Road to Emmaus: Part IV

Lesson #1: Road To Emmaus Worksheet

A Assignment

Directions:   Reread the Luke 24:13-35 passage throughout the coming week. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal even more truth about the lesson.  Here are some questions that may arise that you and your group did not see.  Answer them if you wish!

What significance is there to the “breaking of the bread” that Jesus did and the opening of their eyes?

What significance is there to when their eyes were opened and they recognized him that immediately he disappeared from their sight?  Is there a correlation between that principle and faith?

What was their “emotional” reaction to their recent walk with Jesus?

What did Jesus “open their eyes to” in verse 34?  What does that say to you about daily Bible reading, devotions, and meditation?

Verses 33 & 34:  Their experience confirmed what to them and to the other believers?

Bottom Line:  What was the purpose of Jesus walk with them?  What did all this lead then to do?

Road to Emmaus: Part III

 

Lesson #1: Notes For The Teacher

Assessing of Lesson:

• o   Guidelines to tell the class:  On an easel, whiteboard, etc. have each group share insights as you list then.

Lesson Techniques:

• o   Ice Breaker: [You are making them spontaneously think already as well as personalizing the instruction and sharing their observations. Your are modeling technique to be used later in lesson, just through the introduction.]
• o   Reading: Your reading with out them doing anything forces them to listen. This is NOT to be an exercise of scriptural exegesis, thus DO NOT let them use their Bibles at this stage.
• o   Reflection: :  THIS IS THE KEY TO THE LESSON!  This is where you allow the HOLY SPIRIT to be the teacher, not you. Your opinion and expertise DOES NOT MATTER. KEEP QUIET! NO COMMENTS. If your class learns to “listen to the still small voice” to teach them, you have succeeded in the lesson.  By forcing them to do the second part, it takes them away from the familiar section and forces them to think beyond what they know.
• o   Retelling:  This allows the group to see the height and width of scope of the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, who is omnipresent, and can see a lesson from all points of view.  It also shows the diversity within the body to react to, interpret, and make meaningful a lesson that individualizes it just for them, and also the group corporately.  {This will show the power of individual Bible study and/or worship as well as corporate Bible study and/or worship.)
• o   Reactions:  Versus 33 – 35 is all about reaction.  REACTION to what has been SEEN and HEARD through the teaching of the Holy Spirit is crucial.  The book of Acts is about how everyone Re-Acted to the Holy Spirit’s teachings and leadings.  Begin to have “Re-Acts” time to bridge the 2000 year gap from when the New Testament was written up to today. The Holy Spirit keeps the standard of truth, but makes it relevant.  Allow him to do so!
• o   Assignment:  Lessons are to be life long, life changing, foundational principles, so making the class continue throughout the week to seek the scriptures and allow the Holy Spirit to teach them is crucial for the growth of the believer.
• o   Time Essential:  Watching your time, but keeping it moving is crucial.  But if the Holy Spirit is teaching, always allow Him to change the agenda!

Bottom Line:  Ask the class what was “your opinion” or “your analysis” of the lesson.  Of course they will not be able to tell you that, because although you guided them through the lesson, YOU DID NOT TEACH IT, THE HOLY SPIRIT DID!  That was precisely what this lesson was all about as a teacher.  You can be a facilitator, listening yourself to the Holy Spirit as to what to do when, but He is the Teacher.  He is the Conductor of the symphony of this lesson.

Road to Emmaus: Part II

 

Lesson #1: Road To Emmaus: The Spirit of Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit Is The Teacher!

Introduction of Group Members: 

-       Ready:  Make small groups of three or four

-       Introduce oneself: name, occupation, marital/family status, and tell of one object you have that best illustrates your life (i.e. Pocket knife because you are an avid hunter) and one object you have you should throw away. (10 min.)

Introduction of Lesson:

-       Reading: Teacher read Luke 24:13-35 – Road to Emmaus passage as everyone sits quietly and listens.

• o    Break the passage into two parts verses 13-27 and pause for a time of quiet reflection, then verses 28-35.  (10 min.)

Developing of Lesson:

-       Reflection: They are to sit quietly, individually, and reread, think about, meditate upon, or picture being a part of the actual scene of verses 28-35.

• o    Guidelines to tell the class: 1) There is to be no talking or movement at this time.  2) They should sit quietly, they may have pencil and paper if they wish to jot down reflections, narrations, etc., but prefer they do nothing but mediate on the passage. 3) They will have (15 minutes) of this total silent period for reflection.

-       Retelling:  After silent period concludes, have them begin to share within their small group what they have seen and heard.

• o   Guidelines to tell the class:  1) only one-person shares at a time. 2) The others in the group CAN NOT comment or say anything while one is sharing. 3) You only have 5 minutes per person to share. 4) At end of 5 minutes, next person shares without comments from group until all have shared. (15-20 min.)

