'Gospel Shaped Outreach' Archive

Gospel witness is a lifelong command to us, and so it requires a lifelong commitmentfrom us. However all too often, an individual's or church's evangelism rises with a teaching series or a time of intentional outreach but then falls again when the focus shifts elsewhere. So, as we come to the last morning in our series on Gospel Shaped Outreach we want to consider how we can help ourselves and encourage each other to keep going in faithfully seeking to be witnesses to Jesus Christ and his life changing Gospel.

Effective evangelism is usually part of a conversation, and happens in the context of existing friendships. Our gospel proclamation needs to make sense to people, and to connect to their lives, hopes and fears. We may have the greatest gospel explanation memorized in our heads, but if we never work out how to introduce it into our interactions and friendships, it will stay in our heads!

If we are praying for opportunities and looking for opportunities to share the gospel, then we will find ourselves in positions where we are able to talk about the gospel. But… what do we actually say? What are the things we must aim to talk about, and how do we speak about the gospel in ways that make sense and resonate with those we're speaking to?

“Effective evangelism begins with persevering prayer,” wrote the Bible teacher Dick Lucas. We must reach up to God if we are to reach out to people. This morning we will consider why prayer is so vital, and what the content of our praying about our gospel witness should be.

The gospel is all about the life, death, resurrection and rule of Jesus, God the son. And this gospel is God the Father's initiative — He sent His Son to be His people's Lord and Saviour. So when did this plan begin? Where is it all heading? And how does that change how we view our role as gospel witnesses?

If we are to be effective witnesses for Christ, then we need to know not only about him, and about ourselves, but also about the people we are called to talk to about him. This week we shall learn how Jesus saw those around him and consider how that should shape our attitudes and actions as his people.

We've considered who Jesus is — God in the flesh, the resurrected King, the truth-telling Lord, the sin-bearing Savior and the only way to be right with God. The heart of the gospel message is Jesus. Now we move on to look at the hearts of the messengers — us, and our church. It is not only Jesus' identity that we need to appreciate — it is ours, too.

We've seen that evangelism is the action of telling people the gospel; and that as a church we need to be committed to praying for, making, and taking opportunities to share the Gospel message with others. The gospel message is the good news about Jesus.

As we saw last week God is in the business of changing people and changing churches. He always does that through His Gospel. Evangelism is the action of telling people the Gospel and we saw that evangelism is every Christian's responsibility. Today we turn to look at Jeus final instructions to his disciples in Acts 1 and in particular his call to them to be his witnesses. What does this look like for us today?

God is in the business of changing people and changing churches. He always does that through His Gospel.

Evangelism is the action of telling people the Gospel and it is every Christian's responsibility. The truth is most Christians are nervous about telling others about Jesus. We prefer to leave it to the pastor or those who are particularly gifted evangelists.