my thoughts, musings, rants and discoveries . . .

I was perusing some sites to see what the controversy of the day was, when I found a reference to an old friend of mine who is pastoring in Jacksonville FL. On his church’s site, they’ve been having a series of lessons on Evangelism and one of the points struck a cord with me:

Probably the most common and dangerous mistake made in evangelism is the
misinterpretation of the results of evangelism, (which is the conversion of unbelievers), as being evangelism itself. Evangelism must not be confused with its fruit. If one has a misunderstanding of the results of evangelism, a misunderstanding of the gospel and what the Bible teaches about conversion, then it is possible that they may end up thinking that not only is it possible to see people converted, but they may also think that it is within their power to make it happen. According to the Bible, converting people is not in our power. Evangelism is defined in terms of our faithfulness to the message that must be preached. 2nd Corinthians 2:15-16 says “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?” We are reminded that the same ministry has two different effects (life and death). The parable of the sower reminds us that the same seed was planted in different places, but the response or results varied according to the nature of the soil. Evangelizing isn’t converting people; it is telling them that they need to be converted, telling them how they can be saved, and leaving the increase up to God.

I wish I had known this back in 1992 when I left FL and was introduced to the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. It may have actually spared me a considerable amount of pain. It was seeing what I thought were results that lured me into attending a fundamentalist church for the better part of 14 years.

The first year was spent in amazement over the incredible zeal. The second was spent in discomfort as I soon started to have realizations over what was and wasn’t the gospel. This where this lesson could have come in handy. My 3rd year was spent trying to gain approval and dealing with guilt over feeling as if I wasn’t loyal. And the rest of my years were spent trying to get out.

One of things I have found is that there are few people who actually evangelize. Most hide their light under a bushel or have diluted their salt to the point of lacking any savor whatsoever. It’s virtually worthless. But this particular point of confusing people being saved with evangelism resonates well with me. It reminds me of the distinction between the first and the second great awakening. God did mighty things during the first great awakening. Inexplicable things. Finney, during the second great awakening introduced the New Measures, or psychological manipulations which brought about man-made counterfeits.

Anyway, I do think there are some nice things to be had by this study. I’ve only posted this snippet because I’m not sure about copyrights. If you want access to the rest of it, send me a note and I’ll forward the link to you.