I do not write this to condemn those striving for faithfulness, but to commend and encourage. In my commendation I must also exhort greater effectiveness, which comes through more diligent obedience.

If one labored all life in preaching the gospel, spending very much time, resources, and energy, and only one soul was saved, the entire endeavor would be worthwhile.

In fact, if one was faithful in the whole labor and not a single soul entered the kingdom because of it, it would still be worthwhile, due to the faithfulness.

Faithfulness is indeed crucial, but effectiveness and fruitfulness are undeniably the goal. A man does not labor in the field of harvest simply to be faithful. He does not preach the gospel simply to preach the gospel. It is the eternal soul of the lost sinner that must find some place within his motives. Perhaps a greater reward awaits those who succeed in various aspects of the Christian life, and I believe that Scripture says as much, but those rewards are appropriately returned to the King of Glory, for He alone is worthy.

It is not my potential greatness, success, or potential rewards that I must be concerned about. It is my fellow man unnecessarily heading to Hell and destruction, when he could so easily enter the Kingdom of God through the blood of Jesus Christ instead.

O how lost and dead I once was, and how undeserving! That is still the present state of the lost, and their blind eyes need to be opened before they perish. This is why I encourage and praise any brother or sister who so desires to be used in the lives of the lost, to bring them to repentance and salvation.

There are certainly too many who do not step out in faith into the Lord’s harvest for me to ever attempt to chase an actual laborer out of the field, so know full well that such is neither my goal or desire.

All I ask for is a moment of your time, and an honest evaluation of our methods when compared to Scripture. Perceived results must not be the sole focus, for the ends do not justify the means. Very large church buildings have been filled to the doors through many means, but church attendance is not synonymous with kingdom entrance.

I believe that God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9b) and that every believer has a role to play in the lives of the lost around them. I also believe that God knows all and that His plan and His ways will prove most fruitful and effective, if we are faithful and obedient enough to obey.

God’s plan for believers to reach the lost is simple, as His ways often are, though it is often difficult, another common characteristic of His ways. To follow His ways and obey is a demonstration of our faith and trust in Him, and “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20b).

To claim that God’s way is best while still doing things one’s own way, or according to the traditions of men, is hypocritical, since one’s actions testify against one’s words, demonstrating the lack of both faith and obedience.

Since He has proven Himself faithful, we must trust Him. To reach a dying world we must go into a dying world. However, our modern traditions prefer the opposite. It appears that we would rather invite the dying world to come to us. Though I am not sure why we would prefer them to do all the “leg-work,” by and large, this is often the case.

We challenge the Lord’s command for us to go with our own invitation of “Come.”

Though He has sent us, we invite them, and unfortunately, in doing so, we are telling God that we have a better way than that which He prescribed. We have become like the Jews who still reject Christ and practice Judaism. They have no Messiah, nor Temple, and therefore no sacrifice for their sins. However much they may beat their chests and cry for forgiveness, it will not come, for they are rejecting God’s way in order to continue in their own, and perish in doing so.

I dare not say that our disobedience in this area will cause us to perish, and to be sure lost souls are still being saved, but our full potential will never be reached apart from following God’s plan, and doing His work His way. Why shall I rejoice over five souls saved when there could have been another forty five if only I had trusted and obeyed? Indeed the five are well worth rejoicing over, but the dark cloud of remaining lost souls that perish should at least dim the light of my perceived success or effectiveness.

I have just one final thought to ponder before we really open the Word. How is it that so many of our “outreaches” are actually intakes? Why is it that since so many people feel “threatened” by going to church that we try to remedy this by having “non-threatening” events at church to entice them to come, so we can then “threaten” them with the gospel?

Considering the potential hypocrisy in this, I once raised such a question during either an Adult Sunday School Class or a Midweek Ministries Bible Study (I forget which). After some time of no one answering or commenting, the group nonchalantly moved on to the next discussion as if I had never asked such a question.

What insights can we gain from Scripture on the subject of evangelism? From the moment Jesus first met Peter and Andrew, He let them know what He was calling them to do.

