Evangelism Explosion

I recently attended an Evangelism Explosion training clinic as all of you who attend my church know. I had the privilege of spending a week in Tampa being trained in how to train others in sharing their faith.

I cannot believe how much I learned, not to mention how fired up I got to share my faith. I realize now, that I have been a very selfish person. I am selfish in the fact that I have not been sharing the gift of eternal life with people I come in contact with, even though I had someone share with me.

It is easy as a Pastor to think that I am doing enough. It is easy to have the mindset that the congregation is supposed to "Go" and that I am supposed to "Stay" because I am going to reach those who come to my church who happen to be lost. This should not be the case. This should be the exact opposite, because as leaders we are to set the example to those who look up to us.

I wonder sometimes if we don't spend entirely too much time being "churchy" and not enough time being "Christ followers." If we were truly Christ followers we would have the heart and compassion for the lost that would not allow us to even sleep without a heavy heart and burden for people all around us who have no relationship with Christ and thus no hope of eternal life.

Watch this video that will help to illustrate this point.

As you can see, we have a long way to go in order to have a true heart for the lost. I hope that we can all do everything we can to "make disciples of every nation." We must stay in a prayerful, personal relationship with God and ask Him to send us the relationships He wants us to have influence over.

I must say that evangelism as we know it is not the way we make it out to be. It is not about "selling" anything to anyone, and if that's what it is to you then you must reevaluate your motives. Evangelism is nothing more than being prepared and obedient to the "divine appointments" that are in our lives. If we are involved with divine appointments, it will make no difference whether they receive Christ or not, because you will know that your seed has been properly planted and God will send the witness later that will reap the benefits of that.

Please be intentional in your evangelism and develop relationships that God would have for you, but not because you are trying to sell someone, but because you are looking at things through the same compassionate eyes that Jesus does.