-       Reactions: What new insights and strong points were shared by the group?

• o   Guideline to tell the class:  Share among yourselves a) the new insights, the different point of view, the uniqueness of what each other shared as well as b) the strong points that were emphasized. c) Was there one theme that ran among all in your groups lessons?  List your answers on a piece of paper. (10 min.)

-       Assignment: Have a handout to keep them thinking all week.  They are to meditate on this passage as their devotion all week and answer some of the questions on the sheet!

Road to Emmaus: Part I

 

Holy Spirit As Teacher

     A new mindset of a teacher is NOT to expound information he/she knows intellectually to a group, but teach the group to allow the Holy Spirit to be the teacher.  Jesus promised that when he would return to His Father that He would send the Holy Spirit who would teach His believers all things.  We have to learn how to let the Holy Spirit be the teacher. The question is how? And do we tust the Holy Spirit?

What I hope to do in the next couple of blogs is share a sample lesson you may try with a small group to teach them to get into the Word, the Bible, living word.

Road to Emmaus: Part II will be the actual “Road to Emmaus” lesson, Luke 24:13-35 to be taught.

Road to Emmaus: Part III will be comments/ directions to those leading the small group event. (The teacher)

Road to Emmaus: Part IV will be a homework sheet the members of the class can continue to work on during the week.

Again, this is just a sample lesson.  The result may vary as the Holy Spirit leads. It could be quite an adventure.

Been Busted By Pollsters! Cont.

Busted, By A Mindset

In my last blog I found myself stunned when sensing that I too am falling into the 50% group that do not necessarily “attend a church service faithfully every Sunday”.  Going from five times a week of church to only two hours, if I make it, was quite a revelation.

I would like to look at the mindset of church services today. I was brought up that their redeeming quality was to prepare me to face a horrid week ahead.  My strength was to come from singing hymns and listening to a sermon.  Today I would like to propose that the church needs a new mentality about Sunday morning services, for it has the horse before the cart, ass-backward is you want to put it that way.     

      There is not much accountability to a believer on a Sunday morning, except for their financial check in the offering plate and trying to sing on key.  What would happen if the Sunday service would not be worship band/clergy sermon centered but a copulation of offerings from the faithful in the congregation.

 Have they been spending a quiet time with the Lord during the week?  Have they been reading their own Bible?  What has the Holy Spirit revealed to them during this time?  Has a member of the body “ministered” to them this past week that displayed Jesus in their life? Has the Lord given then a “new song”, “a new poem”, “new” art forms, etc. that they could share?  Is there a “prayer warrior” amongst the group waiting to be “unleashed”? Are there prophetically inspired people in their midst who would have words of encouragement for others?  I don’t know, for the church has been so effective in hiding them well, if they are there!

What would a service be like if they were allowed to “give back to the Lord” those words, those inspirations, those insights, those “new” things on a Sunday morning?  I think one would experience “life” back into the service.

It hit me the other week at church that there were over 150 people there. I had never heard one of them personally share their “salvation/born again” experience. There was no room for testimonies in the service.  I didn’t know if anyone had ever been “healed”, “delivered”, nor “freed” from those things that entangled my life during the week. The church had hidden them well, for although I had gone to this church for almost fifteen years, I did not know much about the people attending.

     What if people were “allowed” or “freed”, to be part of the service, actually pray for others, encourage others, share with others, become a family?  Giving back to the Lord, giving to their own brothers and sisters of faith, would break down the fear and doubt of giving to those who aren’t Christians we meet every day in our lives. If the church isn’t a safe place “to practice” this among ourselves, then don’t be shocked if the people aren’t doing it outside the church’s walls. 

I have sporadically experienced such a “freedom” of Sunday morning bondage in the fifty years of my Christian life, where congregations were “allowed” to share their faith, give back to the Lord and the Lord’s people during a service, and the people always left renewed, encouraged, feeling the service had somehow come “alive”.

People who are not church-goers may become one if they can identify with the many stories, gifting, ministries, etc. God’s people have to offer, and the church faithful may want to stay “expecting” God to move “amongst His people” every time they meet. Isn’t God moving in the midst of His congregation, among His people, is what it is all about?

Sunday Morning Services need a different mindset,

Been Busted By Pollsters!

550% Come; 50% Don't

C.B.S. News Sunday Morning Program (Oct. 6, 2009) had an interesting segment on “Faith in America”.  Some of their insights were:

 “Americans shop for churches like they shop for everything else. They are consumers. It is what is best for me.” Wow! What does that say about us of Christian faith of loving your neighbor as yourself? Have we become “me”-centered believers. Hmmmm a topic for another blog!

“According to today’s Parade Magazine’s report ½ of the people who attend churches do not go to the church in which they were raised.”  I personally have gone to six different churches, all under different denominations or labels, since I left the church of my childhood although I still keep ties with that church.

