeting in the next couple of weeks so we can discuss and discover what is it God wants to do next and how can the churches take the evangelism efforts and emphasis to a new level.

Wow, just imagine Jesus Christ does changes lives today, even in Denver, Colorado. The Gospel still works if the churches will pray for the communities and then go into the communities and engage the residents like Jesus did tell them the Good News.

Jesus is still in the life changing business and I believe in that Jesus is not done with saving lost people yet. I want to see thousands of lost people on the road to heaven with Jesus. Will you join me in telling someone about Jesus this week? Hey, Jesus still saves lost souls.

Recently, I spent six days in the urban streets of Indianapolis,  Indiana starting witnessing conversations with people. In spite of heavy rains, lighting, and tornado warnings, the team of witnesses that i was working with saw over 650 people come to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

One church that had had three baptisms in ten years had sixteen baptisms in seven days. We saw people give their lives to Jesus and saw them changed for eternity. One man who shared with us about all his problems, his wife was in hospice care, his van was not running, he was out of work. He broke into tears after he had given his life to Jesus. 

Sixteen peopel immediately were connected into the local church. One individual, addicted to herion was ready for a change of life, he also gave his  life to Jesus as Lawerance led him in a sinner’s prayer.  Does a simpel gospel presentation still work today? of course it does. Since 2001, through the urban ministry that God has allowed me to give leadership to I have seen over 17,000 souls make decisions to follow Jesus and be rescued from the flames of hell. 

I have seen declining and dying churches reclaimed for God and complacent and backslidden Christians get on fire for God again. Some for the first time shared their faith with a lost person and saw them come to trust in Jesus. I have seen new churches started in hard areas because of a few faithful witnesses going into high risk areas and reaching hard core lost people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have seen young men and elderly men cry because they shared how for the first time as a believer, they led somebody to faith in Jesus. I have heard men of all ages share how they were broken becaue they desired to see somebody come to faith in Christ.

One writer who is  promoting  a style  of  evangelism similar to our approach and as the way Jesus witnessed, quoted me in his 2006 publicaton. He put  a negative spin on what I said about the real work for the churches we helped over a weekend of intentional community evangelism.  A great number of people that we have witnessing conversations with have a lot of baggage when they trust Christ. The writer obviously was not with us in the  urban community we were witnessing in. Everyone who chooses to become a follower of Christ is at a different journey. The harder the life a person lives sometimes results in a more intentional pursuit of God. Jesus said that it is easy for a camel to go through a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  

For example, take Nicodemus, he came to Jesus at night to learn about Him. But we do not read about him again until after the death of Jesus. We read about him when he goes to help take down Jesus body from the cross to be buried.

Then we read about Jesus hard core disciple Peter who was willing to die with Jesus and at the most critical time he rejects Jesus. How do we explain his decision? Peter was a sinner saved by grace. Even in his zeal to follow Jesus his faith was still growing. Following Jesus is a spiritual journey and we are all transitioning at different speeds. I pursued God with a passion after I trusted in Jesus. I know others who it took a while for them to get to where I was spiritually.

January 1, 1984 I trusted in Jesus as my Lord Savior. I immediately was baptized that same night. I know of other individuals who were not as quickly to join the church.  It took them awhile. What is the difference between a new believer who immediately joins the church and those who it takes weeks and sometimes months. Everyone is at a different point in their life.

Why are some Christians more committed than others. Doesn’t everyone get the same amount of  the Holy Spirit? Of  course  we do, but I believe that your personally type also affects how you respond to being a witness. And for a new believer, some people like the apostle Peter, they are ready to jump out of the boat and others are like Nicodemus and are slow to come to a point of laying it all on the line.

The main thing to remember in being a witness is to listen to the Holy Spirit as he leads you in the witness experience. God knows better than you do what to say and who to approach. We do notchange anyone. We cannot convince anyone as my critic said in one of his videos. Convicting and convincing is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our role is to be be tellers or communicators of the Good News about Jesus and leave the rest up ot God.

