Model for Evangelism

What’s the best approach of doing evangelism?  You may get different answers from each person you ask.  I heard Keith Davy, a co-worker who did a study on the Biblical Model of Evangelism, speak on this topic and was surprised and encouraged by what he said.  He said that the New Testament talks about 3 main categories of evangelism:

1. Lifestyle, or relational evangelism - The Natural Witness (John 1:40-51; 4:28-42; Luke 8:38-39; Colossians 4:5,6; 1 Pet. 3:15)

2. Our witness as a Body of Christ - The Body Witness (Acts 2:42ff; John 13:34-35; 17:22-23; 1 Corinthians 11:26)

3. Intentional outreach - The Ministry Witness (Mark 1:38, 39; Luke 9:1-66; 10:1-17, Acts 5:41-42; 8:5ff, 26ff; 11:19-21; 11:22-24; 13 and on).

There are people who say that the only way to share the gospel is through building relationships with someone and ‘earning the right to be heard.’  Others focus mostly on ministry evangelistic activities.  And others believe that it’s through our actions, not so much through our words, that win people to Christ.

In the midst of talking about this, the speaker asked those of us in the room to raise our hands who came to faith in Christ through the witness of a close friend.  About 1/3 of the people in the auditorium raised their hands.  Then he asked to raise their hands those of us who came to Christ through the context of a community of believers and noticed the difference in their lives.  Again about 1/3 raised their hands.  And lastly he asked for those who received Christ as Savior and Lord to raise their hands if that happened in the context of a ministry event.  I joined the last 1/3 who raised our hands.  The speaker says that whenever he speaks on this subject it never fails that the room is generally evenly divided between the 3 categories or modes of evangelism.

It would be a good idea to think about including something from each of the 3 categories in your personal evangelism.  My personal preference is the ‘ministry witness’ and so that’s what I do most of the time.  I don’t mind approaching strangers to share the gospel and I like to put on evangelistic events.  The area that is least comfortable for me is the ‘lifestyle or natural witness’, but being less comfortable doesn’t give mean that I shouldn’t try to build relationships with my neighbors and friends and take a risk to ask them questions that will make them think about Jesus.  It also doesn’t mean that I should ignore how I ‘walk before others’.

Think about this as well as you plan your ministry’s strategy for evangelism.  What are ways that you can help and encourage one another share the gospel with your friends and classmates?  What sorts of evangelistic outreaches will you do this semester?  Don’t forget to think about how you relate to one another as a body of Christ – are your relationships and is your passion for Christ something that draws non-believers into the Body?

I will continue to send resources your way that fall into all three categories.  Please tell me about things you have done so that I can share those ideas with others, too.  Right now there are student believers in 45 cities in Russia who are receiving this рассылка – pray for one another as you are trusting God together to do something on your campus that will change the spiritual destinies of students for eternity!

Breathe life, Holy Spirit

Leonid  (Lyonya) Novikov, the main speaker at this year’s Winter Bible Conference, made a very powerful point that will stick with me for a long time.  He was speaking from Ps.100:3 where God says that it is He who made us – we did not make ourselves.  Because He is our Creator, He is also our Master and Lord and He is the One who directs what we do with our lives.  Our response to God should always be, ‘how do I align myself according to His purposes?’  He is King and I live to serve Him.

At the end of his first talk, Lyonya gave each one of us a piece of clay and told us to fashion a person.  We were to bring back our ‘person’ to the next talk.  It was interesting to watch how every one of us went to work fashioning our person!  There were some extremely gifted sculptors at the conference. .. I was very impressed.

The following night, Lyonya continued to speak about God being the Creator, Owner, King of our lives and how we are the created, we are made to serve His purpose.   He had us take our masterpiece, our ‘creation’ and hold it up.  Lyonya then commanded us to breathe life into the person we made with our own hands.  People started laughing at the ridiculousness of the idea that we could breathe life into our clay figures!  I admit that I even attempted it just to remind myself that only God can create life and I am totally incapable of turning something I made into a living being.

