Evaluation: Are you evangelistic?
Y N 1. I
believe that people outside of the Christ are lost.
Y N 2. I
believe that Jesus told His apostles to go preach the gospel to every person.
Y N 3. I
believe that, though the apostles are already dead, the church still has the
obligation today to teach the gospel to every person in the world.
Y N 4. I
believe that there are still people out there that have a good and honest
heart.
Y N 5. I
believe that the church will somehow accidentally grow in number.
Y N 6. I
believe that the only way for people to be saved is to hear the gospel, believe
it, and obey it.
Y N 7. I
believe that as a Christian, I should, to the best of my ability, somehow be
involved in helping teach the lost.
Y N 8. I
believe that the 1st century church grew in number.
Y N 9. I
believe that one of the reasons why the early church grew in number was the
fact that the early saints zealously taught the gospel.
Y
Y N 11. I
believe that every Christian should partake of the Lord's Supper, but it is not
necessary for every Christian to try and teach the lost.
Y N 12. I
believe that a person can learn how to do some things that he/she did not think
it was possible for him/her to do.
Y N 13. I
can think of examples in my own life where I accomplished something or learned
how to do something that 5 or 10 years before that I never would have imagined
that I could have done such a thing.
Y N 14. I
believe that it is impossible for a person to improve his/her ability to teach
the gospel to lost people.
Y N 15. I
believe that if I really work at it, I can become more effective at teaching a
lost person than I am now.
Y N 16. I
can name at least three people in our congregation that have conducted a Bible
study with a lost person (not his/her own child or grandchild), and as a result
of their studies that person became a Christian.
Y N 17. I
believe that in any congregation, the more members there are that are actively
involved in sowing the seed, then the greater the chances of that congregation
finding good soil and growing in number as a result.
Y N 18. I
think that being a good personal worker is just an ability that you either have
or you don't have ‑ you are either born with it or without it, and you
can't do anything to change it.
Y N 19.
Every week I have some kind of contact or association with at least one person
that I know is not a member of the church.
Y N 20. I
feel fairly comfortable talking to a total stranger (like someone I might meet
at Wal‑Mart or a ball game) about such things as the weather or sports.
Y N 2I. I
feel real comfortable talking with close friends, coworkers, fellow students,
or family members about TV shows, what my family members have been up to
lately, or the food at some local restaurant.
Y N 22. I
also feel comfortable talking with those same people about the gospel and how
it applies to their lives.
Y N 23. I
think I can name some reasons why I might feel apprehensive about talking to
some people about the Bible or trying to set up a Bible study with them.
Y N 24. I
am confident that I can come up with a list of at least I0 different categories
of people in my life that I have association with ‑ that is, I0 different
categories of potential prospects.
Now that we have gone through these questions it should give you a good idea of how evangelistic you have been and it should have put things in perspective for you to see how you can improve in this area.
In a way
a successful evangelist can be compared to a successful fisherman. Do you
remember what Jesus told Peter and his brother, Matthew 4:19 Follow Me,
and I will make you fishers of men." In fact there is Bible course out there called fisher of men that is
designed to lead the lost to Christ. However, I want to focus on an article
that Franklin Camp wrote many years ago titled “Fishers of men”. In this
article he list 6 different characteristics that makes a fishermen successful
and that will make a fisher of men successful.
1. You must have a desire to fish.
2. Successful fishers go where the fish are.
3. A good fisherman enjoys fishing.
4. Good fishermen are not easily discouraged
5. Good fishermen not only know where to fish, but
they know when to fish.
6. Fishermen do not mind inconveniences.
(Give examples in each of these 6 points of how
relates to fishing for fish and people).
I also give you 8 more steps that will help you be
successful in reaching the lost.
1. Be a good example – You will have a hard time
convincing someone to change their life if you have not.
2. Have a proper attitude toward the work of
teaching the lost. – It is not burden it not something we should avoid at all
cost. Instead, it should make us happy to share the cure for the fatal disease
to humankind, sin.