This past weekend in a small town of almost 8,000 in Northwest Georgia I participated in an evangelistic emphasis by the Baptist Association and several churches. The effort began last year with the implementation of an evangelism strategy developed by the North American Mission Board for inner city churches. In the past three years, churches in rural and suburban settings have adopted this strategy to equip their church members to see hundreds of lost people saved.

Three churches were the benefactors of the ICE strategy. One church particularly saw revival during a revival. Harbor Lights church last November 2007 had a for sale sign on its property and was down to 9 members. During the preparation for the April ICE, this church used the ICE principles of evangelism training, community ministry and prayerwalking training to prepare itself for the revival. Evangelist and ICE Consultant Mark Yoho was scheduled to lead the revival for 4 nights. As a result of people getting saved the pastor asked Rev. Yoho to come back one more night. He preached a message on the church being broken over its sin and for lost people. That night church wept over their sin of disobedience toward a lack of evangelism. The pastor asked Mark to come back again and this continued for a total of 12 nights. Revival had broken out, the church got right with God and and lost people were saved.

 The ICE weekend resulted in 70 people openly admitting they needed God’s forgiveness and to trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Twenty more people had been born again during the preparatory phase of the ICE implementation. Seven people were baptized Sunday evening at the three churches and over 20 men young and mature men saw God move in their little town resulting changed lives. Not only did they see people lives changed but they wept as they shared how they had led a person to faith in Jesus for the first time or how they had developed a passion for telling others about God the Son, Jesus Christ.

Some many of the witnessing teams who covered most of the small town in La Fayette, GA, gave testimony how people were ready to trust in Jesus. “I have been thinking a lot about that lately” being saved, the new believers said. “I have been trying to figure out how I would get to heaven,” one twenty-three year old said when asked if he knew for sure if he was going to heaven when he died.

The receptivity of lost people in heavily prayerwalked areas resulted in positive encounters and many people ready to trust in Jesus Christ. Then there were those areas that we ventured into that had not been prayerwalked, where we encountered much resistance and opposition. One witness team leader testified how God revealed to him that there was a spirit of procrastination. People were not willing to trust in Jesus. This was confirmed by one man whom this team had just shared the gospel with when he stated, “I know that I have been procrasting about giving my life to Jesus.

Understanding revival is about realizing that it does not take a whole church to see people saved, or spiritual awakening. As I was pondering the events of this past weekend, I thought about the first and second awakenings. It was one man who believed and loved Jesus enough to go out and tell others about Christ. It takes just one man to man to make an impact for the kindgom of God. How, one man did just that, Jesus of Nazareth.

You too can be that one man or woman, if you truly love Jesus, and go out and tell lost people about the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus Christ. You too can see many people trust Jesus if you will be a witness for Jesus. Will you do it? Do you love Jesus enough to tell others about Him? Then go and tell someone about Him and see their lives change. You will see your life change  as well.

I have been conducting research on the living the abundant life as a yielded life. Jesus taught that we are to die to self and allow Him to live through us. He said, “Pick up your cross and follow Me.” Matthew 10: 38 and Mark 8:34. The Cross was a symbol of death during the days of Jesus. Not only was it a symbol of death, it was a symbol of excurtiating suffering, thrist, and pain. To be crucified meant that you suffered for hours until your body stopped functioning. Usually it was through affixiation because the lungs filled with water. It was a slow and very painful death.

So how does living a yeilded life make you more evangelistic? When you die to yourself, you stop giving in to your own volition and desires. You stop living how you want to live. Instead you begin to ask Jesus, God the Father and the Spirit to guide you , to lead you and give you the words to say as you witness. When you begin to think how can God use you to tell someone about Jesus Christ, then you are living the yielded life.

Praying is another way for living the yielded life. When you pray that God would open doors for you to share with someone you are allowing God to have His will in your life. A yielded follower of Jesus Christ is always talking to God the Father, and Jesus Christ seeking to be used as a witness for Jesus. sake. 

The yielded Christian is a commited believer. The commitment is worked out by obeying the Great Commission and the Acts 1:8 challenge by Jesus to be His witnesses. Usually a believer living the yielded life is a person living with urgency. This is usually expressed through asking God to allow him or her to share with someone the good news about Jesus Christ.

