Introduction:
A. One day a five-year old boy ran to answer the telephone, and answering it said, “Hello.”
1. A woman asked him, “Is your mother home?”
2. “Yes,” the boy replied, “but she’s changing the baby’s diaper and can’t come to the phone right now. May I take a message?”
3. “Yes,” the lady was impressed, “tell her Mary Jones called.”
4. “How do you spell Mary?” the boy asked.
5. “M-A-R-Y,” came the reply.
6. A long pause followed, and the little guy asked, “How do you make an M?”
B. You see, this little guy was very willing to share the message, but he simply didn’t know how to, and that’s how many people feel about evangelism.
1. Last Sunday we focused on our great calling to share the good news with others, and the fact that so many need to hear the good news because they are lost.
2. I ended with the E1R1 challenge that “each one reach one” this year.
a. How exciting to think that our church could double in size in 2015 if each one reached one.
3. But just like the little boy in our opening story, those of us who wish to reach unbelievers for Christ need to be both willing and able. To be one without the other is not helpful.
4. We can be able to share our faith, but not willing to do so. And maybe that’s where some of us have been.
5. Or we can be willing to share our faith, but are not be able to do so.
6. The last thing I want is for us to be convicted by Jesus’ command to make disciples, and then not have a clue as to how to begin.
7. So, in this week’s sermon and next week’s sermon, I want to help us to be more prepared to share our faith.
C. For every task that we face, there are many approaches or methods that we might employ.
1. What is true with most things is also true with evangelism.
2. Some methods are certainly better than others.
3. And some approaches are better suited to each of us than other approaches.
4. The key for success is not only employing the most effective approaches, but employing the ones that best match our own individual personalities and gifts.
5. Today I want us to get very practical in the “how to” of outreach.
6. Let’s spend some time talking about different approaches to outreach and see which approaches are the best fits for you and for me.
I. The Proclamation Approach
A. The proclamation approach involves proclaiming the good news about Jesus, simply and clearly.
1. God gave Peter and Paul many opportunities to proclaim Jesus to groups both small and large.
2. Can you think of a better person than Peter to stand before the Jews on the Day of Pentecost and proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah? (Acts 2)
3. Can you think of a better person than Paul to stand before the Greek philosophers in Athens and argue that there is only one true God? (Acts 17)
4. Perhaps God has given you gifts of communication.
5. You may have a gift for teaching and reasoning and perhaps God will open doors for you to speak to groups in a public forum: like a high school, or a collage dorm room, or a living room.
6. If this is the case, then you need to employ your gifts with faith and love. You need to speak for Christ in those places and at those times.
7. Advances in technology has brought new avenues for proclamation has come through the use of the internet.
a. Many Christians are effectively sharing their faith in chat rooms, on blogs and websites designed to teach the gospel.
b. So the internet may be a place where you can effectively share your faith.
B. In reality, however, many of us are not given these gifts, nor these platforms or opportunities.
1. Most of us will be called upon to use a different approach other than the proclamation approach.
II. The Testimonial Approach
A. The blind man from John 9 is a good example of someone who effectively used this approach.
1. From the get go, this man didn’t know very much about Jesus nor about religion, but he knew what Jesus had done for him. He knew the difference that Jesus had made in his life.
2. He said, “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see.” (Jn. 9:25)
B. The Apostle Paul also used this approach on many occasions.
1. Twice in the book of Acts (22 and 26) we see him sharing his testimony of how he came to believe in Jesus.
2. And as you recall, his was a very dramatic conversion – he was blinded by Jesus while on the way to persecute Christians in Damascus and Jesus told him he was a chosen instrument.
C. I’m certain that there are many people in your corner of the world who need to hear your story about how God is working in your life.
1. Rest assured that your testimony doesn’t have to be dramatic to be effective.
2. Some people might discount a dramatic testimony and excuse themselves from spirituality saying, something like: “Certainly people like that need religion, but I’ve never been that bad or that down and out.”
3. Your everyday story may relate to their everyday life and show them that they, too, need the grace and direction of God that you’ve found.