The point was so visual and so powerful that it led me to thinking about other ways this could be applied in my life.  I thought about how, when I feel confident in my abilities to do something, I forget to do things in God’s power and rely instead on my own strength and wisdom to serve Him.  I thought about how relying on myself rather than on God is like me trying to breathe life into a plan or a strategy or activity.  When I pictured myself trying to blow the breath of life into my clay person, I made myself visualize trying to blow life into a plan or activity “in service to God” but done in my own strength.  When I’m doing that activity in my own power, I am unable to give that activity eternal value or impact.  But when we’re filled with the Holy Spirit and relying on God’s wisdom and power, then it’s He who breathes life into our strategies and plans – only He is able to do that.

So how do you allow God to breathe life into your service to Him?  The Holy Spirit booklet explains just how to allow Him to empower you, to blow His life into the plans He has given you to bring the good news to your campus.

How to see your vision reached

Last week we talked about the topic of “vision” and how to develop a vision.  This week I would like to follow up on that and talk about what to do once you have a vision – how do you put a vision into motion.  Where do you start once you understand God’s vision for you at your campus.

1-Pray about the things in your vision with others in your group.  You are most likely drawn together because you have the same or a similar vision.  Ask God to start working in those areas He has put on your hearts.  Ask Him to put ideas and strategies on your mind for the things He wants you to do at your campus.  Ask Him for wisdom, for resources, for His strength and for His blessing. (James 1:5)

2-Pick 2 or 3 specific parts of your vision and make a simple plan.

Plan concrete steps or actions you can take to put your vision into motion.  Specific steps are what help us to fulfill what He has told us to do (John 15:8,14,16).  God tells us to take advantage of opportunities (Eph.5:15-16) and He tells us to be deliberate in our actions (2 Cor.9:24-26).

How to turn a vision into something concrete:

А. Think about activities you can see happen that are directly connected with a part of your vision.

1. If part of your vision is to see believers grow deeper in their desire to obey God with all their lives, then a way of making that vision concrete may be to start a small group Bible study on the topic of obedience and make sure to have accountability built into each lesson.  Set a date for the study to begin and start it.
2. If your vision is to see an attitude of prayer pervade the campus, then invite other believers to join you in a weekly prayer time on campus and pray for things connected to your vision.
3. If your vision is to build multiplying disciples, then start a small-group where you pray, study the Bible and talk together about reaching out to others.  Also encourage them to start their own small group with other like-minded believers or with interested non-believers.

 Б. Plan an event

1. If you want to give every student on your campus a chance this year to hear the gospel, then plan a broad-sowing event and do it.  It could be handing out flyers or business cards or renting advertising space on a trolleybus which goes past campus with the address of an evangelistic website (www.everystudent.com, for example)
2. If you want to make contacts with non-believers to talk about spiritual topics, then plan something like “Alpha Course” or “Focus Group”.  Try setting a date within the next two weeks and be there prepared whether you think anyone will come or not.

Look back at God’s vision for your part in bringing the gospel to your campus and compare the plans you just made with the vision.  Will these plans/activities be effective in accomplishing your (God’s) vision? 

Avoid this common mistake:  we tend to plan activities and then call that our ‘vision’.  Just doing some fun things, or doing things other people are doing doesn’t mean that you are accomplishing the vision that God has given specifically to you.  The things you put on your plan need to be just the kinds of things that will help you accomplish what God has called you to do at your campus.

3-Share your vision with others.  Nehemiah could not rebuild the wall of Jerusalem by himself.  He needed others to join with him, so he shared his vision with the Israelites living there and invited them to rebuild the wall (Nehemiah 2:17-19).

 Invite other believing students at your university to join you in what God has called you to do and work together as a group to make a plan based on the vision that God has given you collectively. 

4-Start now!  Plan to do something starting now and get out and do it!  Procrastination is a great enemy in ministry.   Satan likes us to feel great about having good intentions, and loves it when we are slow to put a plan into action.