As I have contemplated today’s church and the state of our evangelism efforts, I conclude that probably 80 percent of professing Christians have not shared the Gospel, conversationally with a lost person in months maybe even years. This is a reflection of the lack of urgency that the church has to tell the worl d about Jesus. Without urgency there is no motivation to reach out to lost people with the Gospel. The lack of urgency can come down to one thing and that is disobedience to God, and to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Living the yielded life will result in a happy life and abundant life. The believer who is yielded is experiencing a fruitful life. The Christian life is more than just knowing about Jesus and how much Scripture you have memorized. Chrisitianity is about knowing Jesus and living out what Scripture says and sharing it with other people. God’s word changes things and people. If God’s word hs changed you when you believed you should not keep it to yourself. God never intended for you to keep it bound up in you. You are to give it away. Christians should be the best at regifting, this is another topic for later. I have written a sermon on regifting God’s gift of eternal life.

Do you want to be a happier and fulfilled follower of Jesus Christ? Let me challenge you to go and live the yielded life. You will see many benefits from allowing God to use you. Let Jesus be Jesus in you. Go tell some one the Jesus story and how He impacted you.

          

Understanding Biblical Evangelism?

 

      In trying to understand biblical evangelism, we must first read and study the biblical examples of Jesus as He witnessed to the masses and to individuals.The Scripture verses Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8, Luke 10; Luke 24:46-48, are all key verses of Jesus command to testify of Him. Jesus also told those who wanted to know the Truth, to those who were searching for God how they could know God by knowing who He was. He explained that He was the one true way to God. He gave evidence that God was working in and through Him. He said that the works that He had done were only possible by God working through Him. 

      Evangelism is what Jesus did while on earth. He not only spoke evangelism, but He lived out evangelism through His death by crucifixion, His burial in a borrowed tomb, and ultimately His resurrection from the dead. After the resurrection Jesus then instructed His followers to go and be His witnesses to the whole world, the “cosmos” (New Testament Greek).  

      The next few are an excerpt from my book, “Breaking The Evangelism Code”. I explain what biblical evangelism should look like. I hope that you are encouraged by my words as I seek to follow my Lord and Savior and obey His command to tell others about His saving grace.

What Does Biblical Evangelism Look Like?

            Evangelism is not a bad word. In the New Testament language, evangelism means good news, but some how it has become bad news for many lost people. I believe that witnessing in the flesh by many Christians who were not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them in the witnessing conversation resulted in an aggressive approach, a pushy approach, an offending someone through bad communication skills and not the gospel, by being arrogant, demanding instead of persuading in love a lost person to realize their sinful state and their need for Jesus.

            To discover what biblical evangelism looks like a person needs to read and study the books of the New Testament. Evangelism is not in some type of code. God did not ever intend for churches, pastors, denominational workers, and Christians to think that evangelism was in some type of cryptic code.

Since God called me into in ministry I have noticed that churches have fallen for a satanic lie that evangelism is not working. God has made evangelism a simple. He has given us strategies for evangelism they are found in the Bible. The gospels and the book of Acts contain the methods, plans and approaches for engaging lost people with the gospel. They contain God’s strategy for taking the good news to the entire world.

            According to God’s Word, every person ever born will die one day and face God to give an answer for the evil or bad things he or she did (Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:11-15). For those who were conceived but never lived outside the womb they are covered by the blood of Jesus. Even the sins that they would have committed against God are covered. Remember, that Jesus death on the cross paid for all the sins past, present and future. Jesus paid for my sins over 2,000 years ago before I was ever conceived and born. We can conclude one vital summation that people need Jesus forgiveness and payment for their sins.

      As you contemplate on God’s Word and you study the examples of Jesus and His followers ask God how you can begin to be an obedient and intentional witness for Jesus Christ. I pray that you will obey the One whom you call Lord, Savior and King of kings and begin to serve Him and allow Him to live through your life.        

