I believe that personal friendship evangelism is the best but only when coupled with the church. I may make freinds with many pre-Christians but it may be someone else in the church that they connect to and come to faith with. We need to find ways of involving the church in our personal witnessing. I do not mean the Sunday meeting, necessarily. The people who support me and live with me most of the time are important for my "new freinds" to get to know. Even with our own children we prayed that God would bring peers and leaders into their life that would take them to the next level of their faith.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. They got me thinking, again.

Ryan,

The role of the local church in personal evangelism is clear. It is the role of the church, more specifically, the pastor, to equip the local saints for personal evangelism. (Eph 4:11-12).

There are many good evangelism programs out there that churches could be utilizing - Way of the Master, Evangelism Explosion, and Two Ways to Live. But the role and responsibility to equip the saints is the local church. Local churches need to be having personal evangelism training programs on a regular basis for its local body and giving them the tools to personally evangelize. I think what is crucial to that training is not just having a six week course and giving them books on how to evangelize, but actual on-the-job-training. In other words, the leaders of the church (or other members in the church who are equipped to evangelize)need to demonstrate with their flock on how to evangelize.

I think you mentioned a great point about "corporate" witness. I think it's natural for believers to be deathly afraid of actual personal witnessing of sharing the gospel. It stands to reason, since our spirit is constantly fighting against our flesh which is at enmity against the Lord and Satan is with his demons is constantly fighting against believers to prevent the gospel from being shared, a corporate witness is important.

I have personally experienced evangelizing to others with the leaders in my church, including the pastor, and if you are looking for practical ways, I do suggest any of the aforementioned evangelism programs, especially, Evangelism Explosion.

A study concerning the gifts would seem appropriate here too. He gave some to be evangelists... Just as the other gifts are not universal, so then the one may not be either. When Jesus called the disciples to get out of the boat was he not building the foundations of the church through the Apostles? I would not argue that every church member isn't responsible for proclaiming the Gospel, but I do question the universality of general calls to evangelism in the ways that most pastors and authors present it.

Woody,

You wrote: "A study concerning the gifts would seem appropriate here too. He gave some to be evangelists... Just as the other gifts are not universal, so then the one may not be either."

My response: I would argue that the passage is not talking about gifts but gifted people given to the church as gifts.

I stress that because I've heard some say that about themselves "I don't have the gift of evangelism." Worse, I've heard believers say that the Great Commission was given to the Apostles, not to the every believer in the church."

If we are not hear to proclaim the gospel, then what on earth (no pun intended) are we here for. Some might say, we are here to give praise to God and to worship. We can do that in heaven. We don't need to be here to do that. I mean, the Lord, immediately after salvation could take us away to heaven if all He wanted was to give glory through worship.

I've heard others say about themselves, "I proclaim the gospel through my holy living." I don't want to take away the display of God's glory when we live holy lives, but the fact is, a proclamation of the gospel apart from actually at some point explaining the gospel to others falls short. It is through the proclamation of the gospel that men are brought to Christ.

In "personal evangelism," it's important to remember that we are not ultimately introducing our non-believing friends to an institution or system of beliefs, but to a Person -- Jesus. And what better way to introduce them to Jesus than to acquaint them with His Body?

I have also found it helpful to use the preacher's sermon as a springboard to ask follow-up questions.

I think God also gave us the local church, so that we may encourage and hold each other accountable to reaching out and fulfilling our roles as ambassadors of Christ.

Carlo,

With all due respect (I mean that sincerely), if the only answer you can give to the question, "What on earth are we here for?" is, "evangelism," then I would submit to you that God has wasted an awful lot of time and effort to make sure we have, and understand, this thing we call a "Bible." One paragraph would have taken care of all that we need to know and do. For some reason, YHWH has revealed quite a bit more than a paragraph about His intents and desires. Apparently, He thinks the answer to your question calls for more than a word or two. Your suggestion that the only reason we are left here after God redeems us is to "proclaim the gospel" seems breathtakingly pragmatic to me.

Evangelism (particularly the form you note) is one piece of the picture for sure, and an important one, but you seem to suggest it is the whole picture, and if that is so, you are gravely mistaken. Reducing every believers "raison d'être" on earth to presenting, for instance, The Master's Way is, well, reductionistic, and (I think) an insult to the revealed wisdom of God given in the 66 canonical books He Himself has authored.

God, by His own disposition of grace, has not made all into evangelists - but He has given some. All are witnesses, but not all are evangelists. Some plant and some water, right? Some...

