Keys to Effective Evangelism: Overcoming Today’s Crisis in ...



Keys to Effective Evangelism: Overcoming Today’s Crisis in Motivation and Method

Samuel Ling

Prologue

Most Chinese churches in North America today were pioneered in the 1960's. Those were the "good old days" of student evangelism. A young man comes to America with $20 in his pocket, attends a state college with minimal tuition charges, starts washing dishes in the university cafeteria, and starts up a Bible class on the weekends. Pretty soon his friends become Christians, and they now have a "CBSG" or "CCF." Some of these "gangs" are more famous than others; the "Winnipegers" of Manitoba, for example, have gone on to brilliant ministries worldwide. Others, less spectacular but equally significant, have established dozens of Chinese churches in the U.S. and Canada.

The 1970's, therefore, was a time of consolidation. From a primary focus student work on campus, Chinese Christians turned to finding a suitable place for worship; calling a pastor to shepherd the young Chinese congregation; organizing a board; establishing a budget; staffing Sunday School and fellowship groups; buying land. Now in the 1980's, we can pride ourselves in the over 700 Chinese churches in North America, a community rich with financial, manpower, and spiritual resources.

In the 1980's, the Chinese church is looking beyond the four walls of the church to missions. Cross-cultural missions is getting the attention of an increasing number of Chinese people -- of course, evangelizing the Chinese in China, Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia continues to be a burden on our hearts. Also, the increasingly heterogeneous character of North American society -- which is really a reflection of the worldwide community -- makes the Chinese church think harder as to how to reach the world for Christ in the most effective and efficient way.

From evangelism through establishing the church to missions, we have gone through a lot. This is an exciting look. This is, however, only a superficial look, as we shall see later.

In addition to this "superficial look," we will catch a sophisticated look at the Chinese church today. Twenty years ago I attended an Ambassadors For Christ student summer conference for the first time. In those days we either took the Greyhound bus or found a ride to the conference site. (Many students still do so today.) When you got to the conference ground there was work to do -- bedsheets needed to be distributed, people forgot to bring their soap and toothbrush, the handbook was not yet stapled, scholarship money was not enough... But it was an exciting thing to see Christian students from all over the East Coast.

Today, however, we fly to international airports to attend winter conferences in Toronto, Washington and other places. When we get there, a computer greets us as we whip out our checkbooks and pay the registration fee. We proceed with computerized room keys to our hotel rooms, complete with cable TV (!) and name-brand toiletries. In ballrooms equipped with professional lighting and sound equipment, we listen to speakers who yearly travel the international Chinese conference circuit, and buy tapes, books and videotapes in the display hall. We go home with lots of "literature" (what pastors get in the form of "junk mail" every day) and a few good books. We hop on our return flight, and go home to report our findings at our church or fellowship meetings. Then we move on with life as usual...

Life is more sophisticated as the 1990's approach. But are we any more mature, any more committed to Christ, any more willing to take risks for evangelism, than 20 years ago?

Or are we more calculating, weighing every decision in terms of convenience and personal gain? Are we more like serpents than doves, holding on to personal privilege rather than letting go of life? I wonder...

Thirdly, a sad look at the picture. Often the conference agenda for Chinese churches and Bible study groups are crowded with important, useful and contemporary topics, such as the dialogue between Chinese culture and the gospel, peer counseling, how to organize a missions committee in your church, computers and the church, etc. But evangelism often gets crowded out of the picture. We pay more attention to discipleship, studying the Bible than to evangelism. We say -- as we have always said -- that we need to equip ourselves, build roots downward, before we can reach out and bear fruit upwards. What is this a symptom of?

I believe that in the three areas of evangelism -- the message we proclaim, the manpower that we need to mobilize, and the motivation that drives us on to reach the lost for Christ -- we are facing an unprecedented crisis. Unless we take a good look at our present plight, we will go on in our ecclesiastical slumbers, and cry "Peace!" "Peace!" when there is no peace. In each of ten areas discussed, I will seek to point out what the crisis, or problem, is, and what Biblical principles can be applied. Helpful resources will be cited.

Key No. 1: Repentance Brings Boldness in Witness

We might as well start with a familiar theme -- sin in our lives. We are not effective in evangelism, we lack the motivation to move out into the world, because somewhere in our lives -- as individuals and as churches/fellowships -- we have sinned. What is sin?

1. Sin is breaking God's commands-- doing what God has prohibited.

2. Sin is failure to do what God expects us to do.

3. Sin is the absence of total trust in, love for, and surrender under God.

4. Sin is playing God -- acting as if we hold our own destinies in our hands. It is independent thinking, rather than dependent thinking.

