What is the most effective way to continuously evangelize?

Join in on this week's Guayas Mestizo team meeting. Our team meetings are always open to any believer who would like to attend, so you are welcome to join in the current dialogue.

Today we are trying to answer the question:

"what is the most effective way to
continuously evangelize our people?"

We are all in agreement that sporadic, half-hearted evangelism is not the way to go. What is needed is to find an effective means to continuously evangelize our people group by the greatest number of existing believers.

Several minutes are spent differentiating between one of the CPM pillars, "abundant gospel sowing" and what we are calling "continuous evangelism."

In AGS the seed of the Gospel is abundantly shared through any and all available means to get the message out continuously to as many people as possible (literature distribution, radio, TV, mass media, tracts, telephone, Jesus film, any/all seed sowing type efforts). A decision for Christ is not necessarily expected of AGS. It is more understood as an effort to "prepare hearts" for the Gospel message to follow later--sort of what John the Baptist did prior to Jesus' coming.

In evangelism we are seeking to present the message in such a way that the individual is personally confronted with the Gospel message and is given an opportunity to either accept or reject what is shared.

Once this is clarified, several mention the more common methods usually used to evangelize: door-to-door witnessing, open air preaching, gospel films, evangelistic pulpit preaching, home Bible studies, evangelistic crusades...

The question is asked, "are we getting the desired results from these methods?" The answer is, "not really". We believe many more people are open to the Gospel than are currently responding. They are not rejecting the Gospel, they are rejecting our methods!

We begin to explore several ideas gleaned from a book one of our national team members has read that discusses "open" and "closed" groups. We determine that "open" groups would be a more effective way to collectively win groups of people, rather than winning individuals and then attempting the nearly impossible task of gathering them into groups. "Open" groups would be good for evangelism, "closed" groups would be better for discipleship.

More discussion takes place questioning the effectiveness of this and that evangelism method. Finally, in the midst of several of us talking at once, Geovanny quietly walks to the white board and writes...

1. Buscar la dirección de Dios (orando) para evangelizar continuamente.
Seek God's direction (praying) to continuously evangelize.

2. [for now blank] - depends on what is heard from the Lord on #1

3. [for now blank] - do it.

Does the Holy Spirit have the answer to our evangelism question? Yes.

Are we willing to wait upon Him in prayer until He makes clear how to best carry this out? Answer: to be seen in the coming days/weeks....stay tuned.

Be part of our team this week. Help us win our city/province to Christ. What would you add to the dialogue? What are your thoughts? Observations? Insights? How would YOU go about doing things?

Everything that comes is by His ordination or permission

One of the most influential writers for me personally is Elisabeth Elliot. I have read most of her books, even those no longer in print. I have also kept past articles and speeches as I have had access to them over the years.

Back in August of this year I was delighted to learn that Back to the Bible offers a free daily devotional from Elisabeth Elliot. I have yet to discard a single email, they are all that good!

One of the threads that is woven into much of her writing that has been such a blessing to me over the years is simply this: nothing happens in the life of a child of God unless God himself ordains it so, or permits it.

One of her recent devotionals expressed this thought with the following words...

Never mind whether things come from God Himself or from people-- everything comes by His ordination or permission. If I mean to be obedient and submissive to the Lord because He is my Lord, I must not forget that whatever He allows to happen becomes, for me, His will at that moment. Perhaps it is someone else's sinful action, but if God allows it to affect me, He wills it for my learning... (Oct.30, "Waiting")

As my own world becomes seemingly...

• more chaotic,
• less personal,
• more busy,
• less friendly,
• more frustrating,
• fewer victories,
• more lonely,
• fewer answers
  

...it has been refreshing to realize the truth of the Psalmist words, "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup, and have made my lot secure." (Psalm 16:5).