III. The Invitational Approach
A. Many of us may find that this approach suits us well.
1. In this approach we simply invite others to join us as we participate in Christian gatherings.
2. So, we might invite someone to join us at a worship gathering like we have every Sunday morning, or for a special worship gathering like we have on Friend Day each Fall.
3. Other things that we might invite someone to could include, our small group, a special seminar, a neighborhood Bible study, or a special concert.
4. Another thing we might invite someone to do is to study the Bible with us, or to simply read the Bible with us.
B. What we are doing when we use this approach is trying to have them experience something that we have experienced.
1. The Samaritan Woman in John 4 used this approach with her friends back at Sychar.
a. Do you remember her story?
b. She met Jesus one day at the well and Jesus began a spiritual conversation with her.
c. Using the powers that Jesus had, being God, he showed that knew everything about her.
d. He then revealed to her that He was the Messiah that everyone was waiting for.
e. Being so impressed and overwhelmed by all of this, the woman ran to town to tell her friends about her experience.
f. What was her invitation to her friends? “Come and see the man who told me everything I ever did.” (Jn. 4:29)
g. Her friends followed her out to Jesus and spent time with Him and came to faith.
h. They declared, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” (Jn. 4:42)
2. Philip said a similar thing to Nathanael, “Come and see the Messiah.” (Jn. 1:46)
3. Our most effective outreach approach may not be proclamation, or testimony, or anything else, but just a simple invitation to come and see the church family, or come and hear the good news, or come and experience the small group.
4. George Barna’s research showes that about 25% of adults in the U.S. said they would go to church if a friend would invite them.
5. The Institute for American Church Growth asked over 10,000 people this question: “What was responsible for your coming to Christ and to this church?” 79% said a friend or relative invited me.
6. Here is an example of the business cards we have available for you to carry with you and give to people as you invite them to worship.
IV. The Service Approach.
A. Christians have always been known for their acts of kindness whether it be in nursing the sick, or feeding the hungry.
1. These are certainly two of the ways we can let our light shine.
B. The Bible says in Acts 9:36 that Dorcas was “always doing good and helping the poor.”
1. She was well-known for her loving acts of service which she performed in the name of Christ.
2. Specifically, she made robes and articles of clothing for widows and needy people in her town.
3. As people observed her caring activity, they got a glimpse of the love of Christ that inspired her.
4. Dorcas was so important to the work in Joppa that when she died a premature death, the disciples sent for Peter who raised her from the dead and put her back into service.
C. The service-style of evangelism touches people in ways that no other way can.
1. A person’s service and self-sacrifice may get the attention of not only the person being served, but also those nearby.
2. So, give thought and pay attention to ways to serve - take a meal to a neighbor who is sick, clean their house, help someone fix their car, mow their yard, clean their gutters, listen to them when they need someone to talk to.
3. And as a congregation, let’s be thinking of ways to respond to the real needs of people around us – whether it’s food or clothing, home repair, or child-care.
4. Our bread and clothing ministries are giving us opportunity to serve our community and build relationships with those who come for bread and clothes.
5. Let’s keep looking for ways to serve others so that doors may be opened for the gospel.
V. The Relational Approach.
A. This approach is what we sometimes call “Friendship Evangelism.”
1. This was the approach that was employed by Matthew the tax collector, when he invited all his irreligious friends to a party where they could begin a relationship with Jesus and the disciples.
a. At that party, he mixed the “sinners” with the “saints.”
2. This approach is a little different than the invitational approach, because in this approach you are not inviting someone to a spiritual event, but a social event.
a. If we invite someone to church or to a Bible study, they may say “no thanks!”
b. But if we invite them to come watch the Super Bowl, or invite them over for dinner or a party, they may say, “Sure.”
c. As we do so, we are trying to create environments where Christians and non-Christians can rub shoulders.
B. Paul shared with us his understanding of this approach when he said that he “became all things to all men, so that by all possible means he might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).
