Last week I wrote about should we as churches strive to be big or to have a big impact.\u00a0 The conclusion was the Jesus has called us to have a big impact on the world, not to necessarily have a big church.\u00a0 The question that came up most often after writing that blog was this, how do we accomplish this?\u00a0 That is a fair question, and so I hope to answer it in this blog.<\/p>\n
The first thing we need to do is to reject a certain mentality that seems to prevalent in many churches.\u00a0 That mentality is “it’s the leaders job to grow the church.”\u00a0 This mentality is dangerous for two reasons.\u00a0 It sets up a man to do God’s job.\u00a0 Paul was very careful to point out in 1 Corinthians 3 that he planted, Apollos watered, but it was God who gave the increase.\u00a0 My dear church leaders, we could not save ourselves, what makes us think we can save anyone else?\u00a0 Salvation is of God and by God and we need to remember that.\u00a0 The other thing this mentality does is it disengages church members.\u00a0 When we focus on growth being a leaders job, that means that I as a member can perform my weekly duty of showing up at church, singing a few songs, listening to a sermon while not being touched by it, sing an invitation hymn, and then go home.\u00a0 My fear is, this is exactly what we have created in many of our churches today.\u00a0 We have created a church system in which church leaders are hands-on, while many church members are hands-off.\u00a0 This is leading to a decline in evangelism which is allowing many people to slip into eternity unprepared and awakening to the reality of a literal hell.\u00a0 Thom Rainer of Lifeway said that the statistics are showing that for every 40 to 60 church members, one person is getting saved at that church.\u00a0 You don’t have to be a math wiz to know that is not a good ratio.\u00a0 While leaders are to lead by example in evangelism and reaching out to people, they are only a part of the body, they are not the whole body.\u00a0 The Great Commission in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and Acts 1 was not given to a bunch of professional ministers.\u00a0 It was given to men who were sold out to Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Therefore, it is important that we all see our role in being a part of God building His church.<\/p>\n
Secondly, we don’t need a new program to reach the lost.\u00a0 Let’s be honest, we are program poor.\u00a0 There is the FAITH, Evangelism Explosion, Way of the Master, and more.\u00a0 Godly men and women have sat down and written out these programs, and churches have run them and taught their people how to share the Gospel.\u00a0 That is great, the problem is not the program, the problem unfortunately in this case is the people.\u00a0 As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.\u00a0 You can lead a Christian to a program, train him, but you can’t make him or her do it.\u00a0 There has to be a burden in their heart for the lost.<\/p>\n
I have given you two things that we don’t need, so let’s look at what we do need.\u00a0 Finally, what we need are passionate people with a burden for the lost.\u00a0 Do you feel a little let down by that answer?\u00a0 You got all excited, you have been agreeing with me so far, and then you read that answer and the first thing you may have thought of was, “is that it?\u00a0 Is that the best you’ve got?”\u00a0 In short “yes.”\u00a0 Paul was writing to the church at Thessalonica, and he marked three things about the Thessalonians that I think sum up how we are to reach the lost.\u00a0 They are found in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.”\u00a0 The three keys are “work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope.”\u00a0 If we are going to reach the lost it is going to take a “work of faith.”\u00a0 Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy!\u00a0 Becoming an world class athlete, becoming a CEO of a company, or even shedding those extra few pounds is hard work.\u00a0 So why do we expect taking the truth of God to a world that doesn’t understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14) and have them understand it and accept it is going to be easy?\u00a0 It is a work of faith, because all we can do and all we are called to do is to present the Gospel to them.\u00a0 The results are up to God.\u00a0 The second thing that is important to reaching the lost is it must be a “labor of love.”\u00a0 We are commanded by God to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love others as ourself (Mt. 22:37-39).\u00a0 Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 said that even if he was the best preacher in the world and did the most incredible things, if he didn’t have love, he was nothing.\u00a0 To reach the lost we are going to have to do more than just go through the motions.\u00a0 We are going to have to get past the cheesy cliches, and we are going to have to genuinely love God and love others.\u00a0 Finally there is the “patience of hope.”\u00a0 We can see two applications here.\u00a0 The first application is that we must be patient with people as we share the Gospel, believing that God can save anyone.\u00a0 The vast majority of people do not accept the Gospel the first time they hear it.\u00a0 In fact it takes many times before most people accept Christ.\u00a0 So when we present the Gospel, but the person doesn’t turn their heart and life over to Christ, we can’t get discouraged and give up hope.\u00a0 We need to eagerly pray for them and when the time is right, present the Gospel again, and maybe again, and maybe again, and maybe even\u00a0 a few more times after that. The key is that as long as there is breath in the body, there is hope for the soul.\u00a0 Keep the faith, keep sharing, and keep praying.\u00a0 The other application is that we should share the Gospel until we see our “hope” face to face which is as Paul says is in our “Lord Jesus Christ.”\u00a0 I encouraged our church in the sermon yesterday to pray for the lost by name each day, and to pray for opportunities to share the Gospel each day.\u00a0 How are we going to reach the lost?\u00a0 The same way you eat an elephant, one bite (one person) at a time.<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week I wrote about should we as churches strive to be big or to have a big impact.\u00a0 The conclusion was the Jesus has called us to have a big impact on the world, not to necessarily have a … Read More