What I Would Do Differently
APPENDIX 4 APPENDIX 4
THE THIRTEEN-WEEK CURRICULUM Lesson 1: What Is Evangelism?
There are many things that come to mind when the church leadership talks about evangelism, but believers need to understand what it is and how to do it. It is imperative that the church take the sharing of their faith seriously. Jesus came to model that for the Body of Christ, he came to seek to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
Let’s start with a definition of evangelism.
The term evangelism is “calling a person to repentance from sin and acceptance of the gospel. The gospel or the Good News is that God has sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to earth in order to redeem persons and bring them into a personal relationship with himself.”1 The act of evangelism is the proclamation of God’s good news message. “The Greek root for this term, euangelion, provides the basis for the English equivalent, evangelism. In such biblical passages as John 3:16, God’s love for all humanity is expressed along with his desire that all persons will come to him through faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross and through the resurrection.”2
Jesus commissions the Twelve in Matthew 10:5 with the word apesteilen, “to send forth on a certain mission such as to preach’ (Mark 3:14; Luke 9:2).”3 Proclaiming
1Michael J. Anthony, Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 267.
2Anthony, Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education, 267.
3Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN:
AMG Pub., 1992), 237.
the gospel of the kingdom to the lost sheep of Israel was to be their focus. The gospel is good news. Bock describes the gospel like this, “its central proclamation is the good news of God’s love and initiative not only to save us from hell, but also to bring us into a healthy relationship with Himself.”4 The gospel is God’s love message extended to mankind (John 3:16), but only if they receive his son Jesus Christ, as he has presented him the Messiah, the Savior of the world (John 4:42). The twelve were to go to a selective audience only. They were to evangelize the lost sheep of Israel. “The English word evangelism comes from the Greek word, euaggelidzo, which is often translated in English Bibles as ‘preach the gospel.’ Euaggelidzo comes from the word euaggelion, which means “gospel.” Thus ‘evangelize’ literally means “to gospelize.”5
God has provided the way back to himself since he has assigned his Son to make the sacrifice of his life for man. Jesus did this through his death, burial and
resurrection. The Body of Christ now must take this good news to the world. Remember, 4.5 billion people are lost without Christ. Terry makes a noteworthy observation, “In his epistles Paul spoke of his ministry as evangelizing twenty-three times. The frequency with which these words are used in the New Testament ought to say something to us about the priority of evangelism in our churches today.”6 The gospel is the good news of God’s reconciliation love message to mankind. This ministry is to bring man and God together. We are God’s ambassadors to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to
himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us (2 Cor 5:18-20a)
4Darrell L. Bock, Recovering the Real Lost Gospel: Reclaiming the Gospel as Good News (Nashville: B & H Pub., 2010), 1.
5John Mark Terry, Church Evangelism: Creating a Culture for Growth in your Congregation (Nashville: B & H Pub.,1997), 2.
6Terry, Church Evangelism, 2.
It is extremely urgent that the church take seriously the mandate to be ambassadors for Christ and gospelize mankind, especially in light of the fact that there are multitudes of lost people who need to hear and receive the gospel of Jesus Christ because, “evangelism reflects the essential nature of God. God is by nature loving and gracious. Because of his love and grace, God desires to redeem sinful humanity and thus reconcile all the world’s people to himself.”7 The Father and the Son agreed that the Son would come to redeem man. Jesus expresses one of the reasons he came to earth in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Even when people tried to detain him, Jesus never wavered from his purpose. The Bible states, “And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them,but he said to them, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose’” (Luke 4:42-43). Jesus would often go and be alone to pray to the Father for wisdom and guidance to stay in the Father’s will.
Believers must pray and execute the ministry of reconciliation from God, and they must move forward to evangelize the lost. The Body of Christ must be about the Father’s business. Jesus has communicated the condition of humanity, “the harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few” (10:37), and what to do, “therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (10:38). Terry gives
believers seven different definitions of evangelism:
1. William Temple: “Evangelism is the winning of men to acknowledge Christ as their Savior and King, so that they may give themselves to his service in the fellowship of his church.”
2. John Stott: “Evangelism means announcing or proclaiming the good news of Jesus.”
3. C.E. Autrey: “Evangelism is to bear witness to the Gospel with soul aflame and to
7Terry, Church Evangelism, 1.
teach and preach with the express purpose of making disciples of those who hear.”
4. Delos Miles: “Evangelism is being, doing, and telling the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, in order that by the power of the Holy Spirit persons and structures may be converted to the Lordship of Christ.”
5. Peter Wagner: “Evangelism is seeking and finding the lost, effectively presenting the gospel to them and persuading them to become Christ’s disciples, responsible members of his church.”
6. Lausanne Covenant: “Evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be
reconciled to God.”
7. John Mark Terry: “Evangelism is presenting Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that people will become his disciples.”8
Evangelism and mission mobilization is a necessary key for the advancement of the gospel. This is the mandate left to the church as given in Matt 28:19-20. New Birth Cathedral of Praise must evangelize to fulfill her role in the Great Commission as she brings glory to God.
Lesson 2: What are the Different