How to evangelize!!!
But there is a better way.
It’s not a newer way but the ancient way. It’s the way Jesus trained his
disciples. And it is powerfully demonstrated in the first few verses of
Luke 8, 9 and 10.
In Luke 8:1 Jesus was the primary seed chucker and the twelve watched
him sow Gospel seeds from village to village, “After this, Jesus traveled
about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news
of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him….”
In Luke 9:1,2 the disciples were the primary seed chuckers and Jesus
watched them sow, “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave
them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure
diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to
heal the sick.”
In Luke 10:1 seventy two other disciples were the primary seed chuckers
and Jesus and the twelve apostles were, most likely, watching, coaching
and encouraging them as they did, “After this the Lord appointed
seventy-two others and sent them two by twoahead of him to every town
and place where he was about to go.”
It started in Luke 8 with Jesus doing the primary work of evangelism.
Soon the primary outreach work had transferred to his closest disciples.
And soon after that his followers were training other disciples.
Jesus had moved from just chucking seeds to training farmers (the 12)
and soon he was building greenhouses (building a ministry model that
multiplied both seeds and seed chuckers.)
Let me ask a simple ministry question, are you stuck as the primary
Gospel seed chucker in your ministry? If your primary outreach strategy
depends on YOU GIVING THE GOSPEL during outreach meetings
then you are stuck in Luke 8:1.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to give the Gospel (and not just at
outreach meetings but in other meetings as well!) After all, Jesus didn’t
stop giving the Gospel after Luke 8. He still preached the Good News,
but his primary strategy moved from him (chucking seeds) to them
(disciples chucking seeds) to it (building a greenhouse ministry that
naturally multiplied seeds and seed chuckers, i.e. the 72.)
How can you make the transition from being the only seed chucker to
being a farm club for farmers and a greenhouse builder? Here are 3 keys:
- Make sure you are modeling how to live out evangelism in front
of your teenagers.
Jesus lived on mission and his disciples saw it. From engaging the
woman at the well (John 4:4-42) to reaching out to taxcollectors (Luke
19:1-10) to Gospelizing top religious leaders (John 3:1-21), Jesus was
always ready to engage in a Gospel conversation. And his disciples
watched him do this again and again and again.
Are you exemplifying what it means to live a life on mission for Jesus?
Are you living out a lifestyle of evangelism that your teenagers see and
can model? Like Jesus said in Luke 6:40, “No student is above their
teacher but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.”
For help in sharing your faith check out this 4 minute video we put
together at Dare 2 Share to give you a crash course in effective
evangelism: - Inspire, equip and unleash your teenagers to share the Gospel.
Just like Jesus sent his “youth group” on mission, we must do the same.
We must inspire them to share the Good News of Jesus. Then we need to
equip them how to share it in a clear and effective way. And, finally, we
must unleash them to do it!
This is where many seed chucking classes often fail. If we teach them
how to share the Gospel but never actually take them out to chuck seeds,
they never really learn. Another way to put it is inspiration plus
information minus activation equals frustration.
- Turn your youth ministry into a greenhouse where the
multiplication of disciples occurs organically.
In it we discovered 7 common values in every youth ministry that was
seeing 25% new conversion growth on an annual basis. This means that
these youth ministries were growing as a result of new disciples being
made and multiplied. In a sense they, like Jesus in Luke 8,9 and10, were
going from 1 to 12 to 72.
I cross checked these values with the book of Acts and was blown away
by how often these seven values appeared.
If you want to turn your youth room into a greenhouse for making and
multiplying disciples get the book and go to gospeladvancing.com to
take a diagnostic to see how strong your youth ministry is in each of
these values. There are also free training videos you can watch on this
site that will help you and your team build a great greenhouse!
It’s always time to chuck gospel seeds. But it’s also time to raise up
young farmers and build effective greenhouses. Let’s get at it! And let us
help you!
Topics: Gospel Advancing