Gospel.com Blog

Have you ever written off someone just because of the way they look or act?

Every day, we pass up opportunities to connect with people because we assume that they’re too busy, or too angry, or too different than us. When we jump to such conclusions, we may be missing out on an opportunity to share God’s love. Our Daily Bread offers us a simple story about how reaching out without judgment can be a life-changing action:

Two young men with mischief on their minds approached a missionarys outreach bus parked in a downtown area of a German city.

The missionaries were there to offer refreshments as a way to open up conversations about Christ. The two visitors, wearing skull-and-crossbones bandannas, were there to offer trouble.

But the missionaries didnt respond to the ruffians as they expected. The Christians welcomed them warmly and engaged them in discussion. Surprised, the guys hung around long enough to hear the gospel. One trusted Jesus that day. The other, the next day.

Those two young men and the missionaries who reached them were light-years apart culturally. The guys were German; the missionaries, American. The guys were involved in a culture of darkness and death; the missionaries were shining the light. The cultural divide was crossed with cookies and nonjudgmental love.

Are there particular people in your life that you ignore because you think you’re too different from them? Have you ever shared God’s love with someone who was “different”? How did it go?

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization starts tomorrow! That’s an intimidating name, but the gathering (taking place in Cape Town, South Africa) is easily one of the biggest and most anticipated events in the evangelical world. Over 4,000 leaders from hundreds of countries will gather to discuss poverty, HIV/AIDS, persecution, and world religions, among other topics. It runs through October 25.

If you aren’t on an airplane flight to Cape Town right now, it’s OK—you can experience much of the Congress online. All of the plenary sessions will be broadcast on the internet, and you can join in discussion with Congress participants (with automated translation to overcome the language barrier).

Take a look at the Cape Town 2010 website for a complete breakdown of the Congress and how you can participate. The Lausanne Congress Facebook and Twitter pages are also good places to get up-to-the-minute updates. If you plan to participate, we’d love to hear from you in the comment section below, along with any of your reflections on the Congress once it wraps up!

Evangelism is an obvious and central part of the Christian life. We’re called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those around us.

Most any Christian would agree with this—but how many of us make a conscious effort to preach the Gospel as we go through our daily life? “Preaching” might mean literal preaching, but for most of us it will take a different form. Here’s an example of everyday evangelism from Our Daily Bread:

I told my doctor who is an agnostic that he should be glad God created us. Seeing a needle in his hands, I wondered, Perhaps I should keep quiet. But I added, If we are still evolving, then you wouldnt know the exact spots to place those needles. He asked, Do you really believe in God? I replied, Of course. Arent we intricately made? I was thankful for this opportunity to begin to witness to my doctor.

…Paul charged Timothy to point people to the Savior. “Preach the Word” (2 Tim. 4:2) is not addressed only to preachers, however. The word preach means to make it known. Gods people can do this over a cup of coffee or in school with friends. We can make known the good news of what God has done for us wherever, whenever, and to anyone who is open and seeking. We can let them know that God loves us and sees our hurts, failures, and weaknesses.

How do you preach the Gospel? Do you stand behind a literal pulpit as a pastor or minister? Do you “preach” through coffeehouse conversations or book discussions? In what ways do (or should) you share the Good News with the people you encounter each week?

We’re most of the way through Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Ever since 9/11, Ramadan carries with it a certain amount of cultural tension here in the United States—tension that’s been ratcheted up by recent controversies over the Cordoba House debate and ill-advised publicity stunts by angry Christians.

Yet in the midst of all the usual political tension, Ramadan presents an opportunity for Christians to learn a bit more about Islam and perhaps reach out to the Muslims in our communities. Every year, Arab World Ministries puts together a free Ramadan prayer guide for Christians and other articles understanding and sharing the Gospel with Muslims. If your only exposure to Ramadan is through political pundits and TV talking heads, I encourage you to take some time to read through AWM’s material.

Ramadan is a good time to think about how we, personally, might be better Christian witnesses to the Muslims living around us. What about you—do you know or interact with Muslims in your community? What might you or your church do to express Christlike love to Muslims in your area, and to point them to the hope of the Gospel?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to find that our world is hostile to the Gospel. In fact, Jesus told us during his earthly ministry to expect this hostility. Sometimes, however, this opposition to the Gospel can make it difficult or impossible for Christians to do anything in a society, let alone share the Gospel.

Take the scenario described in this Our Daily Bread devotional, for example: Christians in a particularly anti-Gospel city struggled to make their message heard, running into opposition not just from competing religious trends but from the city council itself. But then they decided to shift tactics… and the results were incredible:

It was such a challenging environment for churches that they struggled to get building permits from the city council. And there was a lot of “woe is me” talk among church leaders. Until a group of pastors began to meet to pray regularly and then decided to take the love of Jesus into their city. They started a ministry to the homeless, to those suffering with AIDS, to teens at risk. Faithfully and intentionally they brought the love of Jesus to the needs of hurting people. Before long, the city agencies started calling on them for help. Better yet, the churches started growing as people responded to the gospel in action.

