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.