Recently I was interviewed by a mission agency on the approach to witnessing and handing out gospel tracts. Some Christians may feel uncomfortable with this approach to witnessing. For others this is a viable method for beginning a witnessing conversation with a total stranger. Many times this method may lead to someone praying to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

I hope that it encourages you and challenges you to give out a booklet of good news to someone as you focus on Jesus Christ this Christmas season.  Christmas is all about giving of gifts and receiving gifts. This time of the year is a good time for us to direct someone to God’s gift of eternal life by giving a gospel tract as we shop, eat in restaurant’s, and stand in line waiting to be attended by a clerk.

When you pay the bill hand the waitress a tract and tell him or her that God loves them very much. Or you can put the receipt or money in the tract and leave it on the table. The server will have to get through the gospel before getting to the money.  A good ice breaker that has worked for me has been offering to pray for the server as we get ready to pray for our meal. I have seen waitresses begin to cry and tell me that they had asked God to send them an angel to tell them how much He loved them. Others have pulled up a chair since they were not busy and listened to me as I shared the Jesus story with them only to have the server pray and ask Jesus into their heart.

 Other ways to give out a gospel tract is to offer one to person as you stand in line at the department store. You can tell the person that the booklet tells them about God’s gift how to get into heaven. One of the responses I have heard has been, “really, I can get to heaven from here?” I usually respond, that is correct, non stop directly to heaven. If the person is receptive they will smile or laugh and then I proceed to share the Jesus story. The individual may or may not be ready to trust in Jesus but at least the person heard the good news.

It is not whether or not the person chooses to become a follower of Jesus Christ that make evangelism successful, but rather that we are obedient to the Great Commission and do as Jesus our Lord has commanded us to do. Remember, go tell someone about Jesus. And then watch how God works in the salvation process. Happy Christ Celebration!

I apologize for not adding a post over the last several weeks. God was up to something big in my life and I had to break away from all writing until things settled down. I have made the move that God wanted me to make and now I can continue serving God in the place He wants me to be.

 Now back to the writing. Over the last 23 years God has taught me a lot about the principles of evangelism. I have learned much about praying for the lost, praying for myself to be a witness, servanthood evangelism and ministry, and follow-up of new believers.

The first of 2006, in January I began writing down some thoughts about evangelism and the principles I mentioned above. I wrote every opportunity I had. I wrote into the early hours of the morning. I wrote about my convictions certain topics on evangelism and I wrote about the many lessons Ihave learned from seeing some of my spiritual heroes share Jesus with lost people.

 Over the next several weeks I want to share exerts from my writings. I am praying about getting my writings published into a book so others can be encouraged to be obedient soul winners and witnesses for Jesus Christ. In this post I am introducing the concept that many of us have made evangelism so difficult that now we think it is in some type of code. I propose the question “Did God give us a message that needs to be decoded?” Is the strategy for sharing Christ in some type of code?” I have to answer why of course not!

 Jesus Commanded us to go and tell the world about Him. It is a simple message that even a young child at the tender age of 3 asks his father, “Daddy will you please pray that I can have Jesus in my heart?” Does he understand what he asked, you think to yourself. Yes he does if he is thinking it. How much does he understand? He knows enough to consider asking his daddy to pray for him. I have learned that when people are asking to know God, they are open to hear the good news about Jesus Christ. All I have to do is just be obedient and tell them the Jesus story.

Here is an exert from my book.