Which proves the point: Sometimes you’ve got to “show up” before you speak up. No one really wants to hear what we have to say about the love of Jesus until they’ve seen it in our lives.

It’s easy for self-pity and bitterness to set in when we run into obstacles in our neighborhoods and communities. But the appropriate response is incredibly simple: live a Jesus-shaped life.

Are you running into a wall right now in your city or community? Is it possible that the answer is to simply go forth and live out Christlike love and grace, and trust that the rest will follow?

Have you thought about how the internet is changing missions?

John Edmiston certainly has. In an article at the Lausanne World Pulse, he lists 10 ways the internet is changing evangelism and missions. It’s clear from his list that the internet is providing unique ways for Christians to make themselves available. It’s also clear that in order to be visible to the vast majority of the population, you need to be visible online.

Within five years, at least half the globe should be online; within fifteen years, Internet reach should be almost universal. Global proclamation will soon be within the reach of any Christian with a computer.

Here are three of the 10 items from Edmiston’s list. You can read the rest at Ten Ways the Internet is Changing Evangelism and Mission:

2. Ratiocination. People “think aloud” in cyberspace. The theology and practice (including ecclesiology and missiology) of most Christians is now primarily formed as a peer-to-peer online process with occasional expert input. There is less and less reference to decisions promulgated by the central governing ecclesiastical bodies of the major world religions. People do their own thinking, and they do so increasingly online through sources such as Wikipedia; out-of-copyright commentaries; and through browsing various websites, e-groups, and postings on social networks. Those ministries who wish to influence opinion need to start doing so in cyberspace, because that is where Christian opinion is now largely being formed.

3. Exploration. People do their private, personal, and controversial thinking online. If a person wants to find out about a suspected medical matter or investigate a forbidden political opinion, they first check it out online. A Muslim wishing to find out about Christianity is not likely to ask his or her family or imam; rather, he or she will look at Christian websites. About one-quarter of all Internet users make regular queries about religious matters. They are exploring their own and other faiths. The Church needs to have an evangelistic, apologetic, and missionary presence in this new global marketplace of ideas.

[…]

5. Validation. People use the Internet to check things out. This applies to everything from a “too-good-to-be-true” investment scam to the local church they plan to attend when they move to a new city. One oft-quoted statistic is that eighty-five percent of young people check out a church’s website before deciding whether or not to even visit that church in the first place. Churches and organizations that are easy to validate online have a huge competitive advantage. This includes having a clear statement of faith and making your ethos, programs, meeting times, address, contact information, operating principles, and finances clear and above board to the honest online enquirer.

Read the rest of the article at LausanneWorldPulse.org.

The site you’re on right now, Gospel.com, was started three years ago in order to highlight Christian content from smaller internet ministries who might have previously been overlooked. Our goal is to facilitate numbers 3 (exploring) and 5 (validating) above.

Even a short three years later, the time and monetary cost of establishing a digital presence has gone way down. Now, it’s trivial to start up a blog and a Facebook page for any idea you might have. What this means is that individuals, ministries and churches have it easier than ever to make themselves available to people seeking information about Christ and Christianity.

How have you seen the internet change how you interact with your faith? Have you ever used the internet as a platform for evangelism?

The World Cup is underway!

Since I’m working today, that means that I have no idea how the US v. Slovenia match ended up. As soon as I clock out today I’ll be sitting down to retroactively cheer on the Stars and Stripes to victory (hopefully)!

For most of the US, the World Cup is just another blip on the sports radar. But to the rest of the world it’s the culmination of years of waiting. Billions of people will watch, analyze and enjoy the World Cup.

A few ministries view the World Cup as a prime opportunity for evangelism and outreach. Mission Network News reports on the efforts of HCJB to reach out to the youth of South Africa:

Not far from the excitement at Cape Town Stadium in Fish Hoek Valley, four churches will be using sports and the heightened interest in soccer to convey the message of Christ.

In a press release from HCJB Global, pastor of King of Kings Baptist Church in Fish Hoek, John Thomas, said, “Since the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world, it follows logically that it has to be the biggest event to reach people for Christ.”

For the next four weeks, up to 1500 youth from age 4 to 17 will have the chance to improve their soccer skills, while they also improve their life skills such as teamwork, self-discipline, good sportsmanship, and making the best of everyday according to God’s Word.

After activities conclude daily at 4 p.m., that day’s World Cup games will be shown on a large screen while the children enjoy refreshments.

Pray for the kids HCJB and their partners will be impacting through this ministry. Pray also for God to be the ultimate victor throughout all of South Africa.