According to the same poll “Americans say they are “spiritual” rather than “religious”, and only “50% of those claiming to be spiritual attend services”, and here I am on a Sunday morning writing this blog while my home church is having a “service”.

So there may be something to these polling facts, at least they have affected my life. I thought it interesting that when I am questioning the relevancy of “Sunday morning church services” this report is released.  Many church’s marquees boast “Sunday Worship Service” and times, now offering different “styles” of worship, contemporary or traditional, to reach the American Christian “consumer”. Music styles may vary, but structure hasn’t as music and the sermon are still the anchor of church services. Choirs have been replaced by Worship Bands, pipe organs by electric guitars, but the sermon is still monopolized by the clergy.

I find myself going to a service that requires nothing from me but my tithes, my money, and possibly singing along with the worship band if I know the songs or tune. We shake hands, pat backs, greet one another superficially for five minutes, but that is my spiritual community social life for the week.

Why have I fallen into the 50% category the pollsters have recorded? In my next blog, I would like to share a possible mindset change the church should face that may attract believers back and accountability to their believers.

Worship: Part IV

Bringing a Gift

Bringing A Gift

Whatever the Lord has given you, give it back!

*Go Back to Part I and read the series.

“Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”  Deut. 16:16-17

This is one of my favorite Old Testament scriptures for I believe that three times in a person’s life one is faced with crucial decisions about Jesus.  Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover, is when one is faced with Jesus as his Sacrificial Lamb, his Savior. The Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, is when is faced with Jesus as Lord.  Finally, the Feast of Tabernacles is when one is faced with eternal life with Jesus.  Although each person’s testimony is different in conditions and place, they are uniform spiritually.

For each one “no man should appear before the Lord empty-handed”.  In Old Testament time a different grain offering was given at each Feast. Today something must be given at each spiritual event in one’s life, “a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”  That’s worship: giving back the proportion that the Lord has blessed you.”  Passover, being “born again” requires giving up your “garbage, you sin, your baggage” for Jesus to be your Savior.  Pentecost requires giving up your “all” for Jesus to be you Lord where he reigns, not you. Feast of Tabernacles is when you give up “your life” here on earth to be with Jesus eternally in His Presence. 

Each of the three spiritual events in one’s life requires the giving away of something.  Worship is giving back to the Lord what He has given you.  That gift when placed on the altar will either be given back in even a greater measure, or consumed, and something new will be reborn.  Worship is giving.  Jesus “gave” all the credit to His father; he “gave” up his life for us.  He continues to give to us; all we need to do is give back. That is worship.

Worship: Part I

Simple Definition

 

Worship Is...

Whatever The Lord Has Given You; Give It Back!

Teaching: The Goal To Change

Mark VirklerIntellect vs. Experience

I think Virkler is on to something with his Lamad method of learning which he states is, “All learning and teaching is ultimately to be found in the fear of the Lord. The goal of teaching is not the impartation of facts but the changing of lives. For the Hebrew, knowledge (yadah) involves personal encounter and response to God’s revelation. The classroom is not separated from life but is actually part of our lives.”

The Church has to take a different mindset towards its teachers if it is to effectively minister from a five-fold perspective. Learning isn’t what you know, but how to use what you know effectively producing changed, Christ-like, Godly, lives.  It involves personal encounter, experience, and response to God’s revelation.  It is one thing to intellectually know what forgiveness is, but it is another to actually accept it in one’s life and extend it to others.  How do you teach forgiveness? Memorizing its definition, studying what noted theologians in their academic verbiage have spouted, or reciting the many scriptural passages on it?  Or do you actually forgive your brother or sister who erred you, and also receive forgiveness from those you have wronged?

Field Trips are always better than bookwork in a classroom because they become practical everyday “life experiences”.  Jesus constantly took his disciples on field trips, which we will examine in future blogs.

When I think of the hundreds of hours I have spent listening to academic sermons from the pulpit, speakers at conferences, Sunday School and Bible School teachers as a kid, and Bible courses I have taken, I question how effective they were in changing my life.  Walking the streets witnessing with an experienced, gifted, passionate evangelist was far more effective than reading about evangelism from a book or writing a paper about it. 

It is good to get a revelation through the Bible, taught to us by the Holy Spirit, but it is in the “response” to it in “life experiences” that bring the change.  Let’s examine in the next few blogs, how to do that!

Teaching: Head or Heart

 

IIntellect vs. In tuition

The Bible tells us that “your treasure is where your heart is”!  It does not say that “your treasure is in your intellect”, yet the Church has chosen to take intellect and reason over intuition and faith.

David was known as “a man of God’s heart”, while Solomon was known for his “wisdom”, not necessarily for his intellect.  I have known many men who were not intellectual but very “wise” men.

