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Preaching to the masses, although necessary, will never suffice in the work of preparing leaders for evangelism. Nor can occasional prayer meetings and training classes for Christian workers do this job. Building men and women is not that easy. It requires constant personal attention, much like a father gives to his children.
when it becomes evident that such work involves the sacrifice of personal indulgence. Of course, most churches insist on bringing new members through some kind of a confirmation class that usually meets an hour a week for a month or so. But the rest of the time the young convert has no contact with a definite Christian training program, except as he or she may attend the worship services of the church and the Sunday school.
With such haphazard follow-up of believers, it is no wonder that about half of those who make professions and join the church eventually fall away or lose the glow of a Christian experience, and fewer still grow in sufficient knowledge and grace to be of any real service to the Kingdom.
if Jesus, the Son of God, found it necessary to stay almost constantly with his few disciples for three years, and even one of them was lost, how can a church expect to do this job on an assembly line basis a few days out of the year?
whatever method of follow-up the church adopts, it must have as its basis a personal guardian concern for those entrusted to their care. To do otherwise is essentially to abandon new believers to the devil.
The counselor should stay with the new believer as much as possible, studying the Bible and praying with him or her, all the while answering questions, clarifying the truth, and seeking together to help others. If a church does not have such committed counselors willing to do this service, then it should be training some. And the only way they can be trained is by giving them a leader to follow.
Jesus expected the men he was with to obey him. They were not required to be smart, but they had to be loyal.
They were called his “disciples,” meaning that they were “learners” or “pupils” of the Master.
None of the disciples was asked at first to make a statement of faith or accept a well-defined creed, although they doubtless recognized Jesus to be the Messiah ( John 1:41, 45, 49; Luke 5:8). For the moment all they were asked to do was to follow Jesus.
Jesus saw to it that his disciples learned his way of living with God and man. He recognized that it was not enough just to get people into his spiritual communion. His disciples needed to know how his experience was to be maintained
Take, for example, his prayer life. Surely it was no accident that Jesus often let his disciples see him conversing with the Father.1 They could see the strength that it gave to his life,
Note that Jesus did not force the lesson on them, but rather he just kept praying until at last the disciples got so hungry that they asked him to teach them what he was doing.
Jesus proceeded to give them a lesson their hearts were prepared to receive. He explained to them some of the more basic principles of prayer, and then before he finished, he illustrated what he meant by repeating before them a model prayer (Luke 11:1–4; Matt. 6:9–13).
such elementary methods of teaching are often necessary to get people started in this discipline. But whatever it took, Jesus was determined to get this lesson across.
Thereafter he emphasized the life of prayer again and again when talking with his disciples, continually enlarging on its meaning and application as they were able to comprehend
we must not fail to see the direct relation between bearing witness of Christ and the ultimate victory over the world. One cannot come without the other. Bringing these two dynamic facts together by the power of the Holy Spirit is the climactic genius of Jesus’ strategy of evangelism.
“Through their word” he expected others to believe in him ( John 17:20), and these in turn to pass the word along to others, until in time the world might know who he was and what he came to do ( John 17:21, 23). His whole evangelistic strategy—indeed, the fulfillment of his very purpose in coming into the world, dying on the cross, and rising from the grave—depended on the faithfulness of his chosen disciples to this task.
Would his disciples carry on his work after he had gone? Or what might be even more to the point, could they do as good a job without his bodily supervision as they could with it?
parable of the vine and the branches (John 15:1–17). Here in one of the most simple yet profound analogies of the Lord, Christ explained that the purpose of both the vine (himself) and the branches (believers in him) was to bear fruit. Hence, any branch that did not yield produce was cut off by the husbandman—it was worthless.
A barren Christian is a contradiction. A tree is known by its fruit.
The Great Commission of Christ given to his church summed it up in the command to “make disciples of every creature” (Matt. 28:19). The word here indicates that the disciples were to go out into the world and win others who would come to be what they themselves were—disciples of Christ.
“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” Jesus reminded his disciples, “that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:37–38; see Luke 10:2).
There is no use to pray for the world. What good would it do? God already loves them and has given his Son to save them. No, there is no use to pray vaguely for the world. The world is lost and blind in sin. The only hope for the world is for laborers to go to them with the gospel of salvation, and having won them to the Savior, not to leave them, but to work with them faithfully, patiently, painstakingly, until they become fruitful Christians
The test of any work of evangelism thus is not what is seen at the moment, or in the conference report, but in the effectiveness with which the work continues in the next generation. Similarly the criteria on which a church should measure its success is not how many new names are added to the role nor how much the budget is increased, but rather how many Christians are actively winning souls and training them to win the multitudes.
the early church proved that the Master’s plan for world conquest worked. So great was the impact of their witness that before the century had passed the pagan society of the day had been shaken to its foundations and growing churches had been established in most centers of population.
adaptations of principle are always necessary in the light of changing circumstances, but somehow or other the principles themselves got confused in the desire to give the Evangel a new look. The costly principles of leadership development and reproduction seem to have been submerged beneath the easier strategy of mass recruitment.
Well-intended ceremonies, programs, organizations, commissions, and crusades of human ingenuity are trying valiantly to do a job that can only be done by people in the power of the Holy Spirit.
unless the personal mission of the Master is vitally incorporated into the policy and fabric of all these plans, the church cannot function as she should.
When will we realize that evangelism is not done by something, but by someone? It is an expression of God’s love, and God is a person.
Committees may help to organize and direct it, and to that end they certainly are needed, but the work itself is done by people reaching other people for Christ.
It is not better methods, but better men and women who know their Redeemer from personal experience—men and women who see his vision and feel his passion for the world—men and women who are willing to be nothing so that he might be everything—
Every one of us then should be seeking some way to incorporate the wisdom of Jesus’ strategy into our own preferred method of evangelism.1 Not everyone will be led to adopt the same ritual or organization of procedure, nor should we want everyone to fit into the same mold. Variety is in the very structure of the universe, and any method that God is pleased to use is a good method,
The Master gives us an outline to follow, but he expects us to work out the details according to local circumstances and traditions.
Jesus’ life would teach us that finding and training people to reach people must have priority. The multitudes cannot know the gospel unless they have a living witness.
The wandering masses of the world must have a demonstration of what to believe—they must have a mentor who will stand among them and say, “Follow me, I know the way.”
If we are to train people, we must work for them. We must seek them. We must win them. Above all, we must pray for them. Some are already in positions of authority in the church. Others are yet among those waiting to receive an invitation to come to Christ. But wherever they are, they must be reached and trained to become effective witnesses of our Lord.
We should not expect a great number to begin with, nor should we desire it. The best work is always done with a few. Better to give a year or so to one or two people who learn what it means to conquer for Christ than to spend a lifetime with a congregation just keeping the program going.
Christ is the leader, not ourselves. Let this be absolutely clear. There is no place in discipleship for any authoritarian role or a master guru. So keep the focus on Jesus. He commands through the Spirit and the Word.
All of this is going to require a lot of supervision, both in the personal development of these people, and in their work with others. We will have to make it a practice to meet with them and hear how things are going. This will mean seeking them out where they are or counseling with them while they are with us in other activity.
