Save all you can - On equipping the church for evangelism

For many years the mission statement of the American evangelist, D.L. Moody, has been a personal challenge to me.

Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What motivates you from day to day? Moody once replied, ‘I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a life boat and said to me, “Moody, save all you can”’.

The city of Hull has one of the lowest church attendance rates in Europe. We may be celebrating the 200th anniversary of a Parliamentary Bill that made the slave trade illegal. However, in the constituency of William Wilberforce, there are thousands of people who are currently slaves to sin and who have no place in the Kingdom of God.

How to communicate

I have the privilege of working as a full-time, church-based evangelist in Hull. My burning desire is to see many more individuals turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. However, my daily challenge is how to communicate the greatest news in the world to a largely apathetic people. The New Testament has the answer. In Ephesians 4.11-13, we are taught why the risen and ascended Jesus has provided evangelists for his local churches. They will, of course, be involved in the active ministry of communicating the gospel to unbelievers — just try and stop us! However, they also have the responsibility of equipping God’s people for their task of sharing the gospel with their non-Christian contacts.

Two principles

I don’t consider myself an expert in evangelistic training. However, over the last few years, I have become increasingly convinced of two principles that shape our current training strategy at St. John Newland.

First of all, focus on a chosen few. Rarely, if ever, will the whole church show the same enthusiasm for evangelism. It is much more effective to train small groups at a time.

Secondly, combine practical skills with practical experience. People always learn better when they apply what they have been taught. Quickly forgotten is the lesson that is never used. These two principles should not be viewed as a straightjacket. When combined with godly creativity, they can produce many different ways of equipping the saints for evangelistic witness.

Up-to-date example

Let me provide a real life example. In April 2007, a team of nine individuals from our church in Hull took part in a mission week based in Doncaster. Bessacarr Evangelical Church (BEC) hosted an action-packed week of outreach events designed to communicate the gospel to as many of their non-Christian friends as possible. Our normal assumption is that the hosting church derives all the benefits from such a concentrated period of evangelism. However, it is also true that many blessings return to the sending church once the activities have finished.

I’m convinced that one of the ways to equip the local church for their evangelistic witness is to ask some of them to participate in a mission week. Two reasons spring to mind. First of all, it allows the trainer to focus on a few and, secondly, it allows the few to practice what they learn.

It is my prayer that many more churches will send out teams to participate in mission weeks around the UK. Of course, it will require planning, but the benefits for the sending church will continue to be reaped long after the week is over. Let me summarise how we prepared for our partnership with BEC.

Prepared for partnership

Both St. John’s and BEC are members of the Yorkshire Gospel Partnership, one of the many evangelical networks that have been formed to promote gospel initiatives in different parts of the country. The possibility of joining together in mission is just one of the many benefits of belonging to these regional partnerships.

The first priority in our preparation was for me, as team leader, to meet the church family at BEC. Since I would be speaking at the majority of outreach events it was vital for the members of BEC to trust me with their non-Christian friends. Ken Armstrong, their pastor, organised a number of key meetings for me to attend.

I met their core mission planning team and together we thought of creative ways to communicate the gospel. In the end, we decided on the brand name ‘Discover’ and chose the strap-line, ‘Christianity…Why not take a closer look?’ Large and small events were placed in a busy timetable. These included coffee mornings in the homes of church members and three Jazz Cafes in the church building. Our plan was to organise a number of diverse events to cater for the different groups of people we had contact with.

Confidence and carols

Ken also organised a number of preaching engagements for me. In October 2006, I preached at BEC for the first time. I sought to provide reasons why the church family should trust me as the main mission speaker. From Romans 1:1-16, I taught about the confidence we should have in any messengers who speak the gospel of the Lord Jesus and the assurance we can have in the message itself. In December 2006, I preached at the BEC carol service. As well as being a wonderful occasion to speak about the Saviour of the World to a number of unbelievers, it also provided an opportunity for the church in Doncaster to hear me preach evangelistically.

The church family at BEC were primarily responsible for planning the events and inviting their non-Christian contacts to something appropriate. Everyone was encouraged to invite the right person to the right event in the right way.

The team

Back in Hull, I began to select and train a team for mission. From February 2007, nine of us met together on Friday nights to prepare for our week in Doncaster. Each session began with a meal and then we discovered how to tell our personal stories of faith, how we could communicate the gospel in various situations and how we should answer the most popular thorny questions. We were very conscious of the biblical truth that ‘unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain’, so we ended each evening with a time of prayer.

With hindsight, I wish I had selected a more diverse team. Many were in their 20s and 30s and only two of the nine were female. However, it was a personal delight to train a group of keen Christians to become more effective at sharing the gospel. Enthusiasm and teachability were my top criteria of team selection. Knowledge can be taught whereas the other qualities must be in place before the training begins.

At the end of February 2007, the church family at BEC met the team from St. John’s. They hosted a special lunch to provide an occasion for everyone to interact. This helped the folk in Doncaster increase their confidence in the messengers being sent from Hull.

A great start

April was soon upon us, and the ‘Discover’ mission started with great enthusiasm. BEC served us in so many ways. On a practical level, they provided accommodation for whoever wanted to stay and, everyday, various members of the church family catered for our large appetites. On a more spiritual level, they organised a daily prayer meeting and they made every effort to invite their friends, families and colleagues to hear the gospel explained.

At each event we provided free gospel literature and we always suggested an appropriate gospel response. One of the booklets we used extensively was The Real Jesus by Rico Tice and Barry Cooper. This is one of the best give-away gospel explanations I have ever read.

We also advertised the BEC follow-up course on numerous occasions. We discovered that many of the unbelievers were a long way from personally committing to Jesus as Lord and Saviour. They had many unanswered questions and were largely ignorant about Jesus’s identity, his mission and his call. BEC ran Christianity Explored to cater for those who wanted to find out more.

Enthusiasm and joy

Another mission statement that remains a personal challenge to me is found in 1 Corinthians 9.22. The apostle Paul writes, ‘I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some’. I’m convinced that participation in mission weeks will not completely revolutionise the evangelistic witness of our local churches. Much creative thinking needs to be done so we can identity new ways to reach more people. However, I do believe these weeks of concentrated evangelism can be used effectively to win rebels for the King of Kings. The hosting church always receives many blessings and the sending church has the great joy of welcoming home an enthusiastic team who are much more prepared to give the reason for the hope that they have.

Hopefully, this article has prepared your mind for action. Why not show it to your church leader? And, if you are a church leader, then why not start recruiting your team for a week that could change their lives forever?

Lee McMunn works as a full-time evangelist at St John Newland, Hull — http://www.stjohnnewland.org.uk