Transcript Document 7318475

Victor Beshir
Evangelism Conference 2011
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We send our youth to mission to Africa,
Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Asia, which is good
Yet, we do not evangelize people around us, in
North America
But the Lord’s commandment is clear:
“you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of
the earth”(Acts 1:9)
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If we apply the above commandment, then we
need to start evangelism in our own town, then
our state, from there to the rest of North
America. Finally go overseas.
So, we need to go back and ask:
Why we do not evangelize in North America?
We Lack VISION
We Need Training
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The vision of this mission, based on the
Lord’s commandment, is to work hard to see
Coptic congregations include not only
Egyptians-as we see now-But White
Americans,
Black Americans, Hispanics, atheists,
agnostics, and converts from other religions.
In other words, the vision of the mission is to move
the Coptic Orthodox Church to be an active
evangelistic church in North America.
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Although the Coptic Orthodox Church started in
North America about fifty years ago, very few
Americans or Canadians joined the church, and a
small number of them remained in the church.
Why?
We, as Copts, we talk to each other, preach to one
another, and conduct meetings with each other or
at the most with few other Orthodox.
Our youth do not know how to talk to their
American or Canadian peers.
We Don’t Know Evangelism!!!
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Coptic clubs at universities worked hard to
evangelize, so they arranged for lectures. Then
the speaker lectured about the glories of
Orthodoxy, the superior faith of the Orthodox
Church, and the glorious history of the Coptic
Church. At the end of such lectures, the
speakers received applause, but not people like
to join our church!!!
Unfortunately, we think this is evangelism …
But this is not evangelism
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Most of our college clubs’ and fellowships’ names start with the
word “Coptic.”
First question people will ask is,
“What does the word Coptic means?”
The answer would be Egyptian.
Immediately, they are not interested since they are not Egyptians,
As I mentioned last time,
If a student invites you to attend a Chinese club, would you
attend? The answer is “No, because I’m not a Chineses.”
Then Why we Choose “Coptic” if we really want to evangelize?
On any visit to a Coptic college meeting, one will find only Copts
and some other Orthodox attending, though the leaders of those
meetings work hard to excel.
The above examples illustrate lack of clear vision of evangelism,
missing objectives, and not using the right approach.
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To have evangelism in the Coptic Church in North
America, you need to empower our youth with
vision, objectives, and right methods.
And This is why we start “My College Mission:”
to help our Coptic college students and professors
to start evangelism in their campuses.
To Do That We need:
New Vision
New Objectives
Right Approaches
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Our invitation to meetings should not be
offered solely to Copts and Orthodox but
mainly to others.
We need to learn how to talk to others about
Christ, salvation, faith, resurrection, and to
show them the light and life in Christianity.
This new vision is based on our promise to
the Lord in every Divine Liturgy:“Amen,
Amen, Amen. Your death O’ Lord we
proclaim.” Yet, we stop short from fulfilling
our weekly commitments.
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Many students in our universities and colleges
are eager to hear about the true God Who will
water their thirst and enlighten their path. All
those souls around us need salvation and a
SAVIOR.
North Americans need to hear the gospel as
we heard it. God has put you in those colleges
and universities to reach out to the students
with the eternal life message that, with the
grace of God, moves people from death to life.
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We, as Copts, need to venture outside of our comfort zones
and speak with Non-Orthodox, Non-Christians, atheists,
and agnostics.
This is realistic since many students nowadays are
agnostics, atheists, or do not know anything about Christ
except His name. We need to present Christ as the one Who
is going to forgive their sins, change their life altogether,
and offer them peace, joy, and eternal life.
What students are interested in is not a denomination but
rather salvation, inner peace, meaning of life, and spiritual
fulfillment, rather than speaking of glories of Orthodoxy,
which turns them off.
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In fact, speaking of any denomination receives
resistance from people.
The approach the apostles used, as it is recorded in the
book of Acts, was speaking about Christ and His
salvation.
They never started with mentioning or giving sermons
about the church. But, when people accept that faith,
then the person(s) is introduced to the church.
This is the sequence that should be
followed. Unfortunately, we currently put the cart
before the horse, which leads to evangelism failure.
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If the approach is different, eventually we will
reach the point when we introduce people to the
church to be baptized. At this point, the word
'Coptic' will not turn them off.
When the vision is clear,
then the approach is different.
The vision is to win souls for Christ.
The method is to represent Christ and the Gospel, and
to teach about salvation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
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+ The first step is training: Please visit:
http://www.evangelismcopticorthodox.org/mycollege
mission/training.html to watch the training videos of
Fr. Peter Gillquist on how to practice one-on-one
evangelism
+ Also, watch the video of Fr. John Rizkalla & his
team on how to arrange for a “Jesus Awareness” event
on your campus.
+ The second step is to ask Coptic students in colleges
across North America to participate in My College
Mission starting in 2012 Spring semester, where the we
will help with brochures, flyers, video, & instructions,
and create a network to help.
We ask you to use “Jesus Awareness Week” method &
materials in your campus.
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To participate, visit:
http://evangelismcopticorthodox.org/mycollegemis
sion.html
+ The third step is to help students in starting a
fellowship or changing the name, vision, and
objectives of current fellowship. Last night the
discussion panel discussed all aspect of college’s
clubs.
+ After talking about Generation ‘Y,’ we
recommend to change the clubs name to:
Reach out & Help Someone
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+ The fourth step is to introduce faith as it was
believed and practiced in the first church in
those fellowship meetings, which eventually
will lead to Orthodoxy.
+ The Fifth step is to arrange for catechism
classes for those who show interest in
Orthodoxy.
+ The sixth step is to baptize those who are
ready to join the church
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+ The seventh and last step is to give the
converts the opportunity to be active in the
church and to make them feel at home.
We ask Coptic professors to work with
students on the clubs and on spreading the
Good News of salvations, resurrection, and
eternal life.
+ We’re praying and asking others to pray
fervently to make this dream a reality.
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We need to have dedicated evangelism
servants. In other words, a person serving
only in Evangelism, and not in Sunday school,
youth meeting, & evangelism (when he/she
has time for evangelism).
There’ re many who could teach in Sunday
school, but few who could evangelize. Be one
of those few.
Evangelism needs committed servants with
passion …
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Please visit:
http://www.evangelismcopticorthodox.org/my
collegemission/survey.html to fill out the
survey,.. let’s know how could you help in My
College Mission.
WE have a dream that we could reach every
college in North America … And every college
starts to win souls for Christ … And those
souls join the church.. Please pray and be part
of this dream. Amen.