Reaching People for Christ

God calls His people to help build His kingdom in every nation and in every country. How do we practically do that? How can we reach people for Christ all over the world? George Verwer has many years of real life experience in doing just that. He says the way God's people respond to God's grace has a powerful effect on other people for God. Responding to the needs we see around us and serving our neighbors and communities will help spread God's message to people who need to hear it.\r\n

The mission God has given His people is to go out and spread His message. Studies have shown that the American church is not growing, but possibly just moving members around from one church to another. However, God says there is plenty of room for more people, just like in the parable of the wedding banquet! So what is the problem? Find out what Jim Leffel has to say could be holding people back from God and what we can do about it.\r\n

George Verwer argues that believers do not have to travel to another country in order for God to give them a heart for that country. A commitment to world evangelism will change your life! Verwer says that if we are going to reach people with God's message, we have to get into their lives and meet people where they are at. This is exactly the example we see in the Bible with the story of the Good Samaritan. Find out what else Verwer has to say about having a global perspective of the Gospel.\r\n

God has called His people to spread His message, but reaching people for God can be difficult. What is the problem? Tom Stipe theorizes that one of the reasons is we have taken the person out of personal evangelism. He thinks the way we evangelize is actually turning people away from God, sometimes right from the start. Find out what he says about how we can turn back to building personal, close relationships with others, and why that attracts them to God's message.\r\n

God calls His people to reach the world with His message. How did the disciples win the world? Tom Stipe points out that the disciples went out and loved people in the way Jesus taught and it worked. How then do we maintain an evangelism ethos in our churches? Tom argues that it is through building relationships. He primarily focuses on the example of David and Jonathan.\r\n

There are three common characteristics in effective cell churches: 1) devotion to prayer as a church; 2) individual quiet time in prayer; and 3) having a prayer shield (requesting prayer). A survey revealed that time spent in daily devotion was correlated to cell group growth. The findings of the survey line up with what Scripture teaches in this area. Effective cell leaders prioritize prayer and teach their people to prioritize prayer.\r\n

Being an evangelistic champion can be learned. There are six observations we learn from Paul as he champions evangelism with the Philippians: 1) he expresses excitement about them being partners in sharing the gospel; 2) shares recent experiences in outreach; 3) reports and rejoices in the spread of the gospel; 4) issues the challenge to be witnesses; 5) extols those who work hard at it; 6) prays with and for one another. Anyone can be an advocate for evangelism. Commit yourself by God's grace to be an evangelistic champion and ask God for one or two steps you can take this week to do this.\r\n

Motivating church growth through evangelism involves: facing the problem, defining it for your people creating discrepancies, and raising the appropriate level of tension. These lessons are learned from Nehemiah as he faced the ruin of the wall and sought to rebuild it. Examples are given of how Xenos has gone from a lack of growth in evangelism to seeing substantial growth. Bad news has to be faced and vision needs given for where the church should be. People are motivated when they see discrepancy and experience discontent with the present.\r\n

The welcome of the Kingdom is needed to show people Jesus. When people expect rejection but instead receive acceptance they experience Jesus. Like Jesus broke the barrier with many in the Bible, we too can move toward people and break barriers. Like Jesus, we can show compassion and hospitality to all people. We need to ask what God is up to in people's lives and seek ways to communicate the gospel to them in a way they can understand it.\r\n

In this XSI teaching the teacher explains principles to leading home church evangelism. Evangelism is a lifestyle and not a hobby and it is done by all members. The leaders need to invest in the Christians in order to help them evangelize. It is a priority to win consensus of God's perspective of the mission of the church; to disciple and to reach the lost. This can take time and isn't automatic. God causes the growth and the leaders need to stay engaged in leading their groups through the six principles taught in this teaching.

The Bible commands believers to look after the poor and deprived. An at-risk teen is a youth whose environment or behaviors have a high correlation to substantially negative future life choices. Because of all of the factors that go into bringing a teen to this point, the gospel message we bring needs to be holistic, focusing on trust, relationships, stability, and building hope.

Successful home groups are the result of diligence, which shows itself through prayer, evangelism, and community. Explore the different forms that diligence can take in several church examples and the ways that it will consistently be the same.

Discipleship is a personal, ethical, and strategic relationship where mature members help to lead less mature members to maturity and continue in multiplication of groups. Discipleship focuses on developing four areas: study, counsel, coaching, and prayer. Alternately, shepherding is a more general relationship that can help someone become a worker for God, eventually leading to discipleship if that person does grow spiritually. Both focus on the continual development of Christians.

Lifestyle evangelism means focusing on other people's eternities. Believers do this by freely distributing God's love and living as people under grace; only then are they able to distribute the same grace and love. This kind of lifestyle will radically impact every area of our lives, relationships, and community.

Transitions from traditional to group-centered ministry are gradual and intentional. Looking at a church who has attempted this kind of environment several times, consider the steps that a church needs to take in order to create a revolution like this. Some of the steps include support, vision, leadership training, and fighting disappointment.

The Bible says leading churches is a good thing to aspire to, but how can we help leaders? Coaching and overseeing home group leadership is essential to have healthy, growing home churches. It is important to learn how to help them individually, to help them understand their role in the church, and to help streamline their job for them. John Cleary explains how you can help and what is important to remember while coaching leaders; including the essentials of a healthy home church. The 5 essentials of a healthy home church are: 1) having a foundation of a faithful God, 2) growing other leaders, 3) discipleship, 4) community, and 5) evangelism.

What is our responsibility to our kids and to the kids in our church when it comes to Vacation Bible School? Kathy Steinman says that letting them have a fun time can be done at the same time we are equipping and training them to reach out to their friends with the Gospel. Learn about the stumbling blocks to having a successful, engaging, and fun VBS.

Reaching high school and college students for Christ is essential for a healthy, growing church. Learn from Tom and Ruth some of the reasons behind why it is important, what is the first step, and practical ways to reach them. They emphasize having a plan for evangelizing to students including: getting all the members of your group involved (not just the leaders) and how to get members on board with that vision. Practical ideas include: encouraging any efforts, teaching Biblical principles of evangelism, and evaluating your meetings to see if they are seeker friendly, among others.

Hear from Rich Mendola about reaching and connecting with international students. He starts with the basics of cross cultural ministry, what are some of the impressions of Christians international students leave the country with, and how many international students desire to connect with Americans during their time in the country. The foundation for reaching international students is God's great love for the stranger! Also look at what are some of the challenges we face in this type of ministry.