Puzzle Pieces of Sharing the Gospel

There can be a tendancy in North American churches to invite people to respond to follow Jesus without filling in some of the puzzle pieces of what the teachings of Jesus or the Gospel truly are.

It is easy to assume that if a person is in attendance at a local church in the Western world, they already have a clear picture of the truth of Jesus. We must remember that the enemy of our souls blinds the minds of unbelievers so they can't see the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). Every opportunity to recast the vision of the Gospel with clarity and power is a good opportunity.

Here are four key puzzle pieces of sharing the Gospel that should be included if possible:

1. Share about the historical Jesus

It's important to at least briefly retell the story of Jesus, his life, purpose and redemptive work before calling people to respond. 

The Apostle Paul gives a overview of the Gospel to the church in Corinth in his first letter:

"Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you ... by this gospel you are saved ... For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time ..." (1 Corinthians 15:1-8, NIV)

2. Preach the Gospel as hope for eternity, not simply for joy in this life 

While the Gospel brings an extreme amount of joy and peace, it is also primarily a message of eternal salvation that is the reward after enduring many trials and hardships in this life for Christ. (See Acts 14:22). It is important for us to explain to people the reality of eternity. Consider this story:

"Two men are seated in a plane. The first is given a parachute and told to put is on as it would improve his flight.  He’s a little skeptical at first because he can’t see how wearing a parachute in a plane could possibly improve the flight.  After a time he decides to experiment and see if the claim is true.  As he puts it on he notices the weight of it upon his shoulders and he finds that he has difficulty in sitting upright.  However, he consoles himself with the fact that he was told the parachute would improve the flight.  So, he decides to give the thing a little time.  As he waits he notices that some of the other passengers are laughing at him, because he’s wearing a parachute in a plane.  He begins to feel somewhat humiliated.  As they begin to point and laugh at him and he can stand it no longer, he slinks in his seat, unstraps the parachute, and throws it to the floor.  Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart, because, as far as he was concerned, he was told an outright lie.

The second man is given a parachute, but listen to what he’s told.  He’s told to put it on because at any moment he’d be jumping 25,000 feet out of the plane.  He gratefully puts the parachute on; he doesn’t notice the weight of it upon his shoulders, nor that he can’t sit upright.  His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he jumped without that parachute.

Instead of preaching that Jesus improves the flight, we should be warning the passengers they’re going have to jump out of the plane.  That it’s “appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)." (Ray Comfort, Revival's Golden Key)

3. Show people that our sins keep us from God

We must help show people that each of our own sinfulness from within is keeping us from the grace and promise of God. We must realize that we are NOT good within ourselves, but need the covering of Christ to make peace with God.

The age old problem of self flattery remains one of our greatest obstacles today - "For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin." (Psalm 36:2, NIV). We must admit we have sinned and are sinners and need the sacrifice of Christ to cover us.

4. Teach people to trust in the work of Christ on the cross alone for their salvation, not their own merits

It's easy in the church culture, where our job is cleaning up people's lives, to quickly turn the Gospel into a message of discipleship. While it's true we are called to follow Christ, our hope for salvation and forgiveness of sins should be firmly planted in trusting Christ's finished work on the cross, not our own success at following Him.

Pastor Tullian Tchidivijan, Billy Graham's grandson, blogger at The Resurgance and Pastor at Coral Ridge in Florida is one of my favorite leaders to follow on twitter, because it seems he daily proclaims this message of grace through Christ alone. Follow him for more encouragements on this final puzzle piece!

Do you feel there are other puzzle pieces vital in the sharing of the Gospel? What has God been teaching you about this? Are there any points I wrote about that you are inspired to incorporate into your conversations or messages now?

Under the Shadow of the Redwood Tree

I've always had a fascination for the gigantic redwood trees in Northern California that you see pictures of people driving their cars through.  I almost saw these in real life with a friend once, on a past preaching trip, but our next engagement was from Sacramento to San Diego, and we didn't want to drive so far off course, so we missed some of the biggest ones. Those massive trees are great for those of us who are sightseeing, but what a massive shadow they must cast on smaller trees around the forest struggling to survive!  

I remember watching Planet Earth, a series of videos from BBC shot over a period of 5 years, all over the world, in some of the rarest and most beautiful natural locations, capturing footage and creatures that most people in the world have never seen. That was quite a mouthful, but they are seriously some of my favorite movies ever. Even Oprah raved about this footage. One of the clips shares briefly about the struggles of various plants and trees in the rainforests around the world to grow up and flourish as larger trees and plants cut them off from much needed nutrients and sunlight.

