The great danger of organized evangelism, whether it be a large campaign or door-to-door visitation by the local church, is that when the special effort is over we think that is the end of it until next time. But the biblical concept is that witness is something for every day and for every Christian.
A quote by Peter Jeffrey, a Welsh Baptist.
The rest of the article:
“How did they ‘tell the message’?
Was it by preaching to groups of unbelievers, or by one-to one
personal witness? Probably it was a mixture of
both, with an emphasis on the latter because there
are no preachers mentioned by name.
Today we have a tendency to think of evangelism as a special effort
organized every couple of years with an imported
evangelist to do the telling for us. There has to be a
place for this in the life of the church but it is no
substitute for the unorganized evangelism of Acts 11.
The great danger of organized evangelism,
whether it be a large campaign or door-to-door visitation
by the local church, is that when the special
effort is over we think that is the end of it until next
time.
But the biblical concept is that witness is something
for every day and for every Christian. This is by
far the most effective kind of evangelism.
Great claims are made for mass evangelism but it is now
accepted that few of the hundreds who ‘go forward’
at such meetings continue to profess the Christian
faith for long. Also, few today are converted through
door-to-door evangelism or open-air preaching. You
can test this statement quite easily by asking yourself
how many Christians you know who were saved
through door-to-door visitation or open-air meetings.
Most people first hear the gospel through one
of two channels: the Christian home or the personal
witness of a friend.
These are the prime channels through which sinners today are brought under the
sound of the gospel. They may then, of course, be
taken to church to hear the Word of God preached in
a more formal context, so that preaching is by no
means sidelined in this scenario. But the initial contact
is often not church attendance except, perhaps,
for the children of a Christian family.
This does not mean that we stop using the
more traditional means of evangelism, but it emphasizes
that the most effective evangelism is unorganized.
It happens as the individual believer goes to his
or her place of work, or circle of relatives and
friends, and speaks of Christ; as Christians pass on
suitable literature, or invite unbelievers to a preaching
service at their church.
It is what has been called ‘gossiping the gospel’. Some Christians find this difficult
to do, but the remedy for this failing is that we
should start talking to one another about Christ! It is
sad how little Christ comes into the conversation
between Christians. If we cannot talk to one another
about the Lord, we shall never be able to talk to
unbelievers.
