A SAMPLE OF ENDORESMENTS The following are some of the endorsements for Julian’s 900+ page book called Evangelism: Strategies from Heaven In the War for Souls. Some people are daunted by such a big book so Julian made a small book out of each chapter of the 900+ page book. What you are about to read is just one of the chapters of the larger work.
David Cole, YWAM Campaigns Asia/Pacific Board of Regents Chairman University of the Nations.
“This book is one of the most in depth looks at what Evangelism really is (and what it isn’t) that I believe has been written in the last century. I have been so inspired in my own calling through its content and often use it as a text book for teaching and imparting to young leaders in YWAM training courses as well as throughout other parts of the Body of Christ. Thank you Julian not only for such a valuable resource as well as for modeling the outworking of its content in your own life over the past few decades.”
Pastor Mike Smith, Melbourne, Australia
“An incredible book that all pastors should read. I have been a Christian for 28 years and a pastor for many years, and when I picked up this book, I thought, I doubt this will teach me anything new about evangelism. I was so wrong. It has revolutionised my thinking. This is an incredible book that all pastors should read.”
Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland
“The best book I have ever read. I am a solicitor (54) and a partner in a law practice. I unhesitatingly give my endorsement for Julian s book. Indeed, I would rate it as the best book that I have ever read!” Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland
Michael Angulo, Pastor and Church Leader
“Truly a work of Ministerial art. I really like this book and every true evangelist will love it also. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PUT IT DOWN, BUT WILL BE THINKING WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO READ IT AGAIN! A truly very well written book with good retrospective learning ideas. No true evangelist should be without this book. It is worth what it is worth and it will catapult you into great, deliberate PROVEN, ministry approach. Great book and I highly recommend it. Get this one, you won’t be disappointed!”
Julian Batchelor, M.ed (Hons), B.Th, Dip.T’Ching
A Plan Of Action To Cause A Resurgence In World Evangelism!
Copyright Julian Batchelor Evangelism Strategies International Press Auckland New Zealand
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Acknowledgements I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the production of this Mini Series: Sheryl Kampenhout, who transferred a mountain of material from Power Point shows into Word documents and who served and encouraged me in such a loving and kind way; to Matthew Old, a faithful friend and fellow evangelist, who has been a Barnabas. He reached out his hands when the hills seemed steepest, loved me in spite of my failures, stimulated me with his sharp mind, and made me laugh when I wanted to cry; to Janice Teo, and her intercessory prayer team who are as vital to the ministry I direct as the heart is to the body; to the team of editors, including Ken Francis and Julie Belding; to all the financial supporters who have given so generously to me over the years. I especially want to thank Paul and Tina Richards, of Club Physical, owners of a gymnasium chain in Auckland, New Zealand, and Derek van Beynen, who have faithfully sponsored my ministry for over a decade. Few people have the privilege of being able to leave secular work to write and produce resources to further the cause of the evangelisation of the world, and to motivate and equip the Church to do the same. You, and all my other financial supporters, have made this possible; to those I live with who have not seen me for years because I have been locked away in my office writing, I give my sincere thanks. Special thanks to Neil Pollock. To Jenny Windeyer, the graphic artist, who designed the cover of the original 800 page book (which we’ve turned into this Mini Series), and to Jenny’s husband Drew for going beyond the call of duty so that Jenny could focus on this project; to faithful Bernie Anderson who has sacrificed and given way beyond what a leader would expect of a dedicated co-worker; to Eleanor Goodall and Sue and George Jeffrey who epitomise love and true friendship; to the team at ESI for keeping all the various aspects of the evangelism ministry moving forwards whilst I directed most of my time to write this Mini Book Series; for Dr Martyn Bowis who did all the programming for the electronic version of the gospel called “Proclaim it!”; for Henoch Kloosterboeror for producing all the brilliant
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drawings; Dr David Stewart, retired Principal of the Bible College of New Zealand for nearly two decades of encouragement and mentoring; Denise James and Anne Bartley, staff at the Bible College of New Zealand for helping with research; all those who have helped proof read the manuscript and given comment, particularly Dr Marie Sewell, Gill Donald, Gill Lukey, Donna Hansen, Ainslie Vines, Ann Hunter, and Miriam and Ted Martin; to the academic staff of the Bible College of New Zealand for giving me a grounding in theology; for all those who have given financially and sacrificially to pay for specific aspects of the publishing of this Mini Book Series; for my friend Ray Comfort, for his inspiration and encouragement. There are few evangelists today who have journeyed on the road of trial and tribulation to achieve breakthrough as Ray Comfort. For John Stott, the academic evangelist for his coaching and input via his many books. For all the people who we have trained in evangelism around the world who are out there doing it – you are the heroes in the battle for souls; for the many hundreds of pastors, leaders, and lay Christians around the globe who have contributed to my life as a Christian, and to this Mini Book Series; and finally, I thank Jesus Christ, whose amazing grace and love has inspired and kept me. All the revelations in this Mini Book Library about evangelism and the gospel were given by Him – to Him be all the glory.
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How To Read The Mini Books In This Library This Mini Book is one of a Library of 27 Mini Books. The Library is a detailed critique of the battle between light and darkness which is relentlessly raging all over the earth for the souls of men and women. The insights and revelations in each Mini Book are hierarchical i.e. Mini Book Two builds upon Mini Book One, Mini Book Three upon Mini Books One and Two, and so on. Hence, the ideal is to try and read all the Mini Books in the library in sequence. If you skip Mini Books, or even parts of Mini Books, you might miss something vital, and open yourself to misunderstanding or even defeat. Having said this, after you have read Mini Books One to Seven, which are the foundational books in the Library, each Mini Book is designed to stand alone. So, read Books One to Seven first. This is essential. With respect to evangelism, if you follow the advice I am giving here in the pages of each Mini Book, you’ll position yourself perfectly to be used by the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus in ways you’d not imagined possible. How so? Read the 27 Mini Books in the library and find out. Along with Mini Books 1-7, I suggest you also purchase Mini Book 27, which is the “Evangelism Fitness Test.” This is a diagnostic survey which will tell you the extent to which you have been unwittingly influenced by the devil with respect to evangelism. Sit this test before you read anything. Then do the same test again after you have read all the Mini Books to check to see if all his devices have been thoroughly purged from your mind!
