Personal Follow Up

We had the question during Sunday School about evangelism. A guest asked, "According to your purpose statement your church wants to evangelize the lost. What are you doing to accomplish that?"

Good question. While it's true that we support various missions financially and our church participates in various "group" projects, there is another level that is substantially more important.

We urgently need to do evangelism on the personal level. Every Christian, regardless of giftedness and experience, is tasked with spreading the good news. We share the job of evangelism and it is everyone's responsibility. That means the following:

• It's not just the preacher's job. That would seriously limit the church's impact in the world. Granted, the few Billy Graham's out there can do more than most of us combined, but that's not the norm. The Church best advances when all of it's members are involved in evangelism.
• It doesn't necessarily mean going to a foreign land. God has given us abundant opportunity with the people we already have in our lives. We have cultivated trust and genuine concern with folks we have known for years. Friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers are often just waiting for us to share our most valuable treasure with them.

Friend Day was fantastic, but the ministry with the highest impact will not have happened on Friend Day, but will happen in the week after Friend Day around the water cooler or over the breakfast table. The most effective follow up will be each of us reaching out to our friends and asking questions and giving encouragement.