By Chris Nichols
2 Cor. 5 :11, 20
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others…20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Tim 4:2,5
2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching… 5 As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
Planting new ministry is complex, exciting, and all consuming work. The apostolic leader and the community they develop must be able to communicate a kingdom mission, gather others around it, and keep an outward focus even as they are deepening community centered on Jesus.
Any of those priorities can take all your time. And, depending on the presenting need can cause the community to lean into one priority and lose track of another. But no matter what, every planting community must remember this: we are first and foremost called to present and proclaim the good news of Jesus above all else. No matter what our gifts happen to be, no matter where our community is located, no matter who is involved, we, as a community must become those ambassadors Paul exhorts to making an appeal to all around them to be reconciled to God.
When we forget the call to proclaim the gospel, we will get lost in each individual’s and the community’s development. We’ll let “our needs” engulf our calling to be a light to the world. We’ll be consumed by the group’s next organizational step, spending all energy in planning and strategy development. We’ll become so preoccupied with our role as leader we will forget what it means to know and love those around who do not know the embrace of the Savior.
We plant and build communities so that the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus can be more apparent to the world around us. That is why we exist. That is why we are eager to plant new ministry. That is why we sacrifice. And we mustn’t attempt to rely on those whose gifts are evangelistic. Paul admonished Timothy to do the work of an evangelist in the midst of his establishing the church at Ephesus even though it is apparent that is was not his primary gift. We will always need the evangelists in our midst to plow furrows of grace in the fields of cynicism that our communities are attempting to root themselves in. But we all are called to plant the seeds of the hope Jesus into that newly turned soil.
So, we must constantly be monitoring in the most straightforward way possible how we are doing evangelistically.
- Are we praying for gospel advancement?
- Are we as a community relating to those who do not yet know Christ?
- Are they becoming a part of our community?
- Are we actively learning new ways to communicate the faith that is growing deeper in us?
- Do we define ourselves by how we describe the changes Jesus is bringing about in us to others not yet in Christ?
- Is our church actively calling those in attendance to new belief?
- Are there conversions resulting from our engagement with the world around us?
Let’s not put evangelism on the priority list as if it is one of many we can choose. All those who are followers of Jesus are called into his great mission to the world. Calling the world to belief is the point of the arrow in our work. We would do well not to forget it.
Do you feel proclaiming the gospel is the tip of the arrow in the work of planting? Leave a comment by clicking here.
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