I know of no greater simplifier for all of life. Whatever happens is assigned. Does the intellect balk at that? Can we say that there are things which happen to us which do not belong to our lovingly assigned "portion" (this belongs to it, that does not)? Are some things, then, out of the control of the Almighty? Every assignment is measured and controlled for my eternal good. As I accept the given portion other options are cancelled...my heart becomes inexpressibly quieter. (Sept.17, "A Quiet Heart")

It is indeed the LORD who assigns us or portion and our cup. Nothing that happens in our day to day toiling is an accident. Everything comes to us either by His ordination or permission.

Click here to see subscription options for Back to the Bible's daily deovtionals, including Elisabeth Elliot's Daily Devotions.

Third Generation Thinking

Third Generation Thinking
--by Chris Ammons (IMB-SBC)

Seventeen years into my missionary career, a term came to me that described very well the process of doing missions...The term is “Third Generation Thinking.” This term does not deal with family generations, but with generations of new believers.

When the Gospel was proclaimed to non-believers in the not so distant past, one of two strategies was used by the missionary proclaimer. The author would like to propose a third way of thinking and of approaching everything we do in missions.

The first strategy used by those who lacked training or cultural sensitivity, was to teach exactly the way he or she had been taught. This can be called “First Generation Thinking” because the emphasis is placed squarely upon the one doing the proclaiming, with little thought given to the learner. Using this kind of thinking, generations of oral learners have been taught to read and write, parse Greek words, and preach three point messages. If only to prove He is all powerful, God has still used many who hold to this strategy to bring indigenous people to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Works that were based on this kind of strategy, however, seldom lasted past the lifetime of the believers whom the Missionary led to Christ.

A second strategy is used by those who have recognized or been taught the need to communicate the Gospel in a way the listener can understand. This kind of thinking can be called “Second Generation Thinking” because the emphasis is placed upon the one being taught, the second generation of believers. Most modern missionaries have used this kind of thinking. Missionaries have gone to great lengths to make sure that their message was understandable to the listener. The assumption was made that if the listener could understand the message, he or she could also teach the message to others. Less thought is given to the ability of the second generation to teach further generations. This kind of strategy often results in a two generation church. It lasts for the lifetime of the missionary’s students and their children, but usually does not extend past that third generation.

The third strategy, one that is being used by an ever-increasing number of missionaries, using a terminology I would like to propose, is called “Third Generation Thinking.” In third Generation Thinking, the emphasis is not on the first generation (the teacher), it is not on the second generation (the learner), but on the future generation who will be taught by the learner. Before teaching anything, we ask questions like; “will the learner be able to teach this as effectively as I do?” and “am I doing anything that will prevent my student’s learners from being able to pass on the message just as effectively as I am passing it on?”

Third Generation Thinking is more than a strategy; it becomes a filter through which every ministry decision passes. A very wise man once told me that every team needs an “idiot.” One that does nothing but ask one question; “why are we doing this?”

Most missionaries, by nature, strive for excellence. When a teaching is passed down to the second generation, it is usually highly polished and done with a flair. We strive to do the best we can. This is usually positive, unless it makes the student think, “He does it so well, I will never be able to teach in such an exciting way.” This can lead to discouragement, and in the long run is counterproductive.

A Third Generation Thinker would say, “I am going to do this just above the level of the one I am teaching. I will give him something to reach for, but will not “dazzle” him so much as to discourage him from teaching this to his students. I want the third and forth generation of believers to be just as effective as I am.”

Church planting movements do not break down because of mistaken observations. They do not break down because of bad intentions of the missionaries. They often stop but because we are a little too short-sighted in our strategy, not looking toward future generations.

A remedy for our own short-sightedness is to set our filters to not let anything pass through that cannot be reproduced several generations after we leave. This could be greatly helped by appointing one from each team to be the one who always asks “can this be reproduced by the next 10 generations of believers?”

