April 24, 2000
EDITORIAL:
'Personal work' bears eternal fruit
___Personal relationships and plans make all the difference in eternity.
___You can't help but see that pattern when you read this week's front-page story about Texas Baptist baptisms. Last year, churches affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas baptized 68,083 new believers. Churches that experienced significantly increased activity in their baptistries did so because they focused on people and followed an intentional plan for leading them to faith in Jesus Christ.
___"We go after the people; we don't wait for them to come to us," explained Efraim Diaz, pastor of Theo Avenue Baptist Church in San Antonio, which baptized 173 Christians last year. "The reason we have all the baptisms is we do a lot of personal work."
___Notice he said "personal" and "work."
___Evangelism--telling an unbeliever what Jesus has done for you and asking her to allow God to do the same thing in her life--is intensely personal. Spiritual truth-telling opens our lives to the scrutiny of unbelievers. If we say Jesus has made a difference, then the life we live had better reflect that change. Otherwise, all the words in the world won't make a bit of difference. In fact, they may drive the unbeliever farther away from the truth of Christ because they see the lie that lies within us.
___Conversely--and this is what scares many of us from sharing our faith--witnessing places us in a position of seeming to judge another's life. We need boldness to say, in effect, "My life has a quality your life lacks." We know, of course, that quality is an unmerited gift of God's grace. But an unbeliever does not intuitively comprehend that fact. And it can be daunting to tell another his life needs to shape up, even if Jesus is going to do the shaping. So, we often tend to shrink back from holy presentation, not wishing to offend or risk rejection.
___Unfortunately, we stand indicted by our boldness to share our views on other subjects. Even "shy" Christians have been known to talk on and on with total strangers about any of a variety of topics--the local sports team, a great new restaurant, a terrific movie, even a reputable fix for fire ants. Yet when the opportunity to share our faith arises, we tend to clam up, filling the void--a void that may stretch to eternity--with awkward silence.
___When we fail to share our faith, we tend to be stumped by one or more of three primary problems: Either we don't believe in eternal punishment for those who reject a living relationship with God Almighty, we don't care enough about people to help them receive eternal life or we're afraid to speak up.
___If we don't believe in eternal punishment, we need look no further than Scripture. We may not know exactly what hell is like, but over and over the Bible warns of eternal separation from God, which will be hell enough. If we don't care about people, we must re-read Matthew 25, where Jesus warns that the way we treat others actually reflects the way we treat him. And if we are afraid, we must look to the pages of Acts and see how the Lord empowered the early church in far more calamitous days, giving those Christians power and boldness to do what had to be done.
___Although evangelism is personal, it also must be planned. That's what "work" is all about. Churches that consistently lead people to faith in Christ work at it. They adopt intentional evangelism strategies. Some use the FAITH program of evangelism through Sunday Schools. Others regularly call on unchurched people in their communities, personally and regularly urging them to place their trust in Christ. Many sow evangelistic seeds of prayer for non-Christian friends and neighbors, fertilizing these evangelistic fields with tears of care and compassion.
___Whatever their strategy, evangelistic churches work on sharing faith. They know their labor of love will bear spiritual fruit.
___May we all commit this year to making an eternal difference in the lives of Texans.
___ --Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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