Quick Take – Imagine that you run a company and you have hired a new person.  Once you get them all signed up and through HR, you sit back and tell yourself what a wonderful employer you were because you hired someone.   Once they were on the payroll, your job was done and you would start looking for the next person to convince to come to work for your company and hire them.  Two years down the road, you have a company of one hundred employees and sometimes they show up and sometimes they don’t.  There is no real commitment on their part to come to work.  When they do come to work, they don’t do much; they just sit around drinking coffee and telling stories.  They don’t know how to do any real job and know little about your product.  But you are a great businessman because you hired a lot of people.  This would never fly at your business, but it passes for evangelism in churches everywhere.  We have to do more.  Would you do more?

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.   Col 1:28 (NASB)

And remember – Jesus wins,
Tim

     Digging Deeper - The type of evangelism we practice today is often a shortsighted evangelism focused on leading people to salvation. Real evangelism is more long sighted and leads people through salvation and on to sanctification.  The work of evangelism is not done until people grow up and are mature in Christ.
     If you think about it, the example I gave in “Quick Take” is exactly what has happened to so many churches.  The people cannot do a lot for themselves.  The people are casual observers of the ministry and not participants at all.  They know very little about the deep truths of God’s Word and that is sufficient for them.
     We have become great at proclaiming the Gospel but have fallen flat in proclaiming the New Testament teaching for believers to grow up and mature.  We get them on the “saved” train and then let them ride out the rest of their spiritual life as a passenger.  This is not a tourist train; it is a working train where each and every person must be growing into a vital job.  When did the church become a place where we ask nothing of our people?
     What about you?  You are a Christian and a leader in the world.  You might even be a pastor, Sunday School Teacher, or board member in your church.  Are you becoming a better working member of the family as time goes on?  I am not asking if you are busy and doing a lot, I am asking if you are growing.  Are you complete in Christ?  Are you trying to be?
     There needs to be a mindset in evangelism that it is more than just leading someone to a saving knowledge of Christ.  It is about planting a seed of the Gospel and staying with it until it is full grown, mature, and producing fruit.  It is not enough to be busy at your church, you have to be growing.  As you grow, bring others along and do not quit asking them to grow.  Never mistake activity for results.  The people at your company could be logging 80 hour work weeks, but if there are no profits or you are losing money, you would want some changes.  Our churches are not profiting from all the activities we are carrying out so something has to change.  Here’s an idea: what if you change and then bring someone along with you in the life changing evangelism of Christ?
     Blessings, and thanks for digging deeper with me!