Evangelism

I had this dream

I was needed to start and oversee a long term evangelistic thrust in a city far away which would need my presence weekly.

I would require loads of money on a weekly basis as I would be going there by sea, a substantial journey. But cost is never an issue to God, the source of that burden.

I then found myself in that city with partners doing a survey of sorts.

As we were winding up, I remembered a church I had ministered to on the other side of the city. I decided to call them so that we meet before we left their city.

Of course they hastily prepared a seminar for my team to train them on evangelism, something I had done the last time I was there. They had even prepared materials and charts on the same as we arrived.

I started examining the materials they had made as my team went about teaching the many young people who had come.

There was a chart in the shape of a huge tree with tentacles explaining the impact of evangelism from one person to the next, generations down the line. But it was in the shape commonly used to explain multi level marketing.

Then the training came to an end and I was given money to distribute to the trainees for attending the seminar.

I was chagrined. How does one get paid for attending evangelism training? I refused to be part to that, even vocally so. Then the dream ended.

I then got to reflect on evangelism with respect to our faith.

What is Christ’s take on evangelism?

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall BE witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

We BECOME witnesses.

Witnesses are not coached, unless their purpose is to defeat justice. Witnesses simply are. The power of the Holy Spirit makes us better witnesses, not more polished ones. And we become better through the transformational power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

God pointed me to another passage, John 15. And it is the same even here.

Let us look at verse 5.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

It is our connectedness to Christ that enables us to bear fruit.

It is worth noting that plants do not struggle to bear fruit. They just need to be rooted in the right soil and they will produce fruit.  They do not sweat or do push ups to improve their production. Their only need is to be rooted.

Then, from their scents to their sap they will bring out what distinctly defines them.

As a student who learns from everything God brings around (many people wonder why my e-mail is gitumastudent) I find nature being an excellent tutor of spiritual things.

On my ministry to the Coast the other day, I saw a felled baobab tree, huge. Standing, I was much shorter than its diameter.

But it had already started sprouting other babies everywhere.

I was told that a baobab tree will never dry by being cut down. It has enough water inside it to nurture a forest even in a drought.

The only way to make sure it does not grow back is by digging deep into the trunk (standing or felled) and poisoning it. Then the sap will be poisonous to the new sprouts. The other one is to burn it, an almost impossible feat considering its size and the amount of water it contains.

What does this have to do with evangelism?

Everything, I may say. A healthy tree will automatically bear fruit. A healthy tree will endure hardship and adversity.

It is only when you poison its makeup that it can stop bearing fruit.

You see, evangelism is the natural outcome of a healthy Christian life just like a plant will naturally emit the scent it was created with. It is not an activity in which we expend our energies to perform. Evangelism is what results from a life lived in close fellowship with God. One verse is instructive.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1Peter:3:15)

We give answers because we are asked questions. And the questions will be prompted by what people will see as the outflow of our connected life.

Paul did not win his jailors to Christ by holding crusades and evangelistic thrusts into the prisons. He was a prisoner who happened to be living right with God, jailed for that precise reason. Look at this.

But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. (Philippians 1: 12 – 14)

Paul was a different kind of prisoner because he was connected to Christ. Anybody in his vicinity who needed to get saved knew exactly where to run to for eternal life. And of course any conversation originating from him was from the sap of that connectedness.

Remember in Acts 16 the jailor rushing in with the question ‘What must I do to be saved’? Whose altar call was he responding to?

His need met people connected to the life he craved.

Paul’s responsibility was simply point him to his Savior.

That is evangelism simplified.

Why than am I an evangelism trainer? You may be wondering.

I will use a passage many people use wrongly.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; (Ephesians 4: 11 – 14)

The responsibility of our calling is to prepare believers to become better ministers and witnesses.

The purpose of that verse is not to give particular people offices and titles as God does not look at us with titles but functions.

There is an effective witness and there is a powerful witness. And of course there is a fake witness.

Remember Stephen giving his defense and people close their ears and shout because they could not resist the power of that witness?

