Let’s Talk about Outreach #1
Greetings, LCC family,
Our Missions Conference was wonderful. I loved how Chris Anderson pointed out the connection between our worship and our evangelism. We would like to keep the outward focus going. To that end, I’m going to be sending out some outreach and evangelism notes to the congregation. It would be tough to get everyone together, so I’m going to attempt to come to you via email 🙂 .
Just as there is a relationship between missions and worship, there is a connection between church health and outreach. While it would be silly for a church in need of revitalization to think that they are only a good marketing campaign or two from being “back” and neglect the crucial matter of church health. Yet, as we saw in our “Church by the Book” series, evangelism is one of the primary purposes of the church, and doing “church by the book” is making our Lord’s final command—our first priority. Healthy things grow. One of the factors that contribute to the decline of spiritual health is inward, self-focus. So…let’s talk about outreach!
Outreach Lesson #1
Effective Evangelism Starts with prayer.
Outreach and evangelism begin with Prayer and Preparation. Evangelism is a spiritual thing, so we need to start with God and prayer. This is the 1st element of effective evangelism.
There are things that the spirit of God does that we cannot do.
Jn 16: 7-10. It is the Spirit of God that convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Only God saves people; only God draws people. Salvation is of the Lord. Only Jesus draws people to Himself.
Jn 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
What draws people to Jesus? Only Jesus! I challenge you to do a quick read through the book of Acts and see how vital corporate prayer was to the life of the early church.
There are things that God will not do until we pray.
This is important to note. Mk( 9:29 9 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”5 (Matt 17:21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.)
Here are a few specific ways I encourage you to pray.
- That those in false churches would leave those churches.
- People in our community searching for a Bible-driven church would find LCC.
- For those people, God is working on, drawing, and convicting.
We’ve been praying these things on our prayer sheet for a few weeks now. What’s awesome is that in the last month, we’ve already seen answers to these prayers. Some guests far from God and searching showed up at a service and shocked some relatives. Some individuals in a liberal church came to our services. When this happens, it’s no doubt a “God thing.” When we pray and God works, He alone gets the glory!
LCC, can you get behind this element of evangelism?
Do you regularly pray for guests to come to your church?
Let’s talk about outreach. If you want outreach, pray, and come to prayer meetings. That’s where it starts. Effective Evangelism Starts with Prayer.
Hear the heart of heaven beating; Jesus Saves!