Guayaquil: the cool city

My wife and I, along with our two children, live and serve in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador as Southern Baptist, International Mission Board missionaries. While these images are extremely selective, showing mostly the attractive tourist side of our city, hopefully they will stir you to pause and pray for the 9 out of 10 people in our city who have yet to meet the Savior. Our goal is to see 500,000 new believers in the coming five years. Hopefully the Lord will use you to help us reach our goal by either:

1) praying more for us,
2) giving liberally to the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (this is one time it is OK to be a liberal!), or
3) coming personally on a mission trip to help us.

GUAYAQUIL: Ciudad Super Chévere



P.S. For those who have ever been to Guayaquil, you are probably wondering about being designated as a "cool city." Anyone visiting or living here knows that year around HOT is a much better descriptor! The "cool" comes from the original Spanish title of the video, "Guayaquil: Ciudad Super Chevere." which literally translates as "Guayaquil: a super cool city."

Why after 2000 years we are still not even close to fulfilling the Great Commission

In Luke 10, Jesus sets out clear, step-by-step instructions for the 70 disciples to obey in reaching out to "every town and place where He was about to go." If Jesus himself trained, taught, and instructed his disciples in the way He knew would work, why 2000 years later, do we think we can improve upon His divine model?

Jesus instructed his disciples, "PRAY to the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into His harvest..." (10:2)

We have improved upon this instruction by, 1) substituting 'praying to the Lord of the Harvest' for TALKING about the need for praying, 2) forget about praying, what needs to be done is massive recruitment--get out there and do what has to be done to get people involved, mobilize the masses into training seminars at the largest convention centers in town and invite in the biggest names that will draw the crowds.

Jesus instructed his disciples, "now GO, I'm sending you out like lambs among wolves..." (10:3)

We have improved upon Jesus' words by substituting His command to go for something much more convenient for us: COME! Come to our church...meeting...revival...youth group...evangelistic crusade...ladies brunch...sports event...spiritual emphasis...Bible study...etc. Going out to where the lost are and entering their world is always a lot messier than sitting around hoping and praying they will somehow come to us and whatever event we have planned for them. While I can give a couple of hours for an event at church, I certainly don't have the same couple of hours to go out of my way into the scary unknown. I might be seen associating myself with non-desirables in places not known as appropriate Christian hang-outs.

Jesus instructed his disciples, "DON'T CARRY a money-bag, travelling bag, or sandals..." (10:4)

Since we have never really understood exactly what Jesus was trying to say with this obscure command, we have simply ignored it and done just the opposite. We believe it is not possible to do the Lord's work unless we have a large money bag, and having all the necessary implements in our travelling bag for the journey (cars, land, building, salaries, literature, support packages, furnishings, sounds system, musical instruments, laptop, PowerPoint, video projector, etc.) And certainly let's not forget the importance of the having the latest fashion in sandals and attire and other necessary personal implements for the task. Afterall, we want to make a good impression on those we are trying to reach!

Jesus instructed his disciples, "DON'T GREET ANYONE along the road..." (10:4)

Jesus obviously didn't understand the importance of greetings in our present day cultures. How is one ever to gain access into "their world" unless we spend a lot of time greeting and building relationships? So, once again we seek to improve (ignore) another outdated command of our Lord and actually spend enormous chunks of time and plan whole evangelistic strategies that never get beyond anything other than "greeting" and nurturing a few relationships. We do ladies teas, let's meet the neighbors, go to ball games together, find someone to drink coffee with, etc. While all these may be good activities, the problem is that we seldom move beyond the "greeting stage" to the remaining instructions of Christ as given in Luke 10:1-9. We tend to lose focus when we stop and greet folks unless we are in tune with the whole strategic process that Christ was teaching. Jesus knows how easily we are distracted, so He warns us upfront to not greet anyone, or do anything else that will distract us from the important mission we are on.

Jesus instructed his disciples, "SAY 'PEACE to this household' and if a son of peace is there your peace will rest on him..." (10:5)

Modern consensus agrees that 'saying peace to this household' is a waste of time. The best way to win a community, town, or city is to get out there in vast numbers and knock on as many doors as possible. When they open the door, invite them to your church, and maybe even preach the Gospel and let them know this might be the very last chance they will ever have for salvation. If they refuse, leave them a Gospel tract, and a bunch of literature from your church and be sure to pray for them before leaving.

Jesus instructed his disciples, "REMAIN IN THE SAME HOUSE, eating and drinking what they offer..." (10:7)

Remain in the same house? Just that one house? You've got to be kidding! The more houses you visit, the more contacts you will have, the greater the number of positive results. You wouldn't want to dare risk everything on just one household. There is a high chance things will not work out and then you will be left with nothing. Plus, what's the big deal with wasting time by eating and drinking with people? Does eating and drinking accomplish anything of eternal value? Don't think so...

Jesus instructed his disciples, "EAT THE THINGS set before you..." (10:8)

It's like Jesus foreknew we would have trouble with understanding the importance of the eating/drinking part, so He said it TWICE to make sure we would get it. But the fact is we have yet to grasp the importance of eating and drinking with people BEFORE trying to proclaim the 'Good News" to them. What's important is getting down to business and sharing the Gospel with lost folks. We eat and drink with our fellow Christians, not with pagans!

Jesus instructed his disciples, "HEAL THE SICK who are there..." (10:9)

Well this one is easy to ignore because we all know that only the Pentecostals and the Charismatics are the ones into the healing stuff. We certainly can side-step this sticky one. We wouldn't want to actually involve ourselves in any controversial issues like healing the sick (might lose our jobs over it!) After all, most of us are cessationists and no longer believe these extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are valid today. We have the Bible and that's all we need. So, basically we are off the hook on this one. Next...

Jesus instructed his disciples, "TELL THEM, 'The kingdom of God has come near you..." (10:9)

Well FINALLY Jesus gets around to telling us to do what really matters--the 'main thing'-- which is declaring, preaching, teaching the Gospel message of the Kingdom to these lost people. Let's just cut to the chase and skip all the other stuff. It is time to get down to the important business of witnessing and sharing the Gospel. We are free to skip over the parts of Jesus instructions we don't like or understand. Wasn't his main thrust obviously this last point? We will certainly try to obey this part, but the rest is up for debate and interpretation--in other words, not much of importance in all those instructions preceding this final one.

Is it any wonder that after 2000 years we still haven't finished the task given us by Christ? We think we have a better way of doing things. We have the new, improved version, and yet continuously scratch our heads and wonder why things aren't working out the way they are supposed to?

Our vision and strategy

Our missionary church planting team is known as the "Guayas Mestizo Team." Guayas is the largest province in Ecuador and Guayaquil is the largest city. The GMT is responsible for a church planting strategy for winning Guayas province to Christ. There are some 3.3-million people we feel God has entrusted to us and for whom we are spiritually responsible (yes, we feel the heavy load on our shoulders!)


Our vision statement is:

"Win and disciple to Christ 500,000 people
living in Guayas in the coming five years."

With the Lord's help, guidance, and empowering, how does our little "band of survivors" envision reaching all 500,000 (15% of our province) for Christ?

Christ said, "I will build my church." We understand Jesus himself is responsible for building his church. We also understand that we are only a small part of His Church here in Guayas and that He will certainly use others as well to bring about the coming of His Kingdom in this part of the world. But 500,000 is our assigned portion of the task!

Our role? To go, make disciples, baptize, and teach these new disciples to observe all that Christ commanded.

There are four things we feel will help us maintain our focus on the entrusted task...

1) Pray the Lord of the Harvest to keep sending laborers into the harvest fields of Guayas province. (Luke 10:2b)

2) Every single church in our informal network of house churches planting at least one new church every year (we would expect at least 10 baptisms from each new church plant.)

3) Every single believer winning and discipling at least four people every year.