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19b)

Though they most likely did not completely understand this at the time, just as their occupation sent them out casting their physical net into the sea to catch fish, so Jesus would send them out into the world to “catch” men with a spiritual net. In physical fishing, it is much more successful to cast nets into the sea to catch fish, rather than to invite the fish into the boat first, and then attempt to grab them.

We would do well to remember that “the church” is a people group and not a building. Simply put, a gathering of believers is not a place for a non-believer.

“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?” (1 Corinthians 14:23)

Even Scripture testifies that unbelievers may indeed happen to walk into church meetings, but the church meeting is not for them. We should not invite people to church hoping that the preacher will preach the gospel to them. We should have preached the gospel to them ourselves long before that. If they believe, then we should welcome them in as family. If do not yet believe but still ask to come to a gathering, then we should not forbid it.

Preaching to believers in a gathering of the saints should be focused on feeding the flock, not seeking the lost. Preaching to unbelievers is to be focused on the Gospel, coupled with the Law, so that the Gospel makes sense.

These are two different types of preaching, for two different purposes, with two different audiences.

Why does a fisherman cast his net into the sea?

That is where the fish are, in the sea.

They are not in the boat.

Why should we “fish for men” in the world?

That is where the lost sinner is, in the world.

The lost sinner is not in the church, or, technically, he shouldn’t be.

Even if some lost sinners are in the church building, billions more are still in the world. If we only sow where very few lost are, then we will only reap sparingly.

Immediately prior to giving His twelve disciples power and sending them out for the first time, Jesus commanded them to pray.

“Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

If the disciples immediately obeyed and prayed, then they would have been the first answer to this prayer, but only because they actually went when they were told to “go.”

The Lord of the harvest sends His laborers into the harvest.

No farmer opens the doors of his barn and invites the grain in.

He first must go into the field to harvest it.

Only after it is harvested is it gathered into the barn.

Though our doors, both at home and at church, should always be “open” to the lost, the fact remains that when the lost are invited to church, most do not come. When they are invited to a Christian event, most will never show.

Christian events and church meetings are spiritual, and the natural man cannot understand. He fears what he does not understand, and exercises his free will to avoid these spiritual gatherings, usually right up to his death and destruction. Unless he is born of the Spirit, he will usually not be drawn to spiritual events, and unless the Spirit reveals it to him, he will not receive it even if he does show up. This is the tragedy of lifelong churchgoers who still go to hell.

Who then is most often drawn to spiritual gatherings? The Spirit-filled. Yes, some seekers do attend, and perhaps an amount of deceived hypocrites as well, but if you look around at most church “outreaches,” who do you see? Most often, it is your brothers and sisters, (even if you do not know them yet).

Inviting fish into the boat is never as effective as casting a net into the sea, and attempting to attract the harvest into the barn is never as effective as going into the field and reaping the harvest.

God can and will use almost anything or any event. He has even used me.

However, certain means can only be so effective. God’s ways are indeed not our ways, but still His “foolishness” is wiser than all our wisdom. If we think that we have developed a better plan than that which He ordained, we are in error. If we claim that our plan is not better or more God-pleasing, but just a different means to the same end, we would still do better to try accomplishing His work using His methods.

Though they are absolutely not completely in line with Scripture, I do not denounce all these “intake outreaches.” Some do get saved. Still, they must not be our only attempts at effective evangelism. Since most will never come, then most will never be reached, and God cares about all. Christ died for all. We must strive to reach all.

Therefore, we must go where all are, into the world.

After telling His disciples to pray for laborers to be sent forth and giving them power, Jesus then sends them forth. Watch for the action that Jesus expects from His disciples in the following verses.

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not forth into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 10:5-7)

Even as Jesus is commanding His disciples where not to go and where not to enter, He is still giving them instruction in how to properly go and enter. Not to take away from Scripture but instead to emphasize, “Jesus sent” His disciples and “commanded them, saying, Go… enter… go… go, preach.” Indeed, these men were sent, so go they did.

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

Just as He once sent them, so He now sends us. Just as they once went, so we now must go.

In the so-called “Parable of the Soils,” we also have the example of a sower to consider. From Jesus’ opening sentence we see a (now) familiar action. “Behold, a sower went forth to sow” (Matthew 13:3). The sower went prior to sowing. Well, where did he go?

