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Paul

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Submitted By augustinek
Words 990
Pages 4
Augustine Kotee
Rev. Dr. Bob O’Keef
150
28 May 2013
“Evangelism”

Evangelism should be defined as the church’s ability to influence society socially and politically for the glorification of God, and maintained the righteousness of God through the process of remembering and exalting (worship).

Introduction
The Christian walk is fairly new to me. A series of events have led to my conviction in Christ and conversion in believing that God is absolutely graceful and loving in his promised to His People. Where I find myself today, in the midst of bible believing Christians, is the direct result of the church’s ability to influence society socially. Because of the evangelical works of the Evangelist, the love and knowledge of God were brought to my attention on several occasions, in various places at various times. It was those moments of evangelism by preachers and pastors and member of the church society that influenced me to seek God’s face and His purpose for my life.
Many people are on the verge of rendering their souls to the devil, if their souls have not already been surrendered to the evil one. For this reason mainly, I think the lack of understanding of how manipulative the devil and his children actually are should encouraged God’s people at all cost , even to death, to continue to evangelize and bring society in direct contact with God.
The church and evangelism
The great commission commended by Jesus instructs us to go into the world and make disciples of all nations and baptize those nations in the name of the spirit, the father and the son (Matthew 28:19-20). I always wonder about the practical aspect of those commands. How can a Christian go into many nations? Not every persons desire to be converted, nor are every person a Christian. All nations will certainly not be willing to adhere to such a command, because not all nations are a Christian nation. And certainly, not all Christians are practicing the principals of Christianity. So, there seems to be a disconnect in my view between the command and the action itself. It appears to me that in order to achieve the great commission, the church needs a working partner, the community, to carry out the command and maintained the righteousness of God through the process of remembering and exalting (worship).
How can the church reach members of a particular community? What steps need to be implored to reach the community? Many churches are caught up in the web of redundancy –“ preaching to the choir” as I heard one preacher put it. The church has the tendency to become comfortable with the practice of speaking to the same disciple each Sunday, with no desire of acquiring even more disciple. An example of such actions can be found in churches that resides in drug infested, prostitute practicing, and injustice promoting neighborhood, that does nothing to curb the actions of these members in those communities. Out of fear or lack of faith, they enter their church grounds every Sunday surrounded by the same people they have preached to for over 20 years and pays no attention to the deteriorating situation in that community.
Kevass J. Harding’s Bringing New Life to a Dying Church, enumerate such a scenario when he stated, that the churches are in a “maintenance mode, simply surviving from year to year and considering that a goal” . But yet the church continues to “play church” in those communities., Jesus did not only instruct the church to make disciples out of many nations. He also explicitly informed the church to feed the poor, attend to the widow while using the various talents the disciples were blessed with to createmore disciples (Matthew 25). In addition to this, when Jesus entered the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath day in Luke 4:16 He quoted Isaiah 61, enumerating His purpose on this earth to the Scribes and Pharisees. He had a definite purpose for his mission and He knew how to articulate those purposes. The church needs a clear and concise vision to fulfill God’s plan. That vision must meet God’s specifications, using the spirit and faithfulness of the soul to attain a desired end. I attend a small church in a community that has declined due to drugs, poor police protection, dilapidated buildings and people with lost hopes. Many people in my congregation see no hope for the community. Coming from a business background, and understanding what it means to have a vision, I realize that the people are hopeless because there is no clear-cut vision of why the church exists. Since my arrival, we have begun to entertain various aspects of evangelism. There needs to be first, the making of the disciples, then the utilization of the disciple to make more disciples. The process of such endeavors requires a sound understanding of the covenant between God and His people. To Love God is to obey his commands and be faithful to know that his commands are intended to reach a desired end. We have used Harding’s Biblical foundation found in Ezekiel 37 to bring few dry bones to life.

The steps to evangelism
Walter Brueggemann in his Biblical Perspective on Evangelism introduces us to what he termed a Three-Storied Universe. This Three-Storied-Universe has a beginning, a middle and an end. According to Brueggemann, the first scene consists always of a combats, struggles and conflict between powerful forces who are always battling for control over a turf.” “ He claimed that these occasions of battles and struggles can only make sense if they re understood agonistically.” I did not understand why striving to overcome in argument is necessary, but this was the point of evangelism from the Brueggemann’s point of view. The theological conflict involves many things we do not understand as Brueggemann states-therefore, the questions of implementation and justification of evangelism at a local church comes into play.

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