Reply To: Evangelism and Follow Up Group Discussion 1

[Yeodikitekon Igani]

Evangelism means gospel, which is good news from a loving God to a lost world. It is a concerted self-conscious effort to confront the unbeliever with the truth and claims of Christ, with a view to leading that unbeliever into repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

These statements establish 3 significant truths which are that,
1) The subject of true evangelism is Christ.
2) The object is the unbeliever.
3) The objective is to lead them into repentance and acceptance of the free gift of salvation.

However, this great commission which Jesus gave the Church (Matt. 28: 18 -20) has been corrupted in several ways in recent times, and we can say so because, emphasis on the gospel message is often missing in some of these evangelism attempts. Sadly such attempts are designed to attract more members to the Churches that practice such.

Some of these activities include

1) Love Outreaches

The purpose of a love outreach is to create an avenue where the host extends support to any community of his/her choosing by presenting them with free gifts. As a tool for evangelism however, this can serve as an opportunity to spread the love of God and the good news of Christ.

Sadly, some Churches have corrupted the essence of such outreaches, and have been found to place greater emphasis on their kind gestures and the items being presented, as opposed to the gospel of Christ. They use social media as a platform to broadcast their good works to the general public, so as to attract the admiration of viewers and consequently more people to their meetings, with little or no care about their salvation or maturation.

2) Personal Evangelism

As the name suggests, this happens when a believer reaches out to an unbeliever to share the good news of Christ, one on one. As with every other form of true evangelism, the focus ought to be the good news of Christ and the free gift of salvation. However, we find that in recent times people are more concerned about spreading the gospel of their denomination, than the truth of God’s word. They use it as a tool to preach the superiority of their local assembly over others, with a view to convince their audience to join their church, and not necessarily the body of Christ.

3) Bus Evangelism.

This is a strategic provision made by Churches to ease the transportation needs of their members, converts and guests, attending their service meetings.

It is however very likely that these buses will not pick up the same set of people every single time. Thus, a Church that is Evangelism minded will use this as a means of preaching Christ to the passengers on board their buses, at every given opportunity.

Sadly, some Churches now consider this as a competition to pick up the most people when they gather at bus stations in places like campuses. Their focus is on the number of people they can convey to their meetings, and not necessarily the number of lives they can impact.