It is interesting that wherever we find sin, we find broken relationships. Because inasmuch as sin does not spring from broken relationships -- it springs from our wrong attitudes about God's lordship over our lives -- it nevertheless results in broken relationships. Gordon MacDonald has rightly pointed out that, if you want to know what condition your life is in, take a look at your car (or your room). Is it in good condition? Is it clean and tidy? It may be a reflection of our hearts!

The problem with sin is we’d rather hide it, or hide from it, rather than face up to it. So we invent all kinds of names to cover it up in the church. When the pastor and the deacons' board do not get along with each other, we call it a lack of consensus on policy, or a communication breakdown. So we find management techniques to maneuver around the problem. When husband and wife do not live in harmony and love, we call it an incompatible situation. When we want to cheat on our bookkeeping and taxes, we call it creative financing or some other name. We find a substitute name to cover up sin. Therefore, we find substitute solutions that do not work -- they only eat away at our spiritual vitality.

If we dare to call sin sin, then we have hope. If sin is sin, then there is forgiveness because God has promised it. If we confess and repent of our sins, God can be counted on to forgive, to cleanse, and to start us off anew again. His Word is dependable (unlike ours)!

What is repentance? It is not simply fear for punishment, or for the consequences of sin (e.g. fear of an unwanted pregnancy for committing fornication). It is not simply trying to do good to compensate for our sins. Rather it is:

1. Confessing, admitting what we have done is wrong in God's eyes.

2. In a godly way, sorrowing, grieving, and hating sin for what it is. Ask God for forgiveness by the blood of Christ.

3. Re-commiting ourselves to obey God in this particular area, and in all areas.

Why is repentance so important? Because the "springs of living water" which Jesus promises in the Gospel of John gush forth from a pure and clean heart. And where there is an open heart before God, there is an open heart before the world. Our effectiveness in evangelism hinges on this!

If we are bold before God to confess our sins, we will be bold enough to evangelize the world.

A final word, what do we do after repentance? I believe a helpful way to keep our course straight in holy living, is to become accountable to a small group of Christians. Accountability is the key. Of course, in order to establish such a group, we must trust each other to keep confidence, and to commit ourselves to building up each other, not to take advantage of each other's hurts and weaknesses for our own gain.

Resources: C. John Miller, Repentance and Twentieth Century Man (P. O. Box 1449, Fort Washington, PA 19034: Christian Literature Crusade); John White, Flirting with the

World (P. O. Box 567, Wheaton, IL 60187: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1982).

Key No. 2: Evangelism is Caught Rather than Taught

Eight and a half years ago I began to plant a church in the city. I tried everything in the first year. I went to the subway and bus terminal and passed out tracts on the street. We opened our home and invited people to come to Bible studies. I did advertising. I asked my Christian friends for contacts. Boldly we started worship services with 15 people. We continued onto about 25 people a year later. Then it dawned on me that, after all the seminary training and preparation for church planting, I had never been trained in evangelism! I even gave a seminar on evangelism. I dug out the best books I knew on the theology and method of evangelism, and gave a solid course to about 18 people. But things did not change.

I remember a trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to visit my supporting churches. There, a fellow Presbyterian pastor picked me up at the airport, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, drove me straight to the hospital, where he proceeded to visit a sick elderly gentleman and expressed his concern. That evening I met dozens of young couples with young children, most of whom found the Lord Jesus in their 30's -- in other words, recently! The next morning that pastor took me to his office, and there two ladies were ready to go on evangelistic visitation. They reviewed a few Bible verses and points on an outline. The pastor took me in his car, and knocked on the door in a new apartment complex. A young lady who have recently visited the church opened the door. We chatted;

the pastor shared the gospel; challenged this young housewife to commit her life to Christ; we ended in prayer. My life has never been the same again! I finally did what many friends had been suggesting for a couple of years. I signed up for an Evangelism Explosion clinic. It was held in a Baptist church in Virginia. There we met for six days. In the evenings, the laypeople of that church who have had previous training, took us (pastors) out to do visitation evangelism. We learned gospel outlines and Bible verses, we wrote testimonies and took quizzes during the day. I came home ready to go!

For the first time, someone actually took me by the hand, and showed me, as a pastor, how to do evangelism and how to implement an evangelism program in my church. I started, despite opposition from church leaders, with 4 trainees. Each of them got 2 prayer partners. We worked together for 16 weeks. Then, half a year later, I had a group of 7 people. To this day I consider that year of EE training to be a real highlight in my six-year pastoral ministry. There was something electric and exciting in the church ... people were praying for the trainees ... newcomers to the church were visited promptly ... people began to see their own lives change because God was working ... a few people did come to know the Lord ... people who didn't want to accept Christ right away were contacted nevertheless, and communication was kept up ... a lot of people talked about evangelism in the church.

