By Sonny Parsons
By Sonny Parsons
SAN ANTONIO, Texas--Max Lucado is a fellow minister and friend in San Antonio.
In his book, The Great House of God, he tells of the "consuming fire" he had as a young man to preach. My burning desire is to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our congregations as to what begins to happen when we learn that evangelism is not something to be feared.
As we begin to let go and let God within our lives and look upon the great commission as the heartbeat of the church, things begin to happen.
We have now spoken in nearly 40 WCG congregations from San Antonio to Atlanta, Georgia, sharing what we have experienced through evangelism. We use Proverbs 3:5-6 as a guide ("Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight").
It has been encouraging to see the results as little fires begin to be lit in many of the people's minds regarding how to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
I feel most of our congregations want to know more. Excellent information is available showing how to do this without fear. Evangelism is not always an in your face kind of experience. We daily have the opportunity to witness and evangelize through our example and words. Some of our members in Texas have assisted in leading more than 8,000 prisoners to accept Christ.
In some areas, since speaking to them, they are fishing for the lost, providing church in nursing homes, reaching out to school groups, serving in homeless shelters and community activities, volunteering in missions and meeting with national leaders of groups training in evangelism, where they had been hesitant to do so before.
We have seen more than 120 visitors in one year come to visit some of our congregations accepting our invitation to "come and see!" We have seen groups of 40 and 50 people in neighborhoods come to evangelistic outreaches at our home to see that we do care for them and have something to share. We have seen congregations winning awards in community activities as they are letting the light of Jesus Christ shine.
As John Maxwell says, "Many are now coming out of the holy huddles and are participating in the co-mission with Christ and the Holy Spirit in reaping the harvest."
Part of the message we share is in regard to our congregations developing local mission statements and using local congregational names. In those areas where we see these things beginning to take place we find the people more receptive to sharing the good news and seeing the need to fulfill the great commandments and the great commission. Sometimes we have to be challenged into asking how far we are willing to go to show love to our neighbor.
Our New Beginnings congregation was host for the youth pastors of San Antonio in October. Our members wore their New Beginnings T-shirts, prepared the meals and served this group known as Harvest Hands.
The director told our members and the pastors: "I don't know if you WCG people realize how special you are! There is something special about you and how we see in this congregation different races and cultures working in unity together and that the love and care we see is what the youths of the city need."
In October, the International Conference on Reconciliation was conducted here. One committee leader said that if any group should be represented on the overall planning ICR committee it should be the WCG because "they represent true reconciliation within the body of Christ."
We were then asked to serve as a representative on the committee. The co-chairman told the leaders that our congregation was recognized in the city as a group that showed tremendous hospitality and service. As a part of this committee we met with Mayor Howard Peak.
John Dawson, founder of the Reconciliation Coalition, was one of the speakers. After his presentation I introduced myself to him as a WCG pastor. He smiled and said, "I love you guys!" and asked me to sit down and talk with him, even though he had been called to a photo session.
Campus Life/Youth for Christ asked our church to be trained to assist in youth outreach evangelism in a 1,200 student middle school. The city head of Campus Life conducted an all-day session for 16 of our people.
Campus Crusade offered an evangelism training seminar here. Soapy Dollar, city coordinator for Campus Crusade, presented the class. When I explained to him about my sharing evangelism with our congregations he said we could use any of their material and put our churches' names on it, and he would be willing to team with me to speak on evangelism in any of our congregations.
As a follow-up we are offering a course titled, "Reaching Your World Through Witnessing Without Fear" by Bill Bright. Its approach is one that fits most of our congregations. It is on how to share your faith with confidence. Members have also attended World Missions evangelism training and met the founder of March for Jesus.
God is giving the WCG an opportunity to have a New Beginning.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2001