….BEGGING TO BE KICKED OUT….

I am always impressed how God organizes things around us. Many a times I would come prepared to preach only to find out that other people participated in the program had been impressed to communicate the same. Last Sabbath as I wrote my blog on “everyone is a preacher”* newly ordained elder Edwin Onyango led the Sabbath School with a challenge that everyone is a prophet, since every is called to share God’s will through preaching, guiding, correcting, simply communicating, and the prediction of the future is not the primary prophetic work.

But I get even more thrilled and energized when I see other people excited about Evangelism. Trevor Bell led the Master Plan Evangelism program at the North Church on Wednesday night with so much fervour that everyone present was moved; he was preaching, with inspiration!

Last Sabbath those who attended the “Radical Prayer” intercession rally had placed over 70 leaves on our “prayer tree,” which at the beginning of the day was leafless. A dead brunch was symbolically planted up front, and a basket of leaves placed nearby. If you are praying for someone and planning to invite them to our Evangelistic program come April 17, you write the name on a leaf and pin the leaf to the tree. The tree looks “alive,” its leafy, we know of at least 70+ people coming.

The message by Derek Morris was challenging to all. Based on Luke 10:2 instruction of Jesus to his disciples: “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” we were reminded that the harvest is already great. The Lord always has a lot ready to be harvested. Here in this city, there are a lot of people to be harvested for God’s Kingdom!!! But the workers are few. It’s not that there are few workers, but that there are few working workers. All who call themselves “Christian” are called “workers.” The moment you agreed to follow Jesus you signed to be His worker. The problem is that there are few workers in the harvest field. Most workers are elsewhere, just like the son who told his father he would go to work, and never showed up (Matthew 21:28-30).

The challenge comes with instruction to pray. Translators had softened the words in the original. Two words in Greek are especially strong: “deomai” = beg as if your life depended on it, and “ekballo” = kick out, throw forcefully. So, the right translation should read: “beg the Lord of the harvest to kick out the harvesters into His harvest.”

Are you ready to pray such a prayer? Elder Johny Beckles invited us to sing “Lord, lay some soul upon my heart, and love that soul through me, and may I nobly do my part to win that soul for Thee.” I invite you to start praying this simple prayer: “Lord, I give you permission, I beg you to kick me out from my comfort zone into your harvest, wherever it may be!”

EVERY BELIEVER IS A MINISTER, EVERY BELIEVER IS A PREACHER.

Last Tuesday night, as our Community Ministry team was getting ready to prepare for service, Teresa asked me to give a short devotional. I started by asking volunteers how many consider themselves preachers. They looked at each other, and then looked at me, knowing that pastor is again up to something.

Now, last Saturday at the vespers after baptismal service we focused on the “Spiritual Gifts of Charismatic Believers, and discovered that there is no spiritual gift of “preaching” listed in the New Testament!

Interesting fact is that the word translated into English as “preach” comes from different words that have nothing to do with our contemporary misconception of preaching! In Hebrew version of Isaiah 61:1 “preach” comes from Hebrew word many recognize “basar”- the market place, where news is published, advertisement is displayed, things are “fleshed” out, it is incarnational communication.

Another more common Hebrew roots was “qara” – meaning to invite people by calling, reading, summoning, talking to, even crying. In Greek it gets even more common – “diaggello”! That’s right – dialogue! To get the message through dialogue. Then there is common word “laleo”, simply meaning “to speak.” Of course there is a popular word “keruso” meaning to publish. And one more notable word is “evaggelizo” – to tell the good news.

SO, how many of you had a dialogue in your life with somebody? Have you written something for publication? What about just talking loud, like at the bazaar, just yapping loud at the mall? Have you invited someone somewhere? Have told someone a good news? Do you speak? Guess what: you preach! You are a preacher! E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E!!!

All the spiritual gifts are given for the purpose of preaching! Every believer is to preach! It is a huge misconception that preachers are pastors! Anyone who conveys a message to another person is a preacher. The Kingdom of God is to be preached For All By All!

Matthew records words of Jesus (10:27) “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” Have you heard truth in the church? Have you heard a revelation in your dream, or in your private devotional? You are to tell it loud!

As we are gearing to our first Evangelistic effort in April, I invite you to embrace this simple truth – you are a preacher. Every dialogue you are to have with a friend, co-worker, neighbour – is to invite them to Jesus, to the event where we will share the Message. Invite, e-mail, call, cry if you need to, paint a poster (no graffiti!), use all means of communication, and preach “Come to Jesus and live!”

I am going to preach as I know. You preach as you know. Each one reach one. Together we tell London that Jesus is coming soon.

Welcome to the calling of preaching!

WHAT IS EVANGELISM??

Church, what is our objective? Dear reader, ask yourself this question: what is my objective?_____________________________________________________

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I really want you to answer this question first, and then compare it with the objective of Jesus, and also with Jesus’ objective for us.

Jesus came here to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The objective He gave us was to get going to make disciples, baptising them and teaching them what Jesus taught us. Just as He was sent by the Father so he sends us. For this purpose he gives us Power to witness everywhere (Matthew 28:19-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:8)

Our objective according to Jesus is “get going and make disciples!”

Now, consider activities of our church, and our organization – are we fulfilling Jesus objectives? If our objective is to show-up at church during the 3 hour block, no matter how late, on Saturday then we are not following Jesus’ commission.

What changes could/should be made in our church to embrace Jesus’ objective of Evangelism? For the real Evangelism is to do what Jesus did – to go and proclaim the Kingdom of God. Elder Jonathan Beckles shared his summary of Evangelism as “receiving and imparting the Holy Spirit.” Jesus big plan for His Church was to receive the Spirit. When we say Evangelism, we mean: people receiving the Holy Spirit.

In two months we will start our first public Evangelistic effort, by going out of our church into community, into the marketplace to tell people what our experience with Jesus is, to share with people the Holy Spirit that is changing our lives.

In preparation for that day – April 10 – we are already praying for the Holy Spirit to be touching lives of people, preparing the harvest, to be moving among people and pushing them out of their comfort zones, leading them eventually to the door where the Gospel will be preached. Start doing what Jesus did – choose, select people to pray for, to make your responsibility, your disciples.

I heard an excuse recently, (by the way that’s a new stage, a higher level excuse) “we need training, there is no training offered.” Are you kidding?! You must be kidding!!! Every mid-week, Tuesday @ South, Wednesday @ North people are coming together in praying and studying the Word, sharing testimonies, challenging each other - that’s the preparation you need. Every week I publish a blog, just like this in the bulletin – read it! If you collect blog-pages – you have a manual for evangelism! Every weekend, usually Saturday night – Adventism 101 classes are offered, training in Truth teaching!

Another question was posed to me recently: “what has been done in our church during the last 4 years, to prepare us for Evangelism?” My answer is simple: church is changing! If anything – we are eliminating excuses not to do it one by one! The church today is more ready for genuine care and nurture than 4 years ago. Don’t look for excuses, embrace Jesus’ objective today!