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EVANGELISM: THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION II. SO MANY VOICES, SO LITTLE
TIME Do
Those People Matter to You? III. RECONCILING OTHERS TO GOD
THROUGH EVANGELISM But
I Wouldn't Know What to Say IV. BIBLE STUDY: PREPARING
OURSELVES FOR EVANGELISM God’s
Grace V. PRAYER: PREPARING
OURSELVES FOR EVANGELISM Are
Your Tempted by the Power of Prayer? VI. FELLOWSHIP: PREPARING
OURSELVES FOR EVANGELISM Prayer
in the Church VII. RECONCILING OURSELVES TO
OTHERS How
Do You Forgive a Person Who Has Hurt You? BIBLIOGRAPHY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Christians are given
the charge of bringing the message of reconciliation to the world. We are
Christ’s ambassadors. It is our obligation to reconcile others to God through
evangelism. In preparation for this evangelism effort, we must reconcile
ourselves to God through Bible study, prayer, and fellowship. And we must
reconcile ourselves to others to restore unity and harmony within the body of
Christ. The World Book
Dictionary defines the word "reconcile"1 as follows: The
World Book Dictionary (Chicago, Illinois: World Book, Inc., 1993), p.
1745. Scripture quotations
taken from the HOLY BIBLE, New International Version. Copyright Ó 1973, 1978,
1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan
Publishing House. CHAPTER II SO MANY VOICES, SO LITTLE TIME Do Those People Matter to You?
§
If
you were a child starving in Africa, would you like someone who had all the
food he wants to think of you as a "prop" in his play? §
If
you were someone (anywhere in the world) who hadn't heard of Christ, would
you want His message to you to be cut off because you were only a statistic? §
If
you were a person involved in drugs and could see no way out, would you want
your hope to be smashed to pieces because you were no more important than a
wooden dummy? Those people matter
to God. (Matthew 18:12-14 ) And they should matter to you. It is not important if
you are in Act I or Act IV of the play. This is the key issue: Are you going
to keep memorizing and repeating your own lines? Or are you going to start
listening to God's voice? Let your remaining Acts be governed by God's will
and His desire for you to reach out to others. Then you will be ready for
that Final Curtain Call. Let God make a
miracle happen to someone through your openness and your obedience to God.
Reach out and take the hand of a "wooden dummy", and breathe a
spark of life into its soul through Christ!
The following
diagrams show how God can multiply a person's effort (and effect) to bring
astounding results. If a whole Church were working together with God
multiplying their efforts, can you imagine the effect that Church could have
on its community? Can you imagine the effect a Church or group of Churches
could have in reaching to the far corners of the world? There isn’t enough
paper to draw a diagram of power to that magnitude! How can we reach out
in Christian love to so many people with so many needs? More specifically,
what can I, just one person, do? What can one person do with God's help? Each of these big
boxes shows what God can do through one person. This
little box shows what
This little box shows what a (Actually, a person can't do
anything without God's help.) What can two people
do, working together with God's help? This great, big box
shows what God can do through those same two These two little
boxes show what each of the two people can do. One Step at a Time You might say,
"Witnessing sounds so complicated that I don't know where to
begin." It is true that a person's life can be a complex puzzle. But
don't worry about solving the whole puzzle or having all the answers. In your
life or someone else's life, you can deal with only one piece of the puzzle
at a time. A person develops a
relationship with God in much the same way as you construct a building. A
person needs only one building block at a time, since he can lay only one
block in place at a time. If you are handing someone building blocks too
quickly, he may be able to stockpile some of them for later use. But he can
lay in place only one block at a time. Listen carefully to know the right
building block -- which one comes next? Don't forget that Christ must be the
cornerstone of this building. (1 Peter Chapter 2) A person needs to
search himself and find some of the answers on his own. That is part of the
growing process. You can give him an answer, but he has to examine his life
and his heart to see if he can accept the answer. Remaining Focused The main question