Breaking the Evangelism Code Is evangelism in some type of code that it must be decoded before a Christian or a church is able to evangelize lost people? Based on what I have heard from pastors, ministers of evangelism, evangelists, missionaries, church planters and even some soul winners you would think that it is. You might have even wondered how did we lose the ability to witness to a lost people and especially peoples from other non Christian groups. You might have even thought that evangelism was in some kind of code and if you could only write the correct evangelism strategy that the church would be able to witness again just like Jesus and the first century apostles.  Maybe you have wondered, “Where did the church lose it ability to witness?” In which century or era did Christians stopped connecting with people groups and the lost masses of unbelievers. Guess what? We never did lose the connectivity with the world. The message that Jesus proclaimed and the same one that His disciples learned from Him is the same message we should be communicating to the world.  Jesus message crosses all cultures, across all the centuries. The gospel is not restrained by time and people. The New Testament gospel transcends from the beginning of time until its end. The message of Jesus must be preached, proclaimed, communicate to all of mankind in every place to every language and tongue. Jesus did not leave a message that had to be decoded by man to understand. The Gospel is has been translated into many languages and books. God personally delivered the message Himself so that it would not lose its focus and purpose. The gospel is so easy to understandable that even a child can grasp it. Yet it was given by the Supreme God so that even a brilliant mind could examine the Gospel and be amazed at the divine conception of the Almighty God communicating with mere man.  The Gospel has been laid out for all who desire to know God are able to grasp it. A person has to first admit his or her finite existence and the infinite existence of God. Then the individual would have to admit their imperfections their sin nature. Last of all there would have to be an admission of having sinned against the God of universe and that Jesus has paid for all sin, including theirs. This is the Gospel, it is basic and complex at the same time, and it is God’s revelation to you and me.      

Witnessing From the Over Flow of Your Walk with Jesus Christ

We have all heard of the statement living out of the over flow of your walk with God. In seminary I had several preaching professors say that we should preach out of the over flow of our walk with God. In the same manner we should witness out of the overflow of our walk with God. What does this mean out of the overflow of our walk with God?

First this means that you have been born again by the Spirit of God by faith in Jesus Christ. This happens when you confess your sins to Jesus and receive God’s forgiveness for our sins. Once you have been saved, then you should begin having a daily devotion. This would include reading a chapter or two from the Bible. Also you should have a prayer list consisting of people who are lost or not born again and areas that need prayer. The list should include praying for your needs.

Second, during your quiet time or devotional time let God speak to you. Schedule this period of time in the morning when you pray to God and read His Holy Word. God speaks to His children when we pray to Him and when we read the Bible. When you pray make sure you allow time for your heavenly Father to answer. Also when you read the Bible focus on what you are reading. God’s Word is a living and active Word, Hebrews 4:12, and cuts to the very marrow of your bones. In other words it penetrates deeply, it convicts deeply and it is truth of very truth.

Third, the overflow of your walk with God is impacted by a life of integrity. Your character does affect your walk. You might be able to quote Scripture, you might be an eloquent speaker, you might know the Bible chapter and verse, but unless your character matches your knowledge it is only information. Without godly character there is no overflow just showing off or pretension.

Fourth, when you witness from the overflow you are in tune with God’s Holy Spirit and you hear Him speak as He gives you direction and guidance to share the Gospel. You witness out of obedience to your heavenly Father, and to your Lord and Savior’s command to go and make disciples of all people’s. Evangelism is responding in obedience to the Great Command Giver, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has said “go and make disciples of all nations.” Every follower of Jesus Christ is called to be a disciple maker. We need to go and share the Good news with everyone we encounter.

Our example and role model is Jesus Christ. You will either obey or disobey Jesus command to go and win lost people. People all across this country and world are looking for truth and for assurance of getting into heaven. I have met people during my travels across America who are looking for God and forgiveness for their wrong doing. People want to know God and they want to have peace that surpasses all understanding. Like Sid in Nashville, TN who followed me out to my car after he saw me give a book of wisdom (a gospel tract) to a store clerk. He asked me if I had another one of those spiritual books. Praise God, Sid trusted in Jesus and wept on my shoulders after he finished praying the sinner’s prayer. We can see people everywhere come to a saving knowledge of Jesus as Savior and Lord. All we have to do is asked and conversationally share the Jesus story and then let the Spirit do the work.    

Effective Evangelism is Intentional Evangelism

I have been leading an intentional outreach evangelism minsitry since September of 2001 through the local church across north american.  In 2002, God allowed me to write an equipping manual believers how to witness. Over the last five years, the strategy has developed into what it is today. Since the fall of 2001, the ministry has seen over 15,000 people pray to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. God has taught me several concepts about evangelism. The average Christian, I like to call myself a follower of Jesus Christ, is fearful about telling another individual about Jesus and forgiveness of sin and a new life in Jesus. I have asked myself the same question many times, why is a person who has trusted in Jesus to have their sins forgiven afraid of witnessing. 