I will continue training on evangelism. But I will not shy from emphasizing that the witness must BE before he is trained.

What do I mean?

One must be being transformed by the Gospel to properly qualify to be trained on evangelism. One must be a growing disciple to even need evangelism training.

It is possible to harden someone against the Gospel by training him to evangelize before he is properly connected. He may start counting the stars of the conversions that occur as he evangelizes that he completely forgets that he also needs that conversion. He may also start thinking that those conversions (decisions, actually) are an indication that he is already converted or qualify him for heaven on their strength. And that is very dangerous. Remember Matthew 7: 21 – 23?

One must be walking with God (connected to the vine) to be able to bear spiritual fruit.

How are we connected? I know someone is asking.

Two basic essentials: God’s word and your obedience to the same. It is as simple as that.

Let me elaborate a little.

By the word I mean a wholesome intake of the same. I do not mean the snippet and selective reading of the same as you will then get what you want as opposed to what God gives.

Knowing all the promise verses in the Bible is not the same as knowing the Bible. Knowing the eschatological calendar is not the same or even similar to knowing the Bible. Having all the sermons of all the famous preachers is not the same as knowing the Bible. I am writing this as a preacher.

Only a consistent and complete intake of the whole Bible comes close to knowing the Bible as you only have the Bible as your text and the Holy Spirit as your teacher.

I do not despise preachers and teachers as I am one. But I know enough about God to know that He never employs brokers for His revelation. I also know from experience that the clearest one is able to hear from God is directly proportional to the consistency and amount of Bible one consumes.

You see, God can only bring to life (rhema, inspire) what is already in you.

It is sad that there are pastors who do not consistently read the Bible. But it is equally sad to hear of a believer who does not read the Bible for himself.

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17: 17)

Our sanctification is the product of our intake of God’s word.

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. (Psalm 119: 130)

But above that, we must swim in obedience to that word. It makes no sense to know the word just for our profession. That sanctification is effected by our obedience.

We must be sold out to obeying God’s revelation as we read His word. And we must make all the effort to ensure that God’s word defines us. Otherwise explain this verse to me.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1: 8)

We can’t meditate on a word that we spend a few minutes each woeek hearing about, or even a few minutes daily reading. We can not have that word as vomit (forgive my crudeness, but allow me to illustrate) if we spend more time watching movies or news and reading comics and novels than we do it. We will never vomit something we have not swallowed.

We cannot be speaking the word as the verse commands if we have not consumed it. We cannot meditate the word if we spend more time feeding our minds and hearts on other fare. And that is the reason we have these very strange doctrines. They are the product of a hybrid heart that feeds on the world mostly taking morsels of scripture to validate the same since the mind has no capacity of vomiting what it has not consumed.

That is why I will always be producing and giving out reading plans to help believers establish the discipline of consistently reading the Bible. And I always ask whoever needs to ask me for one, or more to start a reading club with friends for fellowship and accountability purposes.

It is the reason also that I offer Audio Bibles when God provides as it is good to listen to the spoken Bible. In fact, I put it on when I sleep so that any time I wake up I am listening to it. And I believe the mind is not completely dead when I sleep and so there are benefits for the same. Incidentally there are many free ones online for someone who needs to download. But if you are near me, I can bring you the download to save in your gadgets.

I also buy a radio and modify it to become an Audio Bible (I completely disable the radio and everything else). Unfortunately I only have Kiswahili and English Audio Bibles. We can talk if you also need one. Of course I have a few partners who will step in to offer Audio Bibles or some money to help in making them free especially for those who are unable to afford even the price of the radio and memory card.

Some older people have issues reading the Bible due to their eyes (I am already there). Again I look for cheap, many times unwanted gadgets (tablets especially) because they are out of fashion or are unable to do certain tasks. I then install as many Bibles and Bible Study applications in them. They will then give the price of the tablet as I have the Bibles and they can be downloaded online. And there are a few vernacular Bibles there too.

I feel that is where we should start in our evangelism.

God bless you.