Category Archives: Evangelism

Follow Jesus: See & Tell

The Gospel of John.

John the Baptist: I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. (1:34)

Andrew: The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (1:41)

Philip: Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. (1:45)

Samaritan woman: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (4:29)

Man at the Pool: The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. (5:15)

Those living in darkness were seeing a great light, and their response was to tell others, and bring others to that light.

Sometimes we complicate things, you know? We make Christianity about us and ours. Our church. Our doctrine. Our style of music. Our programs. Our ministry. Our ideas and preferences and need to do things our way.

I think some of us just need to tell someone about Jesus.

Do we still believe that there is power in the gospel? That the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God? (1 Corinthians 1:18) 

Do I believe it? Do I believe that the gospel that comes forth as I share my testimony has the power of God on it? Or have I, we, become far more comfortable inviting people to church, or to an outreach event, than we are inviting them to know Jesus through our own story?

Bringing someone to church isn’t bringing them to Jesus. I will stand by that statement, as offensive as it may sound. Inviting people to come to church isn’t wrong, or a bad thing. But it isn’t the model we have been given in the scriptures. The picture we have is that people encountered the Messiah, and then went to tell someone what they had seen, often bringing them back to Jesus. And when Jesus left the earth, we see the disciples going out and doing the “greater things than these” that Jesus spoke of in John 14:12-14. And all those people who believed in the Jesus they were being told about, became the Church. Today, those who believe in the Jesus we’ve seen and tell them about, become the Church.

People were seeing and telling long before Jesus told them to go make disciples of all nations. But we’ve made that great commission our flagship scripture for so long that “missions” is now where people are told about Jesus. Why tell my neighbor about the life changing encounter I had with Jesus, when I can invite them to an outreach event at church instead. Something safe. Unintrusive. Non-threatening. I wonder. If we truly believed our theology of heaven and hell, would we care about being unintrusive? I wonder if it’s time for the Church to get intrusive. Become threatening to the schemes of the devil. Walk in the power of the Holy Spirit to be His witness as we go, everywhere we go.

We have seen. We have seen Him in our lives. So let’s be followers of Jesus and tell someone. Let’s invite them to Jesus before we invite them to church.

the walk

The trees. The houses. The concrete beneath my feet. It’s a far different landscape than the one Jesus knew when He walked this earth.  This was my random thought on a recent walk through my neighborhood. Or maybe not so random at all. Because Jesus answered my thought, turning my walk into His classroom.

The landscape is different, but He wasn’t here for the landscape. He came for people, and they have never changed. Suddenly, I found my eyes straining to see what He sees as I walked.

Perhaps living on my street is a woman caught in her sin, struggling under the weight of her guilt and shame. My ears hear songbirds and rustling leaves in the breeze…but my heart hears a voice.

“Who will go to her? Who will tell her that God doesn’t carry a rock?”

Maybe in that blue house with the white shutters is a weary mother who weeps every day for the son who has walked away from God. Perhaps her own faith is growing weak as she loses hope that he will ever return from his self-destructive ways.

“Who will go to her with comfort? Who will cry out to the Father with her, and believe with her for the return of a prodigal?”

On the street behind me is a house that a wife and mother used to live in a number of years ago. Then she committed suicide, leaving a husband and two sons to cope with the devastation. A few doors down from there is a family who lost their son to a drunk driver a few years back. It was the second child they’d lost. Several families on my block have suffered a loss of income and are struggling to hold onto their place in the neighborhood. On another street nearby is a woman with two little boys. Her husband died about 5 years ago.  Now she has a boyfriend, and we can hear the yelling late at night. Sometimes the police come, and the boyfriend leaves. A few days later he’s back, and so is the yelling.

As I look at the houses that I pass every day, I get a momentary glimpse through the eyes of Jesus at the mission field I live in.

In 2007 I heard Him ask, “who will go for Me?”. I raised my hand and went to Africa. And then I went to India.  I have yet to go next door.

And then I went for a walk through a mission field outside my front door.

beautiful feet

news I live in a small town in the midwest. Not much of what is happening in the world seems to affect life here, except when I fill my gas tank, or try to find a job. But thanks to the brilliant minds of technology, I am able to open my laptop and with one or two clicks, global life is right in front of me. And with those few clicks, all of the pain that lives “over there” somewhere invades my quiet home and life. Suddenly the issues I have been focused on appear rather petty. Part of me sits up a little straighter as I join the rest of the grownups, now armed with a clue of what’s going on in the world. The other part of me wants to head right back to the kiddie table and just be petty. But it’s hard to un-know something.

