Pastors, lay people respond at evangelism school
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, September 17, 1999
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – They called it a School of Evangelism, but it was more than an academic exercise.
“If you have something on your heart, come and stand silently in His presence and give that burden to Him,” Robert Pitman said at the close of the school.
In what was the closest thing to an altar call that many Presbyterians have experienced, nearly half of the approximately 138 ministers and lay people left their seats to do exactly as Pitman suggested.
Pitman is moderator of Knox Fellowship, an independent evangelism ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He was one of the leaders of Knox’s first-ever School of Evangelism held Sept. 11 at Second Presbyterian Church and sponsored by the Presbytery of East Tennessee.
The one day school is designed to help local churches implement effective evangelism in their communities.
Pitman, along with five other team members, led the school, which outlined the biblical/theological basis for evangelism, practical application, testimonies and praise music.
In preparation for the school, Knox Fellowship staff visited 67 of the 80 churches in the presbytery to meet with the pastors and find out their needs. After the school, Knox Fellowship will be available to help churches put in place an effective evangelism ministry.
Igniting the fire for the ministry of evangelism
“Evangelism, where should it be done?” asked Dennis Tarr, who presented the biblical/theological reasons for evangelism. “It must be part of our everyday lives.”
Look at Acts 8, he said. “It’s the story of the church scattering everywhere and telling the world what God has done.”
Christians must make evangelism the “magnificent obsession of life,” he said.
“It’s when the Word becomes flesh in your life,” said Tarr, when you discover the joy it is to know Him and really understand Him, that “you’ll find yourself telling everyone about Him.”
“My prayer is that you will catch that fire again,” said Tarr. “The good news – God’s story – must become our story to give Him honor and to give Him glory.”
Exalting Jesus
“All ministry begins with the exaltation of Jesus Christ,” said Pitman, who presented the practical application of evangelism. Pitman said that when Jesus Christ is exalted God is pleased and he gives the church the gift of the Holy Spirit, whose presence and power result in a yearning for prayer, a hunger for Scripture, a burden for the lost, freedom to sacrifice and the exercise of spiritual gifts.
“Apart from these elements, there is no spiritual power in the church,” said Pitman.
“It is absolutely essential that prayer be the key factor in the outreach ministry of the church,” said Pitman. The most important thing elders can do is to pray with the pastor before each service that he be anointed by the Holy Spirit.
“Christians go to church to be fed,” said Pitman, and they should go out the door feeling like they have grown in their faith.
Speaking about having a burden for the lost, Pitman said it used to be that Presbyterians wept for people who did not know Jesus Christ. “There is little weeping in the church today,” he said, adding that everyone should have a list of people who do not know Jesus Christ and pray for them daily.
Establishing a church mindset for evangelism
“Mindsets are a way of looking at the world,” said Tarr. He quoted Philippians 2:5, “Let your mindset be the same as Christ.”
“We need a mindset that allows us to share the good news in everything we do,” said Tarr.
He described six evangelistic styles: confrontational, evidential, prescriptive, testimonial, relational and invitational.
“How did Jesus Christ do evangelism?” asked Tarr. He had many styles. He confronted, healed, prayed, forgave, and he washed the dirty feet of his disciples – servant evangelism. “Servant evangelism is the most powerful evangelism,” he said.
Jesus Christ is the foundation
“To do the ministry of evangelism, you must be sure of the foundation on which you are standing,” he said, adding that that foundation must be Jesus Christ.
Pitman told the story of his encounter with a man who wanted to know Jesus. Pitman told the man he must first apologize to God. Why? “Because you have said things that hurt other people. You have had opportunities to help others and have been more interested in yourself. You have had impure thoughts. And these are offensive to God.”
Second, Pitman told the man “you need to tell God that you believe in Jesus Christ and that when He died on the cross, he died for you.”
And third, Pitman told the man to “commit yourself to begin a new life. God is a God of new beginnings. He forgets the past.”
