Evangelism Handbook: Intentional

On this day 28 years ago a beautiful brown-eyed girl named Michelle took my hand and my name and became my bride. She did so for a lot of reasons, one of which had to be temporary insanity ?. Seriously, one reason she became my wife is because I intentionally asked her on a date. And I intentionally kept asking. And I intentionally tried to become a better man, friend, and boyfriend as our relationship grew.

In much the same way, if we would be serious in our relationship with the Lord, we would be intentional about things that matter to our God and to that relationship. Evangelism lies at the heart of this, for we demonstrate in no small measure how serious we are about our Lord by how intentionally we seek to bring glory to Him. So when we take seriously the Great Commission, which after all is not the Great Suggestion, when we become intentional both in our witness and in becoming more effective in that witness, we both bring glory to God and will bear much fruit. Just how intentional are you in your witness?

The section entitled “Intentional” in the Handbook moves from the “what” and the “why,” both vital, more to the “how” of our witness. The first chapter focuses on leadership. I look to Paul’s advice to young Timothy to guide the discussion (more on that below).

Things truly rise or fall on leadership, and after preaching in over 1700 churches, I have no doubt but that evangelistic churches are led by pastors with a white-hot-heart for the souls of men.

From there I spend two chapters on personal evangelism. At Southeastern, every class I teach builds on this. Our students submit an attempt to share Christ weekly in the foundational course. In all my classes, from Spiritual Awakenings to Student Ministry to Supervised Ministry, students share their faith. We have Ethics and History professors requiring the same. It is in the ethos here, and thus it is so in this book. I am thankful for a helpful, practical section by my former student and now professor at SWBTS, David Mills, in one chapter. In the second chapter on personal witnessing my friend David Wheeler of Liberty University offers helpful information on servant evangelism.

This section also looks at evangelism in the local church (although the whole book does as well!). A chapter on how worship relates to evangelism may be a little unique for an evangelism book, but the last four or five books I wrote have a similar chapter. I have a degree in music and have written and thought much about this, and this subject too often brings more heat than light when discussed.
Finally, I have a chapter on mass evangelism. Mass evangelism’s day has not ended! God has and will until Jesus returns honor the preaching of the gospel. I believe in the public invitation. I believe in calling sinners to repentance. Practical helps both for an evangelistic meeting and the invitation are offered.

Here is a little excerpt adapted from the chapter on Leadership:

In his last letter, Paul gave Timothy sound advice concerning leadership. In 2 Timothy 2:1–15 we can glean principles for leading in evangelism. Following a word of exhortation in verse one, Paul outlined to Timothy how to multiply leadership and thus the ministry. He followed the exhortation with three analogies for sound leaders, concluding with a testimony concerning his own example and recognition of the faithfulness of God. The inspired words of Paul provide the perfect framework for developing principles of effective leadership.

1. Lead With Confidence In God’s Call
Paul exhorted Timothy to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 2:1). Timothy faced an awesome task, but one the Lord himself had ordained. Timothy was probably insecure about the task before him. He was neither the first nor the last church leader to struggle with such emotions. If God has called you, He will sustain you. It is far less about your ability and far more about His call.
One of the attributes of effective pastors whom I have admired is their ability to rest in the call of God on their lives. Adrian Rogers tells the story about when he was first called to ministry. He began to think, “God, you can’t call somebody like me. I’ll never be of any use to you. Why would you call someone like me?” He genuinely struggled with his call.
One night he went out into a football field to spend time with God. And he said, “God, unless you fill me with your Spirit and your power, you’ll never use me; I’ll never be of any use to you.” He got on his knees before God. He felt he could not get low enough, so he laid down on the ground to humble himself before God, begging God to use him, to fill him, to empower him. He still didn’t feel low enough, so he dug a hole and put his nose in it, getting as low as he could to the ground. God will never use us unless we realize that we are nothing apart from Him and His call.

2. Lead By Equipping Other Leaders
“Great men lead people,” Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ said, “but greater men train leaders.” Paul sounded this advice to Timothy when he declared, “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:2). The measure of your ministry long term will be seen in the few you mentor over the many who hear you preach.

3. Lead With Humility
Paul also told Timothy to be like a soldier (2 Tim 2:3–4). A soldier understands the importance of serving others, both his commander and his country. Rather than leading in an autocratic matter, the servant-leader is the biblical model. Jesus said we are to be ministers or servants. He declared, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life —a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

4. Lead Others To Greatness For God
Paul’s second analogy is that of an athlete competing for a crown (see 2 Tim 2:5). Observe the commitment of Olympic gold medalists—the sacrifices they endure for a temporal crown. Why the years of training for a few moments of glory? They have a passion, a vision for the prize. No coach has ever told his team, “Our goal is to lose every game by an embarrassing margin.” We play sports to win. We compete in athletics to do our best. While ministry should not be a competition, we ought to have the drive of an Olympic athlete in our passion to honor Christ!
Inside the heart of every person is a desire to make an impact. God has given each Christian a vision that he or she must fulfill. You lead others to catch the vision that God has for their lives. A visionary leader sees the potential in others that they do not see in themselves. Goethe said, “Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he already were what he potentially could be, and you make
him what he should be.”

5. Lead By Faith
Notice Paul’s analogy of a faithful farmer (see 2 Tim. 2:6). A farmer works the ground, believing the harvest will come. The doubting farmer will give up on the harvest at the first sign of drought.
I love these words of Aristotle: “That which we learn with delight we never forget.” Expectant, excited, encouraging leadership is found in evangelistic churches.

6. Lead By Defining Reality
Paul offered himself as an example (see 2 Tim 2:7–14). In verse 14, Paul summarized the previous verses by commanding Timothy to remind those whom he led of such vital truths. One of the most significant things a leader can do is to define what is real, what is truth, to those whom he leads. Leadership must be founded on the timeless principles of Scripture, not the force of one’s personality.

7. Lead By The Strength Of Your Character
Leadership is influence. Throughout his epistles the apostle Paul held himself up as an example. You must have integrity, conviction, and character. Nowhere can this seen more clearly than in faithfulness to share Christ, for our character is seen in how we live over what we say. Soul-winning pastors beget soul-winning churches. Here are some ways I have seen effective leaders help others to passionate witnessing.
• Talk about your witnessing. If you would simply share an example of witnessing to someone once a week, those you lead would understand your passion for evangelism.
• Let your people know that success is as much in the witnessing effort as it is in actually winning people to Christ. Get them to love fishing as much as catching.
• Do not tell only your favorite few stories from days gone by. Instead, tell current, live accounts: “Just yesterday, I shared Christ with the paperboy.”
Lead, follow, or get out of the way. But we need more leaders.