people need answered is, "Does God love me" and then, "Do
other people love me?" Then, "How is God's love expressed to me and
you by God and other people?" Then, "How do I express my love to
God?" and "How can I express God's love to other people?" As you can see,
there are a thousand variations, but all the questions come back to, "Is
God's love real, and if so, how can it be real in my life?" Does God love us? Yes,
He does! He gave His Son to be a pathway to lead us to Him. He gave us His
Spirit to live in us and guide us. He gave us His Word, in the Bible to help
us know Him better. If you feel led to
witness to someone, don't say, "I am a Christian. I am a wonderful
person. If you try really hard, you can be just like me." You are not
the example. Christ is the cornerstone and the perfect example. If you want
someone to know you are a Christian, he will get the message much more
quickly if you show him you are a Christian, rather than if you tell him you
are a Christian. People should see
God's love through your life -- in your words and your actions. Christ is
working through you to lead them to God. But they should be looking to Christ
for the answers, not you. John 1:8 says this about John the Baptist: "He
himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light." CHAPTER III RECONCILING OTHERS TO GOD THROUGH
EVANGELISM But I Wouldn't Know What to Say Our congregation
scheduled a "No Excuse Sunday." Wouldn't it be glorious how
Christ's power could be shown through a no excuse month or life! The most
common excuse for not witnessing is, "But I wouldn't know what to
say!" Interpersonal
dynamics are a tricky matter. I will show you how anyone can be effective at
dealing with relationships with a little help from God. I am going to
illustrate this with a chain of events we have all experienced -- Staggered
Parallel Progression. This sounds too technical or mathematical, but it’s
really quite easy to follow. We've all done it and can learn from it. I would like to
define Staggered Parallel Progression (SPP for short) as several situations
in your life that can become interwoven such that they interact and build
upon and from each other. Insights gained from one experience can be used in
or applied to another experience, causing a progression to a higher level of
maturity or growth. See the following diagram for a graphic representation of
SPP. Staggered Parallel Progression
Phase
I Phase II
Phase III
Phase IV LEGEND
The insights or
steps referred to in the diagram are the same building blocks referred to in
"One Step at a Time." You may learn something (an idea, a Bible
passage, a method, etc.) in one situation and say to yourself that this idea
is applicable in other situations. Quite often, several people you know have
the same concerns. If one person can overcome his problems, ask him how he
did it and try to apply his solution to help other people with the same
problem. Maybe get them together to discuss it. SPP can be
recognized in many areas of Christian living. An experience or situation can
be a relationship with a non Christian. Actually, it can be any witnessing
situation, whether to a non Christian or to a Christian. SPP can be seen in
the many ways we encourage and support our brothers and sisters in Christ. SPP can be
recognized in a problem with which we are dealing, or a problem with which we
are helping someone else deal. It can be seen in how we are praying for
someone regularly. It can be seen in any way we are working for the Lord and
growing. SPP can be seen in any ongoing part of your life, like work, play,
school, housework you do (or work around the house), any social or business
activities. Knowing what to say
doesn't always mean going "Yakety-Yak." Sometimes it means knowing
when to say something, as well as when to be silent -- to just listen and be
there for someone. As with anything in
life, you must work toward and prepare for SPP. You must pray and read the
Bible daily. How can you know God's will in your life (or someone else's) if
you don't take the time to listen to what God will reveal to you through
prayer and Bible study? SPP shows that if
you are obedient to God (prayer and Bible study are a great start) and
express to God a willingness to do His work, He is very anxious to assist
your efforts. You have to do your homework and prepare. Then when the insight
of all your life experiences are combined (through the Holy Spirit), God will
work things out so events can just fall into place. You will find that the
words you feared never could come from your lips were right there all along!