Today, I am no longer afraid to talk about the gospel. I have had the joy of leading a hitchhiker in Vancouver to accept Christ in my car; a lady in the Baltimore airport was challenged to look up a church (I gave her the name of the pastor and the location of the church) when she settled down in her new home in Orlando, Florida; a successful business in Los Angeles asked me the question in his luxurious home, "What is the meaning of life?" to which I was only most happy to give an answer; a waiter in a Chinese restaurant came up and asked if I was a Christian, talked about his personal needs, developed a friendship with me, accepted Christ, and is today a member of a Chinatown church. I tell these stories not to boast of what I have done, but what the Lord has done through Christians -- laypeople, not pastors! -- who demonstrated right before my eyes how to actually share the gospel and lead someone to Christ.

We need to look up people (and organizations, such as EE) and ask them to take us along, teach us by example, and experience how to witness for Christ. I must confess that I used to resent Campus Crusade for Christ, and I developed theological reasons for doing so. Today as I look back, I can see why I resented them -- they were so bold and effective in evangelism, and I was not!

Evangelism is caught more than taught.

Resources: Evangelism Explosion III International, P. O. Box 23820, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33307. Order the book Evangelism Explosion by D. James Kennedy, and ask for a schedule of EE clinics. Chinese materials are available from Hong Kong; the Florida office can give you information. Also CRC Home Missions, 2850 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49560 - ask for the evangelism resources catalog.

Key No. 3: We Must Believe That The Bible Is The Inspired Word of God

I grew up in a Bible college in Hong Kong in the 1950's. In those days there were very few books on theology, evangelism, and ministry -- in English there were few enough, and in Chinese the situation was even more serious. So I watched (as a child) how the students took notes in class and read and read the Bible. They prayed a lot, memorized the Bible a lot, and went out and did a lot of evangelism. I remember one day I went to one of the seminary students during lunch hour. He was my Sunday School teacher at the time. I couldn't find him in his dorm room, so I went to the rooftop. And there he was, pouring his heart out before God, remembering each Sunday School student by name under the hot sun. I also remember when I was 12 years old, we went to the resettlement estates (low income government housing projects) and walked up the 7 flights of steps to the rooftop Christian school. The smell of urine and trash was evident at every turn. When we got up there we told Bible stories and sang songs with children who were wearing hardly adequate clothes and shoes. And so I spent the first 14 years of my life -- watching people reading the Bible and going out to do evangelism.

Today, "things are different now, something happened to us." Except that the difference is not so much a greater sense of confidence in the Bible as the power of God unto salvation, but exactly an eroding confidence in the Bible as the inspired word of God. We are more sophisticated today, using historical and critical methods to study the background of biblical times (all this can be very helpful, of course). But we are seeing a whole generation of young pastors come through seminary, who no longer can affirm that the Bible is inspired, true and inerrant. People are preaching in our pulpits today as "evangelical" pastors who do not believe in the verbal inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture.

Why is this important for evangelism? Because if we don't have an inerrant Bible, we cannot possibly have an inerrant gospel message. Our salvation is built upon facts recorded in an inspired book. And look at it this way: there are many Christians today who once upon a time were skeptics. So what did they do? Some Christian gave them a book, citing evidence that "demands a verdict." Whose verdict? Their verdict, as independent, autonomous minds judging whether God's word is true. So they read about all the convincing proofs that the Bible was historically and archaelogically dependable, and they accept Christ. Three years later, during a Bible study discussion, you discover that they do not believe in the Trinity, they do not believe in the Virgin Birth, they think that heaven is only a state of mind, and there is no physical heaven and no physical hell... many of the miracles in the Bible can be explained in a different way... We are breeding a generation of skeptic Christians whom we still call "evangelicals!"

Somewhere along the line, we have missed something. We do not train our Christians to put their confidence in an inerrant Bible; so they do not go out to proclaim God's Word with confidence. Today we live in a world of uncertainties -- people are not sure about the economy tomorrow, nuclear warfare, the environment, population explosion, their own job security, their own marriages ... They long to hear a strong, sure word of mercy and hope. Only a God-inspired and totally truthful Scripture can offer such a strong message.

We must believe that the Bible is God's inspired and inerrant Word, and therefore the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for every one who believes.

Resources: J. I. Packer, "Fundamentalism" and the Word of God, Eerdmands. The Chicago Statement on Inerrancy (The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, 1978).

