This weekend we will explore the dimension of Evangelism, or the “E-word”
as Martha Grace Reese calls it. Church
researchers, such as Reese, report that most church people have very negative
attitudes towards evangelism. Reese
observes that typical first responses to the topic of evangelism include:[i]
Ø “No! I
don’t want to knock on strangers’ doors and give them some pamphlet.”
Ø “A televangelist is asking for money for the
theme park.”
Ø “Our pastor gives this boring, annual,
muddled sermon…”
Ø “I cringe at the memories from years when I
pummeled people with those embarrassing questions about salvation!”
So, as the church
pastor, I’ve really got my work cut out for me this weekend, when I attempt to
preach on evangelism. J
Yet, sharing the good news about how
our lives are changed by Jesus Christ is integral to being his faithful
disciples. Our scripture this weekend is
commonly known as “The Great Commission” and it appears in Matthew 28: 16-20. This passage is the ending of Matthew’s Gospel,
and it records the last earthly meeting between Jesus and his followers. The meeting occurs after Jesus’ Resurrection,
on a mountaintop.
Christ’s very last words to his
followers are: “All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me. Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Since that mountaintop moment, this
commission has been handed down from disciples to the next generation of
disciples and then to the next and to the next, until it was given to us. We, too, are to share the good news and make
disciples. In other words, Jesus calls
us to evangelism, just as Jesus called those first followers sitting on the
mountaintop, listening to him.
So, why do most of us have such negative
attitudes towards evangelism and find it so hard? This weekend, I will explain that we find
evangelism hard because over time we have moved away from scriptural evangelism
into a sociological evangelism that is awkward and un-natural. I will suggest that we need to re-conceptualize
evangelism, returning to a basic scriptural understanding. In other words, we need to re-discover natural
evangelism.
Join us at Meriden United Methodist
Church this weekend as we re-discover and explore an easy, natural evangelism that flows out of who we are. Our church is located at the corner of Main
and Dawson Streets in Meriden, Kansas.
We have two worship services each weekend:
Ø Our
contemporary service starts at 6 pm on Saturday evenings.
Ø Our
classic service starts on at 10 am on Sunday mornings.
Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.
[i]Martha
Grace Reese, Unbinding the Gospel, Real
Life Evangelism (St. Louis: Chalice
Press, 2008), 9-10.
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