4 Great Questions To Ignite Passion for Evangelism in a Lost World

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My parents lived together in the same house for 33 years. My mother passed away in 1995 and dad lived there until he died in 2011. Of course neither one could take anything with them, as death causes us to part with all our material possessions.

My parents house–the home I grew up in, Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

However, there is one thing they did take with them. That is their witness for Christ and the salvation of souls.

At my mom’s funeral a woman told how my mom had led her to Jesus. If not already reunited in heaven, they will be some day. Forever!

No one can take away our witness for the Lord which will last for all eternity.

Here are four great questions to ignite your passion for evangelism, like Jesus:

01. Why did Jesus come to earth?

Jesus came for the lost. He said of Himself, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Jesus sought out “sinners” and spent time with them. He said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)

In Luke 15, Jesus used three parables to explain God’s heart for the lost; “A Lost Sheep,” “A Lost Coin” and “A Lost Son.” Each parable has three recurring themes:

• Something extremely valuable is lost.

• An all out search is made to find it.

• There is an enthusiastic celebration when it is found.

All three have the same point: We should have a passion for evangelism!

02. Why am I here on earth?

We are chosen, and we are here to live as Jesus lived.

Like Jesus, Christians are here for the lost. Jesus’ parting Great Commission was to “…go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Jesus said “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” (John 20:21b KJV).

As long as one person is without Christ, our job is not finished.

As long as one person is without Christ, our job is not finished. | CLICK TO TWEET

We cannot rely only on churches and other Christians to evangelize. We have a great personal responsibility.

03. What are the only manmade things in heaven?

Good question, huh?

Answer: The scars in Jesus’ hands, feet and side are the only man made things in heaven.

God allowed Jesus to be slain for our sins through crucifixion. “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Everything else in heaven is made by God.

04. What are the only heaven bound things on earth?

Answer: The souls of men, women and children are the only heaven bound things on earth.

Everything else will burn: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” (2 Peter 3:10)

All of the things that we work so hard for, sacrifice our time for and go into debt for will be gone.

How to Respond:

Are you perhaps one of the lost—not positive that you will spend eternity in heaven?  If so, please click HERE to learn how to be sure.

Are you one of the found—a Christian? If so, here are some suggestions for reaching out to the lost:

Pray fervently for the lost.Pray for God to give you a passion for evangelism.Get to know your neighbors and coworkers—like Jesus did.Speak about Jesus with gentle boldness to family and neighbors.Invite others to church and outreach events.Start an evangelistic Bible study in your home.Hand out Gospel literature.Write letters to unsaved family.

There are a lot of things we can invest our time, energy and money in. Why not invest in something eternal!

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How To Be Successful In Life When You Have Failed

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Recently I was asked to make a 150 word contribution for an upcoming book by answering this question: “What has been your biggest failure as a church planter and what did you learn from this failure?”

Here’s my response:

My biggest failure was forgetting that Jesus said, “I will build my church” and instead seeing it as my job to build the church. The result was that I placed undue stress on myself and my family. I burned myself out and became depressed trying to do what Jesus said He would do. My efforts at church growth were good, but I put my trust in theories and methods instead of God’s sovereign work.

Now I have learned that Jesus is the boss of His church and the builder of His church. “If the Lord does not build the house, it is useless for the builders to work on it” (Psalm 127:1 GW). He might not build His church the way I would, but that’s OK, it’s not my house, it is His.

I appreciate the words of D. L. Moody, “Pray like everything depends on God. Work like everything depends on you.” My goal would be less striving and stress, more prayer and trust.

So that’s my short answer. But you might wonder how that works?

Here are 3 actions you can take to be successful even when you have failed:

01. Refuse to Focus on the WRONG Thing

Who would want to endure a major failure, a terrible national disaster, or a “plucking up” of what has been planted? (Jeremiah 45:4)? Such was the situation that kept Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, awake at night constantly groaning.

Yuck! That terrible situation would make me groan, too. I struggle to handle failures, setbacks and disasters. I long for accomplishment, admiration, and success. Don’t you?

But God’s instruction was: “And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not…” (Jeremiah 45:5a ESV) 

It is so easy to focus on the wrong thing—seeking great things. But God had an important message for Baruch and for us. God wants us to refuse to focus on the wrong thing.

02. Set your Mind on the RIGHT Thing: Seek to Know and Please Jesus

Instead of seeking “great things,” what should we seek? We must seek to know Jesus and to please Him – that alone – whether it brings what people consider success or failure.

The Apostle Paul briefly recounted his great “successes” in Philippians 3. But his point was not his personal greatness; it was the triviality of all human accomplishments, when compared to knowing Jesus.

His conclusion was: “But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him.”(Philippians 3:7 – 9a CEV)

Real success comes from knowing and pleasing Christ. | CLICK TO TWEET

No matter how we might look to others, we are a success if we are children of God and working to please Him.

03. ACCEPT God’s Plan for You

As we trust Christ, it is possible that we might not achieve the dreams of success we have set our eyes on. But we might not achieve those dreams even if that is our sole focus.

The beauty of trusting Christ is that we are a success no matter what happens! We can’t lose if our goal is Christ—either in this life or in eternity.

The Apostle Paul testified to this truth saying, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Wow! As Christ followers we can’t lose! | CLICK TO TWEET

So, do you seek “great things for yourself?” Seek them not. And don’t seek failure and disaster either. Neither of these should be our aim.

If success is our goal, we will end up with “garbage,” even if we are “successful.” If knowing and pleasing Christ is our goal, we will be filled with His love, peace, assurance, hope, joy, comfort and grace. That is true greatness and success.

Where’s Mark?

Greetings from Ghana in western Africa. It’s my normal day to post an article and this one is just going to be a little update on what’s happening.

Here’s a shot from my flight down from Amsterdam to Ghana. This guy nipped on a bottle of whiskey all the way. Several times I gently placed his head in his headrest, but it didn’t stay. Long flight!

I’m here for a beta test training of our new materials on New Church Dynamics (years 1-5). (This track was formerly called Growing New Churches.) This is the latest training to come from Dynamic Church Planting International, where I serve as VP of Materials.

The purpose of being here is to test train our materials since we want to make them the very best possible AND our western mindset can blind us to what is totally American and won’t work in other locations.

I’m with a wonderful team of trainers led by Emmanuel Donkoh, our Africa West World Zone Leader. About 35 pastors and church leaders from Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast are attending the training.

How’s it going? People in this event and the beta test held 2 months ago in Colorado are in agreement that this training is desperately needed and will be in great demand. There is MUCH written on how to start a church. There is very LITTLE written about how to develop a dynamic church once it is launched.

Thus, many churches die in the first 5 years–often 50%.

We want to help dramatically lower that percentage AND instead help new churches thrive and become truly dynamic churches.

So that’s my 9 day mission Africa, June 11-19, 2015.

Say a prayer please.

Pastor Ken Eze from Nigeria leading one of the sessions.

Here I am with Dr. Emmanuel Donkoh. I had the pleasure of speaking in his church on Sunday morning.