Joe Aldrich on Ineffective Forms of Evangelism
May 29, 2008
This post is for any pastor that has found a way to make every passage in the Bible evangelistic and worthy of an invitation. This post is for the preacher who needs all five stanzas of the invitation to convince someone in his congregation that he or she has doubts about their salvation and needs to be saved. Don’t get me wrong, I want to see churches grow by conversion, but I just don’t believe in the idea of a plateaued church, “adding to their numbers daily those who are being saved” (Acts 2) when they have no visitors and no desire to see the gospel go beyond the walls of their church.
Joe Aldrich further elaborates on ineffective forms of evangelism:
“Some churches fail to grow because they do not evangelize, others fail to grow because they do - but in outmoded, ineffective forms. For many, evangelism is what the pastor does on Sunday morning as he throws the lure over the pulpit, hoping some fish in the stain-glass aquarium will bite. The layman’s job is simply to herd fish within the reach of the big fisherman. Week after week the pastor evangelizes the evangelized. His people will grow weak on a diet of evangelistic sermons…” (from introduction to Aldrich’s Lifestyle Evangelism).
The word “Go” in the Great Commission phrase, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” is an imperative. If you have not been trained in personal evangelism, visit Evangelism.net and EvanTell.org for more information on how you can be connected to the life-changing Great Commission through proven evangelism tools and training.
Comments
Got something to say?