Kenneth Kantzer, "Why I Still Believe the Bible Is True," Christianity Today, October 7, 1988. Thomas A. Thomas, The Doctrine of the Word of God, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company (P. O. Box 817, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865), 1972.

Key No. 4: God Saves Sinners - That's Our Message

Three years ago, when the 1997 issue was getting "hot" for the first time for Hong Kong Christians, a secular magazine there published an anonymous article attacking evangelicals. Part of the criticism was that we evangelicals believe in and preach a "consumer gospel." After some reflection, I think the criticism is not totally wrong. After all, what do we do in evangelism? We tell people that God has a wonderful plan for their lives if they come to trust in Jesus Christ. So we invite our non-Christians to our meetings, during which (usually before the preaching) a Christian stands up and testifies how God has solved a problem, heard a prayer, given a blessing, healed a sickness. Some of the testimonies are more profound than others. In any case, we preach a gospel which says: there are many advantages which await you if you accept Christ. And so we evangelicals proceed to manufacture many products on the marketplace to validate this claim. Today we have Christian seminars on success and motivation, Christian aerobics and weight loss classes, Christian salesmen who sell us European import cars and stocks and bonds, and cruises to vacation spots organized by Christians featuring Christian speakers as hosts. We are prosperous enough to make ourselves even more prosperous in the name of Christ.

We are preaching a man-centered gospel. In terms of material and emotional blessings through Christ, we are appealing to people's desire for a good life. In terms of giving people evidence on which they can pronounce an independent, neutral, objective verdict, we are surrendering to the non-Christian's autonomy. In either case -- in material/emotional things and in intellectual matters -- we are compromising a God-centered gospel, to capitulate before independent man the sinner. Man becomes the most important figure in the gospel, not God.

What is the gospel? It is: God saves sinners.

a. God. It is God who saves. God is the Lord of the universe, not just a dispenser of blessings. Because he is the owner, maker, sustainer and judge of all things, he demands our loyalty and obedience -- and since we have all sinned, he demands and expects our repentance and faith in Christ. The God we preach is a God of mercy as well as holiness, righteousness as well as love. We need to know God in all his attributes, that we may proclaim a more complete, rich gospel.

b. Sinners. We are sinners, dead in our sins and blind to spiritual things. We are not simply sick in need of some therapy. We are not simply poor in need of some path to prosperity. We are not just weak in need of friendship, acceptance, and a sense of security through a peer group. We are dead! We cannot come to Christ! Before Lazarus can walk to Christ, he was first made alive by Christ. So when Christ summoned him to walk, he first made Lazarus alive. So it is that although we were dead in our sins, God in his rich mercy in Christ made us alive in Christ, and seated us in the heavenly places ... we are saved by grace, through faith, and even the faith is from God! (Ephesians 2:1-10)

c. Saves. God really saves. God did not simply make salvation available. Christ died to SAVE sinners. So Christ can promise his sheep that they will never be snatched away from his hands, and his Father's hands (John 10:28-29). We preach a powerful gospel of salvation -- not the possibility of salvation. And we invite, we urge, we command people to repent (Ezekiel 18:30-32, Mark 1:14-15).

In the final analysis, God is the most central and important figure in evangelism. God planned our salvation; Christ purchased our salvation; the Holy Spirit brought salvation to our hearts; all for God's own glory (Ephesians 1:3-14). That's the gospel we want to preach!

If we preach a God-centered gospel, God will honor us to bring His people to faith in Christ.

Resources: J. I. Packer, Introductory Essay to John Owen's "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ." J. I. Packer, "The Heart of the Gospel," chapter 18 of his Knowing God (Inter Varsity, 1973). Harvie Conn, Evangelism: Doing Justice, Preaching Grace (Zondervan). Will Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People. (Inter Varsity, 1981). Walter Chantry: Today's Gospel: Authentic or

Synthetic? (Banner of Truth, P. O. Box 652, Carlisle, PA 17013, 1970; Chinese edition translated by Rev. Chan Hay Him).

Key No. 5: Evangelism is the Task of the Church

I have been a great fan and supporter of Inter Varsity. Through IVP's books -- by authors like Stott, Packer, and Schaeffer -- I came to appreciate the great doctrines of the sovereignty of God. I came to appreciate the importance of inductive, serious Bible study as a means of growth and a means of evangelism. Through Urbana I came to appreciate the excitement and imperative of missions. IVCF's three-fold goal statement is: evangelism, discipleship, and missions.

I think that the Chinese churches and Bible study groups taken as a whole, if you look at them historically and analytically, have developed along the same lines, although I don't think anyone consciously borrowed their goal statement from Inter Varsity. Those are worthy goals. Those are inadequate goals.

