Jesus gave us our marching orders before He ascended into heaven—“Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. The Book of Acts and the Epistles show how the apostles took this command seriously and spread the Christian faith throughout the region, establishing a solid foundation to share the good news with all humanity.
These days we seem to lack the zeal to share the gospel with our friends and neighbors—our attitude seems to be that we’ll just invite them to church and let the pastor do an altar call, hoping our friends will feel compelled to surrender to God and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. But is this an act of laziness on our parts, pushing the work of evangelism on the pastor?
The local church is a patchwork of people—some on fire for God; others just attending out of habit. Some there to learn God’s Word and others there just putting in their time. I wonder if our attitude as Christians has morphed into thinking our call from Jesus is to get people to attend our church instead of making disciples? Are we placing an unfair burden on our pastors, asking them to do the work we are charged with by Jesus?
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t see the role of the pastor as primarily an evangelist, but rather a teacher of the Word and shepherd of the flock. The pastor and church leaders are responsible to teach, lead and challenge the flock in their walk toward holiness. We as individual Christians are charged with reaching out to friends and neighbors with the gospel message. But more and more our message to friends and neighbors is not sharing the gospel of salvation, but rather “Hey, why don’t you come with me to church this week?” Once there, we expect the pastor to do an altar call, hoping our friends are inspired to come forward.
It’s as if we ourselves find the gospel either intimidating or too hard to explain, so we just invite our friends to church and abdicate our responsibilities to the “hired gun”—the pastor. This is not fair to the pastor. As individuals, we need to take our responsibilities seriously, not look to pass that responsibility on to the pastor.
There are plenty of opportunities to share the gospel in a world that is increasingly ambivalent, even hateful toward God. Are we taking our responsibility seriously? Do we even know how to share the gospel story effectively? Are we lazy, fearful or uncaring that many we know risk eternal damnation? Do we love them enough to risk being seen as foolish by sharing the gospel? Or would we rather shirk our responsibility, expecting our pastors to do all the work?
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- David Platt – The Gospel demands radical sacrifice (rodiagnusdei.wordpress.com)
- The Theological Responsibility of Pastors (thebereanway.wordpress.com)
- In the Word: Gospel of John (steakandabible.com)
- Life Change is not the Goal of the Gospel (pulpitandpen.com)
- When it comes to sharing the gospel, is there ever a time to be silent? (defendingcontending.com)
Well I have to say I agree with alot of what you point out, namely you call to attention our individual responsibility to carry the word of life into the world.
It should be said of us, those Christians, they are a persistant lot:
Those Christians, they always want to tell me about Jesus Christ who they say died for me. He was sent by His Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do just that.
Those Christians, they always want to tell me how God is Jesus and is Perfect Love and because God is Love He is Holy, Just and Right.
Those Christians, they always want to tell me that unless we ourselves are perfect as God is perfect, we have a serious problem; for God will punish all who are not, for all eternity in the Lake of Fire. Are they for real? They say we are all without excuse saying we can know God by His creation and that we are accountable to Him. I don’t want to be accountable to no one.
Those Christians, they always are asking am I concerned with not being perfect like God, I just want to say I don’t care, and leave me alone.
Those Christians, they always want me to think of eternity, what does that even mean? Isn’t the grave the end? I think the grave is the end. They keep telling me both the wicked and the righteous will stand before God. All will be resurrected, some to everlasting life some to everlasting contempt.
Those Christians, why is it they are kind to me when I am not so kind to them?
Those Christians, told me Christ died for His enemies that we could become His friend, but not all will accept this. They say how can they do any different.
Those Christians, I just want to ask them why would he do that?
Those Christians they tell me, to show me who He is. He is love and there was no other way.
Those Christians where are they? I know I have a problem with God and I’m afraid and I can’t keep myself from doing evil. I am convicted in my heart and I’m terrified and ashamed and confounded. What must I do?
Those Christians tell me I can do nothing. It is Christ who died for me, who shed His blood for the taking away of my sins. They tell me, recognizing you have a problem and wanting to be done with it is a gift of God. You caring that you are helpless in sin is a gift of God. Your desire to no longer continue on your present path and turn to obedience to God, is a gift from God. So believe in God’s righteousness, believe in Jesus, the Christ, the Holy One of God, and He shall lift you up and uphold you and pour out His Holy Spirit upon you and make you who was dead alive in Jesus Christ.
Yes it should be said of us those Christians they are a persistant lot.