That we can deduce from where his seeds landed, which he apparently was sowing everywhere.

“And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side… Some fell on stony places… some fell among thorns… But other fell into good ground…” (excerpts from Matthew 13:4-8)

Of course the soil is representative of individuals, and all these types could come into the same church building or “outreach” event simultaneously, however, this is a parable, and in this parable the preacher of the gospel is likened to a grain sower, and thus the illustration stands. The sower went, sowing on his way.

It is Christ Himself who says “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28a).

We are not to beg the lost to come unto us prior to pleading with them to come unto Him. Christ did the work of salvation for them, and we are to do the work of reaching out to them. Out-reach. To gather in the harvest, we must first reach out to harvest it.

The so-called “Great Commission” in Matthew is recorded as follows: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18b-20)

Here the followers of Christ are commanded to spread the faith and make disciples. In order to “baptize” those from all nations who they were commanded to teach, this teaching obviously would have primarily began with the Law and the Gospel. Only those who love the Lord are expected to obey him (John 14:15), and only those convinced that they needed a Saviour by the application of the Law (“I had not known sin, but by the law” (Romans 7:7)) will love God for what He has done for them (“We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19) “But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)).

To do this Gospel preaching and disciple making, they were first commanded to go.

Just imagine how many converts there would now be if the Jesus’ followers had invited, instead of going. Even their eventual going had to be spurred on by persecution. It wasn’t until Saul “made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3) that “they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).

How many converts would they have converted if rather than going into all nations, the Christians instead invited all nations to Jerusalem in order to share the gospel with them?

The Queen of Sheba may indeed have come to Solomon, but she was a wealthy woman of means. How many poor, outcast, hungry, widowed, and orphaned souls would have ever heard the gospel if they had to travel to Jerusalem first? Perhaps those of Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, but that may have been about it.

Likewise Jesus commanded His followers to “Go ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Again Jesus commands, “Go.” Where are we to go? “Unto all the world.” Interestingly enough, “all the world” includes grocery stores, gas stations, schools, parks, and beaches. And what shall we do when we are going into all the world?

“Preach the gospel to every creature.”

“Every creature” includes friends, family members, neighbors, strangers, and anyone else you might encounter. Again, the command is simple, though often difficult to obey.

As believers, when we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we received the Holy Spirit, in all His presence and power.

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” (Ephesians 1:13)

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13)

We can therefore see how the following verse applies to our lives as well.

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Once more, we can see the role of Christians in the earth. One could never get from Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the earth without going. The message of the cross is to be taken out into the world.

The Gospel is not something to leave within the church building until we need it again, or until we find some lost sinner sincerely seeking, whom we can quickly invite to the next meeting or outreach.

Am I against “outreaches” that occur within church buildings? Not at all.

Nevertheless, we must admit that Scripture proves this is not God’s prescribed method of evangelism, and often the statistics testify that such “outreaches” are not the most effective. Many of the “decisions for Christ” and “converts” these events make are just that, “decisions” and “converts” that the event made.

The Lord certainly did not convert them, or we would see a new birth in their lives.

Interestingly, much of the evangelism recorded in the New Testament did take place inside the spiritual worship centers of the temple and synagogues, but, I am sure that you can realize, with the transition from the old to the new covenant, why these areas were targeted and harvested from. This is where the spiritually minded “lost sheep” of Israel congregated.

Any outreach or event can and will be used by the Lord, and differing from one on one evangelism, preaching to groups allows many to be exposed to the Gospel at once. I care not why or how the lost sinners gather, or who does the gathering. If the world gathers them for a parade, or the 4th of July, or a festival, so be it. There they are, so let us share the truth with them now before they perish. If we can gather them into our church buildings for an event or at a local park for a concert, then let them come and let us pray our hardest and do our most diligent to expose them to the love of God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What I do desire is to encourage more thought, prayer, obedience, and efficiency in attempting to reach the lost. I have seen large events that looked very shiny, cost very much, made a lot of noise, but were not very effective.

