January 29, 2011

Evangelizing Believers

"This story was written so that YOU may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and so, by believing, that YOU may have life in his name."
Assuming John wrote to a mixture of believers and unbelievers, then apparently John felt believers and unbelievers alike both needed to be "evangelized". And we do. So, then, what is True Evangelism?

If Evangelism is defined as sharing Jesus with someone so that they may believe and have life... why would anyone think we're supposed to do that only for non-christians?

Personally, although I do NOT believe every christian is necessarily called to attract new believers into the fold, I most certainly DO believe every christian is automatically gifted with a spirit and voice that is able to speak His Name. And this means that if someone will just teach us how, we can all be trained to bring Life to the church by speaking HIM to one another.

There is LIFE in His Name. Why do some act like the "laity" should minister Jesus Christ only to unbelievers, and never on Sunday morning?

4 comments:

Johnny said...

Because it might disrupt the program, of course. You know that they can not have that.

Sheila said...

Why indeed?

Josh L said...

Oh brother, you know why.

Craig said...

Good observation Bill. I agree with Johnny, but more specifically, I think that it's a product of believers misunderstanding their purpose for gathering on the Sabbath. Is it for evangelism or is it for the edification of the body to bring glory to the head, Jesus? http://jephandcraig.com/?p=1014

If we understood this correctly I think the walls of clergy / laity would fall. That's a BIG "if" though.

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