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A Plan Of Action To Cause A Resurgence
In World Evangelism!
A resurgence in world evangelism - what specific strategies are needed? The next four Mini Books answer this question. Oh my goodness, I have such a clear plan of what to do, and I can’t wait to tell you! First, evangelists with the gift must spend their time walking in the job description given to them by God in Ephesians 4:1115 which is to ‘equip the saints for the work of ministry’ i.e. training all those in the Church who don’t have the gift showing them how to do personal evangelism. At this moment in history, most evangelists are not doing this. Rather, they are simply doing evangelism themselves. They are not attempting to mobilise 100% of people in every church for personal evangelism. Evangelists with the gift...... There are two broad categories of evangelists. The first category are crusade evangelists who, as you’d expect, spend a lot of their time executing large crusades. There is a definite place for this. After all, Peter’s mass crusade in Acts 2 was a resounding success 7
3000 were saved in one go. So, let’s keep the mass crusades going. Then there are the ‘non-crusade’ evangelists. They outwork their gift in various situations: in prisons, on the street, going door to door, at after school children’s programmes, on the university campus, in high schools, and so on. Herein lies a problem. Both types of evangelists (i.e. crusade and non-crusade) are most often not equipping the people in their own church to do personal evangelism. And if you ask them why this is so, this is what they will tell you: “It’s because my pastor shows little or no interest in evangelism and he/she exhibits no desire to mobilise all the people in our church for the same. In turn, the people show little interest.” i.e the leader’s attitude to evangelism becomes the attitude of everyone in their church. And what is causing the leader’s lack of interest? Answer? The devices of the enemy which I have detailed in this Mini Series.1 Let me explain. Because the minds of most leaders are marinating in these devices and they don’t know it, they show little or no interest in doing evangelism. In turn, they show little or no interest in training the people in their church for evangelism which in turn causes the gifted evangelist sitting in their church to go elsewhere or to‘do their own thing’ to exercise his/her gift. In short, the evangelist feels like a spare wheel. Hence there exists this tragic disconnect between evangelists with the gift and their pastor, all because of the devices. This was never meant to be. It has always been God’s will for pastors and evangelists in the same local church to work closely together to mobilise everyone in their church for evangelism. And here is what is really troubling. Most church leaders are not aware of just how far their hearts, minds, and churches have 1
In the first 12 Mini Books in this series, I detail what these devices are, and how they operate.
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drifted from the mission of Jesus (i.e. Jesus’ priority) to evangelise the world. They don’t know what they don’t know. The key questions then are these: “How do we develop in pastors a new and fresh vision to evangelise the world, and have all their people do the same? How do we get pastors and the people in their church with the gift of evangelism working closely together? i.e pastor and evangelist in the same church with a fresh, vigorous passion to complete the Great Commission, and maintain the momentum.” If we can answer these questions, we solve the problem of this tragic disconnect between leaders and evangelists in the same local church. So what is the answer? We must think strategically. It was said of William Carey (1761-1834), the father of modern missions, that his success was due largely to the fact that he thought strategically: “Human responsibility [to evangelise the world] must be active not passive.”2 If one reads the fine print, what he meant was simple: “We need to have a well thought through and prayed over action plan, and then work the plan until 100% of believers are mobilised to reach 100% of the world with the message of the gospel.”3 So what’s our plan? The plan involves having all the people in your church pass through three distinct phases. PHASE ONE: Prepare the church for 100% mobilisation. PHASE TWO: Equip the people for 100% evangelism. PHASE THREE: Maintain 100% mobilisation. 2
Cited in: Rose Dowsett. The Great Commission. Monarch Books. 2001. p.205.
3 In a nutshell, this is the Great Commission defined. You’ll probably have noticed that sometimes I interchange “The Great Commission” with “the evangelisation of the world”. There are four parts to the Great Commission: go, proclaim or spread the gospel (i.e. evangelise), baptise those who are saved, disciple those who are baptised. I have already argued in Mini Book Seven why evangelism is primary. So in effect, when I refer to the Great Commission, I am referring to the command of Jesus to evangelise the world.
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THE THREE PHASES
PHASE ONE
Prepare your church for evangelism
PHASE ONE PART TWO Purging the church of the devil's devices
PHASE ONE PART ONE Teaching back to basics sermons
PHASE TWO
Prepare your church for evangelism
Showing your people how to do evangelism.