What is it that keeps you, a professing believer, from witnessing to someone else about Jesus Christ? Is telling someone, a strange maybe, a close friend or a relative how Jesus Christ changed your life, when you put your trust in Him, seem very difficult? Witnessing is nothing more than communicating to someone that God loves him or her.  The Gospel story is that God sent His one and only Son to earth and through Jesus’ death, he paid for all their wrong doing. Witnessing is starting a conversation where in three minutes or less you are sharing your life’s story how you understood that God loves you, and that God Almighty in the form of a man, Jesus, paid for your sins.   

Here are some key points that I have learned as a street witness, a street preacher, and during church wide visitation. I would like to share these with you.

Valuable Key Witnessing points

• The first key to remember is that you should be continually talking with God when seeking to be an obedient soul winner. I have learned from mature and seasoned soul winners the importance of staying in a constant conversation with the One who has called you to go and be a witness in the first place. I learned an important dynamic in seminary about being born again, salvation has three key links. Salvation is from the one true God, who has revealed Himself in three distinct ways, as God the Father, through God the Son and by God the Spirit. God will tell you when to witness and when not to witness. He will direct your steps across the street to engage a total stranger in a witnessing conversation.

• The second key point to remember is that God is the One who is in the life changing business. It is through His Spirit that an individual is made new again, a new creation as mentioned by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17. The word “new” in the biblical Greek language means literally a new creation, in other words, a new person who never existed before. Jesus uses those who have been made new by having seeking his forgiveness for their sin. He puts His spirit, his personality, His desire in all believers so we can continue His ministry here on earth.

• The third key point in witnessing is everyone has to recognize their sin nature and that he or she has broken God’s laws and commandments. Only then can someone after having realized their sin can forgiveness be asked for and given by God. The mistake many Christians with good intentions make is they offer God’s love and a better place without showing a person how we are an offense to God because of our sinful nature. Salvation is always preceded by an awareness of a sin nature. 

Prayer a Major Key

Prayer is a major ingredient when attending to wintess. Without it a soul winner only seeks to operate in an unprepared field. The fields must be prepared by persistent prayerwalking and building relationships when prayerwalking a community. I have seen a community’s receptivity level to the gospel increase after 4 weeks of prayerwalking. The down and outers as well as the up and outers are more receptive to the gospel. The gospel is never to be separate from evangelism. The two were intended to work hand in hand. Even Jesus prayerwalked Jerusalem as revealed in Matthew? The apostle Paul wrote to pray without ceasing. As you go and witness you must go with a prayerful attitude, seeking to be used to share your testimony, your story how Jesus Christ changed your life.   

Jesus was our example when it comes to evangelism. He taught His disciples and He still teaches us how to witness as when we respond to the Holy Spirit to be a witness for Him. The Bible teaches that the greatest joy God experiences is when a lost person admits his or her sin and asks Jesus to forgive his sins. The gospel writer Luke penned that “there is joy in the presence of the angels.” The Greek language structure reveals that the One who is expressing the joy is God Almighty and His angels are seeing Him rejoice over the rebirth of a person.

Who is Open to know Jesus? « EVANGELISM DECODED

Todd Hunter, who is the national director of Alpha USA, sent me some information on an upcoming conference on the subject of conversational evangelism.

Todd says,

As you know, I’ve been a keen observer of our changing culture and its impact on churches, especially in relation to the task of evangelism.

Many intelligent, committed Christians are stalled when it comes to evangelism. They want to share their faith, but they know instinctively that the evangelistic approaches that were effective in a previous world are likely to be experienced negatively by people shaped by today’s culture. They don’t know where or how to begin, so consequently they do nothing; and feel guilty about their failure …

The conference is “Conversational Evangelism Conference” on March 9th -10th at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa and will include Todd Hunter, Lee Strobel, Mark Mittelberg, Becky Pippert, and Garry Poole.

Says Todd,

… we will be sharing vital insights into the conceptual basis that underlies Alpha and Seeker Small Groups and Bible Studies, and will be providing in-depth training in each tool.

Go to www.conversationalevangelism.net for more details.