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Reading 4.1 an Evangelistic Dynamic

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Reading 4.1 an Evangelistic Dynamic A CHURCH WITH AN EVANGELISTIC DYNAMIC notes I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE “EVANGELISTIC DYNAMIC” Redeemer began with a very strong evangelistic dynamic in its early years. That dynamic had three components: (1) While being trained and coached—informally and personally—by the pastors and staff of Redeemer, (2) a significant percentage of Redeemer Christians spoke about their faith within their daily relationship networks (friends, neighbors, and colleagues), (3) the most interested of which were invited to many events and venues provided by the church where their spiritual awareness could be incubated, encouraged, and matured. It is difficult for a church to maintain an evangelistic dynamic. It erodes very easily, and therefore church leaders must periodically make strong efforts to renew it. This is particularly the case at this moment in Redeemer’s history, as we are about to multiply into “four Redeemers.” One the main tasks before us is to strengthen and re-establish that evangelistic dynamic within our communities. A high priority is to again draw a significant percentage of church members into active ministry of the gospel with their relationships in the city. At the heart of the RENEW campaign, we said that we were sending our lay people out into their neighborhoods to serve and reach their friends for Christ. We are re-organizing Redeemer into a network of neighborhood-based, generative congregations. Outreach and evangelism are on the front burner in this model, as is lay-driven ministry. Redeemer began more as a “go and share” church, but evolved into a “come and see” church—come and hear the music, come see the masses of people, come listen to the teaching, come profit from the programs. Now we are going back from “come and see” to “go and share.” Why make this such a big emphasis? There are going to be a host of organizational and administrative tasks associated with such a large re-structuring of our corporate life together, but we can’t neglect the foundation for everything else. If a church does not have a steady stream of new believers and conversion growth, much of the rest of the work we do in the church becomes a form of just rearranging the furniture. II. EVERY MEMBER GOSPEL MINISTRY The Bible describes the church using very organic language. The church “grew” and “spread” (Acts 6:1, 7; 9:31; 16:5) because the “word of God” grew and spread (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20). Paul speaks of the gospel as continually “bearing fruit and growing” (Col. 1:5-6). This is referring to what we will call the “ministry of the Word.” The ministry of the Word means bringing the Bible in general—and the gospel in particular—into contact with a listener’s life, conscience, and heart, in the power of the Spirit (cf. Acts 10-11). In short—it means teaching the Bible to someone in the conteXt of fervent prayer. The church increases in numbers because the Word of God converts and changes people when it is ministered in this way. Its essence is highly relational—one person bringing the gospel to another through the Word and prayer. All of this Biblical language suggests there is an organic, self-propagating, dynamic 3 Copyright © Timothy J. Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2010 notes A CHURCH WITH AN EVANGELISTIC DYNAMIC power within the church for growth, and in the book of Acts we see it working almost on its own, with little institutional support—that is, without formal plans and policies, without the control of managers and leaders. What made this growth so organic, even spontaneous? While it is necessary that churches contain ministers of the Word—those who are set apart to preach, teach, and evangelize full-time—the Bible insists in many important passages that the ministry of the Word is also to be done by all believers. In Acts 8:4, all the believers went out “preaching the Word”—literally “evangelizing with the Word.” In 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10 Paul says that the whole region around Thessalonica had heard the message of the gospel through the believers. 1 John 2:20, 27, Col 3:16, and Romans 15:14 say that all believers are responsible to take the Word of God and apply it to the lives of both the believers and non-believers around them. Indeed, in the book of Acts, we see that the normal way the gospel spread was through believers sharing the good news through their natural relationships (Acts 10:2, 24; 16:15, 31; 18:8). So what is “every-member-Word ministry”? It is the bringing the Word of God and especially the gospel into connection with the mind and heart of another human being. When you do this with a believer, you are doing nurture and the result is spiritual growth. When you do this with a non-believer you are doing loving evangelism. The Bible says clearly that every believer can and should be doing this in their relationships. Here are some examples of the kind of “vine-work” we want our people to be doing: Jerry is asked by his work colleague Bill how his weekend went and Jack responds that he went on a CFW retreat that talked about spiritual resources for forgiving people who have wronged you over the years. When Bill raises his eyebrows and says, “that’s interesting,” Jerry takes a small plunge and mentions that the key that helped him the most was the idea that, though he has not given God his due, and yet God forgives him through Jesus. John comes to worship with his wife, but he isn’t sure what he believes or where he stands on faith. The pastor introduces him to an elder, Tom, who begins meeting with John intermittently to read a book on basic Christianity and discuss it. After two meetings John agrees to study the gospel of Mark with Tom every two or three weeks. Jenny begins coming to a Fellowship Group. She was raised in the church, but she has so many doubts and questions that her group leader, Beth, begins meeting with her one-on-one and studying Bible passages or reading books that address each of her questions one after the other. Ted is a young single lawyer, and he knows several other lawyers who go to church with him, though they don’t work for his firm. He decides to have a Super Bowl party for several of his non-Christian colleagues, and invites two Christian lawyers from church and a couple of other believers as well. The men and women from his workplace hit it off with the lawyers from church. About three months later, one of them shows up in church with one of Ted’s friends and also starts attending the CFW Legal Fellowship. Fred has been going to a Fellowship Group for months. At one point he realizes that he assesses the value of the group strictly on what he gets out of it. Instead, 4 Leaders@7 | September 27, 2010 Copyright © Timothy J. Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2010 A CHURCH WITH AN EVANGELISTIC DYNAMIC notes he begins to go each week by preparing well (studying the passage) and praying for the group. When he comes, he looks for every opportunity to help the leader by making good contributions, and for ways to speak the truth in love so that others are encouraged and helped to grow. Catherine prays for her friend Megan for months. Megan responds well to two short books on Christian subjects that Catherine has given her. Finally she invites and takes Megan to an Open Forum event. On the way home she fields Megan’s questions. Kerrie is a young mother with two other Christian friends who are moms with young kids. They decide to start a daytime Mom’s Group and invite non-Christian friends who are also mothers. For about a year the group grows with a similar number of Christians and non-believers. The conversations are very general and free wheeling, on spiritual, marriage, parenting, and personal issues. As time goes on, several of the non-believers begin to go to church with the believers and cross the line into faith. The group continues to be open and inclusive of non-believers who come regularly.1 Notice the variety of these situations. Some are ways of communicating the gospel to those who don’t believe. But others are instances of the encouragement and building up of newer and weaker believers, or ways of spurring established Christians on to greater growth in Christ, while others are cases of helping believers address particular problems in their lives. Nevertheless, each eXample is lay gospel ministry. That is, each eXample is: a) Organic – it is ministry that happens spontaneously, outside the organized programs of the church (even when making use of formal programs); b) Relational – it is ministry using informal, personal relationships; c) Word deploying – it is ministry of prayerfully bringing the Bible and gospel into connection with people’s lives; and d) Active, not passive. Each person in these eXamples assumes personal responsibility for being a producer rather than only a consumer of ministry. For eXample, even though Fred continues to come to the small group as he always has, his mindset changed and he transformed from being a passive consumer of ministry to an active producer of ministry. Yes, direct evangelistic ministry is only one piece of this, but lay evangelism will grow as every member Word ministry grows. When at least 15-30% of a church’s members are engaged in this kind of organic, relational, lay gospel ministry, it creates a powerful dynamism that infuses the whole church.
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