Providing them with the resources to do it
PHASE THREE
Maintain the momentum. Motivating and equipping the 100% to continue in evangelism
Implementing 28 very speciďŹ c strategies
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Motivating and inspiring them to do it
PHASE ONE
PHASE ONE, PART ONE: This is preparing your people to do evangelism. To achieve this end, you need to teach a series of sermons on crucially important topics. I would call this sermon series ‘Back to the Basics.’ The first and most important sermon in the series would be on the The Authority And Infallability of the Bible. The people in your church must know, understand, and believe that the Bible is the final authority for the life and conduct of a Christian. This is base one. In short, you want them to fall in love afresh with their Bibles. When this happens, they will be more motivated to do what it says. And when they start to obey what it says, they will discover the Person and presence of Jesus in a whole new way (John 14:21). What’s most important of all is that they must know that the words of the Bible are literally God’s words. I have prepared a Power Point show with over 100 slides on The Authority And Infallability of the Bible. It asks and answers questions like: • What is truth? • How do we know the Bible is true? • How were the words of Jesus written down? • How were they stored? • How do we even know Jesus existed? • How do we know He is God? • How do we know Jesus’ words were recorded accurately? • Who wrote them down? • Like Chinese whispers, how do we know the Words of the Bible have not changed over time? What proof is there? • When were the books of the New Testament written? • Are there writers outside of Biblical writers who wrote about Jesus? • Who are they, and what did they write about Him? • Do these writers corroborate what the gospel writers say about 11
Jesus? • And so on. Phase one, part one is just so important because the people in your church are not going to obey what Jesus commanded to evangelise the world if they are not sure He is God and that He actually commanded it! The foundation of radical obedience must be radical commitment to the clear teaching of Scripture. This is not possible without asking and answering the questions above, and other similar questions. Don’t take it for granted that everyone in your church believes the Bible is literally the Word of God, and the final authority for their life and conduct. The more confidence people have in the Bible that it is the Word of God, the more they will likely obey what it says. The opposite is also true. My ‘Back to the Basics’ sermon series would also include individual messages which ask and answer the following questions: • What is a Christian? • What does it mean to make Jesus Lord? • What happens at conversion? • What is sin and where did it originate? What were the consequences for all humanity? • Heaven and Hell - what are they like, and who is going to each place? • What is the goal of the Christian life? • Do those who don’t become Christians before their death go to hell or not? What about those who have never heard the gospel? • Etc By the end of phase one, part one the people in your church will have a fresh commitment and zeal to protect and preserve the Truth in the Bible, and they will be quick to want to reject any teaching or idea or theology which threatens to undermine 12
its authority and infallability. This is necessary preparation for phase one, part two. PHASE ONE, PART TWO: The whole Church must be purged of the enemy’s 84 devices. These devices are essentially thoughts and ideas of the devil which he plants in the minds of Christians to cause them to depart from Truth - the Truth of Jesus, as found in the Bible, about evangelism, and a host of topics related to evangelism. We run one day conferences to teach people about these devices. To make leaders aware of these devices presents an enormous challenge. Why? The devices of the enemy have been designed by the devil in such a way that they stop leaders being even interested in being aware of them i.e. with respect to the enemy’s devices, pastors don’t know what they don’t know and the enemy doesn’t want them to know what they don’t know. The fact you are reading this Mini Book Series is a miracle. Phase one, part two is like running anti-virus software through a computer. With respect to evangelism and churches, this crucial first phase is to create a new wine skin (Mark 2:22). Jesus clearly taught the need for this. Generally speaking, people won’t start evangelising (and keep going with it) until and unless they become aware of what has been stopping them in the first place. Awareness is the first step in the change process. Phase one is preparation for phase two.
PHASE TWO
This involves teaching your people how to actually do evangelism. This is where you Ephesians 4:11-14 gifted evangelists kicks in. They will source a wide variety of resources and tools to help your people do the job of evangelising the world. The people in your church are all different. Just as we don’t all like the same car, so we won’t all like the same tools and resources to deliver the 13
gospel. Just make sure the tools and resources you put before your people really communicate the whole gospel. The evangelist in your church will coach and mentor your people. Phase two will be on-going in your church. After phase two, comes phase three.
PHASE THREE
Phases 1 an 2 will give your church evangelism momentum but you need phase 3 to maintain it. As a ministry, God in His grace has given us 28 strategies which we have found help a Church maintain momentum. These include: 1. Formulating an Evangelism Plan (EP) for your church. If churches implement phase one, parts 1 and 2 above but don’t write on paper exactly what their plan is going forwards, absolutely nothing will change. They need a definite, specific, measurable, realistic, action plan which maps out how they are going to mobilise 100% of their people. As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.� To formulate an EP is simply to obey what Jesus said to do in Acts 1:8. Acts 1:8 is a divine plan. Fortunately, we have a tried and tested EP already formulated which can be applied to almost any church.4 The work has been done for you. 2. Having people in your church to be accountable to one another for their evangelism activity. 3. Having one or two people give an evangelism testimony on Sunday mornings. 4. Setting up an evangelism resource centre / table in your church 5. Having the leadership in your church lead by example 6. Having monthly coaching sessions where the people in your church meet together to receive deeper teaching on a topic related to evangelism e.g. Genesis 3, and original sin. 7. Setting up a prayer wall. When a person in your church starts 4
Please email me for more details: julian@esisite.com
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relating to a lost people in their circle, the first name of the lost person is posted on the prayer wall, so they can start being prayed for by name. This is much like how the wailing wall in Jerusalem works. 8. Having a “QUESTION BOX” at the back of your church so that the people in your church can anonymously ask questions about evangelism. Each week, one of these questions is read out on Sunday morning and answered. 9. Appointing an Evangelism Team Leader (ETL) in your church. An ETL is the person who works most closely with the pastor to make sure phases 1-3 are operating smoothly and going forwards. 10. Providing each of the people in your church with a “Six Steps Bookmark”. Remember in Mini Book Eleven I detailed ‘The Six Steps To Drawing A Non Church Person To Christ’? 11. Etc. These are just 10 of 28 strategies. If you connect with us, we will provide you with all 28. Phases 1-3 show a leader exactly how to mobilise 100% of their people into evangelism, and sustain the momentum. Now here is a crucially important point. It would be wonderful if every pastor of every church were to take their people through the three phases and live in the reality of them. This would definitely cause a staggering resurgence of evangelism. But as I have studied, prayed about, and mulled over this topic, and the challenge of what we can do to cause a resurgence, two questions has gnawed away in my Spirit. The questions are these - who in the Church is Satan using more than anyone else to propagate all his devices? Who in the Church could single handedly make the biggest impact for good if they came on board with all that I have written in this Mini Series? If we can answer these two questions, we’d not only fix the problem of 98% of the Church not doing evangelism, but we’d fix it 15
