FredMcKinnon.Com

Honestly, even though every ‘spiritual gifts test’ I take lists evangelism right up there with music as my spiritual gifts, I’m not a very good steward of it. I’ve found it hard to do ‘relational evangelism’ in the adult world: even working a secular job, it’s not ‘good stewardship of my time’ to walk around sharing Christ at work, at church I’m mostly (except for the concert I hosted at the Wherehouse recently for that very reason) ministering to young Christians, and I feel that my wife & child (soon, children) are my primary ministry at home – that’s just to say, it used to come natural and just happen, but now-a-days I must be much more proactive. That’s one of the reasons I started yet another blog (see http://respondingtoskeptics.wordpress.com), and I try to make a habit of inviting non-believers to our church, which is a great environment for them to hear about, see, and experience Christ.

As far as leading someone to Christ, though I’ve often been told that I was instrumental in someone choosing to give their life to Jesus, I’ve NEVER been there when it actually happened – I think it’s partially because the sorts of folks I’m drawn to minister to are FAR too ‘hard’ and not quick to change their minds.

Of those who told me that I ‘led them to Christ’, after the fact, my two favorites were a radical feminist, vegan, environmentalist who walked everywhere with her pet iguana – we had numerous coffee-shop conversations about Jesus, but she eventually accepted Christ while walking across campus listening to my song “Psalm of Sorrow” on her headphones, which is essentially Psalm 13 & 5 set to music.

My other favorite was a dogmatic Atheist who was brought to me by their cousin (who was a believer): we met in a coffee-house in Athens, Georgia (ole’ Blue Sky!) – I was asked, “So, why – as an Atheist – do you now believe in God?” I told her about my life, and Jesus for the next 8 hours, and by the time I was done must’ve had 15 – 20 people pulled up about us, watching and listening to the discussion. It was really crazy: and they were belligerent, and I left the coffee-shop knowing that many people had heard the Gospel, but seeing no immediate response. Several months later I ran into the cousin on the street who told me that less than a week after that conversation the Atheist had become a Christian, so in spite of what it seemed, God was at work through that whole thing.

Truly, it’s an honor to know that God used me in some way to make yet another Worshiper!

Thanks for the blog…blessings, bro!

As an Elder, my ‘focus’ is more on the sheep already in the fold. Prayer, teaching and worship are my focus…Most of my ’1-2-1′ connections are with other Christians at our facility and through leading worship. My SG group has sung at a couple of other churches but again we’re ‘preaching to the choir.’ I’m almost afraid to bring up widening the ministry again- the last two times we started to pursue this we had members move out of the area causing us to start over musically and focus on rebuilding the group. I did have the privilage of inviting, mentoring and then baptizing my ‘baby’ brother last March in a 38 degree swimming pool [we are not in any sense of the word 'little people' and Scott did not want to break the 'pool' a tthe church]. An awesome time and sight! If you’ve ever seen the Shamu show at Sea-World – that was us!

I would suggest that although we ALL have the responsibility of “making disciples” and that we should do everything we can in our realm of influence to include those who are non-believers in our efforts, that a large part of our calling as leaders has to do with training and equipping those who are “in the trenches.”

I think of the apostle who traveled around planting churches. Sure there were folks who came to Christ directly as a result of their teachings, relationships and “altar calls” (ha), but isn’t it also possible to accept the fact that as these groups of churches grew and that the “leaders” worked more and more in discipling these believers that the members of each individual faith community began to “pull the load” so to speak?

I can definitely envision Paul engaging large crowds (or maybe talking with a group of non-believers) for a small bit of his ministry and pouring his life and energy into his leaders (like Timothy and Titus) for most of his ministry time.

Not that as leaders we should ever not be engaging people that are non-believers. We should always be doing that. But as one of the commenters posted earlier when we spend a 40-50 hour work week around believer leaders, its only reasonable and efficient to direct our energies into equipping those who spend 40-50 hour work weeks surrounded by non-believers to go for it!

I think we’ve had a unbalanced church system for far too long. People expect the “ministers” to do all the visitation, all the evangelism, all the teaching, all the “work” of the ministry, when in fact, the ministers should be ministering to God and to those who would go out building relationships and discipling people in the world. It’s not the “preacher’s” job to do all the spiritual work in the church, it’s his role to train and equip…

Ok, I’m rambling, but I wanted to bring a different perspective to the table. Instead of feeling guilty for being in a coach/equipper role and not being “out on the field” I feel confident in my role to bring believers to maturity in Christ so that they can’t help but impact their circle of influence. In doing so, we’re all TOGETHER reaching people for Christ, and it takes less emphasis off of the “me” aspect of coming up short for not winning souls individually, because we are a family and each member supplies a crucial element.

-Russ

Yeah I believe that conversion is a process. God sets in motion chains of events to bring people to him. Sometimes a person gets witnessed to 87 times before they come to Christ. It’s not like the 87th person was most effective, but they built upon what everyone else did.

I’m always sharing Jesus. I have no idea how many people have come to faith because I have been part of the chain.

With that said it’d be nice to be a finisher and have the gift of being the one to close the deal sometime.

I’ve been thinking a lot on this issue, recently – I’ve just posted another blog on evangelism and calling.

I was also just thinking: in the past few months I’ve invited a number of folks to church (that’s ‘easy evangelism’ – especially when you’re at a church like us where the Gospel is so clear, and central) – I’ve been very encouraged that one couple (the husband is an Atheist) are really beginning to ‘commit’ – even He likes church, and is being challenged there.

It’s always such an encouragement to see God use me, even in such a small way as being part of inviting someone to church.

He can do big things with little steps of faith!