At a nearby seminary, John Stott told the story of visiting a tiny church in rural England while on a study leave.
He worshipped with them every Sunday, participated in their fellowship, and heard their discussions.
He related his dismay when week after week, the pastor would preach about issues facing the village, pray about concerns in the church, and discuss decisions related only to their congregation.
“I came to the conclusion,” Stott observed, “that these people worship a village God.”
I have a google alert set to find any mention on the Internet of the words “world evangelism!” I sometimes find very interesting things mentioned. I found this article just now. I have just left the highlights that I think we are doing or need to start but you can read the rest by clicking here. Good article.
Dr. Bob Waldron
Executive Director Missions Resource NetworkPray for your missionaries by name at each service.
Hang large flags in the foyer of the church building for every country in which you support a missionary.
Miniature flags can be purchased for families to place in their homes as a reminder to pray for the people represented by the flags (Frontier Flags, P.O. Box 176, Branson, Missouri 65616; telephone 417-334-1776).
Support a missionary.
Devote an entire page in the church directory to each missionary you help to support. Include a map, photographs and a brief description of his or her work.
Place a large, attractive map at the front of the auditorium. Near it, in lettering large enough to be seen clearly from the back, place an appropriate scripture passage or a phrase such as “Into all the world” or “One Lord, one faith, one world.”
Use the classrooms and halls for displaying maps, flags, bulletin board posters, pictures and curios from the field. Always keep something of a missionary nature on display.
Invite a missionary to preach on world outreach once a quarter.
Send your preacher on one foreign evangelistic campaign a year.
Have a few moments for missions at the beginning of every Bible class, from kindergarten to adult. Include news from the field, prayer, information on the region in question, and spiritual needs there.
Include one lesson on missions in all Bible classes at least every six months. Teach on missions for an entire quarter every three years. This means that a student would study world outreach during four quarters by the end of high school.
Work toward applying 30% of your budget to evangelistic efforts outside your immediate area.
Balance your congregation’s outreach between (1) stateside, within you own culture, (2) stateside, outside your own culture, and (3) foreign cross-cultural. If possible, engage in some of all three of these levels.
Organize a missions committee that will accept responsibility for promoting missions in the congregation, communicating with your missionaries, determining missions policies, and making important missions decisions.
Conduct one or more local evangelistic efforts to bring the Gospel directly to those living within a ten-mile radius of your church building.
Hold a World Harvest Month in the fall of each year as a time of emphasis on world evangelism
Plan an annual Missions Weekend during World Harvest Month. Select missionary speakers, have an international banquet with food and dress from many nations, and take up a special offering for world evangelism.
During one weekend of World Harvest Month, conduct an all-night prayer service, mentioning every missionary by name and praying specifically for each nation of the world. Pray for one continent at a time with short films or talks separating the prayer sessions. Pray as one group or break up into smaller groups for some of the sessions. Try some of these suggestions for a period of time and you will discover that your congregation is coming alive to the mission of God! Increased zeal, dedication and church growth will likely result.
I just read the following on a blog. Click and read the entire article. I was shocked at the strong language about how we have doubted and been ashamed of the power of God to salvation. Please read, consider and pray that God will use us for His honor and glory at Vision.
There is a shocking lack of confidence in the Gospel of Jesus Christ today. To borrow a phrase from Romans 1:16, it seems that many are “ashamed” of it, or at least doubtful as to whether it is indeed the “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” This Gospel doubting can be seen in at least two ways.
Some doubt the Gospel and therefore supplement or replace it.
There is no question that the church is embarrassingly pragmatic in our day. Pragmatism is essentially the idea that success justifies strategy—that the end justifies the means. “If it works, do it,” we are told. Thus, in the name of evangelism, we see all sorts of circus-like shenanigans: “preaching” that apes foul-mouthed stand-up comics, shockingly explicit “outreach” to the pornography industry, goldfish-swallowing youth pastors, bait-and-switch outreach efforts, felt-needs preaching, and the like. While the Gospel may be “snuck in” to such efforts, they actually reveal a sad lack of confidence in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. Such “evangelists” act as though the Gospel is an impotent thing—a hard sell that has to ride the coattails of more attractive products, not unlike the add-ons politicians tie to bills in order to pass unpopular measures using measures with broad support. But make no mistake—the tacky salesmanship that exists both inside and outside of fundamentalism betrays a lack of confidence in the unadulterated, unadorned Gospel.Some doubt the Gospel and therefore expect no conversions.
Not all Gospel doubting is as crass as the used-car-salesman tactics listed above. Some have a more respectable shame of the Gospel, but it is a tragic doubt nonetheless. Some are convinced that God is finished, that the conversions we read of in the New Testament and throughout church history are relics of another time, evidences of more receptive hearers and more empowered churches. We shouldn’t expect solid churches to grow, we hear. In fact, our declining numbers are justified and almost celebrated as badges of our faithfulness—as though all growing churches must be doing something wrong.I disagree with the second concept as vehemently as I disagree with the first. To quote a Christmas hymn, “God is not dead, nor does He sleep.” He’s still working. His Spirit is still convicting, illuminating, drawing, regenerating. The Gospel is still the power of God for salvation. The Word is still alive, and powerful, and heart-rending. And thus, I expect to see it work. I pray expectantly. I preach expectantly. And God is saving people—like the deacon who will preach in our prayer meeting in a few hours, like the drug addict whose life has been turned upside down in recent months, like the single mom who has turned from religion to Christ and been eternally changed; like the multitudes that have come to Christ in recent months at Grace Church of Mentor—not because the church is perfect, and not because the church is compromising, but because the Gospel is mighty and they’re unleashing it to one sinner at a time.
Vision Baptist Church Baptists Committed to World Evangelism