for good. There would be no foothold left anywhere in the Church for Satan to have an influence over evangelism! ANSWERS TO THE TWO QUESTIONS The best way to answer these questions is to draw an analogy between the Church in the world and the game of chess. You probably know that on the chess board there are 6 types of pieces, each one moving and capturing according to different rules. The value of a piece is determined by its ability to capture other pieces and by its importance for winning the game. A piece’s ability to capture other pieces is determined by its mobility, or range of action. In other words by the number of squares on which the piece could move. From this point of view the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board because it has the biggest range of actions. But although the Queen is the strongest piece it is not the most important. The most important piece on the chess board is the King. The goal of the game is to put the opponent’s King into a check mate position. So who is the King on the chess board of the Christian Church? Who is most strategically placed to cause a resurgence in world evangelism? i.e. The Great Commission. Who are the centre pieces of our recovery plan? The answer? The chairperson of the Boards of Seminaries and Bible Colleges. These are the men and women Satan is using more than anyone else to cause the collapse of the Great Commission. Why are these leaders so strategic? They select Bible College principals. They in turn select Bible college staff. Bible College and seminary staff train church leaders. Most of these leaders will eventually lead churches or Christian organisations, even denominations. In turn they will influence all the people in their congregations for or against evangelism. So what can the chairperson of the Board of a seminaries or 16
Bible College do to ignite a resurgence of evangelism? First, they themselves need to be walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series. Then they will start doing evangelism. And when they start doing evangelism, they will get a new found love for evangelism5, for the lost world, for the priority of evangelism, and especially a new and fresh love for Jesus. Then when the time comes to choose a Bible College or seminary principal, they will have their eyes wide open to look for someone who is walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series. They won’t accept anything less. The new principal, because his/her eyes too have been opened to the truths in this Mini Book Series, will make evangelism a core subject, compulsory for all students. These students, who will be taught by the lecturers to walk in the truths of this Mini Book Series, will in turn have their eyes opened, and will start to walk in the truths too. These students will graduate from their seminary or Bible college, and they will become pastors of churches or leaders of Christian organisations. Because their eyes have been opened to these truths, and walking in them, they in turn will cause the people in their churches and organisations to do likewise. Thus, evangelism will experience a global resurgence. It all started with the chairperson of the Bible College Board. Please study the diagram on page 18. But these are not the only considerations for Bible Colleges and Seminaries. The evangelism lecturer in the College/Seminary would have to be a passionate practitioner. He or she would be the coach not just of the students but of the staff as well, so take great care appointing this person. He or she would need to be able to take people into the field to show them how to do it. As 5 It’s strange fact that the way to get a love for evangelism is to do evangelism, and the way to develop a life style of not doing evangelism is to not do evangelism.
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A SIMPLE ROAD MAP FOR CAUSING A RESURGENCE IN WORLD EVANGELISM
The chairman / chairperson of Seminaries, Bible Colleges, and Denominations They must be walking in the truths of this Mini Series Chairman of Bible Colleges and Seminaries
Chairman Denominations
They will then choose a principal who is walking in the truths of this Mini Series
They will then choose a denominational head who is walking in the truths of this Mini Series
The principal will then choose staff who are walking in the truths of this Mini Series
The denominational head will then choose staff and church leaders who are walking in the truths of this Mini Series
The staff will then teach their students how to walk in the truths of this Mini Series
The students then become leaders of churches who will in turn teach the people in their church how to walk in the truths of this Mini Series
The church leaders will then teach the people in their churches how to walk in the truths of this Mini Series
The world will be evangelised
The world will be evangelised
THE GREAT COMMISSION WILL BE COMPLETED
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I have already pointed out, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). It would therefore be a grave mistake to appoint a theorist to this position. Theorists breed theorists, and practioners breed practioners. God forbid, we don’t need more theorists. After making evangelism a core and compulsory subject, and engaging a passionate practitioner to do the lecturing, what else is critical for Bible College staff? It is critical that they actually model evangelism before their students. This is going to be the greatest challenge of all. Why? If the subject is core and compulsory, yet the principal, Board, and staff don’t do it, this sends a signal to students that it’s quite acceptable to extol the value of the most crucial of all Christian behaviours, yet not do it. This in turn spawns the idea in the minds of those watching that it’s acceptable to view evangelism as a theory i.e. it’s OK to be hypocritical about it. Matthew rebuked the Pharisees about this in Matthew 23:3 “...for they do not practice what they preach”. Could this be the very reason so many Board chairpersons, college principals, lecturers, pastors, and leaders of Christian organisations have banished evangelism? i.e. they are hesitant to make all I have suggested a reality because if they did and didn’t end up doing evangelism personally, they would look (and be) hyprocritical in front of their students/staff/parishioners. So they reason, “If I put evangelism centre stage in our organisations and then I don’t end up doing it personally, I will be a hypocrite. I don’t want to be a hypocrite, so I had better not put evangelism on centre stage. Better still, keep it out completely. ” When a leader at any level thinks like this, the plan to cause a resurgence of evangelism in the world implodes. You’d think that all that is described in the diagram on the previous pages would already be happening in Bible Colleges and Seminaries, but it’s not. Research shows only 13% of seminaries 19
have any course on evangelism and of those that do, the course is optional and most often it’s only a half course.6 This is a tragedy beyond words. It must grieve Jesus to His very core that His last instruction to His Church before He left the earth (Acts 1:8) has become our point of greatest disobedience. When Christian leaders at every level start walking in the truths of this book, there are at least 6 positive outcomes. First, they will demolish the devices of the enemy which are operative in the minds of the people following them. Second, most Christians who are not leaders understand that good Christian leaders are among the busiest people around. If leaders take time out each day to do evangelism, and make it a priority, this will send a signal to all those watching that they too should take some time out each day to do evangelism, and make a priority of doing it. Those watching you will say, “Phew! If our Board member, principal, lecturer, pastor, denominational head, mission organisation leader takes time out of his/her super busy life to do evangelism each day, it must be critically important. I’d better take time out to do it as well!” Third, as a Christian leader, your level of evangelism activity will determine the level of evangelism activity of all the people who are following you. For example, if you leave your office once a day to intentionally seek out someone to whom you will give the gospel, those under you in your church/college/organisation will likely do the same once every two days. If you reach someone once a week, they will intentionally reach someone once a fortnight, and so on. But if you only do personal evangelism in a random way (as opposed to being intentional each day), only taking the 6
Martha Grace Reece. Unbinding The Gospel: Real Life Evangelism. Chalis Press, 2006.