Mark and Patti Virkler created the Communion With God Ministries to teach the “lamad” of learning. On their web page www.cwgministries.org/The-Lamad-Method-of-Learning.htm Virkler explain the Lamad Method:

“The Hebrew language uses one root (lamad) for the two words "to teach" and "to learn." In the Hebrew culture, the teacher has not taught unless the student has learned. All learning and teaching is ultimately to be found in the fear of the Lord. The goal of teaching is not the impartation of facts but the changing of lives. For the Hebrew, knowledge (yadah) involves personal encounter and response to God’s revelation.

In the lamad method of learning, we are returning to the Hebraic concept of education, including this personal encounter and revelation. The classroom becomes a place of impassioned discussion and the sharing of real life experience. It is a place where we meet God and share in the life experiences of others. It is a place where we practice truth. The classroom is not separated from life but is actually part of our lives.”

Jesus never founded an university, seminary, or Bible college.  He never inferred degrees upon anyone.  He just walked with the twelve ordinary men and others while building relationships and changing lives.  Instead of facts, He taught faith.  Instead of building an entourage of educators to expound data, He promised the Holy Spirit to come and be the teacher to all believers.

We will examine teaching and learning from the Western perspective and from the Jewish Lamad method.  I too hope too also experience personal encounter with the rear of the Lord and respond to God’s revelation resulting in change.  This journey could be another change in mindset, this time for the teacher.

Nurturing: Hanging Out

Is This My Childhood?Hood or Holy?

As a kid living in the city, the neighborhood kids hung out at the street corner.  We didn’t do much, it was a social thing, and as teens we were social.  I remember getting reprimanded by my mother because of its “image”.  She was worried. I guess she thought we were turning into hoods in a gang.  We were in our teens, bored, and desired a social life.  What the hanging out did was establish relationships and friendships for a lifetime.

The Great Commission is basically go out to all the world to “hang out” with them with the gospel, the good news.  Paul had the method down. He hung out at Mars Hill in Greece to introduce them to the “unknown God”, then throughout Asia met people in public places, often getting stoned or thrown out of town.  We, as the Church, got it backward.  We expect the world to “come in” to our church buildings instead of having the Church go out and hang out with the world. The attitude of “God forbid going to a bar; what would happened if Jesus returned and caught you there?” instilled holy fear into me preventing me from ever going out to be with sinners, yet that is exactly where Jesus went. I sought the safety of the cocoon my church created isolating myself from the world to be “holy” while Jesus went out!

Jesus' first miracle was while “partying” at a wedding, making “good wine” for the boys! That doesn’t sound very holy! My church wouldn’t practice that!  Jesus “partied” with the Zacheus and his peers, tax collectors, the I.R.S. boys of his day, and I am sure those boys know how to party after April 15th! That would be a non-approved activity by my church too! 

 Jesus “hung out” with a Samaritan woman, alone, at a well, while his disciples were away. That was a social taboo of his day, a real no-no, but he did it. You know the story of the woman at the well.  It only brought her into the kingdom, revealed his Messiahship, and brought a revival to the town in which she lived, all because he was willing to “hang out” with her.

Jesus “hung out” with lepers, demon possessed people, the sick, the rejects of his society only to have positive, life changing, results!  Meanwhile, his disciples, whom he had been shepherding, watched intently.

Maybe we need to rethink, have a different mindset, on what shepherding is as a Church. Church, in my memory, is talking-the-talk through sermons, courses, programs, Bible studies, small groups, etc.  There was little walking-the-walk beside you in every day living.  Walking with you “through the valley of he shadow of death” (Psalms 23) rather than preaching or teaching you about the valley is what the Church needs to strive for. 

“Hanging Out” is repulsed by large Crusades, large church complexes where hundreds meet weekly, organized “programs”, and pristine orchestrated “services”.  It can only be done with a few, no more than twelve to be effective, is informal, and can happen wherever a few people are at the present time. We need to change our mindset.

Decade 20’s

Oh To Be In My 20's Again!

Author’s Note:  During my morning time alone, I pulled this out of the archives of my journals on my computer.  Even though it is over 5 years ago since writing it, it is timely for anyone in their 20’s or beginning their 30’s.  Enjoy it; I did today!

Sunday, June 18, 2004

Isn’t amazing to see the amount of time the Church spends on developing a children’s program, a youth program, and an adult program.  We are to develop the children, guide them through their teens, and teach and direct them as adults.  Unfortunately the weakest link in this chain is the young adult years of the twenties.            