We have played our music, brought in famous speakers, and provided a free dinner buffet, why have they not come? I would hate to see the blessed brothers and sisters planning these events become discouraged and either give up or grow complacent. I would much rather have them re-evaluate and reattempt.

In the past week (at the time I originally wrote this) I have begun reading Springboards for Effective Evangelism by Ray Comfort as well as praying for and attending a large “Harvest Crusade” simulcast outreach event.

In his opening forward, Ray writes,

Our Gospel “outreach” services only reach a drop in the vast sea of lost humanity. Our larger, combined church crusades cost the earth, and reach mostly Christians gathered for a combined church crusade

(Ray Comfort, Springboards for Effective Evangelism, Living Waters Publications, Livingwaters.com)

I read these words only a day or two prior to witnessing such an event with my own eyes.

This was a big event, with an almost purely Christian audience.

This must have been the case for the host site as well, because the whole stadium appeared to be cheering after some very narrow, Biblical views were shared, and I could not see a lost sinner celebrating such truth.

I asked a young brother what he thought once the event had finished. With serious grief in his voice, he replied, “It was church.”

I will not go into details, nor critique the entire event, but his evaluation was quite accurate. I guess that having “church” in a non-church building is not the best way to reach the lost.

Mid-event I ran into a girl in the parking lot, desperately pleading on her phone for a ride out. She had realized that this was a church event and wanted nothing to do with it. Lord willing, her day of salvation will come.

When I asked a sister what she had thought of the event, she despairingly said, “There was no Law.”

This is most likely our biggest failure as Christians when it comes to sharing our faith.

Even when we do preach the true Gospel, we too often forget the Law. I believe that we are to preach the Law to the proud and grace to the humble. A man’s pride and self-righteousness must first be removed by the Ten Commandments before the cross will ever appeal to him. Until he is humbled, the cross is offensive foolishness.

I have just one additional concern to mention on such events. I know that we are in a war, but the war is a spiritual one. I earnestly plead that we choose to no longer call any Christian outreach a “crusade.” So far as I know, the Crusades were just one of many extremely unchristian acts carried out by supposed Christians.

Nowhere in the New Testament do we either see believers behaving as such or God commanding such behavior from believers as those things that took place during the Crusades. Also, if we choose not drop the word “crusade” from our attempted harvests, then perhaps we would be wise not to invite any Muslim friends that we have.

As a people, Christians need to quit looking to others to get the job done for them. It is not your Pastor’s job to evangelize your lost friends or family.

Hopefully on the big “church days” every year, Christmas and Easter, the gospel will be preached from every pulpit.

Those are still days that church buildings seem to become filled with lost souls.

I would also strongly recommend that you talk to your church’s leadership and recommend that someone shares their personal testimony every Easter and Christmas. Testimonies speak to the lost, and that is why God has given them to us; to share.

Maybe you should offer to share yours.

On days that the church buildings do not fill with lost sinners though, you still have a responsibility. Preaching the Gospel to the lost is intimidating, and it is ok if you are uncomfortable and intimidated.

Ray Comfort has pointed to 1 Corinthians 2:3&4 as qualifications for a gospel preacher.

“And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:” (1 Corinthians 2:3-4)

If you are weak, afraid, trembling, and not eloquent, then God will have to work through you, and that is far preferable anyway.

If you have never read One Thing You Can’t do in Heaven by Mark Cahill, I would suggest that you do soon. You may also want to check out his video, “Lukewarm no More.” Both are worthwhile gasoline to add to your spiritual fire.

Also, visit livingwaters.com and check out “The Way of the Master.” If you step out in faith, not only will your brethren encourage you, but the Holy Spirit will lead and guide you.

Recently a number of brothers have shared with me a prompting to open air preach, and concentrate on more street evangelism. I too am now being lead to do so, and I hope that you will consider the things that I have shared.

“He that winneth souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:30b)

Let the Christians not only rise up, but also wise up!

If we want them to come into the kingdom of God, let’s go make sure that they get the chance.

To check out an original video on evangelism check out my post “Evangelism: Getting Your Head Right” from the MEN OF GOD 2012 Men’s Conference.

I’ll see you in the harvest!

“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

“For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16)

2+2=4

Thanks, @narrowminded

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