Evangelism
The health and prosperity of the church are dependent upon evangelism. Only as the gospel is heralded into every nook and cranny of the community and unto the four corners of the globe, can the church hope to go forward in conversion of the lost millions of every race.
By effective Bible study programs we may be able to save the youth of our homes, but it takes evangelism to reach the vast adult population. It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the various virtues of either personal or public evangelism. Both are effective and both should be used to the fullest of our ability.
There are three phases of evangelism that this article is intended to emphasize:
First: We need more evangelism in our own meeting houses. There is, in some places, a tendency to philosophize. Christians who regularly attend services of some of the best congregations have sometimes indicated a real hunger for old-fashioned gospel sermons. When local preachers try to please the people, or deal in abstract matters and beautiful platitudes, sinners in the pew may continue pleased, but lost!
Second: We need more evangelism in the community, but outside the meeting house. We must not be content to preach to those four walls and the comparatively few people who meet inside them. In most communities where there is a good congregation, there are neighborhoods where the gospel has not been preached, and in them are honest souls who will face the Lord unprepared because the church was asleep.
Third: World-wide evangelism is only possible when we have reached far beyond the borders of our own communities, sending the saving message to strange, faraway lands and peoples. "Into all the world," is a VERY BROAD COMMISSION, and should be a challenge to every congregation and to every Christian.
This world-wide evangelism demands that we forget geographical and racial boundaries. It requires that we take the word of the Lord to those fields in our own land, perhaps 50, 100 or 1,000 miles way. Except for a very few communities, the whole north half of the United States is a vast mission field for New Testament Christianity.
In the Northeast section of our country is an area with five times Texas population, but with fewer real Christians than are in Dallas. In the North central and Northwestern part of our country, stretching from the Great Lakes to the Pacific, is a vast territory in which one can easily find himself 100 or more miles from the nearest congregation of the Lord's body.
In other lands — Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and South America, as well as in our neighboring Canada and Mexico — the pure gospel has hardly reached a fraction of the people.
We ought to demonstrate our love for the Lord by heeding his request to "Go, teach all nations:"
There are three definite reasons for evangelism: (1) It is the only way to obey the command of Christ, for he said, "Go, preach the gospel to all nations." (2) It is the only unselfish way to live as a Christian — to share the blessings of forgiveness with those who have not heard (3) It brings the greatest satisfaction to the Christian — the real joy of fruit-bearing for the Lord.
Responsibility Of Preachers
Some preachers sometimes hinder efforts to comply with Christ's commission. The real need of the mission fields of the world is for men of experience — men who have proven their ability to defend the truth, and to proclaim it understandably. We need men who are willing to leave the encouragement of large congregations and fancy buildings, and who will go out into the tiny meeting houses and rented halls and preach Christ to the few who gather there.
This is not a criticism of preachers who preach for large churches. May the Lord bless you. On the other hand, this is an appeal to you to give SOME of your mature life to work in new fields. It is not enough to say, "I did mission work when I was young." Most mission work has been done by young men, and we pray that many more of them win do such work. We pray for more and more young men who know the truth and are willing to trust God to be with them while they do His bidding. They will make mistakes — some that older men would not have made — but they will not make the mistake of saying, "I can't," or "I won't."
But we still need MATURE men in the new fields. We need men who have proved their ability to work with elders, but who also have the courage to go out and work where there are no elders within hundreds of miles.
The old alibi, "I am not suited to such work," is not a fair excuse. Most any of us could have said that! Most any man who can preach, can adapt himself to preaching in new places IF HE WANTS TO BADLY ENOUGH.
Some say, "I can baptize more people by staying where I am." So what? Did Christ send us to baptize or to preach the word to all people whether they believe it or not. Whether or not our work meets the approval of the Lord is not dependent upon how many we baptize, but upon how we obey his word to preach it everywhere!
If we are doing a scriptural work as we preach for an established church, it will be possible for us to LEAVE THAT CHURCH WITHOUT MATERIALLY HURTING IT. If the preacher is indispensable, then we have failed miserably.
Gospel preachers quote the great commission often and forcefully. It is hard to imagine how a sincere preacher can quote those words from week to week and still refuse or fail to give at least part of his life to what is commonly called mission work. I pray that the word of the Lord may prick the hearts of gospel preachers so that they are unable to sleep with their own conscience until they are willing to obey the words they quote.
Let us remember that we may evangelize in our own community and in our own meeting house. Let us also remember that we have not obeyed God's Word until we have made every possible effort to evangelize the whole world.
God has not promised that we would ever convert the world. He has not promised that our very best efforts are enough to convince all men, everywhere. On the other hand, he has promised to enable us to preach the gospel to all the world. He did not give a command we could not obey. He did promise everlasting support and help to those who would go preaching his word (Matt. 28:20).
Responsibility Of The Church
The church was established to be the "Pillar and ground of the truth." It is to make known to the world the manifold wisdom of God.
Churches can become selfish. They can be only concerned with affairs at home. The selfish church spends all its money at home, or almost all of it. (It may send a paltry sum to some other church and boast that it cooperates in mission work, but it does not assume real responsibility to supply a definite need in any new field.) Churches may be selfish in the use of the money they have. Such churches, as soon as the treasury shows a balance, begin to hunt places to spend it on the building or for some similar LOCAL work. Thus such churches go far, far beyond their own need and even beyond their scriptural privilege in supplying LUXURIES for themselves.
But churches may also demonstrate their selfishness in the use of their preacher. It is not uncommon, today, to find strong churches that will not permit their local preacher to be away more than two or four Sundays in the year. Not only will they refuse to support him while he goes to a distant place for mission work, but they will not even allow him to go without support.
Such selfishness is demonstrated in the demands upon the preacher even in his work in the local community. Too many times he is expected to spend entirely too much valuable time in social calls on members of the church. Instead of loosing him to go about in local evangelism, he is tied down to a lot of administrative work (office work), and to social and civic work. Because of these demands by the churches, the preachers sometimes are led to neglect evangelism even in the pulpit at home (unnecessary social, civic and administrative demands upon his time may prevent proper study by the preacher, and thus leave him unprepared to do his duty as a local evangelist).
A preacher must make calls, and do many other thing besides preach, but the first duty of the preacher is still PREACHING! A church's first use of the preacher should be for preaching! Let him be a proclaimer of God's word first and above everything else.
The world's need today can be met if the churches will use their preachers and their money right. Evangelism at home and abroad can be accomplished in accord with the Lord's will if PREACHERS AND CHURCHES REALLY WANT TO OBEY GOD'S COMMANDS.