Where Are They Now? Where Are They Now?Second five year class reunions take on a gentler flavor.  In the ten years since graduation everyone, now in their late twenties, approaching their 30’s has grooved their own path, some successfully, so it appears, and others struggling every step of the way.  The dreams on graduation day, and the optimism at the first reunion are now replaced with a complacency of settling in to life.  Now approaching their thirties, one has had to “find” himself, set his own pace, develop his own personal values, morals, and priorities in life.  The partying, exploring, adventurous spirit of the early twenties has given way to responsibility of family and marriage, development of a career, and setting a course that will take one through the decade of their thirties as spouse, parent, and provider.  Some common ground is being struck at this reunion:  most now have experienced marriage, surprisingly some a second marriage; most have started families; women pass around pictures of children instead of pictures of boyfriends like in high school; men boast of sports they are play, hunting and fishing to get away from the pressures of work, a career; some are still trying to find their way no yet ready to settle to what they see the others as having a standard mundane life.  All eat, drink, and be merry, dancing away the evening vaguely reminiscing a senior prom that now seems father back in their memory.  Stories are told reminiscing those days in and out of class, now slightly exaggerated, before biding farewell for five years.

This is the decade of development, setting one’s own directions, cementing one’s own morals, and owning up to personal responsibility, becoming one’s own man or women.  This is the decade one likes to hang out with others, establish relationships, personal, business, or casual, some lasting a short time, others a lifetime.  This is the decade where Jesus hangs out with his peers and picks them to be his disciples as he enters his early thirties.  He pulls them out of their jobs, their projected careers, their political dreams, their spiritual searches and calls them to his.  Men give up careers of fishing to be fishers of men.  Men give up ludicrous financial careers as tax collectors to follow him. Men who are searching for answers for themselves find them in intimate times of hanging out and talking with their friend.  In fact, they work on establishing relationships with each other and with him.  I can see a good Jewish mother complaining, “My son had a good career in the fishing industry, only to give it up and follow this guy from Galilee while searching for himself!” or “My son, my son was doing so well financially with the government and gave up the security of that job to wander around with a gang of guys doing who knows what!  What security is it there for him?”

Jesus did not pick any “old fogies” from the Sanhedrin, or even established leaders in his community, but called our those in their late twenties or early thirties to follow him, be his disciples, because he knew they were in the stage of life of cementing their own morals, having to own up to their own personal responsibilities, becoming their own man, and he had to mold them into what his Father wanted them to become.  These same men who struggled, complained, debated, and fought one another when walking with Jesus were the same men who would later, with age, experience, and a new found leading by the Holy Spirit would become apostles and leaders of the Church, His Body, in the near future.

As twenty year olds, they were strongly opinionated; put foot in mouth often; boasted that they would never do a certain thing, then do it, and then have to face how to handle their mistakes and blunders; run when times were rough only to return and stand strong later; scatter separately when faced with the cross, but brought back together in unity on Pentecost; steeped in religious traditions, but freed by the lifestyle, cross, and resurrection of the one who they hung out with, Jesus Christ.

I want to encourage those in their twenties to hang out with Jesus.   Hang out with other believers, disciples, and experience Jesus privately and corporately.  That is what the disciples did two centuries ago, and still do today.  You will have your own personal battles with Jesus as the twelve did back then, but you can also experience hanging in there with the battle of the whole group as the disciples did too back then.  Allow the Holy Spirit to work with you individually, as he did with the disciples and others later like Saul, and together corporately, which he did at Pentecost.  After each person deal individually with what the cross and resurrection meant to them, then they came together expecting God to do more, not knowing what that form that was to be in.  Every generations Pentecost comes differently, but just as powerfully, which develops the Church for that generation. You are now going through that stage in your life now!

I remember may experiences in my twenties, sitting in my empty living room apartment alone, having no furniture, no TV, no sound system, only one knife, fork, and spoon to my name, having to wash it if I wished to share food with someone!  I remember my spiritual struggles at that time, having to face the cross and resurrection, having to face Jesus on my own.  I remember not wanting to do another “religious act”, for me lifting hands just because others did, yet caught myself in the quietness of an empty room lifting my hands after being broken before Jesus.  Those years cemented who I am today.

Nurturing: Joyce & Morgan Ilgenfritz

Shepherding At The Grass Root Level

Shepherding is nurturing people in their day to day life so that they will reflect the image of Jesus to everyone to whom they interact.  It can be done at a grass roots level.  It need not be a program.  I have learned that first hand.

Back in 1988 I had the privilege to write a book "I Was A Strange And..." about Morgan and Joyce Ilgenfritz of York, Pennsylvania.  They have opened their home to whomever the lord has brought their way.  There have been over 350 people from all over the world over the last 35 years who have lived with them for a month or more.  I wrote about the first 100 of them during the first 10 years.  My wife and I, with the birth of our son were three of them!

Joyce has ministered to pregnant women, oriental girls, single girls, etc. helping them learn the ins and outs of keeping their house.  Morgan has taught young boys how to become men, change the oil in their cars, take on responsibilities rather than running from them, etc.  People who have never heard of Jesus before coming to the Lighthouse, as the Ilgenfritz's call it, leave with an intimate relationship with Jesus by the time they leave.  Joyce and Morgan teach those under their roof how to live out their faith in a day to day existence.