4) Continuing this process for the next five years until we reach our goal of 500,000.

It's that simple! See below the multiplication effects that will take place if we will simply focus on the above four objectives...

2006-50 churches planting 1 new church/yr, w/10 baptisms=500 new believers
and 500 disciples, each winning/discipling 4/yr = 2000 new believers

2007-100 churches planting 1 new church/yr, w/10 baptisms=1000 new believers
and 2000 disciples, each winning/discipling 4/yr = 8000 new believers

2008-200 churches planting 1 new church/yr, w/10 baptisms=2000 new believers
and 8000 disciples, each winning/discipling 4/yr = 32,000 new believers

2009-400 churches planting 1 new church/yr, w/10 baptisms=4000 new believers
and 32,000 disciples, each winning/discipling 4/yr = 128,000 new believers

2010-800 churches planting 1 new church/yr, w/10 baptisms=8000 new believers
and 128,000 disciples, each winning/discipling 4/yr =
512,000 new believers!

Can it really be done? We believe so! Why complicate matters when it really boils down to every church starting one new church and each of us winning/discipling four new people to Christ over a year's time? It really is that simple! The million-dollar question becomes, can we maintain our focus and not become distracted from the task with everything else going on around us?

Will you passionately pray with us to see this vision become a reality over the upcoming five years? Why not stop RIGHT NOW and pray for this to happen!

Four facts about witnessing in church planting movements

One of the most helpful church planting mailouts I receive is George Patterson and Galen Currah's MentorNet that is sent out to subscribers. (For those interested, send an email to subscribe[at]mentornet[dot]ws). What follows is an excerpt from MentorNet #41 entitled, "Witnessing for Christ in Other Cultures."

There was a time when Evangelicals took to the mission field a fairly standardized formula for communicating the gospel, using mainly verses from the book of Romans. “All have sinned…The wages of sin is death…But God shows His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…” etc. which is all true and logical, but was not the apostles’ approach to witnessing...

Missionaries have found that a doctrinal approach to witnessing does not work well in non-Western cultures. The less they structure a standard form of witnessing, the better folks understand the message. The best way to spread the good news is simply to let believers tell spontaneously--with the Holy Spirit’s power promised by Christ in Acts 1:8--what Jesus did to save sinners and what He has done in their own lives.

In wide-spread church planting movements today, one observes four starkly evident facts about witnessing:

1) Nearly everyone who comes to Christ does so because of prayer for healing of a physical ailment in Jesus’ name. Someone in the family, or a close friend, has been cured or liberated from an evil spirit.

2) Nearly everyone who comes to Christ in a pioneer field does so through the influence of a new believer. New believers still have many unsaved friends and can talk with them about spiritual matters without hesitation.

3) Nearly everyone who comes to Christ in a church planting movement has done so together with family members and close friends. Their faith is not a private matter. God sees the family as a unit, and brings it to faith as a unit, as Acts 16:31 promises.

Westerners’ background in individualistic cultures, leads them to emphasize ‘personal’ faith and Jesus as “personal savior”, etc. This is not found in Scripture. (The word ‘personal’ once simply clarified that we are saved by our own faith and not by that of our parents, but in time came to mean ‘private,’ which devastates witnessing.)

4) Powerful conviction of sin is more frequent, and sinners find it easier to come to permanent, saving faith, in a group that is small enough to have spontaneous interaction, where believers practice the many ‘one another’ commands such as exhorting one another, teaching one another, correcting one another, confessing faults to one another, etc.

'TOP TEN' Einstein quotes for missions and church planting

Many Albert Einstein sayings and quotes are highly applicable to missions and church planting. The following are my "top ten" favorites...

10. "The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."

9. "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

8. "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

7. "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

6. "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

5.  "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

4. "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

3. "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

2. "The important thing is not to stop questioning."

1. "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Have any other favorites or comments about any of the above you'd like to share?