At our Bible Study this morning, we ended up discussing the topic of evangelism, and what it should look like.
It’s a topic we touched on in a recent sermon, on the Lord’s Day the GO Team should have been with the congregation, when Stephen asked what the cancellation of the team (due to Covid restrictions) means for our evangelism as a church.
In the sermon, Stephen noted:
“Focused weeks of evangelism can be helpful. But the main work of outreach in a healthy congregation will be people sharing the gospel with their friends, and inviting them to church. That tends to bear a lot more fruit than trying to evangelise people we have no prior relationship with.”
He also quoted a follow-up comment by R. Scott Clark to a post entitled: ‘Does Acts 8 Provide a Warrant for Every Member Evangelism?’:
“I have spent plenty of time in the streets doing evangelism. To borrow from Paul, I must be out my mind to talk like this but I’m a certified Evangelism Explosion trainer [but] there’s a reason I don’t do it any more. It might have been emotionally satisfying but it didn’t produce much visible fruit for the visible church… I’m not saying that no one should do it but I would certainly say that there’s no moral obligation for us to be “on the streets.”
Relative to strategy, I think it’s much wiser for God’s people to be concentrating, as it were, on those with whom they actually have a relationship.”
The question of ‘What’s the best way to do evangelism in the local church?’ was helpfully addressed by Rev. Paul Levy (Ealing International Presbyterian Church) in a recent podcast episode. You can listen to the relevant clip below:
Paul was interviewed today on Premier Christian Radio as the co-author of a letter signed by more than 500 UK pastors (including Stephen) calling on the Prime Minister and First Ministers not to close churches again:
A few years ago, Paul wrote a blog entitled ‘A year in the life of a Minister’ which Stephen reviewed in the Messenger magazine.
Update: The following interview with Paul’s brother, Steve, is also very helpful on the subject of evangelism and the local church - stressing the importance of Public Worship and the means of grace.