Or perhaps God timed it so that you will learn just what you need to say
right before you need to say it! Only God has timing like that. Watch for SPP in
your life, and praise God for how it helps you. SPP Applied For each step in the
diagram I drew, I have specific, actual insights or building blocks that I
transferred from one experience to another. As I watched experiences and
situations, I used SPP to pull together the ideas for this chapter. While
examining the ideas, I discovered the relationships and then drew the
diagram. I will illustrate three general examples of this. I work for a company
that sells computers and computer services. My title is Systems Analyst. That
just means I'm a computer programmer who talks a lot. I have a sincere desire
to help people who use computers. I use my job to make other people's jobs
easier. I use my intelligence to make their jobs easier and to keep me in a
position to be able to help them. In my occupation, I
have learned that actions speak louder than words. I don't tell people I want
to help them. I don't tell people I care. I don't tell people I'm
intelligent. I do my work to the
best of my abilities and try to be responsive to the job-related needs of
people using the computers. My work and effort (my actions) tell the story
better than my words could. Words can be hollow. People tell me they are glad
they have me to help them because I care about them. I don't tell them. They
tell me this. Does this sound
familiar? In learning to be an effective employee, or worker, God has shown
me how to be an effective witness, or worker for the Lord. In "Remaining
Focused" I mentioned how actions speak louder than words. People will
see me as an effective witness because of my actions -- not by my making
hollow claims of being a Christian. My job also requires
me to communicate with people from different departments and with different
levels of expertise. I have to look at a problem or need and consider
viewpoints of different departments. I have to take very complex conditions
or conditions and break them down into sets of simpler situations so that
people at all levels of expertise can understand what is required of them. Does this sound
familiar? In "One Step at a Time", I discussed how we can deal with
a puzzle only one piece at a time. We still have to consider the whole picture,
but we can act on only one piece or building block at a time. Again, I have
transferred an insight or skill from one experience or situation to another. This has the
following advantage: You can become comfortable with one situation and learn
in it and then carry that confidence and knowledge to other situations to
express God's love. One more
example is a relationship with someone in another department where I work. I
knew she was a Christian and I wanted to talk to her about being a Christian
in the workplace. I was too scared to bring it up and didn't know what words
to use. I prayed about it and God took care of introducing the topic of
religion. One day we were
talking about my work. She asked me how I became a programmer. I told her I
had a degree in Business Administration and had never planned on being a
programmer. My college required me to take some computer courses. That is how
I discovered I could understand how computers work. I told her, in fact,
I had taken a test in high school to determine my interests (not abilities).
I answered many, many questions and the results were supposed to tell the
occupations in which I would be interested. So far, so good. The Holy Spirit was
guiding our conversations. I told her the test said that programming was at
the bottom of the list of what I would be interested in doing. Then the lightning
struck! She asked me what was at the top of the list. I felt a panic and
didn't know what to say. Then I realized she was led to the question. What
was at the top of the list? Interior Decorator, Florist, and Minister! I told her the top
three occupations and we were both immediately at ease and began sharing. I
didn't know how to approach her so I expressed to God a desire to talk to
her. He arranged the rest. It turned out that
she was excited to discuss evangelism. Her husband teaches classes on it. We
discussed how they train people by taking them along on house calls. What a
coincidence! Our conversations encouraged me to keep working on this chapter.
I learned things from our discussion that I had not been exposed to
previously. Discovering the Answers If you are asking
questions in your life, you can find the answers from many places all around you.
