Deliberate Church: Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Doing Responsible Evangelism

-The way we understand the Gospel will inform the way we do evangelism.
-The way we do evangelism will inform the way our hearers understand the Gospel.
-The way our hearers understand the Gospel will inform the way they live the Gospel.
-The way our hearers live the Gospel will have a direct bearing on the corporate witness of our churches in our communities.
-The corporate witness of our churches will in turn make our evangelism either easier or harder, depending on whether that witness is a help or a hindrance.

Including Essentials
Basics of the Gospel:
God – He is holy and just
Man – He is utterly sinful
Christ – He died as a substitute for sinners bearing God’s wrath
Response – Man must repent of his sins and believe in Christ

Extending Invitations
A gospel presentation is incomplete unless it includes a call to respond.

We must be careful not to confuse any other response with the only saving response (repentant faith).
“The two responses that seem to be most commonly confused with genuine repentance and belief today are praying a prayer with someone and coming forward at a church service.”
“We need to realize that people can pray sincere prayers and walk aisles after sermons without ever genuinely repenting and trusting in Christ.”

** “We are wiser to discontinue ambiguous evangelistic practices rather than allow them to continue confusing people as to what constitutes a saving response to the Gospel. Granted, allowing ambiguity may increase the numbers on our membership rolls. But it deceives unsaved people into thinking that they are saved—the cruelest hoax of all. It also wreaks havoc on the purity of our churches and their corporate testimonies, allowing into our membership many professing Christians who are later discovered not to be Christians at all because they eventually revert to lifestyles that simply cannot characterize a true Christian convert.” –p. 53-54

Avoiding Entertainment
“Churches are most healthy when the Gospel is most clear; and the Gospel is most clear when our evangelistic methods are most plain.” –p. 55

Avoiding Manipulation
“Instead of using all our powers to convict and change the sinner, while God stands back as a gentleman quietly waiting for the spiritual corpse, His declared spiritual enemy, to invite Him into his heart, let’s preach the Gospel like gentlemen, trying to persuade but knowing that we can’t convert. Then let’s stand back while God uses all of His powers to convict and convert and change the sinner.” –p. 56

Being God-Centered
The Gospel is not ultimately about me.