Even if it is the end of the school year and it seems better to wait until fall to begin, you can still put a plan for prayer into action for the last few weeks.  You can plan to talk to one or two classmates about why you aren’t stressed about your exams – and share your story of how knowing that God loves and accepts you unconditionally and how that brings peace into your life. 

Pray, plan specific events or activities, invite others to join you, and don’t procrastinate – Start Now!  These are good first steps for how to put a plan into action.

How do I Build a Vision for what God wants to do with me at my campus?

I was talking to a student leader at the Winter Bible Conference and he was telling me his vision for taking the gospel to non-believing students on his campus.  I was so inspired by how clearly he communicated his “dream”, his vision for God to work through him at his university!  His vision captured my attention and caused me to want to join him in what God was calling him to do. 

I know that some of you may not have spent much time thinking through how to communicate your understanding of why God has placed you at the university where you are attending and your vision for what He wants to do through you.  So you may be thinking about this for the first time.  Some others of you are trying to help others to develop their own personal vision for what God wants to do through them, but may not know how to help them.  Hopefully this blog will help.

What is a ‘vision’?  Vision is when God shares with you His dream for all He can do through you at a particular stage of your life.  Vision is when you see where your life fits in God’s overall plan for reaching the world.  Vision is when God shows you His answer to the question: What does God want to do in my situation right now and what role does He want me to play?

The story is told of three bricklayers working on the same job, each of whom was asked the question, "What are you doing?"  The first responded, "I'm laying bricks."  The second said, "I'm building a wall."  The third responded, "I'm constructing a grand cathedral."  All three were engaged in the same work, but only one had a vision for what he was really doing.  To stay motivated, you must embrace a personal vision of what God wants you to do on campus. 

Vision tells you what to focus on, what to spend your time and energy doing.  Vision empowers you, it keeps you on track, keeps you from focusing on lesser things.  It forces you to think strategically.  Fulfilling God's vision for your life right now on your campus may require sacrificial work, but when the work is a fulfillment of a vision it is somehow energizing. 

Clearly communicating your vision often draws other believers to join you in what God has called you to do at your university.   Having a strong vision brings unity, common direction and purpose to your group.  It tells you how to pray and what to pray for when you meet together as a team. 

What was Jesus’ vision?  

Everywhere Jesus went He told people that His purpose was to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God, to preach the gospel (Luke 4:18). He told everyone that He was sent to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) and to call sinners to repentance (Luke 45:32).  This was His purpose, why He was sent to earth.

My vision:

Here is my vision for ministries on campuses all over Russia:  My desire is to see ministries developed on every single campus, where lives are being transformational by Jesus Christ, where:

·         Lost students are being transformed by the gospel of Christ (Colossians 1:13-14)

·         Christians are being transformed in 'grace and truth relationships' (Ephesians 4)

·         The campus and world are being transformed by laborers who are sent into the harvest (Matt. 9:37-39)

 

How to develop vision: 

Developing a vision is not hard.  It may take some perseverance in prayer, though, but God is more than willing to tell you what He would have you do if you ask Him.

• Start with prayer, ask God to show you His vision for you during your time as a student at your campus. 
• Spend time in His Word – look for the passages where God tells us what He wants you to do.
• Dream with God, ask yourself, “what would it look like if God did …?
• Write it down.  You can write out a ‘vision statement’ or list out ‘word pictures’ (“believers would be sharing the gospel so much that students everywhere would be talking about Jesus during the breaks from class”;  “there would be Bible study groups in every dorm”;  etc)
• Go back over what you have written out – is your dream, your vision aligned with God’s vision for you as a student at your campus?

 (See Cultivating a Vision For My Campus for more good questions that will help you in developing a vision for how God can use you as His representative on your campus.)

Finally, dedicate yourself to fulfilling the vision which God has entrusted to you. In Acts 20:24, the apostle Paul says, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me." An American pastor, Bill Hybels, comments on this verse: "What is Paul saying? I think he's saying, 'The moment I received my vision from God, fulfilling that vision became the pressing priority of my life.' "  Press on to fulfill the vision God has given you, call others with similar vision to join with you in making a difference for Christ at your campus!