3. We have to have desire. – If you don’t have a
desire to seek to save the lost then heart is not going to be in it and you
will lack the enthusiasm you should have.
4. Have to have Love. Paul says in 1 Cor. 13 without
love nothing we do will mater. We must have love for those who are lost because
God’s loves them and He wants all of the to come to a knowledge of the truth 1 Tim 2:4 and to repent 2Pet 3:9.
5. We have to increase our knowledge of
scriptures. – If we have become Christians we should have enough knowledge at
that point to at least teach the plan of salvation. However, we must continue
grow in knowledge so that we can show people from the Bible why they shouldn’t
do certain things.
6. Have to have courage. Some will may have plenty
of knowledge and desire but lack the courage to teach others. You have to
overcome that fear and realize that everyone gets nervous and makes mistakes
along the way. So you have to push past your fears and get to work.
7. You need to have a preplanned method. – There
are many different ways you can teach someone, but you need to have a method
picked out before hand so you wont be caught of guard.
8. You have to be willing to put in the time – If
don’t leave yourself anytime to evangelize then its not going to happen. God
has made us stewards of the things of the earth including time so make time
seek and teach the lost.
If we can train ourselves to have the mentality of
the good fisher men and work on these 8 steps we just went over, we will be
successful at evangelizing. Now we need to keep in mind that being successful
doesn’t always mean that you are going to conversions happen. Remember God has
just asked us to plant the seed and water it and allow God to give the
increase, as Paul said in,
1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
increase. 7 So then neither
he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
So whether we see a conversion happen or not does
not judge whether we were successful or not because or success comes from doing
our best to spread the good news. As said earlier there are all kinds of ways
to evangelize and I am going to list 20 ways that you can do it and everyone
Christian in this room will be able do one or more of these no matter what you
age or physical condition.
1. Teach your own children or grandkids.
2.Give appropriate tracts to friends, family members, coworkers, and others. Notice the word "appropriate." Think about which tract(s) might be most suitable for a particular prospect. If a person does not believe in Jesus as the Son of God, then at the outset a tract on "Why You Should Believe the Bible" would be more appropriate for him/her than a tract on "When Should We Partake of the Lord's Supper?"
3. Lay tracts out on the tables in hospital waiting rooms, at nursing homes, or at other facilities where the authorities are not opposed to such.
4. Be a good example before others, which might cause them to have interest in the gospel and could eventually lead to a Bible study and their obedience to the gospel (Matthew 5:16).
5. Pray for those who teach and preach. Pray for their courage, as well as for open doors to teach (Colossians 4:3).
6. Encourage friends, co‑workers, and family members to sign up for a Bible correspondence course.
7. Help grade and return Bible correspondence courses.
8. Invite folks to attend our Bible classes, worship services, gospel meetings, campaigns, etc.
9. Conduct private one‑on‑one studies.
10. Arrange private studies with friends or loved ones so that some other member of the church can teach them.
11. Tape a sign on the window of your vehicle or front door of the place where you live that advertises a Bible correspondence course or the church's activities.
12. Give tapes of appropriate sermons to those you care about.
13. Ask people if they would like to watch Bible videos, such as the Searching for the Truth series, in the privacy of their home.
14. Knock doors to distribute tracts or invite people to services or special events.
16. Volunteer to baby‑sit for those parents that have younger children so they can go out to teach or make visits.
17. Visit those non‑Christians who have attended our services. This is a great way to get to know them better, to help them feel more comfortable with us, and to find out how interested they are in the gospel. If people show enough interest to come to our services, then surely we ought to be wise enough to show interest in them by following up and visiting them!
18. Write a brief note or send a card to non‑Christians who have attended our services. This personal touch is a great way of letting them know that we are interested in them.
19. Encourage people to watch sound TV programs, listen to sound radio programs, or visit web sites which contain good Bible materials.
20. Visit, write, or call erring members of the church. Remember, if they are unfaithful, they are just as lost as those who are outside of the Christ.