Simple Evangelism in the Church

Found at the Gospel Coalition

Guest Blogger: Jason Helopoulos

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Loving one another in the body of Christ has many benefits. Two that regularly come to mind are the glory it gives to God and the way it affects the church. However, one of the primary benefits of loving one another is what it declares before a watching world. One of our most potent instruments we have for effective evangelism is Christians loving each other well.  I am “living” proof.

As a freshman college student and self-declared atheist, I attended a campus Christian fellowship to fulfill a promise to a Christian friend. I only had the intention to go once. It was merely duty and upholding my word, nothing more. I went begrudgingly, but I went. My life was never the same.

I walked into a room full of Christians and was struck by what I observed. Here was a diverse group. They were from every walk of life. I remember scanning the room and labeling people in my mind, “There is a jock, over there is a geek, and walking in the door is a boy scout.” But what struck me was that they were together. They weren’t just together in the same room, they were together in every sense of the word. They were actually talking with each other and genuinely seemed happy to be together. There didn’t seem to be division. Even in my atheist mind, I knew what I was seeing: they loved one another.

I had no categories for this, so I kept returning to find out why they had love like this for one another. Over the course of a few months I found the answer, or more accurately stated, the answer found me.

One of the best evangelism programs you can start at your church is to pursue loving one another well. At some point they will have to hear the gospel proclaimed from your lips or the pulpit, but that “strange love” will set the table before them. People will know that you are His disciples, because it is a shocking love. It has a gravitational attraction, because it is a love that is foreign to this world. A love that the inquirer, if seeking an answer, will find comes from heaven.

Pastoring a Sending Church: An Interview with Pat Hood

Pat Hood explains what it is like to pastor a "sending church." |Ed Stetzer

Pat Hood is the Senior Pastor at LifePoint Church located at various campuses throughout the Nashville area, and is the author of The Sending Church, which is due out in October.The Sending Church is made up of examples from his own congregation, showing how a church isn't really a church until it leaves the building and expands God's Kingdom in the local neighborhood and around the world.

I had the opportunity to ask Pat a little bit more about his church and how they have transformed into a "sending church" over time.

Tell me about some unique things your church is doing in outreach.

I don't know if we do anything that's really "unique." I would describe our outreach as "simple." I think Jesus' was too. He simply told his disciples, to "Go, make disciples." That's what we teach our people. We challenge them to live sent lives in every domain of their life. We tell our people that we have no marketing campaign. We don't blanket the community with fliers. We don't rent billboards. We tell our people they are the--> Click Here

Missionaries to the United States

What about missions over here... in the United States? What does it look like?

New Perspectives I

A Video That Challenges Our Perspectives

What Is The Gospel?

What the Gospel Is.

Who Is Jesus?

I wonder just how similar the answers to the question of 'Who is Jesus?' would be if we asked it to the people here in Central Texas?
Based upon my personal experience of asking that question, as well as similar ones, when I was in the sales business, my answer would be that the people in our area's responses would be very similar.
What do you think?