Now Inter Varsity can adopt these three goals, and it would not be inadequate. Because IVCF is not a church. Its purpose (I believe) is to assist, equip and challenge the church to evangelize students on campus, disciple them and send them forth to missions. That is a very much needed ministry.

However, the church's ministry is more than that. And the whole North American Chinese evangelical community need to have an expanded mission statement, if we are to do everything Christ has commanded us to do.

Let me illustrate this inadequacy by a more adequate and complete picture of evangelism. Here I am thinking about the process of evangelism as defined by Dr. D. James Kennedy, pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Dr. Kennedy can truly be called "Mr. Evangelism" because his evangelism training programs have been used worldwide in dozens of countries, equipping the church to reach the lost. According to Kennedy there are four phases in the overall process of personal evangelism.

The goal of the first phase in evangelism is friendship. Here we get to know the person we are trying to reach. We find out something about his/her life, background, and spiritual background. We introduce ourselves, our testimonies and our church to him/her. A very important goal we want to accomplish is: we want to win over his/her trust in us, so we can share something which is deeply personal and spiritual. Friendship, then, is the goal of Phase I.

The goal of the second phase is understanding. This is the phase in which, after we have aroused his/her curiosity in the possibility of eternal life by grace, we present the gospel. The purpose here is to present the gospel clearly, with biblical support and in a winsome way. All this can be done in a 20-minute conversation. Of course for more resistant people, we need to establish the relationship in Phase I over a period of time, so that we eventually get to the point where we have earned our right to make this gospel presentation. The gospel is presented, and we try to ascertain whether the person understands. Understanding of the gospel, then, is the goal of Phase II.

The goal of the third phase is assurance of salvation. Notice that we do not make "accepting Christ as personal Savior" as a goal. That is a means to assurance of salvation. During this phase, we give the person an opportunity to express his/her desire to receive God's free gift. We explain what commitment to Christ means in a clear, forceful, and winsome way. We again ask if the person wants to make this commitment. If the person is truly willing and understands what the step of commitment means, we lead in prayer to help him/her receive the risen, living Lord Jesus into his/her life. We immediately continue to give him/her the biblical basis of assurance of pardon and eternal life. Assurance of salvation, then, is the goal of Phase III.

The goal of the fourth phase is incorporation of the new believer in the body of Christ, the local church. Here we begin by establishing an appointment to meet with our newborn babe in Christ, giving guidelines for starting a daily quiet time (prayer and bible reading), taking him/her to church on the next Lord's Day, and actively seeking to incorporate him/her into a fellowship group, a Sunday School class or a new member's class to prepare for church membership.

The reason I went through this lengthy outline is to show that, if we are truly to be effective in evangelism, we must do it as a church. The goals of evangelism are: friendship, understanding of the gospel, assurance of salvation, and incorporating people into the body of Christ as active disciples of Christ. To look at it another way, the church must not be satisfied with just "keeping the fish happy in the aquarium." We must be fishermen for Christ! In the church's purpose statement, and in the allocation of program, manpower, and money, the church must show that it is committed to evangelism. An excellent example of how this can be done is illustrated by Elder Ng Chu-Kwong in his books on evangelism. In Peace Church, Hong Kong, a year-round cycle of evangelism is established for each fellowship group. One season is devoted to equipping Christians for evangelism. This is immediately followed by a phase of active evangelism, perhaps culminating in an evangelistic meeting. Every Christian is challenged to share the gospel. Then the third phase is devoted to strengthening the new Christian in the disciple's life. If we continue to faithfully do this year after year, God will truly bless!

Evangelism, discipleship, and missions is not enough. Church growth must be part of our commitment as Christians. We must be committed to the body of Christ -- to God's desire for her growth, growth in quality, quantity and in gifts.

The church's philosophy of ministry and program allocation must include evangelism as a priority.

Resources: Samuel Ling, "How To Discover, Develop and Deploy the Full Potential of Local Born Chinese Christians," Ethnic Chinese Congress on World Evangelization (CCCOWE, P. O. Box 98435, TST, Hong Kong, 1986; or from CCCOWE North America, 206 E. Las Tunas Drive, Suite 4, San Gabriel, CA 91776). Roger S. Greenway, ed., The Pastor Evangelist: Preacher, Model and Mobilizer for Church Growth (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, P. O. Box 817, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865, 1987), see especially Terry L. Gyger, "An Integrated Plan for Evangelism and Church Growth" (pp. 150-161). C. John Miller, Evangelism and Your Church (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980). Felix Liu, A Research of Church Growth: A Case Study of Four Chinese Growing Churches in North America (in Chinese, Peter Wongso, tr.) (Evangelical Formosan Publisher, 6501 York Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90042, 1983). Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977).