Although very evangelistic at heart, they have allowed the Lord to bring the mission field to their own very house.  Now they are driven to nurture young people in trusting Jesus as they grow into adulthood.  They don't control people who come to their home, they just love on them.  Their rule is that you have to be part of the family to live with them, and they enforce that rule.  Since many who have lived there really do not have godly family; it is a breath of fresh air to have someone accept them in the Grace and Mercy that Jesus gives.

When I think of "shepherding" or having a "pastoral gifting", I think of Joyce and Morgan because they serve: the homeless, those needing fed, those needing clothes, those needing baby supplies, visiting people who have been in jail, and those who just needed a family to accept them.  There is always someone in their home.  Nurturing over 350 people! What a gift.

Spirit of Evangelism: New Horizons

 

What Is On The Horizon?Who Is Beside You?

I have look at evangelism from several different angles over the last dozen and a half blogs.  It has been a fascinating and enlightening experience to study the history of evangelism from outdoor meetings that Wesley vehemently rejected at first only to embrace and perfect later to the refinement of mass evangelistic crusades reaching thousands in large sports complexes. In spite of all our efforts to reach large groups with a single swoop, one-on-one evangelism still proves to be the most effective method because it requires us to be a part of it.  One of the greatest thrills in a Christian’s life is leading someone else into the kingdom.  Seeing the physical birth of one’s child is an unbelievable experience, so is witnessing someone’s spiritual birth.  The Birthing Process is a beautiful experience, physically and spiritually.

Yet in the midst of this beauty the Church has also witnessed controversies: large evangelistic crusade teams ripping off financially local towns, churches, and municipalities; huge “reaping” of the lost only to lose them back to the world again because of lack of follow up after the evangelistic endeavor; the evangelist being a parachurch ministry, leaving town after the evangelistic endeavor instead of being part of the ongoing ministry of the local congregation; because of the lack of follow up the need to have yet another evangelistic endeavor again and again to fill in for those who dropped out of the church or returned to the world. 

Personally, I have been involved in all kinds of evangelistic endeavors as I have shared in my blogs, but looking back, their failures glare with their successes.  With televangelists flooding America’s airwaves, Christian radio easily found on America’s radio dials, Christian blogs, tweets, web sites, chat rooms, and streams on the Internet, then why is America progressing away from being a Christian nation? 

     An evangelist needs a pastor/shepherd to “feed my sheep” or nurture them in growth.  An evangelist needs a teacher to teach these newly born sheep in the tenants of faith according to the Holy Spirit’s teaching of all truth through the Bible.  An evangelist needs a prophet to hear the revelation of truth, teaching one how to live the Rhema Word, the living word, beside the Logos Word, or written word.  An evangelist needs someone with apostolic insight, or point of view, to “see over” the whole process of nurturing a believer from birth towards being in the likeness of Jesus. 

If an evangelist is missing one of these components, one of these passions, one of these points of views from encircling him in love and mercy in the Church, he will never see the fullness of the harvest he has dreamt of. 

Stick with me in future blogs, as we examine those who support and are grateful for the evangelist and how they work together to “equip the saints” now that they are birthed.

Spirit of Evangelism: Creative Evangelism

 Satan Counterfeits; Only God Can Create

Palm reading, or palmistry, is an ancient practice used throughout the world, but how about Psalm reading, or Psalministry?  This is definitely creative evangelism.

I once heard a speaker, Ken, (sorry I do not recall his last name) who goes to Salem, Massachusetts in October with a contingent of Bible students.  Ken is not intimidated by the occult as so many Christians are, but challenges them.  His evangelistic team sets up a tent and a stage to do drama and to give personal prophetic words to people.  He has been so successful that even local witches have come into their tent to see what it is all about.  One witch even sent a customer to them because she felt they could do more for her than she could.

Last year he tried something different, where he would look at someone’s palm, but recite scripture from the book of Psalms instead. The Psalm with prophetic insight has led several people to the Lord, thus Psalms Reading instead of Palm Reading.

The accuracy of their prophetic words, the love they have shown everyone, and the grace they have displayed have earned them respect among the Salem community while they were there.  Often evangelistic endeavors bring animosity from the locals, but that is not the case here.

Often we give the occult too much credit, when in reality satan is not a creator.  He cannot create anything.  Only God can create, thus satan is a counterfeiter while God is the creator.  If we allow the Holy Spirit to “creatively” bring out the “creation” the “Creator” has “created” in us, evangelism could be drastically different than it is today. I would like to challenge you to listen to the Creator to see what he would want you to do creatively to bring others into his saving grace.

Spirit of Evangelism: Lost In The Shuffle

 

Take Time To Smell The Roses, Or Is That Fish?

