Share Jesus Without Freaking Out series post 6/8
Principle 6: Expect people to be open to the gospel, and learn to share Jesus where they live.
Two years ago, I started next generation ministry work at The Heights Church in Commerce, GA. When I began working at the church, I was told by a church elder that the harvest was ripe. What does the expression “the harvest is ripe” mean? Speaking evangelistically, the expression means that souls would be saved if the gospel call were to go out. The elder firmly believed that people’s hearts in the area would be responsive to a move of the Spirit.
In other words, our church elder was living out principle six because he had great expectations that people in the northeast Georgia region would be open to hearing the gospel. Sharing Jesus with others in conversation on a daily basis is great and is why Dr. Reid wrote his book. However, evangelistic events still have a place in church life. Remember, it’s not either-or, but both-and when it comes to church members having everyday gospel-centered conversations and churches hosting evangelistic events.
About the same time I started working at my church, I attended a local wrestling event in the area that took place in a high school gym. It was at this event that I met wrestler and evangelist Nikita Koloff. Through a series of events, I was able to line Nikita up for an evangelistic event that will take place at my church this Sunday. Much prayer and supplication has been poured out for lost people in the community and for the highly anticipated event itself. Much planning and preparation has went into hosting this evangelistic event at the church.
When the seeds have been sown and the right conditions exist, harvest time is just around the corner. When corn is produced on a stalk, the farmer grabs a basket and fills it up. Likewise, when people come to the Lord for the first time, discipleship begins. After a harvest of souls has been reaped, it is the responsibility of the local church to come surround the new believers and disciple them. I am thankful that my church and next generation ministry itself allows for a simple discipleship process.
At The Heights, our mission is Loving God – Loving Others – Serving Both and our discipleship process is aligned through disciples actively participating in corporate worship, life groups, and ministry teams.
Thom Rainer, President of Lifeway Christian Resources, recently stated that in the future, evangelism would be done by churches “more out of necessity than by commission” or desire. Rainer estimates that 10,000 churches are dying every year. American churches will once again focus on evangelism or die at their own peril.
Both the individual church member and the corporate church at large have a responsibility to reach their community for Christ. Though my church is bringing in an evangelist, we as members are all called to do the “work of an evangelist” (2 Tim 4:5). Gospel presentations still work too. Try this at your next evangelistic event: Before and after the gospel is presented by the evangelist or your pastor, have church members share Jesus with others in conversation with all who attend (you will need to train members first). Talk about a powerful witness! The community you are trying to reach will leave believing that you and the church care about them, believe in what you’re talking about, and have been “endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). And even more important, hopefully they leave with a newfound relationship with Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior!
The harvest was ripe in Jesus’s day (John 4:35, Luke 9:37). With over 7 billion people on planet earth today, how much more ripe is the harvest in our day? In Revelation 14:15-16, the harvest of the earth is ripe and is reaped with a sickle. There is some irony surrounding our evangelist Nikita Koloff, “The Russian Nightmare” as he often wrestled wearing an outfit with a sickle on it because the sickle represented a soviet symbol. Today, the sickle means something totally different to Nikita as he himself is God’s sickle used to reap a harvest of souls. I am claiming Matthew 13:8 as our event verse and expecting a hundred fold crop!