Salvation, or Church Membership?

..... What is our objective in evangelism? Is it to save souls, or simply to increase church membership? Ideally the two are compatible but they are not the same, and this distinction will not be lost on new believers. So let’s take a moment to consider their perspective:

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.... As discussed in our pre-evangelism module, God performs a great deal of work simply to draw an unsaved person to Himself (Romans 3:10-12; Acts 17:27). As He turns them completely around, and brings them near enough to hear the gospel and believe, they will perceive His calling from afar and begin to build a rapport with Him (John 6:44):

.... "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God'. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me."

(John 6:45)

.... When their moment of truth arrives, all of this preparation will suddenly be fulfilled. Their breakthrough will come in an instant as they are finally introduced to the mysterious suitor who has drawn them with cords of lovingkindness, and whose goodness has brought them to repentance (Jeremiah 31:3; Romans 2:4). Plus, there will be a huge relief as they respond by faith and find their sins rolled away. In its place will come a sense of well-being and joy in their salvation (Isaiah 12:3).

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.... The great purpose and meaning of their entire life has just arrived! After all that preparation, they know for sure that they can trust the Lord! . . . It’s those nutty Christians they’re not so sure about!

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.... Think about this. Until now, their relationship with the Lord has been mysterious but it has also been very spiritual and very personal. His ‘agenda’ in their life has clearly focused on their well-being. But a church, just possibly, may have another agenda in mind, and this may worry our new friend.

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....Add to this, they know that other Christians are far more mature in the Lord than they, so they know they will be unable to hold their own in a discussion with them. They fear they will have little effective input. The church that reached out to them is already pursuing things they don’t understand, so they fear being caught up in all of this and trading their new-found closeness with the Lord for a ‘program’ of man; they do not want to risk what has now become so precious to them:

.... "You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men."

(1 Corinthians 7:23)

.... This natural apprehension is one of the greatest obstacles in evangelism today. Although many people accept the Lord when they hear the gospel, about 90% of them will quickly recoil and demur when they are invited to follow-up by attending a church. Yet without the support of Christian friends, such as a good church would provide, many of them will wander back to their former ways to be overcome by them (2 Peter 2:21-22). So what is the solution?

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.... We must realistically anticipate the inward struggle that a new Christian may be facing and realize that this may be the last time we see them for a while. Because this may be so, our invitation to fellowship should always be open, yet we must also leave them on the best note possible.

.... First and foremost, we must recognize the Lord’s initiative and use the opportunity to build on His work, rather than seeming to change the subject by a new focus on attending our church. We know they’ve heard from the Lord thus far (John 6:44-45). Therefore, our top priority must be to insure that they can hear from Him again. We need to make sure they have access to the Scriptures, and that they feel confident to talk to Him again in prayer. We’ll elaborate more on this perspective in the ‘comments’ section.

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Daily Bible Reading: Luke 7