Years ago, I thought evangelism equated to inviting people to church. In the past 15 years I have become increasingly convinced that evangelism is meant to be relationally driven. This is what I see in Scripture, this is what I see as affective in our culture, and this has been my experience. This is why our services are not “seeker driven”. We are not trying to create the most entertaining experience to draw people in, instead we want to equip the church to evangelize and share Jesus with our neighbors, coworkers, etc. We believe the best way to bring people to Christ is not getting people in the doors of our church, but getting our people to look for opportunities to live intentionally outside our doors.
We had new neighbors move in next door to us about 3 weeks ago. And we have been praying for them by name, and asking God for favor and opportunities. On Easter Sunday we had an opportunity when their dog had messed with their outside faucet and it was creating a pool of water against their foundation. They were making one last trip to their old house in Western Kansas to pick up some things. I went and shut off their water, and called them, and they trusted me enough to ask me to go into their home and check to see if their basement was flooding. Praise God for an opportunity to serve my neighbors, and praise God that there was no flooding! (BTW, I’m not encouraging you to pray for your neighbor’s things to breakdown. LOL) Since the weather has been so nice, we’ve been able to have many conversations outside and I’m excited to continue getting to know them with the ultimate goal of sharing the gospel with them!
We say, “We are the church, now let’s go be the church” most Sundays. I’m grateful to be on this mission with you all, and I’m thankful that our lead pastor is leading by example. (Jack wouldn’t want me to brag on him, but I’m so encouraged by his example of practicing what he preaches.) Relational evangelism allows people around us to see the hope that we have and provides an opportunity to “give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). It takes time, it takes patience, it takes sacrifice, and it takes a deep love for the lost, but I’m praying that we would be the church and own the mission to “love God, love people, and lead others to do the same”.
See you Sunday at 9am! - Pastor Kyle