September 2, 2002
TOGETHER:
Overcome barriers to sharing faith
___Last week's column noted prayer is the first step in becoming an effective sharer of good news with lost people.
___Pray for specific people. Pray regularly for them. Pray with a passionate urgency. Pray that when God puts them in your path--either because yougo to where they are or they suddenly show up in your life--you will talk to them about Jesus.
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___We can also pray for those who have the spiritual gift of evangelism and for those who are touched by their outreach. In particular, I invite you to join me in praying for the Billy Graham Metroplex Mission, Oct. 17-20 at Texas Stadium in Irving. Pray for the lives that will be touched throughout the northern part of our state as a result of this event. Most of the people who have been won to Christ at Billy Graham crusades through the years came to the Lord for two reasons: Friends had been praying for them. And somebody brought them to the evangelistic service.
___The second step in sharing faith is to be a friend to a lost person. Sometimes, we can be instrumental in connecting those individuals to people in the church who will be their friends. Jesus called his disciples into a community of faith. They were not converted to a way of thinking and then left alone. The gospel of Christ invites people into a shared journey with Jesus and his church.
___This is one reason I like evangelism approaches that help the Sunday School class pray for and witness to lost people. LIFE, FAITH and GROW are church evangelism approaches that put the Sunday School class at the heart of the effort to bring people to Christ and into the fellowship of the believing community.
___The third step is to look to your own spiritual journey. If your attitude toward people is cold and hard, or if your language is bitter, profane, self-righteous, destructive, cynical, racist or judgmental, you are not likely to be an effective witness. The fact you sometimes sin does not disqualify your witness, unless you hypocritically pretend you are above sin or unless you become unrepentant and satisfied in your sin. The fact you have difficulties in life, have experienced failure and disappointment, or have deep sorrows does not disqualify your witness. In fact, those things may in fact be your strongest assets in helping people see how God helps his children through life's most difficult challenges.
___But the biggest barrier to our being sharers of the good news is that often we simply do not do it. Last year, there were 956 Texas Baptist congregations that reported no baptisms, and another 2,704 reported fewer than 10 baptisms. That means roughly two out of three churches affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas baptized fewer than 10 people last year. Even at that, some of those churches baptized a larger percentage of their church membership than large churches that baptized more than 100 last year.
___Angels rejoice at every soul who enters the kingdom. Every life transformed by Christ is precious. But we could do so much more, if only we all would pray for the lost, befriend the lost and share our testimonies with authenticity.
___We don't have to be spiritual giants to tell someone where we found help.
___We are loved.
The Baptist Standard
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook