Evangeliving – Higher Expectations

This past week a couple of articles and sermons that run through my emails triggered my thinking in a new direction.  A recent article by Bill Knott, the editor of Adventist Review “A Time to Marginalize” had caused a lot of puzzled reactions.  He calls to “protect our pulpits, change the channel, withhold dollars” from those who are on the margins, and even draw boundaries and exclude some.  Then a presentation by Mark Finley from ASI seminar “Discerning End Time Deceptions” where he stresses the danger of polarizing margins in the church which lead to disunity.  He quotes from a Special Testimony by Ellen White (No.11, 1898) “Satan has made his boast of what he can do. He thinks to dissolve the unity which Christ prayed might exist in His church. He says, "I will go forth and be a lying spirit to deceive those that I can, to criticize, and condemn, and falsify." Let the son of deceit and false witness be entertained by a church that has had great light, great evidence, and that church will discard the message the Lord has sent, and receive the most unreasonable assertions and false suppositions and false theories. Satan laughs at their folly, for he knows what truth is. Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan. If doubts and unbelief are cherished, the faithful ministers will be removed from the people who think they know so much.”   Heresies and divisive teachings are in the church, stirred by the enemy, and as long as believers are sorting out right from wrong, doubting, arguing, they are not evangelizing!

One research shows that there is high loss of members (the “back door” is wide open) because there is doubt and uncertainty in the church!  New comes, new believers cannot make sense of different interpretations, where some teach fundamentalism, others are practicing selective “pick and chose” attitude toward the writings of Ellen White, and the importance of the Spirit of Prophecy today.  The conclusion reached by researches shows that if the church is divided, and has low expectations of what people believe, people won’t stick!  And if there are higher expectations, clarity of standards, and especially if the church offers membership classes and other seminars teaching principles of faith, then people will stay!  One author says: “An inept church member is an oxymoron.  It does not exist in scripture.” Inept – incompetent, unskilled, untrained J It is our duty to make sure people have a clear understanding of what it means to be a member of a church – not an institutional member, but a member of Christ’s body.  Every member of the church must be trained, know the truth, have skills for ministry, only then the Body of Christ will be functional and no harvest will be lost.

In the past years many training seminars were offered – Adventism 101 (doctrines); Spirituality (on spiritual growth), Mission 316 on witnessing to different faiths); Q&A Bible studies on variety of subjects.  We have not exhausted the field.  The Church is the School of prophets, a field school of discipleship, and it must continue so.  It is my prayer that we would set standards and expectations from our members higher, and make our church more attractive to visitors by our commitment to grow in knowledge of God.

Evangeliving - Closing the Back Door

Over the past few weeks I had written in my blogs reminding us that evangelism is not an event, but a process, a lifestyle guided for the Holy Spirit that itself becomes a witness in this world.  I reminded you of the constant need for conversion even for those IN the church already.  We cannot give what we do not have.  Studying the Sabbath School lesson two weeks ago on Jesus’ approach to missions I noted how the memory verse (August 8) set the context for being sent on a mission – “Peace be with you!”  First we must have this SHALOM – integrity, wholeness, having it altogether – then we are safe to be sent.  If we do not have the Gospel within, if we are not converted daily by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we cannot be sent to just talk the trivia or book knowledge.  Last week my reflection was on the need of follow up – the teaching process precedes the baptism, and continues after (Matthew 28:19-20).  We must continue mentoring, teaching, building up new believers.

As I look at the Summer 2015 Ontario Highlights – the main focus is retention: shutting the back door, I want to invite all of you to take a personal responsibility for re-connecting with those who had left.  Elders of the South church met last week to consider those in need of reconnecting, and the list is over 100 names!  One person who had not attended the church since 2012 stopped by on Wednesday as VBS was being set up to talk to people in the parking lot – it was evangelism too.  How do we fix the “leaky bucket,” how do we bring back the lost generation?  How much of your day is occupied in prayer for your friends and family who are not in the Body of Christ, the Church?

As I reflect on the VBS I am reminded of the prophetic words about the end times: “When heavenly intelligences see that men are no longer permitted to present the truth, the Spirit of God will come upon the children, and they will do a work in the proclamation of the truth which the older workers cannot do because their way will be hedged up. In the closing scenes of this earth's history many of these children and youth will astonish people by their witness to the truth, which will be borne in simplicity, yet with spirit and power. They have been taught the fear of the Lord, and their hearts have been softened by a careful and prayerful study of the Bible. In the near future many children will be endued with the Spirit of God and will do a work in proclaiming the truth to the world that at that time cannot well be done by the older members of the church. Our church schools are ordained by God to prepare the children for this great work. Here children are to be instructed in the special truths for this time and in practical missionary work.” (Adventist Home, 489)

As the authorities debate should women be allowed to preach, we are to think that there will be time when even men, ordained and authorized would not be able to share the Gospel, and the children and youth will do the work of evangelizing.  Are we training our youth?  Are we preparing adequately our children?  Do we take seriously the Church School?  Is your kid of school age enrolled in the School where Bible is taught daily and where the Spirit of Prophecy is used for instruction?

As we pray about establishing Evangelistic culture, lets consider every parcel, every aspect, every detail of this Evangeliving.

Evangeliving – Before and Beyond Baptism

Last week I wrote to you on difference between membership and conversion, and today I would like you to consider our responsibility for discipling people who are already IN our church. Often we focus on evangelism as bringing OUTsiders inside, yet it is incomplete just because people entered and joined.  The transformation, conversion, spiritual growth is a process that is ongoing.  Jesus disciples spent 3 ½ years with Jesus Christ, and yet needed to be disciple more.  The book of Acts spans some 30 years after Christ’s ascension and you see how Apostles kept of learning & growing.

This past week Adventist Review had published an article entitled “Study Finds Challenges in Nurturing Baptized Adventists.”  An article comes from South Pacific Region (Australia) , which has a similar dynamics of church to Canada – culturally diverse amidst secular culture.

Notice the Great Commission mandate to teach before and beyond the baptism:  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, continue teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)  Notice, how discipleship/teaching comes before and after baptism.

The recent study reveals that 1 out of 4 had no intentional post-baptism mentoring.   As we prepare for the fall evangelistic campaign, I wonder if some people are thinking of it as a miracle of harvest – not sowing, not watering, not weeding, not doing anything – but harvesting.  It takes work to prepare people for decision.  It takes work of befriending, disciplining, mentoring, teaching, modeling, explaining, serving their needs in order to win their confidence that we have their best interest in mind, before we can bid them to follow Jesus.  And when they start following, it takes more teaching!  Over the past 10 years I had been in London we added 70 people through baptism and 10 by profession of faith.  Most of them are walking with Jesus, some left.  How committed are we to mentor the “new babes” in Christ?  I am asking this question, because it is not enough to invite and add people to our congregation, if we are not ready to personally invest our time in their lives.

The Spirit of Prophecy revealed Ellen G. White this insight: “I have been shown that there has been much of such work done among us as a people. Promising fields have been spoiled for future effort by striking in prematurely without counting the cost, and leaving the work half done. Because there has been a course of lectures given, then stop the work, rush into a new field to half do the work there, and these poor souls who have but a slight knowledge of the truth are left without proper measures being taken to confirm and establish them in the faith and educate them like well-drilled soldiers how to meet the enemy's attacks and vanquish him.”--Letter 60, 1886.  Please consider who in our fellowship needs your mentoring, and engage people to build them up.

Evangeliving – from Membership to Conversion

I am reading a book A Miracle of Conversion by late Morris Venden.  It is an editorial with chapters by different authors adding to the original 4 chapters.  I needed this reminder that we must be converted daily, we must die daily (1^st Corinthians 15:31) and be born again by the Holy Spirit.  This is possible not by our work, but only by the Holy Spirit. 