If you pray for guidance to do God's will, the Holy Spirit will lead you to
His will. Sources of answers
include Prayer, Bible Study, Sermons, Sunday School, Wednesday Night Bible
Study, Christian Publications, and Newsletters. You can learn from
conversations with friends. You can get answers from songs, TV ads, and
billboards. Much information is available on the internet. You can receive
insights from watching everyday happenings and even nature itself. You can think of a
question from one experience. You can find the answer from any number of
experiences, if God is guiding your will. You are not limited to finding
answers in one particular place or manner. You are also not limited to
expressing God's love in one particular place or manner. There are so many
possibilities! Witnessing Possibilities When you get up in
the morning, say "Something wonderful is going to happen today!"
and believe it. Have faith that God is going to work through you, in both
long-term and short-term relationships. By "wonderful" I mean
something that will bring glory to God. It may not always seem like fun to
you at the time, though. You can't pick or
choose what is going to happen -- you have to let the Holy Spirit lead you to
God's will. You may express to God a desire to witness, but the Holy Spirit
has to lead you to a person. At the same time, He leads that person to a
point in his life that he is ready to make a commitment. You are following
God's cue and the other person's cue. You can't decide they are ready because
you want them to be ready. You don't start by
telling them that you have all the answers. They might not be asking any
questions. You start by living a certain lifestyle that conveys God's love
and attracts them to that love. The Holy Spirit can lead you to knowing the
building block they need, when they are ready to look for it and accept it
(it being Christ). Don't be discouraged
if they do not respond to you. Keep praying. Perhaps your caring attitude and
loving spirit will sustain them until they are ready to receive Jesus or
until someone else can reach them. If they have hard hearts, perhaps your
caring can soften their hearts enough to let Christ's love in. If Christ's love
shows in your life, people will know there is something different about you.
If they are looking for answers (a building block), they will look to you
because of the image you project and your openness. If they are searching
(for peace, love, etc.), there has to be some peace or love in your life that
says to them that you can lead them to an answer. In long-term
relationships, you don't even have to announce, "I am a Christian. Do
you want to be one, too?" at the start of a relationship. Your actions
will tell them that you're a Christian and you can confirm their curiosity by
bringing it into the conversation. When they ask how your weekend was say
"Oh I had a great time at a Lock-in" and explain or, "The
minister at Church told a good joke yesterday." This approach won’t
embarrass them. They will know you are ready to talk about Christ, but they
aren't forced to talk until they are ready or can feel more comfortable about
it. If someone asks you
what you're doing this weekend, you might say that you're going to a certain
Church function or outing (name it), and follow up by saying "I think
you'd enjoy it, want to come along?" That still isn't as threatening to
him as asking him specifically if he knows Christ or would like to know Him. Maybe you have the
personality to be able to be very direct, but some people (both the Witnesser
and the Witnessee) don't have either the confidence or the ability to make
the other person fill at ease enough to be direct at first. Praise God if you
can! Pray for assistance
in this area. Pray for confidence to speak. Pray for God to direct you to a
natural way of leading the conversation to Christ -- a way that you both can
feel more comfortable about. Some short-term
relationships do require a more direct approach. But, again, you are not
trying to solve all their problems or answer all their questions. You are
extending an invitation to which they may respond, if they feel a need in
their lives. An example of a
short-term contact is going door-to-door to invite people to church. An
approach might be to simply state "I am <your name> and I worship
God at <your Church's name>. We have discovered God's love and would
like to extend an open invitation to come share His love in our
fellowship." Leave a bulletin, calling card, list of Church programs,
and/or a pamphlet on the steps to salvation. Tell them if they have any needs
now or in the future to call you or come to a worship service and let your
needs be known. You could ask if they are currently attending a Church and if
they have a relationship with Christ. Your own level of
faith or personality may make other approaches effective. Ask God for
guidance in this matter. It is helpful in
witnessing situations when you can make the other person feel at ease, and
when you are at ease yourself. There will be times, however, that it will not
be possible for everyone to be comfortable with what you are saying. You may
be challenging their beliefs and immoral lifestyles. Evolution is an