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opportunities which come across your path, for example, when you are sitting next to a person on a plane, or when you are talking to a non-Christian at a social function, or a hotel staff member, those watching you will only evangelise people who happen to come across their path too. What I am saying to leaders here is that when you commit to doing evangelism, you will cause a domino effect which will result in millions of souls being reached with the gospel, which in turn may result in millions of souls entering God’s Kingdom. How so? If all the theory about the power of modelling which I detailed in the previous Mini Book is true (and it is), then when you start doing evangelism, a lot of people under you will eventually start doing evangelism too. It’s a given that a certain percentage of the gospel seed they sow will result in people coming to Christ. In turn, these new Christians will begin to evangelise, and a certain percentage of the gospel seed they sow will result in people coming to Christ as well, and so on. In other words, leaders, your decision to regularly do evangelism will result in souls being swept into the Kingdom in not only your generation, but generations to come. So when I ask you to imagine millions, I mean millions. Fourth, when you start walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series, you’ll demolish a plethora of other excuses those following you will have for not engaging in evangelism. You as a leader might be tempted to say some of the following: • “This is not my gifting.” • “This wasn’t part of my job description.” • “This is not what Bible College Chairperson’s or principals do.” • “This is not what my predecessor did.” • “I might look silly in front of my staff.” 21
• “The students might think I am a nut case.” • “I am an academic. Leaving my office each day to reach a non-Christian with the gospel doesn’t fit with my image as a Baord Chairperson/principal/lecturer/pastor/ denominational head.” • And so on. When you say these things in your mind, yet go and evangelise anyway, you’ll help demolish these excuses in the minds of those following you too. Then when those observing your life become leaders of churches, their “excuse free” attitude to evangelism, which they caught from you, will in turn be imitated by the people in the Christian organisation they lead. Such is the power of leaders who model an evangelistic lifestyle. Whatever excuse you demolish, those following you will have to demolish also. Whatever excuse you retain, they will retain. Whatever attitude you develop, either negative or positive, will be taken on board by those following you. This is how strategically placed you are. Because those in your organisation look up to you as their leader, if you ‘breakthrough’ in establishing the habit of doing evangelism in your life, you’ll cause their breakthrough too. This will be especially so if your journey to breakthrough was excruciatingly hard. They will say in their minds “Wow! I can’t believe all the obstacles and challenges our leader had to overcome to breakthrough in evangelism. He/she has inspired me to breakthrough as well.” Fifth, when you as leader start walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series, you’ll have the peace and joy that goes with being right in the middle of God’s will for you - and you’ll lead a whole lot of other people into this glorious joy and peace as well. Sixth, when you as leader start start walking in the truths of this 22
Series you become a vital link in a long chain which started with Jesus. Jesus trained His disciples to evangelise, and the disciples trained others. These “others” trained others, and so on. This chain of leaders training leaders for evangelism winds its way from Jesus all the way down to church leaders today. If you don’t do evangelism, you become a broken link in the chain. If you do evangelism you become a vital unbroken link in the chain. Those following you in your organisation are your disciples, so please, train them in evangelism, just like Jesus trained His disciples. Don’t be a broken link in the chain. Canon Gordon Bridger, retired Principal of London’s Oak Hill Theological College and reader in theology at Cambridge, is one who saw clearly the importance of modelling personal evangelism before his staff and students: “I don’t actually regard myself as a gifted evangelist, but I believe I am called ‘to do the work of an evangelist.’ So it’s been important to me to have an evangelism dimension in the training. If students are not committed to evangelism in their theological college, they probably will not be later. In my experience, when a church gives priority to evangelism, other things fall into place.”7 Acts is full of reports of leaders in the Early Church leading by example. Here is just one: “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they [i.e. the Apostles] never stopped teaching and proclaiming the gospel.” (Acts 5:42). The Apostles were the very top of the organisational tree of the Early Church. An Apostle, by definition, was someone who had walked and talked with Jesus face to face. One can’t get any higher than that, yet they were out evangelising daily. They were leading by example. Dr Danny Akin, President of South Eastern Baptist 7
http://www.e-n.org.uk/1996-09/242-A-tribute-to-God’s-sovereignty.htm
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Theological Seminary in North Carolina, is one high-level leader who has grasped the importance of training all theological students for personal evangelism. During the Southern Baptists’ Mission of Today’s Church8 conference, he told delegates, “The six Southern Baptist seminaries should train students to be personal evangelists and teach models of church evangelism that are easily transferable into the local church context. God has brought a mission field to our land. If we ignore or neglect it, He will certainly and rightly judge us and do so most severely.”9 Oh, that every college and seminary president around the world would share Dr Akin’s passion! Dr Billy Graham said: “Biblical evangelism needs to be given much greater priority in theological education as well. In fact, it should permeate every aspect of a seminary’s curriculum instead of being a minor appendage, as is too often the case.”10 Missiologist and author Dr Donald McGavran is another significant leader who is adamant that all Bible College graduates be able to do evangelism and train others to do it. “As they [i.e. the staff of Bible Colleges] see the enormous numbers of the unreached in today’s world, they will educate their students in effective evangelism.11 Every school that prepares pastors and ministers should teach all students how to train laywomen and laymen to be effective evangelists.12 This will not be done by professors and pastors who have never won anyone to Christ.”13 8 From the small initial meeting in 1845 attended by only 293 people, the Southern Baptist Convention has grown to include 40 state conventions, more than 1,000 associations, 43,000-plus churches, a membership of 16.3 million and an array of efforts over the course of 160 years to make the gospel known. 9
http://www.baptistbanner.org/Subarchive_1/405%20To%20guard%20the%20future.htm
10 Billy Graham. Christianity Today Magazine. December 8, 1997. 11 Dr Donald A. McGavran. Effective Evangelism. A Theological Mandate. Presbyterian Reform Publishing, 1988, p.136 12 I think McGavran means ‘evangelisers’, someone with or without the gift who proclaims the gospel. Sadly, he’s also equating evangelism with the winning of souls! Oh dear. But at least he’s making a good point. 13 ibid, p.50
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What about mega-church leaders?
