“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
— Matthew 28:19-20
Perhaps you remember hearing or seeing the commercials by the Greyhound Bus Company which always ended up with the famous slogan, “Go Greyhound and Leave the Driving to Us!” The advertisement would show a split screen contrast of the comfort and convenience of sitting on a Greyhound bus against the exhaustion, had you driven to your destination yourself. In the hyperbole image above, you could even have a picnic along the way!
I use this illustration because it is so similar to what happens when we set out on a trip to fulfill the Great Commission—and insist on doing all the driving ourselves, when the help of another driver would make our trip a lot less stressful. I’m speaking, of course, about Jesus and His desire to help us “to the very end of the age.”
When we share the gospel, perhaps the way we go about it is our biggest enemy. Maybe we’re on the wrong bus. Now I don’t like certain sinful lifestyles anymore than you do but I have found that, as hard as it may be, “speaking the truth”—and then doing it “in love” gets the best results (Ephesians 4:15)!
O.S. Hawkins, in his wonderful book, The Promise Code, warns us of that tendency: “The Lord never called you to be a judge, sitting in condemnation of others. He did not call you to be a prosecuting attorney, pointing your finger of accusation at others. He did not call you to be the defense attorney, seeking loopholes to help others get past the law. He did not call you to be on the jury, weighing evidence against someone else. He called you to simply to be a witness to tell others of what you have seen and heard” (1 John 1:3)*
Simply to be a witness to tell others of what you have seen and heard. Telling others is where we have to start. How we do it comes later. But studies have shown that in many churches today, witnessing to the lost is the last order of business and the least taught. A study conducted by Life Way Research found that 80 percent of those who attend church one or more times a month, believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, yet despite of that conviction, 61 percent had not told another person about how to become a Christian in the previous six months. The survey also asked, “How many times have you personally invited an unchurched person to attend a church service or some other program at your church?” Nearly half (48 percent) of church attendees responded, “Zero.”**
I remember years ago joining a mixed church group of 40 people one Saturday night in our city as an outreach. Not knowing where we were going to witness at 11:00 PM that night, we were let off our bus right across from our university campus. We were told that’s when and where the action was. They were right. We got a lot of digital pushback but it was also amazing how many hugs and prayers we were able to give out and decisions for Christ we experienced. We even reunited a young boy with his family by phone who didn’t know where he was and hadn’t heard from him in months!
So how do we change those stats in our churches, dear saints? I believe by practicing the love part of our message for the lost and then participate in the do part. Oh, yes, did I fail to forget that the “lost” part was also where we all were at one time? And who knows, we may even get to have a picnic with our new converts along the way.
— Maranatha!
* O.S. Hawkins, The Promise Code, 40 Promises Every Believer Can Claim, p. 71-72
** https://www.evangelismcoach.org/series/church-invitations.
“God is good all the time. All the time God is good!”