example of this. Witnessing may even result in your being ridiculed. What if
you are in a class situation or a discussion about evolution? Genesis
explains the events of Creation as spanning seven days (six days to create
and one day of rest). If you state the Bible's stance on this matter, you may
leave yourself open to ridicule and mockery. Pray for the strength to
continue believing in your convictions and for the courage to stand up for
them. Opportunities to Share If you are cheerful
and are humming at work (or school or wherever) and someone asks you why you
are in such a good mood on such a dark and dreary day, tell him. You are
happy because of your relationship with Jesus Christ. You are happy because
God loves you. You are happy because you were working on something for the
Lord last night and you feel good about it. People at work
sometimes make references to God and the Church. Even non Christians voice
their opinions about the Church, God, and Bible-related matters. Seize that
opportunity to put in a few words about what the Bible really says about what
they just mentioned. If someone has a
problem at work, let him know you are concerned and are praying for him. Ask
if there is anything you can do to help. People talk about
the miracle of childbirth. Make a comment that recognizes God's power to
create a human being. Do you know what
these examples have in common? You do not have to try to get someone else to
say or do something for which you have a rehearsed line. You simply respond
to what people say and do everyday! He Came, He Went, He’s Coming
Back! I set out to prove
that you can gain an insight from one situation or event and then transfer
that insight to an unrelated situation or event. I have given some examples
of collecting insights to distribute them where needed. But did I ever really
prove there is such a thing as an unrelated event in your life? Every situation that
you experience (everything that you see, hear, smell, touch, or feel) becomes
a part of your being. These experiences become resources. How do you use your
resources? Everything in your
environment affects you. How do you affect your environment? Remember that
everything you do and say has an impact on those around you. When you affect
people's lives, will those effects be beneficial or detrimental? What kind of
impact do you have on those around you? What kind of impact would you like to
have on those around you? The old Carpenter's
hit song began like this: "Sing ... Sing
a Song ... Make it simple, to last your whole life long." The wisdom of this
song is that God's message is simple. Keep it simple to make it last.
Continue to grow, but hold on to God's love and His message. When you are
witnessing to a new Christian, you have to keep the message simple and
direct. The Bible's simple
message about Christ is this: He Came, He Went, He's Coming Back. Read Acts 1:1-11. He
came, He taught, He died, He arose, He's coming back. He made a sacrifice --
so our sins could be forgiven. When you go through
trials and tests in your own life and all your logic and complicated
reasoning are stripped away, you must hold on to some simple truth. But what
will that be? One simple message: God's love. If you remember that, you can
build anything with Christ as the cornerstone. Although the message
is simple, keep growing in your faith and knowledge of the Word. One time when I went
to the doctor for a sinus infection, he said to take all the antibiotics in
the bottle. He said the medicine would make me feel better in two or three
days, but to keep taking the medicine because the infection would still be
there. If you stop the medicine after two or three days, you may end up
sicker than before you saw the doctor. Studying the Bible
and prayer (along with other elements of Christian living) are medicine to
your soul. If you start praying and studying, you will start to feel better
and start growing in Christ. You will see fruit from your labors. But don't
stop taking your medicine because you think you have gotten what you need to
do Christ's work. Keep on growing and keep taking your medicine. CHAPTER IV BIBLE STUDY: PREPARING OURSELVES
FOR EVANGELISM God’s Grace 1.
God
sent Christ to die for us, in our place. Christ sacrificed Himself to become
a sin offering. His blood covered and washed away our sins. 2.
Christ
is the bridge between man's sinful past and God's promised future. We have to
confess our sins specifically and individually so that we may be acceptable
to God. Grace is unmerited favor, that which cannot be earned. We don’t
deserve His pardoning of our sins. 3.
Our
sins (once forgiven) are erased from God's mind. He does not hold our sins
against us or bring them up again. 4.
We
have to ask God's forgiveness. His forgiveness required action on God’s part,
Jesus dying on the cross and then arising from the dead. And it requires
action on our part, through confession and repentance. 5.
We
have to try to do better in the future. We have to try to learn from our
mistakes and ask God how to avoid the same sins. We have to ask for God's
help. What Does the Bible Tell As About
Salvation? FIVE FINGER
EXERCISE
(adapted from Walter Scott) ROMANS ROAD
Bible Study Notes 1.