When I considered the organisational structure of the Christian Church globally, and who is most strategically placed to cause a resurgence in world evangelism, I struggled to choose between the Board Chairperson of Bible Colleges and Seminaries and megachurch leaders. Mega-church leaders, because of their potential to influence, could easily be our Kings on the chess board of the Christian Church. They, like the Board Chairperson of Bible Colleges and Seminaries, hold enormous potential to promote the cause of world evangelism. Let me explain. The following are just some of the hallmarks of many mega-churches: 1. They are professional in everything they do. 2. They emphasise motivational preaching and teaching. 3. The leader is often a strong, Godly person who knows how to develop a team spirit. 4. The leader is focussed and dedicated. 5. The leader emphasises training other leaders under him or her. This leads to loyalty, unity and strength in leadership. 6. They emphasise quality worship. The Sunday services and conferences held in these churches are professional, highlyorganised events. 7. They operate in modern, trendy buildings and offices. 8. They emphasise grace, faith, excellence, and generosity. 9. They emphasise impacting the community at every level. We ought to applaud the dedication and commitment of the leaders of these churches. However.....
Mega-churches could be 10 times more effective with the mission of Jesus.
Many mega-church leaders rightly encourage their members to bring non-Christians to church where the speaker at the front proclaims the gospel i.e. does the evangelism. 25
This is one of many strategies for evangelising the lost which is currently in vogue. The trouble is, as I have already pointed out, it is not God’s “A” plan for the evangelisation of the world. We’ve seen in Mini Book Eight that God’s mandate is for all Christians to proclaim or spread the gospel, not just the speaker at the front. Only when 100% of the people in our churches are mobilised for evangelism will world evangelism begin to surge again. So, what’s it to be? Plan A or Plan B? God’s Plan B: We could take the approach of some mega-churches where only the speaker at the front proclaims the gospel. Say the church has five services on Sunday which attract a combined total of 2,000 people. Let’s say ten percent (or 200 people) of those in attendance are non-Christians. This means the church would reach 200 unsaved people per week in its Sunday services with the gospel.14 God’s Plan A: We could train 100% of our members to proclaim or spread the gospel. Let’s say in this same church each of the 1,800 church members communicates the gospel to one non-Christian each week.15 This means the church would be reaching 2,000 unsaved people per week with the gospel - 200 inside the church on Sunday and 1800 outside the church during the week. Plan A is 10 times more effective with respect to the priority of Jesus than plan B.16 With these statitstics in mind, you’d think mega-church leaders would fully embrace Plan A, but they don’t. Why is this so? 14 Let’s also presume that with choice one, none of the church members are sharing the gospel during the week and that the gospel is proclaimed clearly on Sunday in Church. 15 This is realistic. How so? Historians tell us the whole Early Church was mobilised for evangelism. 16 With this approach there is also the personal and spiritual growth benefits which result when Christians proclaim and spread the gospel. The picture gets even rosier with choice three when we begin to consider the increased contact with non-Christians by our church members. This would result in more non-Christians in church on Sunday where they would hear the gospel a second time. Just imagine the flood at the altar call!
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Because many leaders today have a confused understanding of our mission, some not knowing what it is. Plan A is not even on their radar. This is why it’s so crucial that mega church leaders start walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series. For example, I have more than once heard a leader say, “Well, who cares how they are saved as long as they are saved. We are seeing hundreds of people saved every week by just bringing them to church.” In saying this, this leader is revealing that he is confused about the mission of the Church. He thinks the mission is ‘saving souls’ rather than evangelising the world. This is such a tragic misunderstanding. We must ‘get’ this - anything less than the whole church going to the whole world to spread or proclaim the whole gospel is always going to be something other than God’s Plan A. Conclusion? In light of Jesus’ mission, which is to evangelise the world using all believers to do it, Plan A is ten times more effective than Plan B.17 Christian statesman Dr Carl Henry affirms this truth. He said: “A one-on-one approach initiated by every believer still holds the best promise of evangelising the world.”18 Just because hundreds of people are being saved every week through the strategy of bringing non-Christians to church and having a speaker preach the gospel from the front (i.e. Plan B) doesn’t prove it’s the best strategy. In fact, I’ve just proved it isn’t. Plan A is completely in sync 17
Furthermore, Plan A results in greater glory going to Jesus than Plan B. You see, even if no one was saved as a result of 2000 gospel seeds being sown, the exercise would be a great victory in God’s eyes. Why? Because in and of itself, irrespective of the whether souls are saved or not, proclaiming the gospel is the greatest way to glorify Jesus. I expand on this thought in Mini Book Twenty Three.
