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Pastor Robert W. Lyons, Jr. has an intense passion to do the will of God. His desire for true ministry is evident through his vision for Holistic personal development in the body of Christ. Word of Faith is embarking on a journey to proclaim the uncompromising gospel to a generation that has been over looked and neglected.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005Market Place Evangelism - II
I have seen some of your comments in regards to "Market Place Evangelism", and I thought I would do a "part II" type post!
What should market place evangelism "look like"? While I realize there are many of us that feel like the church should get "out the box" what does that mean? What approach does the body of Christ need to take in order to go and get our people? I am convinced that we can not continue to operate with business as usual in the body, we must be innovative in our ministry approach, but I realize that this innovation is actually applying the pattern of Jesus in our ministries! What can the body of Christ do differently to "get out the box"?
Comments:
I don’t think that market place evangelism is necessarily a “look.” But it’s more of an act or action (in motion, moving, progressing). Market place evangelism is seeing the homeless woman/man on the side of the street and offering him/her food, it’s going to the nursing home and showing the love of God, it’s telling young men and young women you don’t have to sleep around to gain ground (popularity) with your peers and that you can be different. It’s about going out in the community and passing out tracts and praying for the needs of the community without “selling a plate” or “taking up a collection.” It’s about giving food to the needy. “Out the Box” means stepping out of the norm. What’s meant by that is going outside of the ramifications of just doing things “for my two, and we’re through” “my four and no more.” We’re putting on all these programs and having all these conferences, but what’s all that accomplishing? Is anybody getting saved? Is anybody getting delivered? In order to “get” people or win them over to Christ, The Body of Christ must first of all be REAL. The world has seen enough glitz and glamour, they’ve seen enough dressed up, phony “Hollywood Gospel Preaching” folk until going to “Church” almost (from the outside at least) looks like a circus side-show. Next, those in our pulpits are no longer preaching Jesus Christ and HIM crucified, they no longer preach its holiness or hell, they no longer tell people you can’t call yourself a child of God and still go to the night clubs “getting jiggy with the devil.” Instead they preach A SUGAR-COATED GOSPEL, and they tell people God is love and he understands and you can live any ole kind of way and still make heaven your home. But it just doesn’t work that way. Yes, God is Love, but God is still HOLY, and his holiness must but fulfilled, he accepts nothing less than HOLINESS (holiness is still God’s prerequisite for his people-Romans 12:1-2). Last, certainly not least, we’ve got to take the Church to the people. Whatever happened to good old fashioned street services? Whatever happened to tent revivals? Whatever happened to witnessing from door to door?
I think you speak about the "look" that I was getting at when you gave some examples of methods of marketplace evangelism (tracts, tent revivals, etc.) Many of our churches think that the occasional "outreach program" is enough to make an impact, but the reality is that marketplace evangelism should be the lifestyle of the body!
From the outside looking in, the church does look like a joke, however we must change this trend by moving back to the methods of Christ!
We as a body need to realize that when we minister to others and are trying to bring others to the body we might want to stop scaring the people away being ultra holy super deep. The people look at the body of christ and laugh. We have allowed the world to make a mockery of our beliefs. I am so tired of the world making movies about our imperfections. Pastors that are not really sure if they were called to the ministry; If you are the shepard of a flock, then you should already know wether God has called you or not. But we christians go to the movies and support that mess which totally kills our witness. Yes we are not perfect and the only one that is is sitting on the right hand of the throne. But Relationship says that we pull closer and quit being so foul. I am tried of the body being a sham in order for us to really get out of the box. The body as a whole needs to become "bout it" about what we believe.
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