It ceases to amaze me that Jesus’ disciples saw him feed thousands, yet miss the miracle of it all.  It happened a second time before Jesus stopped them and made them refocus.  I can imagine the twelve got caught up in the “How To” of the actual feeding of the thousands.  They had to go through groups of 50 and 100, continually breaking bread and fish, which seemed a never-ending chore. Then they had clean up duty collecting basketfuls of leftovers and wondering what to do with it all.

I am sure they were dumbfounded when later Jesus rebukes them for their unbelief.  He fed thousands, yet they freaked out when seeing him walk on water.  They had witnessed water into wine, healings of leprosy, deliverance from demons, and even the raising of the dead, yet they were so busying in the “doing” of all of this, that they missed out the significance of the moment.

How often do we get caught up “doing church” that we miss “being the Church”?  or administrating and doing the programs that we miss what God did during them?  When I was Lay Witness Missions Coordinator, I got so busy overseeing the weekend as the focal point of leadership, I would often ask my wife when leaving the church where we had just ministered, “What happened this weekend?”  I had to learn to stop, during the weekend, and smell the roses.  I had to stop from breaking the loaves and fish to realize the significance of what the Holy Spirit was doing at that moment.

When there is a new work, a new church being birthed, a new ministry, there is excitement.  Often when we get caught up in the excitement we miss the significance of the moment. An effective evangelist has to learn to not get caught up in the “how-tos” of the moment, but learn how to cherish the moment, smell the roses, the fresh loaves, the fish.  Unlike the disciples, let’s not miss Jesus when caught up in the midst of the “doing” of the work.  If we miss Jesus, the doing means nothing.

Spirit of Evangelism: Rebirthing?

 Do I And The Church Need To Be "Born Again"?

     When Jesus came to earth he never established an institution, a structure, a program, a model, he majored in people.  He touched the sick, not only taught the multitudes but fed them, mourned over the death of an only child raising that child from the dead for the glory of its mother, even exhorted John to take care of his mother while hanging on the cross.  One of the keys to Jesus ministry was “the human element”.

• ·      What happens when we lose “the human element”? Is an institution born, a structure birthed and set in order, a program put in place to be practiced? 
• ·      What happens when “streaming the Sunday Services over the internet” becomes more important than visiting the shut-ins?  How many shut-ins do you know? When was the last time you visited one?
• ·      What happens when watching the National Geographic Channel’s excellent programs on Maximum Security Prisons, Locked Up Abroad, and doing Hard Time takes the place of actually visiting the prisoners in prison.  How many people in prison do you know? Have you ever visited your local prison?  When a prisoner is released, where are they to go, back to the streets, back to the environment that has poisoned them? And in our pious attitudes we wonder why they “don’t make it” and eventually become a “repeater”!
• ·      What happens to orphans? Jesus said, “Let the little ones come unto me.”  Orphanages, do they even exist today? Instead we have “programs” and “human services”?  Have you ever participated in a Big Brother or Big Sister Program?  Is the lost child to be taken care of by our government through “Children’s Services” or by the Church?
• ·      How about the widow?  Is she the Church’s responsibility? According to the Bible, YES!  The Welfare System, A.A.R.P. or Medicare was not God’s best effort to help the widow; it was our way of creating a system to detach us from our responsibilities.

The first century Church fed one another, took care of their orphans and widows, addressed the issues of the oppressed, the prisoners, the down trodden, clothed the naked, healed the sick.  They did not count on Caesar, although still instructed to pay taxes to him to support “his system”, but counted on Jesus Christ and His kingdom to meet their needs.  Jesus always focused on “the human element”.

So I ask, “Does the Church, itself, need a rebirth?”  Do we, the Church, especially I, a believer in Jesus Christ, need to rebirth, rekindle, redirect, refocus on the human element of “loving my neighbor”, even “loving my enemy”? Do I need to birth if I have never done it before, or rebirth, if I have but lost the passion, a desire to visit the sick, the imprisoned, the orphan, the elderly, and the widow?  Do I need to birth or rebirth my lifestyle to include them?  Or do I just “go to church” enjoy the benefits of the structure, institution, and services?  Has “church” become “convenient”?  Has the church you attend become program-matic, institutionalized, so structured that you attending it allows you to not really get involved in the daily life and activities of the others who attend?  Has it, better yet, have you lost “the human element”?  If so, then maybe you need to have that be “birthed” or “born again” in you!  Yes the Church itself, and me, as a believer needs to be “born again”, experience a rebirth?

Spirit of Evangelism: Birthing

Nicodemus Complex

 
Nicodemus was a religious scholar and leader of his time, a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish body. He had a keen interest in this Jesus and his teaching. Jesus looked at him and proclaimed, “You must be born again.”