Sometimes I feel like the little tree.

Not so much because other ministers around me are doing much more significant things. On one hand, I know that to be true. On the other hand, I know I can't trust my own opinion - as Pastor Seven Furtick recently put it on his twitter, "One reason we struggle w/ insecurity: we're comparing our behind the scenes to everyone else's highlight reel." Also, I know that God often hides from us our own usefulness (1 Samuel 18: 6-8; 23) so we will remain dependent upon Him. What makes me feel most like the "little tree" is other ministries that seem to want me either assimilated into their ministry or gone all together - larger ministries that somehow see me as competition (even though we are on the same side!).

Ministry is hard enough when we are fighting against the forces of evil and a secular culture raging against God and His truth, but when other ministers and ministries seem to have it out for us it can just plain steal the joy of the ministry. No one promised me ministry would be easy, but I had at least hoped other leaders would be on my side.

I've heard that the number one reason missionaries leave the field is interpersonal relationships. Many other things come against them, but in some sense "only other trees have the ability to sap their sunlight and nutrients" on this ungodly, destructive level.

As an itinerant or para-church ministry, ministry opportunities often come like a rollarcoaster. Many one month and none the next. I've been wrestling with my own significance from the beginning. On our main blog a few weeks ago I wrote about a realization I had that even if God just wants me to be a "little tree," or as King David puts it a "doorkeeper in the house of my God" (Psalm 84:10) that I want to passionately do just that.

Part of what I wrote there: "No matter the extent to which God uses me for His Kingdom or does not use me ... even if He simply desires me to be a humble doorkeeper, doing mundane tasks for His glory - my heart longs to obey rather than do anything else! Of course, I desire for God to use me greatly, yet my life is surrendered to His purposes and glory. Brother Lawrence in his classic The Practice of the Presence of God, shares about his experience of the same intensity of God's Presence in his prayer times as when he washed dishes for the brotherhood in his monastery."

Reinhard Bonnke, an evangelist God has used across Africa, and who has preached the Gospel to more people than anyone in human history recently wrote on his facebook: "Christ did not die to make us famous, but to save the lost." Indeed, Christ did not call us all to be "big trees" - meaning He didn't call us to greatness, He called us to serve. He even came to serve Himself: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28). Maybe our ministries and Kingdom efforts need to start looking more like Jesus, and less like the American dream?

Cissie Graham Lynch's, daughter of Franklin Graham (granddaughter of Billy Graham) and wife of NFL football player Corey Lynch wrote a very encouraging blog earlier today about this struggle:

She writes: "I often tease that I went from being Franklin Graham’s daughter to Corey Lynch’s wife. Somewhere between growing up in my dad’s shadow and marrying a football star, I lost my feeling of personal significance. Being surrounded by men of great talent makes me feel worthless ... I was reminded this morning while reading Mark 15 that it is not what I CAN’T do, but it what I CAN do. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James had no power. They couldn’t save Jesus, the man they loved. They could not go before the Sanhedrin to stand in Jesus’ defense. They did not have that power, nor the respect, to do so. But what they could do was stand by Jesus’ side. They stayed at the foot of the cross. They followed Him to the tomb, and they prepared spices for His body. They did what they could. And because they did what they could, they were the first to see Jesus’ resurrection. So, do not dwell on what you can’t do, but focus on what you CAN do. You might be missing out on some divine miracles. Where is your focus? What are you missing out on because you’re focused on the wrong thing?" (read the full blog here)

A few good questions: 

1. Are you, as a Christian leader, sapping other people's Kingdom energy OR are you blessing, serving and encouraging them? If your ministry is larger, consider being the "larger" person and bend down to resolve any issues that need attention and to serve and encourage them.

2. Are you as a Christian passionate for God's Kingdom allowing others to sap your energy and steal your joy? How can you refocus on the calling and purposes of God for your life and reposition yourself to walk in that joy of the Holy Spirit?

Join Us for the Lausanne Movement

The World Cup was not the only exciting thing taking place in Cape Town, South Africa this year. This year marks the historic 3rd World Congress on World Evangelization from the Lausanne Movement.  

The Lausanne Movement was started by Billy Graham and his team in the 1970's.  Lausanne leadership have gone on to hold multiple regional gatherings, but this year will be the 3rd ever "World Congress." Space is limited, and only 4,000 people have been invited to the physical gathering (including several of our contributors here on EE).  But for the first time ever, thanks to the wonders of technology - every one of us can be involved via the internet.  Michelle and I have been part of a group of official bloggers leading up to this fall, and have been posting relevant topics and articles at Thinke.org towards the world congress, which kicks off this week, October 16-25, 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa.