18 Cited in: Will Metzger, The The Truth. The Whole Gospel To The Whole Person By The Whole People. IVP, 1988. p.17.
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with the mission of Jesus, whereas Plan B is not. Let’s call it what it for what it really is. It’s actually rank disobedience. Jesus said ‘Go’. The mega churches are saying ‘stay’. That’s tragic. But it get’s worse. According to world renown missiologist, Dr George Peters, “No where in the Old Testament was Israel ‘sent’ to the nations. The Old Testament upholds the centripetal method of missions. This may be thought of as sacred magnetism that draws to itself. Israel, by living a life in the presence and fear of the Lord, was to experience the fullness of the blessings of God. In this way they were to startle the nations to attention, arouse their inquiry, and draw them like a magnet to Jerusalem and the Lord. It was not commissioned to go to the nations to proclaim the revelational truth committed to God’s people. For God’s people (Israel) in the Old Testament it was ‘come and see’. In the New Testament, Jesus tipped the Old testament centripetal missions strategy upside down. Missions is now centrifugal! For God’s People In the New Testament it’s ‘go and tell’!”19 The best example of centripetal missions is the Queen of Sheba coming to Jerusalem. “When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions.” 2 Chronicles 9:1 Conclusion? Mega church leaders, or any church which relies on ‘come and see’ to grow is still living in the Old Testament pattern of missions! As such, Jesus would command the leaders of these churches to repent. Not only are they walking in disobedience, but because they run conferences showing other leaders how to grow big churches, they are teaching others how to be disobedient too. They are propagating disobedience. Really, this situation is a disaster. Imagine how much more effective in evangelism these megachurches would be if they focussed on God’s A Plan whilst 19 Dr George W Peters. A Biblical Theology Of Missions. Moody Press, 1986. p.21
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retaining their ten brilliant hallmarks mentioned previously? Mega-churches could single handedly turbo charge the Great Commission on a global scale. When all is said and done, at the final judgment Jesus’ priority question for us as leaders will be: “To what extent did you use your resources, time and talents to achieve My priority, which is the evangelisation of the world for My glory?” Some leaders of evangelism organisations will say, “Well, as an organisation we go into schools and prisons and the like regularly to give the gospel, so aren’t we leading by example?” Yes and no. Yes, you are leading by example as you go into schools and prisons etc, and this is to be commended. But no, this is not the most important evangelism behaviour to be modelling in your organisation. Most important is personal evangelism. Why? Most people in the Church will not be able to go into schools and prisons to give the gospel. They want to know how to evangelise their friends, neighbours, work associates, fellow students, or the person who pumps their gas, the mother at the play centre or the guy who sits next to them on the plane – the people who cross their path in everyday life. Evangelists have been called and commanded to equip20 100% of the Church to evangelise 100% of the world. This is where personal evangelism comes in. For this reason, para-church organisations who are training the Church in evangelism ought to make personal evangelism their first priority, over and above evangelism to groups. As I bring this Mini Book to a close, I want to finish by talking about Christian authors and Christian parents. They too can have an enormous influence on causing either the shut down of evangelism, 20 Ephesians 4:11-12
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or its resurgence.
Christian authors
The words “The pen is mightier than the sword” were first written by novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839. What Edward is saying is that writers can have a very big influence. We all know the maxim: “Leaders are readers and readers are leaders.” Leaders at all levels read books. Reading influences the mind; and when the mind is changed, a change of behaviour will likely follow. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV). Authors who are walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series and then write about their experiences are a nightmare for the enemy because of their potential to effect huge change in their readership. However, when they don’t write about their evangelism experiences, those reading their books and articles presume they are not doing it. They reason, “Well if such and such is a great leader and so close to God, and they never write about their experiences in personal evangelism, I guess they are just not doing it and if they are not doing it, it can’t be all that important and so I shan’t bother either.” The last thing the enemy wants is for authors to start walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series and then weaving their powerful experiences into their books. Christian parents are another group that can have enormous influence.
Christian parents…
I have often witnessed first hand the powerful influence Christian parents can have on their children. I was recently out evangelising with a group which included a father and son combination. The six year old son Daniel was an enthusiastic evangeliser, although at this stage he was limited to giving out tracts. “My dad 30
is teaching me how to talk to people about Jesus,” he exclaimed with a beaming smile. I asked him how he acquired this burden for souls. With blue, sparkling eyes he replied, “Oh, that’s easy. My dad was always going out to reach people with the gospel and so I just copied him. I first started going when I was four.” This little boy was fearless and disarming. People enjoyed bending over, looking into that bright, innocent face to receive a tract from the tiny outstretched hand of little Daniel. Parents, if you want your children to be like Jesus the evangelist, start walking in the truths of this Mini Book Series. If you do, you will help spawn a generation of young people obedient in evangelism, who would in turn model it for their children. According to Exodus 20:5-6 at least, you would attract the favour of God on your children. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Notice the bit in these verses about what happens to the person who loves God and keeps His commands. When you as a parent do evangelism, the priority of Jesus’ commands, and teach your children to do the same, you are leading them right into the lovingkindness of God. In closing, I want to say this. If we closely observe today’s generation of leaders, most publicly value evangelism, write it into their church mission statements, exhort others to do it, pray and read about it, and extol the priority of it, even organise others to do it, but they don’t actually do it themselves on a regular basis. They are not out there spreading or proclaiming the gospel to strangers. It’s this hypocricy at a leadership level, and hypocrisy is a sin, that has caused the collapse of the Great Commission. Jesus 31
said in Matthew 15:8 “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” If this describes you with respect to evangelism, refuse to let this great gulf between theory and practice exist in your life one day more. As with any sin21, Jesus would exhort us to repent. This is the right Biblical response. Repent for your own sake, the glory of Jesus, the destiny of the lost, and those you are leading.
S
ummary
• • Christian leaders have caused the decline in world evangelism because they have unwittingly succumbed to the devices of the enemy. • The good news is that Christian leaders can cause a resurgence in world evangelism. • To reverse the decline we must think strategically and act deliberately, just like a chess player. • Christian leaders in the world can be likened to the pieces in a game of chess. Just as each chess piece has a different ability to capture other pieces, so each leader in the Church has a different ability to cause a resurgence in world evangelism. • The Chairperson/woman of Bible Colleges/Seminary Boards and mega-church leaders have the greatest ability • To cause a resurgence in world evangelism, leaders must walk in the truths of this Mini Book Series. • If churches don’t have an evangelism strategy to mobilise 100% of their people for evangelism, very little evangelism will take place. • ACTION POINT: You might ask “Why can I do to help get the truth in this Mini Book to others?” Start disseminating awareness 21 Yes, not doing evangelism is a sin. James 4:17 says “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” Every genuine Christian knows they ought to be doing evangelism, therefore they are sinning if they are not doing it.