So now I know. There are wars and rumors of wars; natural disasters crippling entire nations; kingdoms being divided against themselves. The discussions at the grownup table center around tragedy in Japan, radiation risks, crashing stock markets, and a place called Libya and the madman of power there. Words like Tunisia, Egypt, Darfur, genocide, reactors and meltdowns all fly past me as my brain searches frantically for Tunisia on the map in my head. Then someone mentions the name Rob Bell and the whole table erupts. And I glance longingly at the kiddie table.

They say knowledge is power. As of yesterday, I didn’t feel powerful. I felt overwhelmed and off balance. I wasn’t fearful, I just had a sudden sense that things are moving a lot faster than I thought they were. People are dying, but I have to figure out what to make for dinner. I didn’t know what to do about either one.

And then this morning, the Word of God began to speak.

From one page, one chapter, one verse to another I was reminded that He alone is God, creator of heaven and earth, sovereign ruler over all time and events, and the final authority over life and death. He laid the foundations of the earth we spin on, hung the stars and tells the ocean where to stop. Only by His consent does man move and breathe and have his being. Dominion is firmly His, and He rules over all nations.

He is my God. And this is His heart ~

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Many believe that the events we are watching in the world are described in Matthew 24. If this is true, then the world has much more to fear than earthquakes and radiation. But for those who know Him, those who have called upon the Name of Jesus, there is nothing to fear…there is just much to say. Because what we know far exceeds the importance of leaking radiation, falling stock markets, and kings who have been raised up and taken down. What we know outweighs the devastation the world is watching and living in.

Enter the reason for the strange title of this post.

“…for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” Romans 10:10-15

I know little about nuclear reactors or why it’s bad if they have a meltdown. I would be hard pressed to find Tunisia on a map, or tell you the name of Egypt’s ruler and why they don’t like him. I spend a lot of time confused when I sit at the grownup table.

standfirmBut here, in my quiet town in the midwest, I know what much of the world does not. So Lord, in the midst of pain and death, the shaking of the earth and the fear that has come with it, in all of the chaos and confusion…make my feet beautiful.

welcome to the harvest

In frustration the lawyer throws up his hands and says, “I’d have a great job if it weren’t for all these clients!”.  Of course, the humor in that statement is in the fact that if it weren’t for all those clients, he wouldn’t have a job.

In Matthew 9:35-38, they followed Him through the towns and villages, watching as He taught in the synagogues, preached the gospel, and healed every disease and sickness.  And then Jesus introduced the disciples to what it’s really all about. People. 

“When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (v. 36)  The original word for “harassed” meant weary, exhausted. He looked out and saw a crowd of tired, helpless people, and was moved with compassion.  Then He turned to His disciples and basically said “Welcome to the “harvest”. Oh, and by the way,  you should probably ask Me to send help. You’re going to need it.”

But my eyes are continually drawn to “He had compassion on them”.  Them. Tired, worn out, helpless sheep. And as usual, my mind goes to what Jesus did not have compassion on, in order for me to grasp the importance of the real object of His compassion.

His compassion was not for a ministry, or a ministry event. He wasn’t moved on behalf of a vision statement, a fund raiser or a program. The beautiful new building that we’re so proud of doesn’t do it, nor does the sermon preached in that building, (as fascinating as I’m sure it was).

What moves the heart of Jesus is people. It has always been about people. Yes, all those needy people who aggravate us, irritate us, wear us out.  Where would we be without them? Pastors would have no calling. Nor would bible study leaders and teachers. The mercy givers would have no place to put their mercy. The givers…who would they give to? (God doesn’t need your money…people do). Who would those with the gift of healing heal? Who would the evangelists evangelize? On whom would I learn to give grace? Who would I forgive? Who would teach me how very hard it is to maintain true unity?

They were led to the reason for everything. A bunch of tired, helpless, directionless people that Jesus called the “harvest”. And His heart moved at the sight of them.

I guess my final thought is this. We’d have a great Church, if it weren’t for all these sheep, wouldn’t we?