Set
aside a quiet, undisturbed time for reading the Bible. 2.
Pray
for the Holy Spirit to guide you toward God's will. Pray for His help in
interpreting the Scriptures. 3.
Don't
read just one or two verses -- read the preceding and the following verses to
see the context in which the verse is used. 4.
What
was the meaning in the original language, not the English translation? Does
the word in the Bible as you understand it translate back to the original
meaning? What were the customs in
Biblical times that might affect the significance of certain circumstances.
How were these customs reflected in the people’s attitudes? 5.
What
do other passages in the Bible say about the same topic? 6.
Whom
is the author of the Book in the Bible and whom is the intended audience? Is
it written to a sinner, a Christian, a special interest group, or everyone in
general? I am not implying that there are parts of the Bible that can be
ignored because they were written "for someone else." Sometimes a
passage was originally written to a specific group of people. 7.
Ask
a more mature Christian his interpretation of the passage, but don't assume
he has to be right. Discuss your viewpoints and what led each of you to your
views. 8.
Most
people don’t have enough formal education about the Bible to follow some of
these guidelines on their own. However, there are many reference books
available on Biblical customs, history, and people. There are also study
Bibles with introductions to each chapter that give a background and
explanations of the events. There are dictionaries, concordances, etc. The
internet has many Christian websites that offer daily Bible studies and
devotionals on the sites as well as through email. There are several Bible software
packages that can provide a wealth of information on your PC. 9.
Sunday
School classes, sermons, and Bible study groups also provide additional
insight into the meaning of the Scriptures. CHAPTER V PRAYER:
PREPARING OURSELVES FOR EVANGELISM Are Your Tempted by the Power of
Prayer? God has power and
wisdom of such magnitude that we cannot even begin to comprehend it. That
power and wisdom is available to us through prayer. Would you like the
feeling of having unlimited power? Would you like the feeling of having
infinite wisdom? How do you go about unleashing and harnessing all that power
without getting overwhelmed, controlled, and possibly destroyed by the very
power you wished to control? Would you like to
drive a powerful, expensive sports car? Can you imagine the thrill and the
exhilaration you would feel when you press down on the accelerator as the car
rockets from 0 to 150 MPH? All that power at your disposal. What a feeling! Would you like to be
able to pray in such a way that you can find God's accelerator, or "gas
pedal"? Would you like to know the right buttons to push to get what you
want? If you answered, "Yes" to those questions, I believe you are
missing the whole purpose of prayer. How Should We Pray? Why Should We
Pray? Jesus did give us a
guideline, or example, of how to pray in the Lord's Prayer. (Matthew 6:9-13
and Luke 11:1-4) We pray to honor God, to praise God, to ask that God's will
be done, to ask that our needs are met and to give thanks, to ask for
forgiveness, and to ask help to overcome sin. Even Jesus prayed to God
saying, "...yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42) How can this be
summarized further? We pray to align our goals (our will) more closely to
God's goals (His will). We have to continually search for God's will in our
lives and in the lives of those around us. Part of this search includes daily
Bible study and prayer. God's power and
wisdom are not made available to us when we ask God for the power and the
wisdom to achieve our goals (our will). God's power and
wisdom are made available to us when we don't ask for it. Instead, we ask God
to bring our will closer to His will. Try to think of specific ways specific
people can do God's specific will. When you are trying
to do God's will, forget about wanting to control the power and the wisdom;
they are not ours to control. We cannot control what should be done or how it
should be done. God will guide us to
what He wants us to do. He will show us how we should do it. He will provide
us with all the resources we need to do His will. But only if we are seeking
to do what is necessary to accomplish God's will and are not seeking the
power and the wisdom to accomplish our own will. This is summarized
by the title of the song: "To God be the Glory, Great Things He Hast
Done." If you are not seeking the glory, God can accomplish anything
through you. A Sample Prayer 1.