Perhaps you are one of those evangelists God has given to the church, Carlo. Praise God for His grace. Make the most of your ministry by all means, but it would be a mistake to make little of God's discriminating grace in others because it is not shaped nor expressed like yours.

Grace and peace.

Timotheos,

I think you misunderstood what I said and I may have not been clear. I didn't say or mean that the only reason believers are here for is to personally evangelize.

Obviously we display God's glory through our suffering and we display God's glory through worship and the list goes on. So, it is not the only answer to the question (why are we still here?). But the primary reason why believers are not lifted immediately to heaven after saving faith is so that we can share the gospel.

Living the gospel here on earth whether it be through worship, fellowship, suffering, etc., apart from the proclamation of the gospel is inadequate and falls way short, IMHO, of the Great Commission. For example, if someone sees a believer's suffering and has no knowledge of how can that person's suffering can be endured, that that suffering is not helpful.

I also liked the word you used. "Witness." Clearly, we are not all called to be evangelists and I can assure you, I am not one. But, as you said, we are called to be witnesses. In fact, before Martyr took on the term of witnessing leading to death it simply meant to bear witness.

When I use evangelism I mean, as Ryan laid out, individual witness. So, the pastor's responsibility is to equip the saints to individually witness, because simply living a holy life without bearing witness to others about the power which enables us to live a holy life, is not witness at all, IMHO. Sorry, if my post was confusing.

Thanks for the clarification, Carlo.

I was interested to see Evangelism Explosion as one of the reasons for so many Calvinists. I don't know if Mark's inclusion was an endorsement. I'm assuming not based on the chapter "Doing Responsible Evangelism" in The Deliberate Church. Indeed my experience with the implementation of ee often lends itself to this notion of personal evangelism sort of "gone to seed" to which you alluded.
The September Christianity Today has an interesting article you will definitely want to check out: "Go and plant churches of all peoples." Tag line: Crusades and personal witnessing are no longer the cutting edge of evangelism.

Ryan,

It seems to me that the Bible assumes personal evangelism in 2 ways - the life witness and the verbal witness. Have a life that is unoffensive, and tell the good news.

The Bible clearly emphasizes the verbal witness, when referring to group evangelism. The emphasis is to preach the gospel, deliver the message. The epistles stress various elements of sanctified, balanced, godly living. Obedient, serving, submissive lives are encouraged and urged for the good of the church's health and wellbeing, as well as the glory of God.

The consequence of a joyful, obedient individual life is the potential for a verbal witness that is without hypocrisy. The happy side effect of a healthy, joyful, disciplined congregational life is a preaching witness that is without hypocrisy.

So, it seems to me that "corporate witness" such as God used in your conversion is not something that can be developed as the result of a 5 or 10 -step program. It is the natural outgrowth of the faithful and balanced ministry of the whole counsel of God.

May that be the goal, and may God grant the primary fruit of congregational health, and the secondary fruit of "corporate witness."

And what about the ordinances?

When you speak about the role of the local church's corporate witness in encouraging and supplementing an individual's witness, what is better than the faithful observance of baptism and the Lord's supper?

If the gospel is simply and clearly explained as the church observes the ordinances, the individual believer is encouraged in his faith and his evangelism. Also, the unbeliever is brought face to face with the message of the cross and resurrection.

How could I have neglected to mention that?

This was a good read from the Shepherd Scrapbook concerning "Missional Churches" the pros and cons.
here is the link:
http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2007/09/06/critiquing-the-missional-movement-pastor-dave-harvey/

The problem that immediately came to my mind is that too many christians sole strategy for witnessing is to get someone to come to church. I praise God that people still get saved at church but I think that is built on the groundwork of personal friends who have demonstrated the life-changing power of the Gospel. We need to each be ready to tell our neighbors of our hope and lead them to the Source of that hope!

I remember doing a lot of witnessing and helping people discover their faith, but embarassed by my own church.

Sermons were not relevant to the one seeking faith. Some of the church's positions on cultural points were downright unnecessary and agressively interfered with my witness. The general topics of church retreats assumed a certain maturity level of Christian that I refused to invite my friends to.

In other words, my local church was not helpful in my witness. It didn't provide the support I needed to help integrate a person into the faith.

Just my thoughts

Pastor Chris
EvangelismCoach.org

Mike,

I believe the source of Brian's position is one commonly held by many who use Acts 2:39. I wish I had more time to explain why Acts 2:39, in my opinion was not meant to be used exactly in the way I think Brian wants to use. I'm really swamped with stuff. Maybe you can address that?

Carlo