Nicodemus knew that physically that was impossible. One cannot go back into their mother’s womb and be reborn. He was entirely perplexed by what Jesus asked him to do.

Often I have heard this passage taught explaining the spiritual birth. One is born physically, but needs to be born spiritual, thus Christians teach about rebirth. How often has Billy Graham preached, “You must be born again”?

One of the mindsets towards evangelism we might examine is that of “birthing”. Evangelists know how to birth. Birthing is what drives them, their passion. They are like midwives wanting to birth. After the birth the nursery staff can begin the new one’s development, for there are more births out there.

If birthing is so important to the evangelist, I would like you to brainstorm ideas at how an evangelism might use the birthing process in the Church other than just “leading people to the Lord”. If those in the church listen to what the Holy Spirit want to do among them, who better to birth that vision, that passion, than the evangelist. After the evangelists “ignites” the vision, others in the church will move forward to implement it.

As we look at the five fold ministry in future blogs, we will discover that “birthing” is the key, the passion, the point of view of the Evangelist that will free him to be what he was created to be, yet serve the others in the body bringing unity.

Spirit of Evangelism: Hearing

 

Listening Before Speaking

Years ago our church taught Ministering Spiritual Gifts through Bishop Bill Hammon’s Christian International. It was a course that taught one how to progress from quiet individual prayer to listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit to the point of giving personal prophetic words to people. It could be intimidating to one who likes a “quiet witness”. One of the first lessons is just to pray orally with another person, and for some, that is pushing them beyond their comfort zones.

 I remember taking the lesson on “Journaling” where you ask the Lord a question, sit in silence and listen to the Spirit’s prodding, then writing what you think you have heard. Often one may get the first word or two, and in faith start only to feel the flow after taking the step of faith.  I wrote, “Is this journaling real? I need to know.” I sat quiet, then began to write. I could not believe what I got. I wrote:

“Anthony, I know you like to talk, for I have been listening to you. I want you to know that I like to talk too. Are you willing to listen to Me?”

Ouch! Right on the mark; how true! Since that day I have tried to cultivate my “hearing ear” to listening to the Spirit. I would rather listened during a worship service that speak or sing.

Can you imagine how powerful and effective we would be if we just “listened” for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit to tell us what to do and then be obedient to what we have heard? That is what Jesus did, often going alone in solitude just to listen. After listening, he could walk on water during storms, feed five thousand with a few fish and loaves.

If we want to be effective evangelists, maybe we should learn to “listen” first, before speaking, then we would not have to do “evangelistic programs” or models. Wow, take the time right now and listen. Stop reading this blog, listen, and act on what you hear the Spirit telling you. 

Evangelism: A Different Mindset

WWoman At The Well Model:

Prophetic Evangelism

I have often read the account of Jesus with the woman at the well, and it has been a model for evangelism for years. I would like to look at it from four steps:

1. Jesus met the woman and dealt “One-On-One” with her. His disciples were not present, there was no mass evangelistic effort, just Jesus and her. A Jew talking to a non-Jew was taboo, and talking to a woman who was not Jewish was beyond taboo, but that is not the reason for his talking to her privately.

2. He met with her privately because he had a “prophetic” insight into her life he wanted to share. He read her private mail: she had five husbands in the past, and the current man she was living with was not one of them. Not only did he break the social taboos of his time, but the personal taboo of dealing with a non-Jewish woman at a personal level. Because of this she perceives he is a prophet.

3. He then goes beyond her perception of who she thinks he is, but reveals that He is the Messiah, not to his disciples or even a Jewish gathering, but to a non-Jewish, adulterous Arab woman! With the knowledge of knowing who Jesus is, for she had personally met him, she runs back to her town and tells her story.

4. The town responds by having Jesus stay for a few days as revival breaks out. Results: (paraphrased) “Wow, her testimony was great, but since we have seen Him and personally heard him, we too believe.”

Group evangelism can be spawned through personal evangelism. The fruit of one on one contact can bring powerful group evangelism results. Again, how does the model work:

1. One-On-One Contact: Personal evangelism is usually the most effective way to minister the gift of salvation.

2. Minister Prophetically: Allowing the Holy Spirit to use you through personal prophetic words, reveals the power of God in your life and in theirs, complementing step one as God being personal to each individual.

3. Let Jesus Reveal Himself to the person. Teach them early that when in the Presence of God, He will reveal himself to you. Jesus certainly did that to the Samaritan woman in revealing Himself as the Messiah while in her presence.

4. Respond to the Leading of the Holy Spirit: If the Lord takes you beyond the initial personal contact to minister to others do it! They too need to know for themselves of His reality!

So, maybe we should look at the possibility of prophetic evangelism as a new mind set for the Church. It certainly is not new to Jesus who effectively did it at the well to the Samaritan woman. It was an effective method for him; thus it should be an effective method for you and me.