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of the truths raised in this Mini Book to other Christians, particularly leaders. Send is to everyone in your address book and encourage them to do the same. Send them a PDF file. You can obtain this Mini Book in a PDF format by emailing Julian: Julian@esisite.com. If leaders start to walk in the truth of this Series, they will cause a resurgence in world evangelism. Nothing could be more certain. If they don’t, little will change. The enemy knows this. For this reason, leaders are his special targets. Just how he targets them is detailed in the next Mini Book....
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Real Life Story
Porn Queen reaches (potentially) 26,000 hard to reach people in under 5 seconds with the gospel! Los Angeles
Recently, I went of a ministry trip to the USA. On the way home to NZ, we flew through LA. When we were getting luggage off the carousel after the flight from Charleston, there were two ladies standing beside us. I said “Excuse me” and proceeded to ask them if they knew what the best selling book in the world was. They replied “the bible” and I went on to explain that we’d made a video which summarised the whole book in 11 minutes. To this, one of the pair retorted “Oh, I’ll never get to heaven, I am a porn queen”. I tried to stay composed and to look un-phased. I said she was no worse than me, and I no worse than her, and that none of us would make it to heaven if it hadn’t been for Jesus. 34
With that, they both proceeded to to watch the video, taking one ear phone each. By this time the bags of these two ladies (sisters) were the only ones going around and around on the carousel! At the end Eleanor and I prayed with them, and the sister who was the porn queen said the following: “This is such a great video! It answers all the question I had about God and Christianity! I am going to send it out to all my fans!” With rolling eyes, her sister chipped in and said “You guys don’t realise how many fans she has - 26,000” She gave me her twitter address and sure enough, the next day,
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we saw what she’d done! She had taken a photo of the www.biblein11.com business card, and posted it on Twitter. (the photo on the previous page is the actual photo she posted ). Imagine how difficult it would be to reach THAT audience with the gospel. She did it in a few seconds through Twitter. So, one never knows what the Holy Spirit will do with what one sows! Please pray for this lady. She is so completely lost, but not beyond the loving hands and drawing power of Jesus. The gospel has been planted, now let’s water it in prayer - and not only this seed, but also the potential of the 26,000 other seeds.
Julian’s comments.
Amber is a curious case. I would have expected her to run from the gospel, because it is light, and she is living in darkness. Not so. She lapped it up, and recieved it, at least conceptually. The fact that she Tweeted it to her 26,000 fans supports this argument. If she loved it so much, and it answered all her questions, why didn’t she receive it at once with joy? I invited her to do this via email and we kept in contact, but to this day, as far as I am aware, she has not turned and surrendered to Jesus. Is she not predestined? (e.g. Ephesians 4:1-5) This can’t be so, because God wants all saved (2 Peter 3:9). Is the devil blinding her eyes so she cannot see the glory of the gospel? (2 Corinthians 4:4). Or is it that she is just enjoying the pleasures of sin for this season? (e.g. Hebrews 11:25). Or has she sinned so much and for so long, God has let her go? ( e.g. Romans 1:24-25). Or did she choose to disbelieve (e.g. Acts 28:24). We cannot know the mind of God, except that we know that the divine Seed of the gospel has been well planted, and the Trinty is right at this moment working on her salvation! (Mark 4:26-29).
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The Full List Of Books In ‘The Truth About Evangelism’ Mini Series Book One
Evangelism Lost! Exposing The True State Of Evangelism In Today’s Church
Book Two Seven Deadly Motives Exposing How The Enemy Is Shutting Down Evangelism.
Book Three
The Sorrowful Collapse Of The Great Commission- A Dangerous Redefining Of Evangelism
Book Four Evangelism Redefined? Six Subtle Yet Devastating Redefinitions Of Evangelism
Book Five Confusion Busters 7 Things You Should Know About The Gospel Message
Book Six
Six Ways To Move From Gospel Confusion To Gospel Clarity
Book Seven
The Evangelisation Of The World Is The Ulimate Purpose Of The Church. 7 Irrefutable Reasons It Is Time To Prioritise
Book Eight
A Gift, A Call, Or A Commission. Are All Christians Commanded To Evangelise
Book Nine
12 Keys To Fearless Evangelism In The 21St Century
Book Ten Take Them Down. 12 Road Blocks And How To Get Through Them
Book Eleven
The Key To Victory. Start Viewing Evangelism As An Event, Not A Process
Book Twelve
Confidence In The Gospel, Come Back! Four Essential Steps To Reclaiming Lost Ground!
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Book Thirteen Prepare To Be Amazed! What Jesus Really Taught About Evangelism!
Book Fourteen
What Leaders Must Do To Cause A Resurgence In World Evangelism
Book Fifteen
A Plan Of Action To Cause A Resurgence In World Evangelism
Book Sixteen
Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 1)
Book Seventeen
Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 2)
Book Eighteen
Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 3)
Book Nineteen
Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 4)
Book Twenty Church Leaders! This Is Your Time To Step Up! (Part 5)
Book Twenty One
Climb On Board! 4 Reasons Why Doing Evangelism Will Help Create A Better World!
Book Twenty Two
Devastation! How Pseudo-Conversions Hinder Evangelism And What You Can Do To Stop The Rot!
Book Twenty Three
“Friendship evangelism.” What’s good about it, and what’s heretical?
Book Twenty Four
Unholy Grief! Five Ways Evangelists With The Gift Can Grieve The Holy Spirit
Book Twenty Five
The Highest Motive For Doing Evangelism? You’ll Be Amazed What The Bible Teaches! Conclusion
Book Twenty Six Appendix One : If We Fail To Evangelise, We Fail. Period. By Dr K.P. Yohannan
Appendix Two : The Pastor Evangelist. By Dr. Roger S. Greenway
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Appendix Three : True Gospel Must Be Heard, By Kevyn Harris
Appendix Four : This We Believe Signatories
Appendix Five : Device 84. “I don’t like being told to do evangelism!”
Book Twenty Seven The Evangelism Fitness Test
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