08.16.07

Evangelism/Outreach Talk

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:18 am by Perry

I am preparing a talk that I will be giving this weekend at the Wright State University Campus Crusade for Christ leadership retreat. Each one of the student leaders (”Shepards”) is giving a talk on either bible studies/discipleship/accountability, prayer, Real Life, and evangelism. My talk will be on evangelism and outreach. I am limited to thirty minutes to give this presentation to discuss the importance of evangelism, the relevance it has to Campus Crusade for Christ’s vision at Wright State University and what evangelism looks like on campus. It saddens me a little that I have so little time to discuss one of the most importants topics in the faith. None the less, here is my talk outline on the topic of evangelism/outreach for Campus Crusade for Christ at Wright State University.

Introduction:
I have the task to share with you in fewer thirty minutes the importance, relevance, and implications of evangelism in the Christian faith. I would say, and I hope that everyone would agree, that the Jesus’ command to share the Gospel with all the nations is the most important command given to professing believers. I would like to take the next half an hour to outline the importance of evangelism, the relevance it has to Campus Crusade for Christ’s vision at Wright State University and what evangelism looks like on campus.

I. Importance of Evangelism:
Again, the task of sharing the Gospel is the most important command given to professing believers by Jesus Christ. I would like to show you that evangelism is not something that only missionaries in Africa do but is a responsibility of all people who profess faith in Christ Jesus. To do that I need to share with you verses from the Bible because ultimately nothing I say is of any importance unless it is founded on the truth of scripture. Let me say that a true exposition of the biblical importance of evangelism could fill volumes of text books so you are getting the bare essentials with this limited time we have.

Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This section of scripture is commonly called the Great Commission. It is the last saying of Jesus recorded by Matthew before Jesus ascends into Heaven to be with the Father. It is no mistake that these were Jesus final words on this earth. Taking the gospel to all the nations (ethnos = ethnic groups) was clearly what was of most importance in Jesus’ mind. In fact, the fulfillment of Jesus’ command before leaving this earth will be what marks His return to the earth.

Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

It has become popular to discuss theological doctrines related to the end of times. If you walk into any “Christian” book store you will be inundated with shelves of Left Behind books spreading the idea that the end will come marked by terrible battles, fear, spiritual warfare and rapture but this is not what Jesus envisioned when He taught on the end of time. Jesus said clearly not to look for signs for the end but instead to share the Gospel with all people and once everyone has heard the Gospel who was supposed to hear it (what theologians call the Elect), then the end will come.

I hope you see the importance of this. Jesus’ final command on earth was to share the Gospel with all people. He also said that once this command was fulfilled then He would return to establish His kingdom on earth. We should want to fulfill this command out of love and obedience for Christ but we should be even more diligent to boldly proclaim the Gospel if we truly desire to see Christ return and be with Him in Heaven.

II. Relevance to CCC Vision:
If you are here then you are, for all intensive purposes, a member of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). As such, I want to show you briefly how evangelism relates to the mission and vision of CCC. The mission statement taken from the CCC web-site is:

Campus Crusade for Christ International is an interdenominational ministry committed to helping take the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations.

Friends, I hope you see how evangelism is relevant to the mission of CCC. Evangelism IS the mission state of CCC! The reason why CCC exists is to evangelize our world and brings lost sinners to saving faith in Christ.

You might have heard that the abbreviated mission statement for CCC as being “Win, Build, Send”. It is true that CCC devotes a large amount of resources towards maturing believers through discipleship, bible studies, and accountability groups but to be bluntly honest none of that matters if we are not “winning” new believers with the Gospel because there would be no one to “build” or “send” if we are not “winning” anyone to the faith.

III. What Evangelism Looks Like:
Finally, I would like to take the remaining time I have to discuss what evangelism looks like on campus and how it can be done. In case some of you don’t know, we have people who are committed to this ministry who have agreed to lead our evangelism/outreach team. These two people are Lauren Detty and Kevin McColl. Both of these people are strong in the faith and have devoted themselves to leading formal evangelism for CCC at Wright State. Kevin and Lauren will be organizing what we call formal evangelism opportunities on campus. These outreaches include dorm storm where students walk through dorms and talk to people about Christ, service outreaches where students serve the university in various ways to open avenues for sharing our faith, and outreach tables stationed on campus to share with students as they move around campus.