In my humble opinion, this year's congress represents one of the most exciting moments in world history, as thousands of godly leaders gather from across the earth dreaming of what could be and should be for our generation, and millions more participate online.  And for those of us who love evangelism, this will make for an incredible gathering to participate in from anywhere in the world.

There are so many ways you can get involved in the Lausanne Movement leading up to the congress this fall.
1. Set up a profile on the conversation site (and connect with me there!) and you can begin writing articles and commenting on other leaders' articles from across the earth.
2. Spread the word with like-minded friends on facebook and twitter.  
3. Follow their twitter for updates on the conversation and the event.
4. Find a local simulcast gathering near you, thanks to the wonder of the internet.  
5. Pray for this gathering, the leaders in attendance and those following the gathering from across the earth.  Download a Lausanne prayer diary here.
6. Participate financially, towards all the outreach events and ministry efforts in participation with the world congress. 

The Vision Behind Emerging Evangelists

Ever since Emerging Evangelists first started, the vision and heart has remained the same.  To revitalize the spiritual practice of evangelism and the Scriptural calling of the evangelist to be all that Christ has called it to be.  It really is rooted in a story about a Modesto Manifesto that Billy Graham and his young team made over a half century ago ...

"A campaign in Modesto, California, in 1949 was an early turning point for the fledgling Team of Graham, Barrows, Shea and Wilson.  Billy instructed all of us, "Boys, let's go to our rooms and write down all of the criticisms of mass evangelism.  Don't hold anything back.  Then let's meet for evaluation and prayer this afternoon.  All of us agreed that our number-one pet peeve was the handling of finances.  We also listed sensationalism, over-emotionalism, becoming controversial, and the image of being anti-intellectual and anti-church.  And there was the matter of virtually no follow-up.  That very day we determined not to be guilty of those charges, and the Team set out to make necessary changes and adjustments .. We had determined at our Modesto prayer meeting to "abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thess. 5:22).  Through careful planning and perspiration, under the leadership of the Spirit, we set out to live down the stereotypes of mass evangelism." (Excerpt from Count it All Joy by Grady Wilson [one of the closest associates of Billy Graham], pp. 46, 50)

We live in a day and age when - Ted Haggard, Pastor of a mega-church in Colorado was caught in sin, and suddenly the secular media began referring to him as an evangelist.  Simply because they associated scandals with evangelists.  We live in a day and age when - a Bible college professor and former Pastor had his students write in their Church theology IV notes "evangelists are not very smart," based on his personal encounters with evangelists.  A person only has to go as far as the Scriptures to realize that this is not what God has defined and called evangelists and evangelism to be.

This is a vivid picture of the vision behind Emerging Evangelists.  Emerging Evangelists is NOT associated in any way with the Emergent church movement.  That movement seems to be dissipating from public talk.  Neither does it necessarily refer to "young" men and women called to be evangelists.  It has to do only with the simple idea of compiling every complaint against evangelism and the evangelist in OUR day and committing to "live down the stereotypes" and EMERGE into a more ancient, Biblical model in these increasingly urgent, last days.  Read more of the vision here.

The Story Behind Emerging Evangelists

Nearly two years ago God impressed an idea on my heart to start a blog website with several other young evangelists.  I was rather new to the concept of blogging, but fell in love with the opportunity to share the Scriptures and the messages God was giving me with people all over the world.  It's amazing to think that no other generation has had the opportunities we have to impact people's hearts through avenues like blogging and social media.  At that time, I joined with three other young evangelist friends (Jason Maupin, Jacob Jester, and for a short time Chris Mancl) and asked them to join me on this journey that we dubbed Emerging Evangelists.  Soon after we added Roger Coles and Chris Palmer to our list of contributors.  

We started out writing specifically for those who sensed a calling on their lives to be traveling evangelists in the vocational sense.  About a six months ago, a close friend cast a wider vision for me which God used to start to working on my heart - that Emerging Evangelists would be an online evangelism portal.  The blogs expanding to be for the whole Church or every Christian in the area of reaching those without Christ in this generation.  Since this conversation, we have added double the contributors (with more to come!) and the website has been skillfully revamped by Sheepish Design.  The original vision of Emerging Evangelists has not changed, but our scope has increased dramatically.  

Our prayer is that God would help evangelism and evangelists to emerge from past negative associations into a more ancient, Biblical model.  Really, that reaching others for Christ would emerge to be all Christ has called it (and us) to be.