Through the Oklahoma State Mission Offering, Oklahoma Baptists, and beyond, provide more evangelism training and evangelism resources to assist the churches across our state in seeing souls saved and lives changed.
One of these areas of training and resourcing is the Evangelism Tune-ups. Beginning this fall Evangelism Tune-ups, which I discusssed in previous columns, will happen in different parts of the state.
When we take the time to tune things up, which is often referred to as preventive maintenance, we can make things last longer and run smoother. Tune-ups should be taking place in our evangelistic efforts as a church and in our own personal evangelism. Our evangelism needs a tune up to make certain evangelism is running smoothly in the church and in the individual lives of church members. The Tune-ups will be led by the Evangelism Office of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO). It is a threefold teaching that will be shared state wide with directors of missions, pastors and church leaders.
The first part is a teaching titled, “Beginning with the end in mind.” This is a Socratic teaching that is focused on the main purpose of the church body and the members that make it up. This main purpose is for souls to be saved and lives to be changed.
As I have previously mentioned in part two of the evangelism tune-up series, the second part will consist of a teaching titled, “How to get your church ready for company.” If you have people coming over to your house, you clean and are generally prepared for such company. The same can be said for church attendance. When guests arrive, we want to have everything working and running smoothly. We wouldn’t want a family to show up and not have anyone ready to teach. The sad news is, a lot of churches are not preparing for nor are they expecting company. So when guests show up, we often are not ready to display the best that our Lord deserves.
The third part of the teaching will be on “Gospel Methods.” There is only ONE way to get to Heaven; however, there are many ways to share how to get there. You can draw it, write it, speak it, show it and ask questions until you get to it. The challenge is, many followers of Christ have never shared the Gospel with anyone. Another challenge is some feel their way of sharing the Gospel is superior to someone else’s way of sharing the Gospel, and then we fight about the “right way.” Jesus said “For whoever is not against us is for us.” Perhaps we should focus on winning people and not fighting each other.
I recently was in a meeting where several of my counterparts from other state conventions were gathered. As we discussed our “go to” way of sharing the Gospel, each person shared that they will use the Romans Road more than any other method.
Which is your favorite way to share the Gospel? When was the last time you shared the Gospel with someone? Have you processed which Gospel method best fits your personality; matches the personality of the church you attend; matches the community where the church you attend is planted?
By attending the Evangelism Tune-up you will discover all of this and more. I hope to see you at an Evangelism Tune-up near you. For more information contact me by email at: mnapier@bgco.org or Bettsy Yarbrough at: byarbrough@bgco.org in the BGCO Evangelism Office.
