The Church/Evangelism

• Vacation Bible School and the Doctrine of Hell
  The meeting was progressing well until a "pillar" in the church suggested that we "avoid speaking about hell and judgment and those types of things and instead focus on the love of God." This is a common sentiment and desire in the church these days, which is only heightened when the audience is primarily children. "We don't want to frighten the children with such a scary subject as hell, do we?" Actually, yes, we do. I'm not suggesting that you turn your VBS into a haunted house. I am pleading with you, though, not to shy away from teaching children the whole counsel of God, including the Bible's teaching on sin and eternal condemnation.
  
  
• The Corrupt Root and Bitter Fruit of Altar Call Evangelism
  But what about evangelistic strategies? What are the best ways to put the gospel to work? There is nothing wrong with using a strategic approach for getting the gospel into the ears of sinners. Whether we realize it or not, we all have our own strategy for doing this. Sadly, the evangelistic "strategy" of many Christians resembles deer hunting from a tree stand more than obedience to the Great Commission. Christ said, "Go . . . make . . . ." In other words, He commanded His followers to be intentional and active in their evangelism. But many Christians don't go anywhere or do anything in this respect.
  
  
• The Rural Church Dilemma
  Recently I drove to several small towns in rural Arkansas with my 89 year old father and my siblings, tracking the steps of the ministry of both my dad and his father. The experience was memorable. . . These were the places where my father, and his father, labored for Christ seventy and eighty years ago. Much has changed in the landscape of rural America in those seventy plus years.
  
  
• How Should We Get a Crowd for the Gospel?
  Interestingly, as far as I can discern, there are no pat instructions in the Bible about the right and wrong way to gather a crowd to preach to. What we can glean must come from precedent. Precedent does not have the weight of command, as we all know. But it is not for that reason unimportant.
  
  
• Pastors Moving to Other Churches: Why?
  There is no biblical record of a pastor leaving one established church to become a pastor of another.
  
  
• A More Spontaneous and Genuine Evangelism
  The mere mention of the word strikes fear in most people. If it is my goal when speaking in a church to make all my listeners uncomfortable and convicted, all I have to do is say, "evangelize!," and the guilt quotient rises as fast as the heads drop. Beads of sweat appear on the pastor's brow. It is the great undone command, and none of us like to be reminded of it.
  
  
• What Do You Do With Immorality?
  "This revealing episode in early church history, found in 1 Corinthians 5, could not be more relevant."
  
  
• A Different Style of Evangelist: Laborers on the Loose
  "Laborers are needed for the harvest. We should pray for them and we may well be among them (Matt. 9:37-38). What would such a person be like who is sent out into the harvest? And what would his job entail?"
  
  
• My Testimony
  By Benjamin Elliff, son of the president of Christian Communicators Worldwide. Benjamin's struggle with philosophy and testimony of God's grace in his life.
  
  
• An Appeal for the Use of House Churches to Extend Sanctuary-Style Churches
  "I am only going to make an appeal for sanctuary-style churches to consider using the house church concept to advance their work for God. I am especially concerned that readers of our articles, most of whom have sound theology and practice, would pick up the burden for this now."
  
  
• The Gospel and Divine Visitation-An Indivisible Union
  "And so, the presence of God, the regenerating work of the Spirit, and the powerful presentation of the gospel accompanied by the unction of the Spirit will be part of true revival. God will over and over again revive what He began at Pentecost."
  
  
• A New Purpose Statement
  "Why love? What about worship, teaching, preaching, personal holiness, and evangelism?"
  
  
• Why Should I Join a Church?
  "If you desire to be used by Christ in the building of His body the church, then carefully and prayerfully find a local body of believers with whom to unite in membership."
  
  
• The Value of Hanging Out
  "I wrote fourteen pages of observations on the peripatetic life of Christ as to how Christ employed his time. As a conclusion to it all I had to say that Jesus basically just hung out."
  
  
• Childhood Conversion - "Leaders and parents must consider the benefits of returning to a better method of dealing with the souls of our children. To give assurance on the basis of praying a prayer or some other outward, immediate sign is sealing many in deception and makes them harder to reach in their adult years."
  