1. In other words, Paul tried to meet people where they were.
2. He would show interest in them and in what they were interested in, so that he could build a relational bridge.
3. So, if this approach fits you, then open up your home and your life to others and watch the Lord do His work building relational bridges for the gospel.
VI. The Conversational Approach.
A. This final approach is one that we spent a lot of time discussing and practicing in the Outreach Seminar we had a few years ago.
1. This approach is actually something that might be used in conjunction with a number of the other approaches already mentioned.
2. The “conversational approach” has to do with trying to bring about conversations with people about spiritual things by asking them questions.
3. We need to learn to ask questions about basic spiritual things like God, Jesus and the Bible.
4. How will we know what people think about spiritual things if we don’t ask them?
5. And how will we know where to begin to minister to them if we don’t know where they stand and what they are thinking?
6. When it is appropriate, we can ask what they think or believe about God, Jesus or the Bible.
B. Or we might want to explore other more general topics with our questions.
1. We might ask about their hopes for their family, and then move into what the Bible says about family.
2. We might ask about what they think the meaning of life is, and then move into what the Bible says about the meaning of life.
3. A good question that people might find interesting is “Do you think that the majority of people will go to heaven when they die?” Then we can ask if they would like to know what the Bible says about that.
C. After we ask a question, then we need to listen.
1. And then keep asking questions, like: why do you think that way?
2. Dennis Menear, the seminar leader, kept saying, “Be like a 4 year-old, and ask a lot of questions. Why? Why? Why?”
3. These conversations will hopefully turn into an opportunity when the person in return asks you what you think about the question you asked.
4. And hopefully it will turn into a Bible study.
5. I have made copies of a tract called “Got Questions” that you might want to have available. Depending on how the conversation goes, you might want to give the person a tract to take and look over.
a. The tract has questions and then gives appropriate Scriptures that address the question.
Conclusion:
A. As we look over the list of ways to evangelize, we will realize that some people will only be gifted to employ one or two approaches, whereas others may be gifted to employ most or all of them.
1. The important thing is not how many of the approaches we can be engaged in, but that we be engaged in the ones that our gifts and personalities are suited for.
2. It is also important to be sensitive to the needs of the person we are interested in reaching out to.
3. If we can’t reach out to them in a way that will mesh with them and their needs, then maybe we will need to get someone involved who can.
4. Take a moment and “circle” or put an “X” next to which of these outreach approaches you either are already employing, or you want to begin employing with God’s help.
B. Let me end with some powerful thoughts about evangelism in the form of this poem:
“I stay near the door. I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which people walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I, crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind people, with outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door, yet they never find it…
So I stay near the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world is for people to find that door - the door of God.
The most important thing anyone can do is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands and to put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks and opens to the person’s own touch.
People die outside that door, as starving beggars die on cold nights in cruel cities in the
dead of winter - Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it - live because they have found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it, and open it, and walk in and find him. So I stay near the door.”
C. Are you searching for the door this morning? We want to help you find the door of God.
1. Are you willing to come inside and find God?
2. We hope that you will come inside and find the only life worth living.
D. For those of us who have found the door and have come inside, will we stay near the door?
1. Are we willing to help others find the way inside?
2. I hope so and I pray so.
3. I want to encourage you to experiment with the different approaches we’ve talked about today until you find the ones that best fit you.
4. Paul wrote, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:5-6)
5. Next week, Lord willing, we will talk more about what to say and how to say it.
E. For now, I also want to encourage all of us to begin our outreach efforts with prayer.
1. I want to encourage us to make a list of people who we want to help draw closer to God.
2. I want to encourage us to pray for those individuals every day.
3. Let’s be praying that God will give us many opportunities to share our faith with those people and others as well.
4. Let’s be praying that we will have the courage to reach out and speak about our faith.
5. And let’s be praying that we can make the most of every opportunity to help someone find the door of God.
6. Jesus is that door – He is the way, truth and life – He is the only way to the Father.
(Much from this sermon comes from Hybils’ Becoming A Contagious Christian, chapter 9)