Key No. 6: Go to Where People Are

Christ promised Peter that he would be a fisher of men. Yet what we find today in the church are many aquarium keepers, people who devote manpower, money, and real estate to keep the fish happy in the fish bowl. Now the task of "keeping the fish fat and happy in the fish bowl" is a legitimate and important task. Discipleship -- nurturing the spiritual growth of Christians -- is an essential goal of the church. However, it must not be implemented at the expense of evangelism.

Today the Chinese churches and Bible study groups have become a social and cultural center for the first-generation immigrant community who want to bring their children along to socialize with other first-generation immigrants. We have successfully created a suburban, middle-class, white-collar ghetto. The church may hold its worship services in Chinatown, but it is suburban in mentality, program, and aspiration. It is very often out of touch with the real world immediately outside its four walls. For those churches in the suburbs, they have to reach out in order to survive, so often they devise programs to attract people, e.g. the Saturday morning Chinese language class for the young people.

The Chinese school can be an effective tool for outreach, if we use it as such. There are actually many avenues by which we can go to where people are. What are people's needs? What are their hurts? Can we find a way to meet their needs -- in a compassionate way without forgetting our God-centered gospel message -- and get to know them, so that we can present the gospel of God's sovereign grace to them?

Two years ago a brother in the Lord called me up. He was managing a Chinese television station, and wondered if I wanted to pick up a program teaching English. The present teacher could no longer afford the time to do so. I saw a tremendous opportunity to serve the community and to establish contacts with secular Chinese community leaders. I began recording the English program for the TV and the radio stations. Several things have come out of this. First, I came to know some non-Christian Chinese young adults who live, work and struggle in the real world. For example, I learned to listen to my cameraman swear in Cantonese regularly -- that's his lifestyle! I got to know the merchants in Chinatown who distributed the text (transcript of the program). Some of them were hostile, many were skeptical, others are supportive of my work. All have provided me with a real picture of day to day life in the retail commercial world of Chinatown. Second, because of this avenue into the community, it has become much easier for me to talk to the waiters and cashiers in Chinese restaurants. We have something common to talk about. I am a provider of a service they want and need. This opens tremendous doors to build relationships. Third, churches are stimulated to reach out to the community with English classes. A vision is spreading.

All of this is very exciting, except for one thing. I am a Christian individual, that is why I should do my part to serve the community. But something like this should have been done by another layperson long ago. Where are the laypeople in Chinese churches, who will spend the time and energy to serve the community? We have so much to offer as a suburban, middle-class, college-educated professional church! We are no longer that tiny church on mainland China in the 1890's, struggling barely to survive and always walking in our missionary-employer's shadows. We are now perceived as a middle-class church; Christianity is for the affluent who could afford the luxury to go to church on Sundays. What have we got to give, to share, to tell these blue-collar folks? We must start by going to where they are. This is also true in the suburbs, of course, with our fellow-middle-class Chinese and non-Chinese friends.

We must go to where people are. And we must learn to speak their language. For example, Chinese people today are interested in fortune-telling, communicating with the dead, and transcending our bodies (ch'i-kung), etc. What does the Gospel have to say about the spiritual world? Is Jesus the Lord of all lords, the power about all powers? Is Jesus' name powerful? Do we Christians believe in "ghosts"? Are we afraid of them? We believe in a sovereign, all powerful God. We need to proclaim it in a language they can understand. Also, we must learn to speak the blue-collar person's language if the Chinese church is ever to break through beyond its own middle-class walls. Chinese Gospel Broadcasting Center (1 Searington Drive, Syosset, NY 11791; catalog available) is attempting to do this by producing cassette tapes which speak the language of the restaurant and the garment factory worker. We all must learn, too.

Resources: Win Arn and Charles Arn, The Master's Plan for Disciple Making (Church Growth, Inc., 2670 S. Myrtle Ave., Suite 201, Monrovia, CA 91016), a book as well as a whole package of multi-media materials to train Christians to reach out to their neighbors in a winsome, non-threatening way. Great for a church-wide workshop. When writing, ask for their catalog which lists over a dozen such packages. Also read Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Saltshaker (Inter Varsity) for a lively, personable training manual to do personal evangelism "where the people are."

Key No. 7: Build Strong Relationships With Each Other

We hear a lot of talk about friendship evangelism today. We are told that in order to be effective in evangelism, we must establish relationships with the people we are trying to reach. Furthermore, the gospel is about a personal relationship between the Lord and ourselves!

We do live in a world hungry and thirsty for intimacy and meaningful, lasting, and strong relationships. In North America, we are rubbing shoulders with young people who are the children or even the grandchildren of divorce. It is no longer a rarity, but in some circles, the normative (i.e., the majority) lifestyle. People are walking around with broken souls and lives. They do want a good relationship!

However, sometimes I wonder if the kind of relationship we preach (between Christ and us), and the kind of relationship we build (among Christians), are strong enough to meet the challenge of our generation. Putting it more seriously, I wonder if these kinds of "relationship" we preach and practice are biblical enough.

Concerning our relationship with the Lord, we often share this, in our evangelistic messages, in a very amorphous way. We say that our relationship with God has been broken and now restored in Christ. But what relationship? Just that Jesus is now our "friend"? A dispenser of blessings and other good things? We don't make it clear. We shy away from talking about the wrath of God which is God's response to sin, and Jesus' atonement on the cross, which appeased the wrath of God (that is what "propitiation" means) and reconciles not only us to God, but God to us! We don't want to talk about a God of wrath. We want to talk about a God of vague relationships. We must be careful that we don't lose the heart of the gospel message!

Concerning our relationship with each other as Christians, we go from week to week, year to year, holding some very superficial relationships in the church. We have imbibed some secular notions of "relationship," or "friendship." For example, we are all equals. Part of this equality (living in a democracy) means that we respect each other's rights, especially the right to privacy. So we talk about the superficial -- examinations and grades for students, houses and cars for working people, children for parents. We rarely get down to what concerns the well-being of our souls. Not only do we respect the "equal rights" of others, but we are supposed to "accept" each other "unconditionally." That means that we never confront anybody about anything. Everything is loving and smooth. When people stray away from the Lord, we accept them and try to understand them. Rarely do we do what Scripture itself does: teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness (II Tim. 3:16-17).

The Bible talks about another kind of relationship, a relationship that is strong and lasting, and therefore truly meaningful. It bears the name "covenant." God who is altogether free and sovereign, has chosen to come into time and space and establish this covenant with his people. God vows certain promises to his people. In the Old Testament it takes the form of: I am the Lord your God. I shall be your God and you shall be my people. Obey my commands and you will blessed to the thousandth generation. Break my commands and I will punish you to the third and fourth generation. In the New Testament, the promise of the covenant comes in the form of: the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, believe in the gospel. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Go make disciples, baptize and teach, and I will be with you always until the end of this world

These are strong promises. We can count on them. Our God is a covenant-making God. We, too, must learn to be covenant-keeping people, and continue to become covenant-making (promise-making) people with our friends. We first learn to do this in our families and churches -- these are the best "schools" or laboratories to learn how to develop a promise-keeping lifestyle. One way to develop this lifestyle is to establish an accountability group (see above, Key No. 1).

Resources: Jay Adams, How To Help People Change (Zondervan, 1987). Wing-Yui and Doris So, Commitment (Chinese, in two volumes).

Key No. 8: Re-prioritize Our Lives for Evangelism

All of us have goals. All of us have priorities. This is evidenced by the fact that, whenever we are challenged to serve the Lord or to spread the gospel, we respond: "I am busy." All of us have 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week. The question is: what occupies us during those hours?

For many Christians today, survival is the number 1 priority. Undergraduate students want to graduate from a 4-year bachelor's program in 3 1/2 years, so as to save some tuition money and to start working as soon as possible. Many struggle with their English language ability and study skills. For them, a good grade is all-important. Then for graduate students, there is the number 1 priority of passing the comprehensive, of making that breakthrough in research, of finding a job. For those entering the marketplace as a young professional, we are busy getting those first three years of experience, applying for graduate business school, getting into a good MBA program, landing on our next job .... We all have goals and priorities!

In order for us to be truly motivated to develop an evangelistic lifestyle, I believe, we need to make evangelism a priority. But why? Why should we devote precious time and energy to other people?

There have been several reasons given as the motive for evangelism. For example, we often hear this one: concern for other people's souls. If we do witness, they will perish in hell forever. (Which is only too true!) Or, we hear this one: love for others. We should care about their plight, whether this "plight" is defined emotionally, socially, spiritually, or vaguely in terms of a lack of direction and purpose in life (listen to the new Christians' testimonies -- they often talk about this!).

I would like to suggest two higher motives: one, the glory and jealousy of God, and two, obedience to Christ's commands. Our God is a jealous God. He will not give the glory which is due him, to any other. Thus we, too, must be jealous and zealous to promote the glory of God. We, too, must summon the world: "Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all ye nations!" (Psalm 100) The goal of evangelism that men, women, and children come to worship the Lord, and that all come under the one Lordship of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10). That's the meaning and purpose of world history; that is the true meaning and purpose for our lives. We may not care to know it, or to follow it, but the fact doesn't change. Our meaning in life is found in ascribing and promoting God's glory.

The second motive which drives us on the evangelism is obedience. It's not a matter of choice -- although we often sweeten it up and make it sound like it's a matter of our choice. We really don't like to talk about Christ as our Lord and Master who gives orders to be followed. But the fact that we don't like it doesn't change the fact that Jesus is Lord. And he sent us: go, make disciples of nations; baptize them; teach them all that I have commanded you.

I believe that in true worship and in true obedience -- complete obedience -- we will find what we think we are looking for. Maybe we are looking for that sense of self-worth and meaning which freedom (we think) may bring us. Well, only submission under God's sovereign rule and obedience to his commands, will bring that sense of worth and meaning.

When we commit ourselves to God's sovereign rule over our lives, we can then make goals and plans to promote his rule. God's will is that the church, Christ's body on earth and where Christ presence dwells (Eph. 1:20-22), grow in quality and quantity. How can I promote that?

Our priority needs to be the kingdom of God and his righteous rule on earth.

Resources: John Stott, Our Guilty Silence (Inter Varsity, 1967), especially chapter 1. Stephen Tong, A Theology of Evangelism (in Chinese; Taipei: Campus Evangelical Fellowship).

Key No. 9: Evangelism Begins with Discipleship

About a year after I learned to implement Evangelism Explosion in our church, I began to feel the need to learn another skill: how to follow up a new convert, and how to train our church to do so. What I learned surprised me. I signed up for the Christian Discipleship Seminar (International Evangelism Association; Chinese version led by Rev. Victor Wong). Rev. Bill Hanks made this statement: "Evangelism begins with follow up." That's right -- evangelism is not the beginning of follow up, but rather, follow up is the beginning of evangelism. What does that mean?

Let me illustrate. Many Christians have been in the church so long that they have lost almost all their contact with non-Christian people. (Pastors are especially susceptible to this problem -- thus my experience at the radio station was such a refresher!) Let's say that Charlie is a new Christian. As soon as he accepted Christ, Joe took him by the hand and showed him all the basics of living the Christian life within the first few months. Charlie learned how to pray, how to read the Bible, how to memorize Scripture verses regularly, how to witness to his non-Christian friends (whom he still sees regularly, thank God!), and how to take notes during sermons. One Sunday Deacon Chan notices Charlie carrying around his sermon notebook. "What's that?" the deacon inquires. "Oh, that's my spiritual notebook," replies the young convert with a beaming smile. "Joe taught me how to do this. See? Here's my notes for last week's sermon. Joe says that every Christian does this!" The venerable deacon is totally embarrassed, but he must not show his feelings! The deacon goes home and searches his soul... There is a sense of electricity and excitement in the church when we follow up converts and young Christians and "unleash" them to live an evangelistic lifestyle!

The church today has so many things to keep the Christians busy -- what about teaching and training them, by example, how to witness for Christ? You begin by a sense of hunger and thirst for spiritual things. If a group of Christians are willing to come together and learn how to grow in the Christian life (without ruling out evangelism as part of that "Christian life!"), God will bless.

The vast majority of Christians in the church has never been discipled by an older Christian. In other words, we came to know Christ, and then we struggled ourselves to learn how to grow. We belonged to fellowship groups, and we listened to sermons, but there was no "mentor", no small group which really demonstrated for us how to live the Christian life. This is a tragedy. Jesus spent time with his disciples -- quality time, over three years. The disciples went on and turned the world upside down by preaching the gospel fearlessly. How much potential lies in the un-trained new Christians sitting in our church's pews today?

Evangelism begins with following-up on our new converts.

Resources: Leroy Eims, The Lost Art of Disciple Making. Also write to the International Evangelism Association for their seminar schedules: P.O. Box 6883, Fort Worth, TX 76115.

Key No. 10: Go Beyond a First-Generation Approach to Evangelism

In most church circles, we hold to one model of evangelism. It goes something like this. Listen to a Christian's testimony, rather typical I think. I was born into a non-Christian home. I had some contact with Christianity during junior high school. But I wasted my years away from Christ. Then during my sophomore year in college, someone attracted my attention by his consistent lifestyle. I began going to the Bible study group and accepted Christ at a retreat (or gospel meeting). I regret that I have wasted 20 years before I committed my life to the Lord.

That is one way people come to know the Lord. The goal of evangelism is: not so much that prayer to receive Christ, but the assurance of salvation, and the new believer's incorporation into the Body of Christ as an active

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