God,
I want to do your will. Please explain it to me. 2.
God,
I trust you to know what is best for me. Thank you for your love and for
caring about me. 3.
God,
I need your help. 4.
God,
I want you to remove any obstacles in my life to doing and understanding your
will. 5.
God,
I need your love, guidance, and forgiveness. I need to feel your presence. I
need the Holy Spirit to guide me, so that I can know when I am headed in the
right direction. 6.
God,
I expect something to happen. I don't know what, or when, or how. You decide
that. But when it happens, I have faith in you that I will know the time is
right and I will know what to do and say. 7.
We
ask all these things in Jesus' name. CHAPTER VI FELLOWSHIP: PREPARING OURSELVES
FOR EVANGELISM Prayer in the Church
§
People's
physical concerns: specific people's specific health problems. o Examples: God,
please be with John Smith who broke his leg. God, please help heal Sarah
Miller and comfort her as she prepares for surgery Tuesday. §
People's
spiritual problems: specific people's specific spiritual tests or trials. o Examples: God,
please be with Frank Huntley as he is coping with two jobs to deal with
financial pressures. God, please strengthen Mary Simpson, who is having
problems within her family. §
People's
spiritual growth: general, vague requests for no one in particular. o Examples: God,
please help us to be better Christians. Please help us to do your will and to
share your love with others. Praying for people's
physical concerns and spiritual problems is very specific. We are telling God
exactly for whom we are praying and exactly what our expectations are. Fellowship in the Church
Christians need to
learn to verbalize their spiritual needs. We need to be able to express what
can be done to meet those needs and foster spiritual growth. Identify one specific
area of spiritual growth, like the need to learn to verbalize our convictions
and beliefs. It is easier to start discussing your feelings with other
Christians. If you can't talk about God with other Christians, how can you
hope to talk about God with someone who doesn't know Christ? Group Discussion Maybe we should be
less concerned with "How" to tell someone about Jesus, and more
concerned with "Why" we would want to tell someone about Jesus. The "Why"
we would want to tell someone about Jesus is that we have experienced His
great love and forgiveness. We have been rescued from an eternity in Hell’s
fires. We know Jesus loves us and we love Him. That love should fill us with
such joy that His love should just naturally overflow from us and we will
want to tell others about Jesus' love (to share that love). “May the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may
overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) We can ask God to
help us to know "How" to witness to others. Don't worry about the
words: let God take care of that. Then you can focus your attention on the
"Why" (Jesus' love) instead of the "How" (a series of
words). People in small
groups can learn together how to combine the "Why should I want to"
with the power of prayer to help focus their attention on their ability and
their desire to share Christ's love. There can be two
focal points for small groups. First, discuss why you would want to tell
someone about Christ (your relationship with Him). Secondly, pray together to
bring your specific will (goals) closer to God's specific will (goals). Wouldn't praying for
each other supply the "Why"? The strength and encouragement drawn
from this type of supportive prayer would cause the lives of the participants
to overflow with Christ's love. Their lives would overflow with so much love,
in fact, that they couldn't hide it under a bushel basket! “May the Lord make
your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as
ours does for you.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12) This kind of meeting
format could be an integral part of fulfilling some of the functions of a
shepherding program. The format and topics could be modified to fit any area
of Christian growth. Group Prayer Prayer concerns for
a small group: §
Pray
for God to help you understand His will. Pray for God to lead you to His
will. §
Tell
God you can't do anything by yourself and you need His help. Ask Him to show
you what He wants and He will. He will show you and He will help you. §
Refer
to the discussion of the Lord's Prayer in the "How Should We Pray?"
section. §
The
participants can add their own ideas about what is important to them at
prayer time. § Many of the prayer concerns are applicable in both the small group prayers and in praying done in pairs. However, some concerns will be more effectively and more comfor |