“Anyone here can do that,” he said.
When you believe in Jesus Christ, you believe in five things, said Pitman. 1) He is a real person; 2) He is alive today; 3) He loves you; 4) He waits to be invited in; and 5) He wants us to be a part of his life.
“Everyone likes to be liked. Everyone is a little bit lonely and needs a friend. Everyone wants to feel important,” said Pitman. “Keep these principles in mind when doing evangelism.”
Structuring for the ministry of evangelism
Jesus chose twelve disciples, said Tarr. He worked day in and day out, teaching and instructing them. The disciples watched, they studied and they practiced.
“Jesus had a plan,” said Tarr. He gave the disciples a charge and the first thing he said was “Get on your knees and pray.”
Tarr read from the first chapters of Acts, where the disciples studied, learned, prayed, listened and encouraged.
“We don’t encourage each other,” he said.
In Acts 15 the disciples were open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, said Tarr. They were capable of deviating from their plans. “We need to be open to the Holy Spirit.”
Not enough churches proclaiming the Gospel
“No one comes to Jesus Christ unless the Spirit of God is working in their life,” said Pitman. “I believe, normally speaking, the Holy Spirit does not lead a person into a church that does not proclaim the gospel.
“Why is the Presbyterian Church (USA) in decline? Not enough churches are proclaiming the gospel,” he said.
“Evangelical churches that proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ are more likely to be growing churches than those who do not proclaim the gospel,” he said.
Pitman gave a five steps to begin structuring for evangelism.
- Have the session vote to make evangelism a high priority; fund it; and request that the church start talking about it.
- Identify a vision statement. “Who do we see ourselves to be and what do we see ourselves to be about,” said Pitman.
- The vision statement must be supported by goals or objectives that are specific, measurable and attainable.
- Identify strategies – a means by which you accomplish your goal. “Different communities, different people will have different strategies,” said Pitman.
- Church members must be shown how to carry out the strategies. “We have to equip the people,” said Pitman.
Doing the ministry of evangelism
Tarr based doing the ministry of evangelism on the book of Nehemiah. The cup bearer to King Artaxerxes I, Nehemiah lead the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem in 52 days.
When Nehemiah first heard that the wall of Jerusalem had been broken down and the gates burned, he wept, fasted and prayed.
“Every major movement, every major event in the Bible begins in prayer,” said Tarr. “Nehemiah wasn’t afraid to pray, he wasn’t afraid to talk about it. He shared his vision.”
“[Nehemiah] is a wonderful story about how every person in the congregation had a job,” said Tarr. “Everybody got to work.”
“We need to celebrate God’s goodness,” said Tarr. When Jerusalem’s wall was complete “they had a party to celebrate God’s greatness. We need to do the same.”
For the pastors
Pitman offered seven points of counsel for pastors.
- People want to hear about Jesus and how he relates to their lives.
- People want to grow. They want to know the Word of God and how it relates to their daily life.
- Do not be intimidated by those who view change as a threat. “Change cannot be stopped,” said Pitman, “but change needs to be for people’s benefit.”
- Be free to experiment, but let it be known from the outset that you are experimenting.
- Be a person of prayer and not just formal prayer, but prayer from the heart.
- Be a person of the Word of God. “May the Scriptures live in you and may the Scriptures live through you,” he said.
- May people see Jesus on your face, by the sparkle in your eye and the smile on your face.
The school ended with a time of worship, including praise music, led by Scott and Jodi Bohr and Bill Schann.
Knox Fellowship was formed to assist churches in their outreach ministries. They envision “spiritually vibrant congregations equipped to call people of the world to a vital faith in Jesus Christ and responsible participation in the Church.”
Knox Fellowship can be reached at 500 Airport Blvd., Suite 329, Burlingame, CA 94010; telephone (650) 347-6248; fax (650) 347-0619; website: http://www.knoxfellowship.com; e-mail: knoxfellow@aol.com