What Is Success In Evangelism?

In an age when true evangelism is considered passe or unsophisticated by its cultured despisers, may we believers never adopt such corrupt thinking.  In a retrograde culture where right is considered wrong, and God is said to be irrelevant, may we believers shine as lights in this present darkness.

     "What is success in evangelism?  Is it when the person you witness to comes to Christ?  Certainly that's what we want to happen.  But if this is success, are we failures whenever we share the gospel and people refuse to believe?  Was Jesus an "evangelistic failure" when people like the rich young ruler turned away from Him and His message?  Obviously not.  Then neither are we when we present Christ and His message and they turn away in unbelief.  We need to learn that sharing the gospel is successful evangelism.  We ought to have an obsession for souls, and tearfully plead with God to see more people converted, but conversions are the fruit that God alone can give. 
     In this regard we are like the postal service.  Success is measured by the careful an accurate delivery of the message, not by the response of the recipient.  Whenever we share the gospel (which includes the summons to repent and believe), we have succeeded.  In the truest sense, all biblical evangelism is successful evangelism, regardless of the results."

-from "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald S. Whitney, p.103.

Some Thoughts on Hiring Larry Doyle

Look what fell out of my file cabinet!  I would have shared with my church back in the day.

Dated July 15, 2003 (Edited only for typographical errors)

Some Thoughts on Hiring Larry Doyle

On Monday night, I sat and watched Dr. Larry Doyle pour out his heart for what Cooperative/partnership Missions looks like. This is his way of speaking about Associational Missions work, which is what he as a Director of Missions will promote.

His text for the sermon part of his talk was Mark 2, the healing of the Paralytic: (Read Mark 2:1-12).

These four men were on their way somewhere perhaps. Maybe they were going to the meeting to see Jesus speak. They valued the ministry of Jesus, they knew that he healed people and was a person of great power and strength. So first, Dr. Doyle said that they had shared values. Next, these four men, on their way somewhere, saw a person in need. They realize that Jesus could make the man in need walk again. They valued the ministry of Jesus, and this gave rise to their vision that Jesus could make the man walk again. So they had a shared vision.

Next, these four men cooperated. They each cooperated in carrying their share of the burden. What would have happened if one man had decided not to carry his part of the stretcher? So these four men had shared values that led to a shared vision, that caused them to cooperate and share the work.

Next, these men had a problem. What happened? Did they just get to bring the paralytic right in and set him down? No! They could not get to the house. So they moved on to plan B, they overcame an obstacle together. So, they had shared values, that led to a shared vision, that caused them to cooperate and overcome obstacles.

They believed in their vision sufficiently to cooperate and overcome obstacles. But this common vision wasn't imposed on them. It arose naturally because of their shared values. They valued the ministry of Jesus.

One of the most difficult things to do in life is to get different people working together. Consider the following old sayings:

Too many cooks in the kitchen.

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

Too many generals and not enough foot soldiers.

It seems that plenty of people want to cooperate, as long as they are the one that is being cooperated with.

It seems to me that Dr. Doyle, if indeed we are allowed to vote tomorrow night and if he is elected as our DOM, will have significant challenges. Why is that? Because it is rare to find a majority of churches and pastors that share their values enough to have a common vision, a common sharing of burdens, a common effort to overcome obstacles.

Why is this? Because everyone says they are concerned about lost people, and believe that the gospel should be taken to the lost through acts of service, love, and the spoken word.

But wait, that sounds like a shared value to me! But too often it is only the surface value. Consider these other values and see if they sound like those ACTUALLY held by pastors and church leaders:

We value our independence; so we don't want to be told what to do by others.

We value our finances; so we don't want to give money unless we get something out of the deal.

We value our reputations; so we don't want to associate too closely with anything unless it is guaranteed to make us look good.

We value our status; so we don't want to be equal partners with those pastors of small churches or Bi vocational pastors. They should be learning from us, we shouldn't be partnering with them.