There is a difference between proselytism and conversion, there is a difference between converting people from the outside to join the membership of an organization we call church, and the spiritual conversion within membership.  Only Holy Spirit can produce the spiritual conversion.  Even those born within the church need their personal conversion experience.  The test question for me is “are you in love with Jesus?”  If there is anything in the world that you want more than Jesus you are not fully converted.

In 2009 I preached a series of sermons on conversion.  That year we baptized 24 people.  When some one talks about “converting’ a vehicle, they have in mind major changes – a “monster truck” or a low-rider, changing even type of fuel, etc. In 2009 I preached about all aspects of our daily lives and our spiritual journey that need to be changed – our work habits need to be changed, our families need to be renewed, our church programming needs to be converted, health, money, even the way we pray need to be changed.  Have you been converted since?  Have there been changes in your life, in your thinking, in your attitude, in your conduct?  Is Holy Spirit working on you daily?

The very next year after we preached on Revival & Conversion, newly elected leadership of the General Conference had confronted our church with this need:  ““A revival and a reformation must take place, under the ministration of the Holy Spirit.  Revival and reformation are two different things.  Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death. Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend” (Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 128).

Notice that the true change is the result of the Holy Spirit work, a revival of godliness, which produces the  change.  I cannot manufacture change in you.  There is only one way it will happen – if you make Jesus the focus of your life, by looking unto Jesus everyday, every moment, you will be both confronted with your need of the Savior and His Loving Grace, and that is enough to let the Holy Spirit in!  Remember this promise “When I (Jesus) am lifted up I will draw all to myself (John 12:32)

We can be the Evangeliving Church only when every ministry and every minister (that’s you, every individual believer! J) will be converted daily!

Evangeliving – Adventist Lifestyle

This past Wednesday I had a privilege to lead the mid-week prayer meeting with reflections on what is the Adventist lifestyle.  My thoughts were on a recent discussion at the Board meeting about creating a culture of witnessing and evangelism as I remembered a word, coined by Dr.Errol Lawrence, former ministerial director – EVANGELIVING!   Imagine a life that is totally evangelistic, a person whose living is evangelizing.

At the last Board meeting our leadership team covenanted together to pray for our culture being transformed into evangeliving, where every believer, every member of the church will be so connected to God, so filled with the Holy Spirit, that their presence, their conduct, their speech, will be a witness!

You’ve heard the acronym P.U.S.H. – pray until something happen – and you do pray when you are in dire need.  Last week a family that was about to leave the country received a work permit on the last day, and they gave praises to God of the impossible, they prayed until something happened!  We started praying that the Holy Spirit would so transform our church community that our every action, at work, in school at home, would be directed by the Holy Spirit, that our lifestyle would be ordered by the Holy Spirit.  Only then “evangeliving” would be possible.

We wait for Jesus to return, and we cannot wait idly, it would be unfaithful to His command that while we wait we are not only to be ready ourselves but to invite those around us into His Kingdom.  So, as we wait, invite, attract, connect, make sure Jesus is in you, so you could shine His love into lives of people around you.  A teen commented to me that a classmate who attended 2 of our church functions is so impressed that would love to join the youth group and visit our church more! I long for the vision of Apostle Paul (1^st Corinthians 14:24-25) to become a reality, that when someone walks into our church he or she would be so convicted and convinced by God’s presence among us, that it would lead to their conversion.  Only when God’s Presence among us is real, evident, obvious, then we are truly a church, the Body of Christ.

As we pray for every member, for every believer in our church family to become an evangelist, to become a minister of hope and love, we also need to consider retention of those who had left.  There are people who stopped attending our fellowship, or attend occasionally.  Connect with them, reconnect, pray for their return.  Only as we stay connected with God and connected with one another as one Body, that we are able to connect with the lost and bring them into safety of God’s Presence.

Evangeliving is the work of the Body, each individual working together.  Please reflect how evangeliving is your lifestyle, and pray for the transformation in your life and the life of our church.