Do you think sporting events are a good way to reach out to people? Who are you cheering for this World Cup?

This Sunday, Christian churches around the world will commemorate Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended to empower the apostles of Jesus Christ. It was a foundational moment for the fledgling Christian church, and it still holds significance for Christians nearly 2000 years later.

If you aren’t familiar with this key event in church history, read the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 at BibleGateway.com:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them…. read the rest of the Pentecost story.

Pentecost fulfilled Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit to empower the church. Jesus’ promise, and the multilingual nature of Pentecost, made it clear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was meant to be shared with all people, regardless of language or culture. And Peter’s sermon at Pentecost continues to serve as a blueprint for witnessing and evangelism to this day.

If it’s been a while since you’ve thought about the events of Pentecost, this weekend is a good opportunity to re-acquaint yourself with this miraculous event! Visit BibleGateway.com to read the story, and for further reading on the significance of Pentecost, see this essay on Pentecost at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

Reaching out to Muslims with the Gospel message is one of the most challenging evangelistic tasks the church faces. How do you share the message of Jesus when your audience is prepared to dismiss the Bible, and most common evangelism approaches, out of hand?

It’s no surprise, given the heated debates and apologetics that characterize much of the interaction Christian evangelists and Muslims, that missionaries would look for different outreach strategies.

One such alternate evangelism approach tries to do exactly that, but it’s not without detractors. It’s called the “Camel Method,” and it introduces people to Jesus not through the Bible, but through a book that’s much more familiar to most Muslims: the Koran. A New York Times article last month illuminated a growing controversy in missionary circles:

Instead of talking about the Jesus of the New Testament, missionaries using the Camel Method point Muslims to the Koran, where in the third chapter, or sura, an infant named Isa — Arabic for Jesus — is born. Missionaries have found that by starting with the Koran’s Jesus story, they can make inroads with Muslims who reject the Bible out of hand. But according to [Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary president] Dr. Caner… the idea that the Koran can contain the seeds of Christian faith is “an absolute, fundamental deception.”

David Garrison, a missionary who edited a book on the Camel Method by Kevin Greeson, the method’s developer, defends the use of the Koran as a path to Jesus. “You aren’t criticizing Muhammad or any other prophets,” Dr. Garrison said, “just raising Jesus up.”

The “camel method” has been criticized by many Christians for introducing Muslims to a non-Biblical Jesus, and some call it a “bait-and-switch” evangelism technique. But defenders of the practice claim that starting with the Koran, rather than the Bible, lets missionaries avoid predictable and unproductive debates.

They also say that starting with the Koran avoids giving Muslims the impression that you are attacking their faith and leaves them more open to dialogue. A Christianity Today article notes that:

International Mission Board trustees found the method valid after a 2007 investigation that included issuing principles of contextualization. “Historically, a missions approach has been to extricate Muslims from their community once they converted, which didn’t do much for planting the gospel among Muslims,” [IMB president Jerry Rankin] said.

An IMB-sponsored survey in 2002 found some 125,000 Muslims who had come to faith in Christ through the camel method, been baptized, and were orthodox in their practices.

Joseph Cumming of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture […] estimates that 90 percent of missionaries living among Muslims refer to verses in the Qur’an without inciting the heated arguments found in the U.S.

What do you think? Is it dangerous to use a non-Christian text like the Koran as a first step in evangelism? Or is it worthwhile if it lets missionaries avoid pointless debates and out of hand rejection?

Share your thoughts!

A week or so ago I caught wind of a New York Times story about the rise of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in evangelical churches via the Gospel Coalition blog. It’s a fascinating article that raises quite a few questions in my mind. Namely, whether or not violent sports like MMA are appropriate outreach tools.

Here’s an excerpt:

These pastors say the marriage of faith and fighting is intended to promote Christian values, quoting verses like “fight the good fight of faith” from Timothy 6:12. Several put the number of churches taking up mixed martial arts at roughly 700 of an estimated 115,000 white evangelical churches in America. The sport is seen as a legitimate outreach tool by the youth ministry affiliate of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 churches.

Eugene Cho was quoted in the article as the lone dissenting Christian voice saying, “What you attract people to Christ with is also what you need to get people to stay…I don’t live for the Jesus who eats red meat, drinks beer and beats on other men.” He gives a bit more perspective on his comment over on his blog.

I think Eugene has a point: even if Jesus was a fighter, his ministry was marked by love far more than it was marked by machismo.

How do you feel about pairing faith with a sport like MMA? Have you ever been to an event like the one described in the NYT article?

On a sidenote: the MMA as outreach idea reminds me of the Power Team ministry. The Power Team is a traveling group devoted to sharing their testimonies in between ripping phone books in half and breaking out of handcuffs.