Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

3 October, 2006   comments: (0) Today's Evangelism   Should Church Services Ever Be Evangelistic? The tendency in our generation is to redefine church as a place where unbelievers are drawn in, appealed to, and then converted with weekly sermonettes, skits, and songs. We've come a long way from the biblical definition of what is supposed to go on in church gatherings. But the question needs to be asked, is there any role for evangelism in church services? If there is a place for it in church, then what's wrong with what Seeker Sensitive churches are doing? I attempted to make a strong case in yesterday's post - that it is unbiblical to redefine 'church' as a place where the main focus is evangelism, and the target audience is always unbelievers. I even cited one example of a pastor who prayed "Lord don't send Christians to our church", wanting to maximize his seating for unbelievers. But before we throw the evangelistic baby out with the Church Growth Movement bathwater, we have to stop and consider passages like this one posted on Old Truth yesterday, by my good friend Mark: "But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you". 1 Cor. 14:24-25 And so it is that we should expect our church services to be attended by, not only believers, but unbelievers, and people who think they are believers but aren't. With that in mind, yesterday's posting by Tom Chantry (a shameless plug for my pastor's new blog) makes a crucial point: "Preaching is to be comprehensive in scope and evangelistic in focus. Comprehensive preaching is that which proclaims the entirety of God's message. Everything in Scripture is worthy of our attention, and solid, biblical preaching will challenge the church to know the whole Bible. (Acts 20:26-27) Evangelistic preaching is that which constantly draws attention back to the person and work of Jesus Christ, who by His atoning sacrifice saved His people from their sins. (I Corinthians 1:17, 23) Church members should recognize the burden this puts on the preacher; he must seek to teach and proclaim the whole Word without loosing focus on the gospel! This will not be done in one message; only over the course of years can such a task be accomplished." Expecting unbelievers to be in attendance, it is important for our churches to be "seeker-friendly" but we want to do so without being "seeker-centered". And therein lies one of the big problems with the Church Growth Movement, they overshoot "seeker friendly" and end up centering their core church services around unbelievers. As I mentioned yesterday, that defies God's design for what churches are. Part of being "seeker friendly" involves just that, being friendly to new-comers. But the primary means of evangelism in church is always the preached word. Hopefully the attitude of our churches reflects these sentiments of the 16th century Reformer - John Calvin, in his comment on Isaiah 2:3: "The godly will be filled with such an ardent desire to spread the doctrines of religion, that every one not satisfied with his own calling and his personal knowledge will desire to draw others along with him. And indeed nothing could be more inconsistent with the nature of faith than that deadness which would lead a man to disregard his brethren, and to keep the light of knowledge choked up within his own breast. The greater the eminence above others which any man has received from his calling so much the more diligently ought he to labor to enlighten others." Contrary to the wisdom of our day, evangelistic sermons do not have to be patronizing man-centered 'talks' with a few bible verses sprinkled in for good measure. Today's churches should take a page from the Puritans, as Joel Beeke describes them in one of his books on this topic: No wonder, then, that a typical page of a Puritan evangelistic sermon contains five to ten citations of biblical texts and about a dozen references to texts. Puritan preachers were conversant with their Bibles; they memorized hundreds, if not thousands, of texts. They knew what Scripture to cite for any concern. "Long and personal familiarity with the application of Scripture was a key element in the Puritan ministerial makeup," Sinclair Ferguson writes. "They pondered the riches of revealed truth the way a gemologist patiently examines the many faces of a diamond." They used Scripture wisely, bringing cited texts to bear on the doctrine or case of conscience at hand, all based on sound hermeneutical principles. The evangelistic sermons of contemporary preachers often incorporate verses wrested out of context or a string of texts that do not belong together. Modern evangelism, in quest of a "simple gospel," favors a mere formula, a packaged presentation, instead of the whole counsel of God. Moreover, some preachers seem to have a better understanding of professional football and television programs, or of the teachings of Sigmund Freud and Paul Tillich, than they do of Moses and Paul. Puritan preachers, for the most part, were well-grounded in biblical languages and classical learning. But they were also men who were convinced of the need to be "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever" (1 Pet 1:23). They were persuaded that the Holy Spirit worked through Scripture to bring truth home to sinners. The very thought patterns of the Puritans were steeped in the exact phraseology of the Bible. If we are ever prone to be proud of our Bible knowledge, we ought to open any volume of John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, or Thomas Brooks, note how some obscure passage in Nahum is quoted followed by a familiar passage from John--both of which perfectly illustrate the point the writer is making--then compare our knowledge to theirs. How can we explain this marvelous--for us, humbling--grasp of Scripture other than that these divines were ministers of the Word? These men obviously studied their Bibles daily, falling to their knees as God's Spirit burned the Word into their pastoral hearts. Then, as they wrote or preached their evangelistic messages, one scriptural passage after another would come to mind. Our evangelistic efforts must be similarly grounded in the Bible. We must search the Scriptures more frequently and love the Word of God more fervently. As we learn to think, speak, and act more biblically, our messages will become more authoritative and our witness will become more effective and fruitful. From: Puritan Evangelism: A Biblical Approach And to that I say Amen! Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.479   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism