Pastor Rob Pierce hit the nail on the head in his letter (March 4). I believe the biggest roadblock to evangelism is a lack of discipleship. Christ said to make disciples, not converts. He said to make disciples, teaching them all that he commanded us. He did not indicate that we are trying to see how big the crowd can be on Sunday morning. In fact, Christ often thinned the crowds when they became numerous by declaring the requirements for being a disciple. Of course, most of the crowd found these requirements too difficult.
Most people in our churches struggle to even know where to begin with Bible study, much less evangelism. How can we share the message when we do not know the message? It is especially difficult in a culture such as ours, where authority is rarely recognized and scriptural authority is outright rejected. We must know Scripture and how to divide it properly if we are going to interact and evangelize our culture. We cannot try to sell the gospel like a set of encyclopedias or a self-help program.
I would love for there to be a discipleship conference so we can share ideas of how to take people from drinking milk to eating meat. We can equip people to go from being spoon-fed to being able to dig into God’s word and be changed by it. I tell the people I disciple that Bible study is not complete until it changes who we are and how we live. The grace found in that process motivates people to share it with those around them. The Spirit uses disciples to make disciples. Let us start a discipleship conference. Let us trust that discipleship is at the heart of the Great Commission.
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