Transcript http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/ 1. What kind of evangelism? Creating confidence in evangelism is a current diocesan theme http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/

http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/
1. What kind of evangelism?
Creating confidence in evangelism is a
current diocesan theme
http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/
Christine had been raised Anglican. Religious
people of any serious kind made her nervous:
They were like men in rain coats who might or
might not be flashers. You would be going
along with them in a normal way, and then
there would could be a swift movement and
you would look down to find the coat wide
open & nothing on under it.
Scarlet Ibis by Margaret Atwood.
“ this majority (66%) presents a major
challenge to churches. Most of them are
unreceptive and closed
to attending church; churchgoing is
simply not on their agenda.”
2007 Tear Fund survey of 7000 adults
in contact or not with church
Which M&M are you?
Evangelism is God’s
endeavour ultimately
‘our natural tendency ,even as Christians ,
is to focus on the human aspects of
evangelism and not the divine. Yet it
is God who takes the initiative to
pursue seekers, it is his Spirit
who converts, it is his gospel that saves.
Evangelism is God’s business from start
to finish.’
Rebecca Manley Pippert.
Out of the Saltshaker
What does the Bible say about evangelism?
• euangelisasthai
52 times
Verb ‘to tell the good news’
• euangelion
72 times
Noun ‘good news/gospel’
• euangelistes
3 times
Evangelist how relate to apostle?
‘How does the church become the
evangelising centre it was meant
to be?
Before we think of programmes
or techniques, we need to be renewed
in our vision of who Christ is and
what God’s purposes are for the world.’
Rebecca Manley Pippert.
Out of the Saltshaker
Why are we doing
this ?
It’s not what you know,
it’s the One you know
‘ 1. The Church is renewed in evangelism only
through being renewed in love for Jesus and
love for God’s world.’
Intentional Evangelism
It’s not what you know,
it’s the love
you experience.
‘ 2. The first step… is for the church to focus
once again on the wonder of Gods love
revealed in Jesus Christ.
Intentional Evangelism
…………………………………..
You are my dear child,
I love you
and I’m delighted with you.
A life not shaped by inner compulsions,
or captive to outer expectations ,
but drawn by the inner voice of love.
Leighton Ford, The Attentive Life
Do I(we)really
believe this
good news ?
It’s not what you know,
it’s who you know.
It’s not what you know,
it’s why you
are here now.
It’s not what you know,
it’s who you are with.
I am suggesting that the only answer is, the only
hermeneutic of the gospel is a congregation of
women and men who believe the gospel
and live by it.
But I am saying that these are all secondary, and that
they have power to accomplish their purpose only as
they are rooted in and lead back to a believing
community.
Leslie Newbigin.
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society p227
It’s not what you know,
it’s who you are.
Can God
use me (us)?
‘Its not the greatest people
who change the world but
weak people in the
hands of a great God.’
It’s not what you know,
it’s where you are.
For further reflection
Talk together about evangelism
overflowing from our present experience
of God and how this might impact
1. You personally now as a leader in evangelism
2. Your church congregation
What is evangelism ?
“evangelism is that dimension and activity
of the church’s mission which seeks
to offer every person, everywhere, a
valid opportunity to be directly challenged
by the gospel of explicit faith in
Jesus Christ, with a view to embracing
him as Saviour, becoming a loving
member of his community and being
enlisted in his service of
reconciliation, peace and justice on earth.”
Evangelism: Theological Currents and Cross currents Today.
International Bulletin of Missionary Research, July 1987
What is evangelism ?
1.Evangelism is at the core,
heart or centre of mission.
‘it consists in the proclamation of salvation in Christ to
non believers, in announcing forgiveness of sins, in
calling people to repentance and faith
in Christ, in inviting them to become living members
of Christ’s earthly community and to begin a life
in the power of the Spirit.’
We do not believe, however, that the central dimension
of evangelism as calling people to faith and a new life
can ever be relinquished. I have called evangelism
the "heart" of mission. If you cut the heart out of a body,
that body becomes a corpse. With evangelism cut out,
mission dies; it ceases to be mission.
What is evangelism ?
2. Evangelism seeks to bring
people into the visible
community of believers.
‘It is at the heart of the Christian mission
to foster the multiplication of local
congregations in every Christian community’
‘Evangelism is not a growth strategy’
Justin Welby, March 2015
What is evangelism ?
3. Evangelism involves witnessing
to what God has done, is doing and will do.
Word and deed but …………..
‘ The verbal witness indeed remains indispensable,
not least because our deeds and our conduct are
ambiguous ,they need elucidation.’
What is evangelism ?
4. .Evangelism is invitation
We are drawn by love not by guilt
What is evangelism ?
5. Evangelism is only possible when the church
is a radiant manifestation of the Christian faith.
‘ So what the churches often do get involved in is
not evangelism, but propaganda, that is, they reproduce
carbon copies of themselves and impact their own
ghetto mentality to the people they reach.
What is evangelism ?
6. Evangelism is about risk taking .
We do not control how it comes alive
We get changed in this process
What is evangelism ?
7. Evangelism is not a self centred
consumer product.
Not only called to receive life but to give it
What is evangelism ?
8. Evangelism is calling people to
be disciples of Jesus .
It is enlisting people for God’s mission
1. How do Bosch’s eight aspects of
evangelism emphasize
how big the gospel is?
2.What one aspect most challenged
you? Why?
http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/