  
• A Three-legged Stool: All Sides of God's Salvation Process - "Election by a sovereign God was one of the mainstay doctrines in the preaching used by God during great days of Awakening. Will it be preached today? Should it be preached today?"
  
  
• A Really Funny Gospel for Kids - "My friend touted the act as "soooooo funny." It was. I mean that he was so funny that I could not help but laugh. What should we think about this approach?"
  
  
• Closing With Christ
  "The more biblical way of “closing with Christ” is to focus on the gospel itself, without props. Whereas the altar call method can be tacked on to just about anything, no matter how absent the gospel, the biblical method demands the hearing of the Word."
  
  
• Dull Preachers
  "Dull preachers and dull hearers infect each other. But live preaching and live listening are also contagious. I have noticed for some time that churches make the preachers and preachers make the churches. "
  
  
• Southern Baptists, an Unregenerate Denomination
  "Regardless of the wonderful advances in our commitment to the Bible, a closer look reveals a denomination that is more like a corpse than a fit athlete prepared for the run of his life. In an unusual way, understanding this awful reality provides the most exciting prospects for the future if we act decisively."
  
  
• Serious Preaching
  "It will cost you to preach the truth. What right, though, do we have to do otherwise? What right do we have to make God out to be Someone other than He really is in order to make people like Him more? Honor God by declaring the truth about Him. As Gambrell said, “God honors those who honor Him.” And then be prepared to see the beautiful results of your work. I am convinced that if revival comes in our day, it will come through a resurgence of knowledge about the true nature of God, man, and sin."
  
  
• Seriousness In Children and Teens
  "Please don’t make the criteria for judging the success of a church’s efforts at reaching children and teens the fun-value of the meetings. God did not command the church to provide entertainment for your kids."
  
  
• Reformation or Revival?
  "It is not wrong to desire revival if we mean a revival that is a resurgence of correct believing along with the enlivening of our experience with God which comes out of (not apart from) that sound doctrine."
  
  
• The New Gospel: Appealing But Not Revealing
  "We have taught them how to act Christian without conviction, to praise God without loving holiness, and, as one has said, to say “Amen” without saying “Oh me!” Is it any wonder that when our converts leave the services, they take the pastor’s hand and say, “It surely is fun to be in this place” rather than “Surely God is in this place”?"
  
  
• Entertainment Evangelism, a Response to a News Reporter
  "Many churches, for instance, are not driven by great preaching of the Bible, but by their massive music programs. In fact, I think that some of the poorest preaching is sometimes found in these churches, and I am always surprised that people continue to go to them."
  
  
• Caught in our Shame: Comments on the Recent Barna Report - "We have for too long said that doctrine has only negligible importance. Now it is pay-back time. Our effeminate gospel has turned out to be no gospel at all. "
  
  
• The Integrity of the Local Church - "You who are leaders have been entrusted with a body of professing saints. You are not permitted to gather them and then fail to watch over them. You have a command from God as to the church's covenantal nature."
  
  
• The World Trade Center and Our First Acts - "The wilting sadness of the World Trade Center tragedy—the dead bodies in the dust, the people jumping out of windows, the angst of the traumatized, the weary searching, the yearning eyes of family members, the apparent senselessness of it all—leave disturbing imprints on our American soul. What are we to do?"
  
  
• Intimidation and Evangelism
  "The intimidation that we feel in relating Christ to a non-Christian world has to do with our comparing ourselves to the man or woman, rather than comparing God to the man or woman."
  
  
• Asahel Nettleton: The Forgotten Evangelist - By Jim Ehrhard. "Though he never pastored a church, never wrote a book, or led an evangelistic organization, Nettleton’s preaching led directly to the conversion of well over 30,000 people at a time when the entire nation’s population was only nine million."
  
  
• The Sensitivity of True Worship
  by Bill Izard. "Will we seek to please the true Object of our worship at the risk of losing our good standing with the "seeker"? Can we depend upon Christ to build His church without abusing the purity of worship?"