Evangelism Never Changes, But the Methods Do
Evangelism is not even outreach.
Outreach can lead to evangelism, but you can have outreach all day and
never announce the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Evangelism is when people are challenged directly with the gospel and invited to respond.
Many people may stumble at that point, but we always want people to hear and respond to the good news of the Gospel.
Evangelism Never Changes
Evangelism is not recruitment.
Evangelism is not even outreach.
Evangelism always involves a bloody cross and an empty tomb. It always
involves Jesus’ death on the cross for our sin and in our place.Those facts are a constant.
Without that message, there is no evangelism since there is no good news. Evangelism is transcultural and universal, and it goes throughout every
era of time. It is men and women being called to trust and follow
Jesus, to believe that the power of the Gospel transforms upon
repentance of their sins.
But how we do evangelism—how we get to the point of gospel proclamation—is impact by the when and where of culture.
Methods of Evangelism Change Over Time
Evangelism is always going to involve calling people to repentance, to trust and follow Christ, and to be born again by the power of His Gospel. But we can think about eras of evangelistic methodologies.
A few decades ago many people came to Christ when they heard great radio preachers. Radio evangelism was significant and cutting edge.
The bus ministry in the 1970s and '80s was once a meaningful
evangelism method. (My sister rode a bus to a church on Long Island
outside of New York City.)
She heard the challenging claims of the Gospel, then trusted and
followed Christ as a young girl. That led to my mother hearing the
Gospel, and then me hearing the Gospel.
Evangelistic crusades were large gatherings typically in a
stadium or arena where people could bring their friends to hear the good
news of the Gospel. God is continuing to use meetings like that around
the world and even here.
In 1988, I started my first church in Buffalo, New York, on the heels
of a Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade. Consider that Graham’s largest
meeting in the world was in Seoul, Korea, in 1973 with more than one
million people.
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| Mass Crusade |
Evangelism always involves a bloody cross and an empty tomb.
I lead a small group in my neighborhood every Sunday night. I might not
be able to take them to a Billy Graham crusade, but I can invite them
to my home because they already know me and they trust me. My neighbors
two houses down on one side and another three houses down on the other
side come regularly.
We don't have to rely on large-meeting evangelism.
We don't have to rely on large-meeting evangelism.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association itself has concluded that
home-based evangelism is the next method of evangelism that God is using
in our society. In what may have been Billy Graham’s last great
opportunity to share the Gospel on a national stage, they put together
the My Hope America evangelistic campaign to get the message of the
gospel into as many homes as possible.
Jesus Christ is the only hope for any country in every era. Our honor
and joy is to participate with Christ in evangelizing the not-yet
believers in effective ways.
While we should be thankful the message of evangelism never changes, we
should pray that we will always be sensitive to the changing methods so
that many people will have the opportunity to hear the good news of
Jesus Christ.
Source: www.christianitytoday.com
Source: www.christianitytoday.com
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