We value our correctness; so we won't cooperate unless it is proven that other churches or pastors agree with us on virtually everything that we consider to be important.

As you can see, there are some shared values that don't work very well for a shared vision.

So what is the answer? I believe there are two.

First, we can abandon Baptist ideals and go for authoritarianism. We can have a top-down model of cooperation, where Hitler tells us all what to do and we just do it. He says jump, and we say how high.

Second, we can renew our commitment to the real value we profess. Do we really value the ministry of Christ like these four men did?

Do we really appreciate His help in our own lives? Do we realize that He is the first and best of all beings? Do we want to please Him as we should by delighting ourselves in Him above all other things in life?

Do we love Jesus more than we love our independence, our reputation, our finances, our status, our correctness?

When we do, we will have a real foundation for shared vision, cooperation, and kingdom growth.

So join me in praying that we will glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

Dr. Larry Doyle is leaving us as Director of Missions of the Piedmont Baptist Association at the end of this year. He has been an encouragement to many pastors and churches, and has led the PBA through many initiatives and transformations. His ministry work continues with Unleashed by Design at facebook.com/unleashedbydesign 

Are You on the Sidelines?

“Christians are sitting on the sidelines while the culture rots.”  Baloney.

The culture is rotted, that's true.  But make no mistake: studying God's word, preaching God's word, publishing God's word as much as possible, proclaiming God's word publicly and living it out in our lives as we attempt to be faithful followers of Jesus... is exactly and only what the culture needs. 

In other (Biblical) words, “Repent and believe the Gospel!”

But people think,  "It isn't having an effect, things are just getting so much worse by the second!”

What, however, are we to expect by way of results if we are on mission with Jesus?  Adoring crowds and back-slapping congratulations? No! There is such a thing as the “ministry of death.” Christian ministry produces an “aroma of death” to “those who are perishing” (2 Cor 2:14-7, see also carefully 2 Cor 3-4)!

It should be no surprise that the culture has been rotting since the garden of Eden closed. The world's culture doesn't want to hear God's word of grace, mercy, and salvation. Self-serving cultural moral relativism (and its fascist political correctness) is the quite predictable result of scientific materialism an all its incarnations.This includes, by the way, those “ministries” that actively campaign against traditional Biblical Christianity in the name of “embracing” the culture (thereby becoming part of the culture and leaving the rule and reign of God). Christians who attempt to embrace the flatulent winds and grasp the festering waters of our culture in the vain effort to be accepted are finding this only hardens people's hearts against the gospel, which is (all by itself!) “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

The salt of the earth is also the light of the world. People are welcome to congratulate themselves all they want, but the salt may become tasteless and the light may be extinguished one day when the time of God's patience is exhausted (2 Thess 2:6-12)! Take heart, don't panic, the party is already over.  Most of what we hear about is being exaggerated by a tiny minority of Minitrue wannabes anyway.

In the meantime, the Great Commission is still as true as ever, and we are called, imperfect though we be, to proclaim the truth about the forgiveness that God offers.  God is merciful, full of grace, and willing to forgive and transform whoever is willing to come to Him by faith. That is the truth.

So though the world may seem to be nuts, remember that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm" (Ephesians 6:12-13).

Christians aren't on the sidelines, the world is playing the wrong game.

For another similar perspective that I just found after writing this:

http://thefederalist.com/2015/06/15/christians-need-to-stop-playing-the-self-flagellation-game/

...so I did!

I received one of those "e-vites" and clicked the RSVP.  The event was to be in a church building, and I arrived on time to a virtually empty parking lot.  I thought the event would be well-attended, so I was pretty surprised.  I decided to walk up to the building anyway.  The doors were locked, and there was no sign directing me, and no one around anywhere.  I found a doorbell and gave it a ring.  Waited...no sign of anyone.  I peered into the window again, wondering what to do next.  As I looked to the right I could clearly see, back inside somewhere, part of a message..."Go Ye Therefore..." so I did.