How can Churches be more effective for God?

A church was asked, ‘What do you do when you meet up together?”

“We sing, listen to the Bible being read and we pray.”

“And do many non-Christians come?”

“We would like them too but the honest answer is no. They are not interested in worshipping the Lord or learning from the Bible.”

One group of traditional Christians would have a gospel service at 6pm every Sunday. They prayed that people might come but the only attendees were the same few elderly faithful ones. What is going wrong?

1. We must learn from Jesus

Jesus started his earthly ministry by teaching in the synagogues and at first he was very popular.

“He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.” Luke 4:15

We are not told what he taught at this stage. But then he returned home to Nazareth and in the synagogue there he read from the scroll of Isaiah,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Luke 4:18-19

He then explained that this was all about himself. They were very impressed at the gracious way he spoke, but when he emphasised that God was concerned for those outside the ‘chosen people’ his hearers were furious. They drove him out of the town and wanted to kill him but Jesus just walked through the crowd. What are we meant to learn from this for our churches today? The Lord Jesus is particularly concerned for those outside the church and if God’s people were not interested in working with him to this end he left them to their own devices. Could this be one reason why some churches that have an emphasis on looking after their own, are not seeing the blessing of God?

Jesus response was to go down to Capernaum and teach there. His whole emphasis was on teaching. Then comes an interesting statement,

“Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon and he ministered to people from there.” Luke 4:38

Jesus became so popular as a healer that he could not fulfil his primary task. So early in the morning he went to pray in a solitary place.

“The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns also, because that is why I was sent.’ And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.” Luke 4:42-44

From then on Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God wherever he could find people to listen. Sometimes this was with individuals, such as with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21) and the Samaritan woman (John 4:4-26) or the legal expert (Luke 10:25). At other times there were massive crowds such as those who listened to the Sermon on the Mount and when he fed the five thousand and the four thousand. Getting the message across to people was far more important to Jesus than just continuing with the standard religious practices of the synagogue. It was his disdain for the pernickety observance of the Jewish law that upset the Pharisees, whereas Jesus wanted everyone to see that the Jewish law was fulfilled in himself.

Why did Jesus and John the Baptist turn their back on the synagogues? Space may be one reason but it is likely that they wanted to dissociate their message from that of the religious of their day.

Jesus repeatedly referred to the evidence to support his claims. In John 5:31-47 he refers to the evidence from what he said about himself, John the Baptist’s evidence, the miracles he did and especially the Old Testament Scriptures that testify about Jesus. The final part of the jigsaw is the evidence of sin in our hearts.

The reason John wrote his gospel was to convince people by the evidence. At the end of the book he said,

“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30-31

2. We must learn from the apostles

During their training, Jesus sent out his twelve disciples in pairs to teach the gospel and to demonstrate his power. Again they went to people’s homes and taught any who would listen.

“So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.” Luke 9:6

Later he sent out seventy two others, in pairs, to prepare people for his visit to their village or town. He told them,

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” Luke 10:2-3

They were taught to enter into relationships with people, eat with them, stay in their homes, then heal their sick and tell them,

‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” Luke 10:9

There was no mention of the synagogue or religious services. What mattered was that as many people as possible heard the message about Jesus, their rightful king.

After Jesus ascended into heaven the apostles and those they taught continued to see proclamation of the news about Jesus as their priority. It is not possible to read the book of Acts without coming to this conclusion. After receiving a dramatic experience of God’s power he immediately stood up and preached to the thousands congregating in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, also called Pentecost as it occurred fifty days after the Sabbath of the Passover week. His message was urgent and passionate,

“With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Acts 2:40-41

There was no singing and no praying at the beginning, just proclamation. The same thing happened shortly afterwards. At three o’clock in the afternoon Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer, presumably they were going to pray. A beggar at the temple gate asked them for some cash but instead he did something much better. He healed the man. As they entered the outer court of the temple Peter saw the excited crowd and he took the opportunity to speak to them about Jesus. He urged them to ‘repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.’ Proclamation was clearly more important than religious observance.

Peter and John were arrested and banned by the religious leaders from teaching the people about Jesus but they replied that they could not concur with this demand, saying,

“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Again they were warned but Peter and John replied,

“Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:19-20

The apostles were again arrested and jailed.

“But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life” Acts 5:18-20

And that is just what they did. When they were taken again before the Sanhedrin, the same council that had condemned Jesus to death, they again boldly proclaimed,

“We must obey God, rather than human beings.” Acts 5:29

Their lives were only saved by the intervention of a senior member of the Council, Gamaliel.

Subsequently the proclamation of the gospel occurred wherever an audience could be found. Singing and praying together did occur when the christians met together, but the great emphasis of the early church was to proclaim the gospel.

When Paul began his missionary journeys they tended to go first to the Jewish synagogues but their intention was clear. Thus the first trip was to the isle of Cyprus.

“When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.” Acts 13:5

This method of sharing the good news in synagogues was used as long as they could obtain a hearing. But when they faced opposition they went elsewhere, but always to teach the gospel. Thus they . . .

“ . . . fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, where they continued to preach the gospel.” Acts 14:6-7

The early church’s priority was proclamation to unbelievers, but they then had responsibilities to encourage the new believers to continue living for Christ. On returning to their sending church in Antioch,

“They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” Acts 14:21-22

Now their teaching had a twofold purpose, to win people for Christ and to encourage them to remain true to Christ. The content of the message was chosen to best draw their hearers to respond to the message. When he visited Thessalonica,

“As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to die and rise form the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah.” Acts 17:2-3

In the next town they visited the same procedure was followed. They went to the synagogue and taught them what the Bible said.

“. . . they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed.”

Paul’s message to the thinkers in Athens appealed to their intellectual curiosity and their acknowledgement that some divine being had to have created them. He then talked about the judgment to come which will be undertaken by the man God has raised form the dead. That really got the discussion going. Some sneered but others became believers. Note there was no singing or praying, just persuasion about the facts, some of which they knew about themselves and others that they had to learn from convincing eye-witnesses.

Both Jesus and his apostles addressed peoples’ minds to convince them about Jesus and what he claimed.

3. We must learn from contemporary evangelists

John Wesley and George Whitefield found that preaching outside, free from religious associations made it easier for people to hear what they had to say. It was when people responded to the message they saw the need for getting into small groups to be taught and pray together.

When I was a student the Christian Union arranged to have Christian teachers come to explain the gospel to us. Every Sunday evening hoards of students would arrive. We had a hymn to allow for the stragglers to arrive but then we were taught from the Bible and about the Bible. School had put me off religion but this was thought provoking and highly relevant. Then one afternoon a friend in my college invited an American give a talk in his room. There was no religion but it was a powerful time. I became a Christian.

At the start of the next student year we arranged a tea for all the freshers in our college. There were about one hundred and fifty of them and each one was personally invited. We provided a tea and had invited David Watson, who was then a local curate and was a superb communicator. Over one hundred came. During the year many of these students joined us at the Sunday student talks and about thirty said they had become Christians. We then invited them to Bible studies, and we prayed together. We also went with them to local churches. It was the truth about Jesus that gripped them – the extras came later.

When I was a clinical medical student at the London Hospital Dick Lucas decided to start a student ministry at St Helen’s Church in Bishopsgate, London. Very soon large numbers of students would turn up at St Helen’s at 8pm to be gripped as Dick taught the Bible. There was a hymn to allow for latecomers to arrive, but this was immediately followed by the bible reading and then the teaching started. There was nothing to put anyone off, the teaching was compelling and answered the problems we faced and because of this we loved to invite others to come and learn with us. Dick Lucas followed the same principles when he started his lunch services. He wanted the secular London business people to understand how the Bible’s message is relevant to all people and minimised the difficulties people could have to achieve his goal.

One of the most effective evangelists working with governments and business leaders is Michael Ramsden. His approach is to meet up with people often over a meal and then address the problems they face, such as the need for integrity. Again he shows how Jesus is the answer to man’s deepest need. He does not put religious activities between his listeners and the gospel. He does not allow anything to put people off Christ.

Conclusions

When the 2001 national census was taken, 7.7 million people in the UK regarded themselves as non-religious. Yet in 2011 this figure had increased to to 14 million. This is a major problem both for the ethics of our society but also, according to Jesus, for the eternal destiny of many people. If we are to win non-religious people for Christ, they need to be persuaded about who Jesus is and his relevance to them and the issues they face.

If they enjoy music or the ‘mystery’ of church then these may be a draw for a few but they are no substitute for learning about Christ from the Bible, the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. If people enjoy religious services these may be a means for helping people to learn about the significance of Jesus Christ. But religious observance is not the gospel, can even distract people from seeing their need for Christ and in our secular society religion attracts few. It is not enough to say ‘Church services are what Christians do and have always done’. That was not the approach of Jesus or his apostles!

Good friendships can disarm people’s reservations and hang-ups about considering the Christian message. People feel most secure in their homes so this is an ideal venue for the gospel to be explained. Friends can easily be invited to our homes but can find church and church services threatening. Does that not suggest that homes should today still be the ideal site for evangelism.

Some people, usually with a religious background, may find church services are acceptable but today this is becoming less common so we need to find ways to demonstrate the relevance of Christ. Relevant talks without religious trappings may make it easier for Christians to invite others.

One of the great problems we face today is that relatively few Christians, surveys suggest, only twenty percent, show any real concern to share the gospel with those they meet. This suggests that the problem is deeper than having optimal user friendly activities at which the gospel can be shared. If Christians are not praying to be used by God in sharing the gospel, then it is not surprising if God doesn’t use us. If we are not well prepared to give ‘the reason for the faith we have’, it is not surprising if we are ill-equipped for the task. So the role of church leaders must be to train, and motivate as well as providing the sort of events that will attract people to learn about the relevance of Christ.

BVP