I highly encourage all of you to become involved in any of these formal evangelism opportunities when they come up. In the past, the participation in these activities has been poor at best and we are seeing the effects of it as our ministry continues to decline. We need every person to take ownership of the responsibility to evangelize. The first week of fall quarter is a time when we are saturated with evangelism opportunities. We will be having Do the U before classes start, Fall Fest the first week of classes and various other opportunities including Boogie on the Bricks, Freshmen Move-In, and Pear Leaders. All of these are university sponsored activities which provide us the opportunity to reach new freshmen with the Gospel. Tomorrow we will be asking people to sign up to help at these activities. I ask that you pray about this between now and tomorrow because the first week of classes is the most important time of evangelism for the entire year!!!

I want to mention that not all evangelism on campus has to be formal. You don’t have to wait for an e-mail from Kevin or Lauren about a formal evangelism opportunity to share your faith on campus. We should all, including myself, be using every opportunity we have on campus to talk to people about Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that when people talk about CCC they would think of people who are crazy about Jesus; that we would be a group of people who are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is often more difficult then formal evangelism because we are speaking to friends and family but it is none the less important. We could also devote time from our bible studies and accountability groups to sharing our faith. Be creative in finding ways to share your faith on campus.

Finally, I want to devote the last few minutes to give you an idea about how to share your faith and to define the Gospel for you. Let me make it clear, the Gospel is NOT “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”. If you have been told that this is the Gospel then you have been lied to. I wrote a long paper on the Gospel essentials that I would love to share with anyone who would like a copy of the article. Briefly, the Gospel includes:

a) Sin
b) Jesus Christ
c) Repentance and faith

[I wrote a more detailed manifesto on the Gospel which can be found at: http://www.adorationprophet.com/2007/the-gospel-and-its-implications/]

We must be honest with the truth of scriptures that all people have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:9-18, 3:22-24). The penalty for sin is eternal death and torment in Hell because God hates Sin (Romans 6:22-23). If you have heard that “God hates sin, but loves the sinner” then you have been misled because this quote came form Gandhi who is most certainly a man who does not know the truth of God. If someone does not have faith in Christ Jesus then they are sinners whom God will exercise great wrath against unless they repent. God hates sin and hates the sinner because the two cannot be separated from one another (Psalm 5:5, 11:4,5). God loves those who are in Christ but His hateful wrath burns against those who delight in their Sin over life in Christ. His Consider that the Bible speaks of God’s wrath against sinners over 600 times! We must not exclude from the Gospel what the Bible makes so clearly important. It is uncomfortable and difficult to talk about but it is no surprise that the world hates the truth of God. [Leviticus 26:27-30; Numbers 11:1; Deuteronomy 29:4; Mark 3:5; Proverbs 6:16-19; Psalm 5:5; Psalm 11:4-5; Hosea 9:15; Romans 9:13; Revelations 2:6]

The second part of the Gospel includes who Jesus is and what He did. This is the good news of the Gospel. Jesus Christ saves us from our death sentence by placing our faith in His life, death and resurrection (Romans 3:22-24, 1 Peter 1:18-21). We must be willing and able to tell people that Jesus is the eternal God (John 1:1) who came to earth in the form of a man (Hebrews 4:15, Luke 2:1-7), that he lived a sinless life in perfect obedience to the Father’s will (John 6:38, 57, 1 Peter 2:2-23) and that he died in our place on the cross of Calvary to redeem us from our sin and re-unite us to the love of God (Isaiah 52:12-53:11, 1 Peter 2:24). We must be willing to tell people that Jesus is the only way to salvation (John 14:6) and eternal life in Heaven and that apart from Christ there awaits eternal torment and damnation in Hell (Matthew 13:49-50).

Finally, we must give people the opportunity to respond to what we have told them. If the Holy Spirit opens a persons eyes and softens their heart to receive Christ we should humble ourselves to pray with them and be willing to devote time to getting them plugged into a ministry to grow and mature in their faith. Be bold and warn them that a day is coming when Jesus will return and judge the living and the dead and that all who don’t place their faith in Him will be forced to depart from Christ’s presence in Heaven to the depths of Hell (Matthew 7:21-23, Luke13:26-30).

IV. Closing:
Let me close by praying over all of you. Before I do, I want to share a verse from the book of Acts with you:

Acts 1:8
“But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power to testify about Me with great effect, to the people in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, about my death and resurrection.”

We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to evangelize. Jesus did not just command us to complete the Great Commission and then take off to Heaven saying “Good luck, hope it goes well”. No, Jesus loves us so much that He empowers us with the power of God through the Holy Spirit. You are never alone when you are sharing your faith. God is with you. We need to be in prayer for boldness and for the Spirit’s work in our lives to enable us to share the truth of Christ with all people.

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