Evangelism Needs People with Integrity

The community at large will not listen to a message brought by people who are living in hypocrisy. This gives us a dilemma, because every one of us has a sinful nature with which to wrestle. We stand in need of continual repentance.

Churches and Christian organizations will have to cease covering abuse, and rather expose it. Concealed abuse amounts to the condoning of crime, and abandons victims to powerlessness and unhealed violation.

Christians need a new attitude and approach to power and to sex. Sex is beautiful and its overt fulfilled expression belongs only within marriage. Sex is all too easily associated with aggression, and as something done to someone for self-gratification, rather than as a gift for the pleasure and release of the other. Purity often evokes thoughts of clean sex, because sex is about the ultimate in intimate relationship.

The pursuit of purity involves a recognition and reversal of impurity.

But purity also goes beyond the sphere of sex. Purity has to do with all that helps to build healthy inter-personal relationships. Impurity is anything which violates good relationship. So impurity includes slander, gossip, divisiveness, rebellion, and contempt for authority. It also includes contempt for and violation of the needs and rights of people by their leaders.

Purity has to do with integrity, honesty of motive and sincerity in speech. At the same time, purity is concerned with love as the compelling motive. “Truthing in love”, we are to grow up into Christ, as John Stott and Peter O’Brien would present the meaning of Ephesians 4: 15. Motivated by love we are to live a truthful life style, not merely say true things in love.

Purity is possible only when everything is seen in relation to Jesus Christ, who said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5: 8).

Evangelism Needs Prayerful Imagination

The spread of the Gospel depends entirely upon the sovereign power of God. Without his decision and his enablement, no-one can repent or be saved. Every major movement of God’s Spirit has always been preceded by dedicated and consistent prayer. God could act without us, but he seems usually to choose to work in response to the persevering prayers of his faithful people.

Ministering in the post-modern era calls for lateral thinking and openness to new opportunities to share the Gospel.

We need to move away from the old expectation that evangelism and church planting would require that all new work and every new convert should increase the size of the congregation on the church site. That is merely one way. It is also possible to plant congregations in schools or in other accessible meeting places within the community. A “parish” can consist of several (or many churches, not all necessarily meeting in the same place or even on the same day!

A pastor can provide leadership for several such “churches”, and the people of God would pray for the raising up of people who could be trained to provide proper pastoral leadership. As revival comes, we shall need an increase in the number of people being trained at all levels, including training of pastors at Moore College and training of lay leaders to assist with the teaching and pastoring of new groups and for evangelism.

We need to ask the Lord to show us additional ways in which we can reach new people, and ways in which we can facilitate their growth as believers.

We also could look at the whole area of inviting other people to our Sunday morning service. Much attention has been given in recent years to providing a warm, welcoming and attractive environment for people coming to our church. It is good to keep alert to other things (big or small) that may further facilitate this goal.

So some immediate objectives

• Pray earnestly and continually for revival.
• Pray for the church to find new avenues in which to engage people within our community with Jesus.
• Invite folk to our services.
• Be open to paradigm shift regarding evangelism and church planting.

Lindsay Johnstone

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