First Century Teaching For The Twenty-First Century Church

The calling of God is the enabling of God, meaning that God wants to bring people lost in sin to Himself. We are told in Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.” And Daniel 12:3 says, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.” God wants us to turn others to righteousness. God wants us to win souls.

According to one poll, nine out of ten American adults cannot accurately define the meaning of the Great Commission. Seven in ten adults have no clue what “John 3:16” means. And barely one-third know the meaning of the expression, “the gospel.” We may be thinking, They aren’t believers, so what do you expect? But the most alarming statistic of all is that 95 percent of Christians have never led another person to Christ.

One brother has said, “The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men and of nations is always being decided. Every generation is crucial. God will hold us responsible at the Judgment Seat of Christ for how well we fulfilled our responsibilities and took advantage of our opportunities.”

In looking at our sin-sick world, I firmly believe that folks are actually hungry for the saving message of the gospel (Romans 1:16). It is my observation that people are in a spiritual search mode — especially young people. There are opportunities out there for sharing the Lord’s message that will be either seized or lost. We must take hold of the moment, or we may lose it forever.

Sadly, we live in a postmodern world where moral relativism in the rule of the day. Some may feel as though the time to present absolute truth has passed. We can only ask questions, but not offer answers, they would say. But, to borrow a phrase from the British, that’s “rubbish.” Regardless of the trends of contemporary culture, truth is still truth (John 17:17). In spite of our dramatic advances in technology, the essential needs of humanity remain the same, as does the answer to their problems.

We are called to bring the gospel to our generation (Psalm 78:1-8), but many of us are not doing that, so let us ponder the 7 principles of effective evangelism here.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets