Dear Friends,
Hank was
excited about his new method of fishing. He would row out into the middle of
his lake, take a stick of dynamite out of his backpack, light it, and then
throw it into the water. A big explosion would follow, and immediately fish
would rise to the top of the water. Hank then took his large fishnet and began
scooping them into his boat. The local game warden had heard about the
numbers of fish Hank was catching, so he decided to pay him a visit. He
observed Hank's new method of fishing from the shore, and when he saw how Hank
was catching his fish, he motored out to pay Hank a visit.
"Hank,"
he said, “you can't fish like that. What you are doing is illegal, and I'm
going to have to arrest you."
Hank paid
no attention to the warden's words but instead reached into his backpack for
another stick of dynamite, lit it up, and handing it to the warden, he said.
"Sir, are you going to keep talking or start fishing"?
The same
question might be addressed to the church: "Are you going to
keep talking or start fishing?” Asked another way, one might query,
"Are you going to be ‘fishers of men or just keepers of the
aquarium?’"
Sharing our
faith is more important than ever in a church culture where people are
less likely to come to church as frequently as they once did. As a result, we
must become more intentional about taking and sharing the gospel outside the
confines of the church. Believers must commit to taking the gospel to the
streets.
Statistically,
less than 5 per cent of all Christians have ever led someone to the Lord.
The church has strayed a long way from the days of the early church when the
gospel spread like wildfire because everywhere believers went, they
told their friends and neighbors the good news about Jesus. They were
gossipers of the gospel.
Today we
will spend millions of dollars to support missionaries around the world,
but few believers will even cross the street to share the good news with
their neighbors.
As pastor
and evangelist Greg Laurie reminds us, "God has called us to
infiltrate and not isolate. God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the
called," and the called are you and me. There is no impact without
contact, and unless we recapture the 'go' of Gospel, and go to our friends,
neighbors. work associates, teammates, how will they ever hear the Good News?
The last
command of the church was given by Jesus who said, "We are to go into the
world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have told
you, and remembering that I am with you always even to the ends of
the age (Matthew 28:18-20). Unfortunately, as someone has sadly said, this
last command of the church has often become the 'lost' command of the church.
If you
are reluctant to be one of the "goers" because you feel
inadequate, unqualified, untrained. or just plain fearful about sharing your
faith, let me introduce you to one of the most valuable learning opportunities
I know of for doing evangelism. In a five-session video course, Greg Laurie
will teach you how to share your faith. Go online to Harvest.org,
and click on online courses, and sign up for Tell Someone.
It's free, and I promise you, watching his five excellent half hour videos will
be some of the best evangelism training you will ever receive.
And once
trained, you can go to your friends and neighbors, share your testimony,
and some of the principles you have learned and be used by God to lead
others to Jesus.
You might
ask how do I know this to be true? Because we used the training in our
church, and as a result a number of people who had previously been 'silent
witnesses' for Jesus have already begun sharing their faith with others.
Don't be
one of those 95 percenters who will never lead someone to Christ. Instead, be a
part of God's army of witnesses who is looking to win the world for Him, one
person at a time.
Yours in faith and
friendship,
Tom
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