Salvation affects how believers approach witnessing

1. Salvation affects how believers approach witnessing In offering our suggestions, we, your authors, are very aware that there is no cut-and-dry formula for pastoral leadership concerning witnessing that is perfect for all. We have prayed for guidance on this point and have been guided by the Holy Spirit to share some ideas with you as a sign of our love and caring for you.

2. Let’s start with thinking about the end time: Jesus will return for the Last Judgment. When He does, it will be too late to save those who have not received Salvation. Knowing that there is a cutoff point for Salvation affects how believers approach witnessing. Some pastors see His return as imminent, based on comparing the events and sins going on around us with the book of Revelation. Only God knows if that perspective is true. If it is correct, there’s certainly no time to waste in improving witnessing. In considering this perspective, it should also be noted that believing in an extremely imminent return can be harmful to encouraging people to witness: Expecting the Last Judgment to come any day can become an excuse for a Christian to do nothing about lost people and the evils in the world.Let’s consider the alternative: Jesus Christ will not be returning soon. How does that possibility affect what should be done about helping congregations to witness more?Many pastors who expect Him to return soon refer to thepossibility of the world continuing as it is by saying, “Should Christ tarry …” That word “tarry” is an interesting choice. Webster’s

3. New World Dictionary and Thesaurus (Simon & Schuster, 1996) provides these definitions for tarry: “1. to delay; linger 2. to stay for a time 3. To wait.” When the word is applied to an ordinary person, “tarry” usually suggests someone who is distracted enough to delay attending to other responsibilities. From that human perspective of “tarry,” you could imagine Jesus enjoying heaven so much that He puts off bringing the Last Judgment.Only God can know why Jesus has not yet returned, but it seems unlikely that He is tarrying because He is distracted. Could a possible reason for Jesus not returning soon be the opposite circumstance, that God is waiting to send Jesus because Christian Books are tarrying in wrong pursuits rather than doing His will concerning witnessing?

4. Let’s consider for a moment the possibility that God might be waiting for the people of the Earth to do such a good job of following Jesus that little more can be accomplished by mere mortals in bringing the heavenly kingdom to Earth. From that perspective, the Last Judgment would be a final cleanup action by Christ to deal with the remaining sinners who will not be rescued by Salvation because these unsaved people are too hardhearted. That perspective is certainly consistent with His stated desire that all be saved. While this is not a book of theology, nor are we suggesting that we have any idea when Christ will return, it seems curious to us that many Christian Testimony assign no possible role for themselves in influencing the timing of the Last Judgment. While only by God can the existence of such a potential human role in affecting when the Last Judgment occurs be revealed, it is clear here on Earth that all Christians can affect what happens at the Last Judgment through whether they help lost people understand and consider Salvation. The number of those who are condemned at that time will be more or less,

5. depending on what each Christian does now. Until the Last Judgment comes, souls are being condemned whenever unsaved people die. That consequence should be considerable encouragement to do more witnessing now. Isn’t it interesting that regardless of personal views about when the end times will arrive, the conclusion is almost always the same? More witnessing should be done now. Let’s now look at a smaller perspective: We would like to suggest an additional way for pastors to think about the congregations God has given them. From this new perspective, a pastor’s congregation includes those who attend the church and those who would attend if someone witnessed to them. When pastors look around in a church service, they should use their eyes of faith to see the large numbers of those who should be there and aren’t. From that perspective, a church filled to overflowing with Christian worshippers may be sadly empty of lost people God wants to attend that hurch but who need a witness to bring them. One way to discover how a church is doing from this perspective is to sponsor a free car wash in the church parking lot. When Jubilee

6. Worship Center (JWC) conducted such an outreach recently, almost none of the dozens of visitors reported being saved or attending a church. Yet their travels brought them by JWC on a Saturday.Presumably, they also knew how to get there on Sunday. Imagine that there were many other lost people who drove by who didn’t have time for a car wash, had a clean car, or weren’t hungry. It becomes clear that even with a very active witnessing program, only a small percentage of the neighbors, visitors, and passers-by are being reached by a church with many complete, continuing witnesses. The size of the lost population in a church’s vicinity is obviously much larger for ongregations that don’t do much witnessing. What would happen if each pastor led the congregation to become acquainted with all the people who regularly work, visit, and live within a three-mile radius of the sanctuary? • The congregation would know who was saved and who wasn’t.

7. • Those who aren’t yet complete, continual witnesses would understand how much witnessing needs to be done. • Systematic efforts could be aimed at sharing the Good News with the nearby unsaved people. • The needs of neighbors would be better understood so that appropriate ministries could be developed to serve those needs. • Measurements could be used to assess how well the church is serving lost people in gaining Salvation so that more of what works for witnessing would be done to substitute for efforts that are ineffective. • The church’s light would shine brightly in that community, and everyone there would realize what a Godly example it was providing.Some may despair of doing so much at once, especially after having paid little attention to many of these needs. Here’s a suggestion: Start with a much smaller geographical radius and work outward. You could start with as little as the block where the church is located. If that is still too much as a first step, focus on

8. teenagers and young adults in that block or an even smaller geographical area. Helping those people appreciate how to gain Salvation will open the door to gaining the resources and energy you need to accomplish everything else that you need to do We also suggest that a church share at least 10 percent of the resources available for witnessing tools and trainings with a church that is developing complete, continual witnesses in an economically underdeveloped area in your country or another nation. While that investment in helping to save souls may seem like a small one, many people are likely to gain Salvation through sharing your resources with an effective witnessing church that has many more witnesses than witnessing tools. At a small cost to your congregation, you can greatly increase witnessing and give more glory to God. What could be nicer?If you have found these observations to be interesting, that’s good,but please remember that we are not trying to prescribe a precise direction for you. Instead, we want to help you consider how your congregation could fulfill Christ’s Great Commission in the most effective way. In the rest of this

9. chapter, we outline some ideas for pastors to explore in deciding what will work best for their congregations.