Evangelism Programs

Welcome to No Compromised Radio Ministry, to let you know we are a modern show and this is not a rerun. In real time, today,. Pat Robertson, televangelist who mobilized Christian voters, dead at 93, reuters .com.

What do you say to that, Pastor Steve? I'll light a candle for him. No you won't. Two old men laughing and wheezing, smoker's cough, there it is, I've got your cough button, I just did it. All right, I'll put it back on.

If you say anything theologically untoward, I'm going to give you the cough, the mute.

Button. Here's what I want to know, if we're a modern, hip, cool show, why is it we can't talk during the intro?

Well because the mics are live, I could turn your mic off I guess. Yeah, but. There's too many buttons. Too many buttons. Look at all these buttons, I mean, if I push certain buttons, what happens?

You belong in the circus, Spock, right next to the dog-faced boy. Those just random.

Do you remember that episode? No. I mean, you know. Spock was under some, I don't know, some potion or something, some elixir, and he was brainwashed. But if you got really mad, you'd snap out of it. So he was, he, Kirk, was trying to get Spock to snap out of it, and so you belong in the circus, Spock, right next to the dog-faced boy.

That was a politically not correct show very often.

They just don't make them like that anymore. They don't.

What was James Kirk's middle name? Tiberius. See, how do you know that, Steve?

Because I read a biography of James Tiberius Kirk. Seriously? No. I mean, what kind of biography would there be about a fictional character?

Come on. Well, he was, the fictional character was born in what state? Iowa. Iowa. Iowa. You are a Star Trek person. Not tracks. I said Star Trek for years.

Did you? I don't know why, but Star Trek. Because you wanted to be on the Star Trek team?

I didn't want to be on the track team because I heard the initiation, and my high school was bad, and I didn't want to have to go through that initiation, so I was never on the track team. Plus, I wasn't a good runner.

Couldn't throw the javelin, discus is out, shot put is out. So why be on the track team? That's a good question. I know. Yeah. I know. Mike Ebenroth here with Steve Cooley, talking about Things of the Lord, no compromise radio.

In the old days, it used to be we don't compromise, and we still don't want to, but we talk about the Lord and never compromise.

So our topic for today is Things of the Lord. Well, that narrows it right down.

Man, I feel... Hey, I can start off the show with Christian pickup lines, like the last big show that bombed. I feel focused. Of course. Steve, today, let's talk about a Christian's view of evangelism, and here's why I bring it up.

There are some that say it's the church's responsibility to have a bunch of ongoing evangelistic programs. So let's talk first about, are evangelistic programs good? Then we can talk about, are they necessary?

How should Christians view evangelism? But to start off, is there anything wrong with an evangelistic program that the church leadership institutes for the church for a season?

No. And one of the reasons I started the Anxious Bench here at BBC was...

You've got to be kidding me. That's the ministry of the Anxious Bench.

Okay, good. All right, you have two men that need more sleep. They're in their mid -60s. One of the reasons I started... Well, let's even back up a little bit more. Would there be anything wrong with saying, we're going to have an evangelistic outreach program, and we're going to train...

Be very quiet. We're going to train on, pick a day, Saturdays, we're going to have an eight-week training program to encourage the people to know what the gospel is and how to answer some objections.

I think I did that here. I did that here, too, over the years. So certainly, equipping the saints in extra classes or sermon series, obviously, we want to encourage people to do that.

You know, funny, because I was in on the ground floor of Grace Evangelism way back when at Grace Community Church. And this last Shepherds Conference, somebody came up to me and they said, you know, you may not remember me, but...

And I did vaguely remember. I mean, that program, I have people walk up to me when I'm out in California and say, you may not remember me, but... And then they tell me, and I'm just like, oh, really? He said, you may not remember this, but you said something that changed my life.

And I was like, what was it? And it just had to do with evangelism at work and things like that. I mean, ways to do it. And so, you know, he was like, yeah, it changed my life radically, reformed my view of evangelism at work and whatnot.

But here's the point. Evangelism programs are good and fine. But ultimately, what do we know? That the church exists to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Not so that, you know, some people have this idea that unless the pastors do the ministry, the ministry shouldn't exist.

And that's not reality. I mean, we're two guys. If we were a bigger church, you know, we might be 10 guys. But if we were also a bigger church, we'd have 1 ,000 potential ministries. What's better, 10 or 1 ,000, you know?

So, I mean, it's pretty simple math.

I think when I first got here, Steve, in 97, the year after, I thought, well, we need to evangelize. And so, the program was we were going to go door to door to every person's house in West Boylston. So, we looked at, you know, looked up the addresses, how many there were.

Let's say it was, I don't know, 1 ,000, 500, whatever the number was. So, we ordered that many Jesus Video VHS, video cassettes. Now, let's not talk about second commandment violations and all that, but that's just what we were doing back then.

We then put a tract in there. I think it was the stop tract from Grace Church. And then an invite to a concert. And it was like in a little bag. And then we met here several weeks and did some training.

And then we came one Saturday, prayed, everybody had their list of their 30 houses to go to, knock on the door, etc. Short of a video about Jesus. Was there anything, is there anything wrong with that?

No. Yeah, I think that's fine and good. By the way, for weeks afterward, we would have in our front door here at the church building, a bag put on our door of people returning it because they didn't want it.

Yeah, like they couldn't take it to a dumpster or blockbuster or whatever. Right, right.

So, there's nothing wrong with that. There's everything right with the church trying to train up people with special classes or from the pulpit or Sunday school, right? That could be a Sunday school class.

Because obviously, we have this commission from Jesus in Matthew 28. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So, that would be a good thing. But is it wrong for leadership to say, we're going to equip you through preaching and Sunday schools and Bible studies, and now you are the evangelistic program?

Is it wrong for people to say that, for leaders to say that? Is it wrong? Right. We're not having a formal program at the church. No. You are the formal program. You alluded to it earlier with Ephesians.

Ephesians 4 verse 11, and he, Jesus, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, sounds like pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

I mean, people forget, again, we're not here to flex our muscles, you know, to, such as it is. We're here to equip the body for the work of ministry. It would be just an awful thing if everything was just shifted to us because we can't be everywhere.

We can't communicate with everyone. And, you know, I mean, again, just the sheer math would be silly. So, why wouldn't we want everybody who comes to Bethlehem Bible Church to be equipped? I mean, like, for example, if somebody wants to join the church and I say, okay, great, you know, what's the gospel?

And they look at me and they have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, there are a few things, a few issues there. First of all, should we let them join the church if they can't explain the gospel? But secondly, it's an opportunity for me to kind of walk them through the gospel.

Make sure that they understand it, right? But also to maybe put it in a format where they can duplicate what I'm saying so that they can tell other people. So, that's, you know, it's teaching. And that's why we're here, is to teach people what the Bible says, what the gospel is, etc., etc., etc., so that they can then go out and make disciples on their own.

Talking today on No Compromise Radio about evangelistic programs, and we've seen many over the years, what would Jesus do with the little wristbands? We've seen I Found It campaigns with bumper stickers back in the 70s, and there are others.

Steve, does some of this maybe come from the attitude that, oh, your church that you're at seems to do a lot of teaching, a lot of head knowledge, preaching to Christians, where I go to other churches and they seem to be preaching the gospel to unbelievers.

That's their main ecclesiology. That's their main view of church, that you're going to evangelize people when they come, and then you're going to put them in small groups to grow. Do you think that's some of the background for people saying that?

And I mean, we already know that that's just a perilous, really, it's a poor model, because what it essentially means is we kind of hide the gospel under a bushel, right? And on Sunday, it's top secret TSSI information, right?

And only after you demonstrate that you can handle it will we give it to you. I'm like, okay, that's an approach, right? You're not worthy yet of the gospel. I don't know what that means. You know, I don't get it.

If you're, you know, there's a survey we had to have on Sunday morning. How many of you are worthy of the gospel?

I think we're supposed to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, but not the other way around. See, don't you think just in general, when it comes to evangelism, it's much more, and I hate to use the word, but I'll use it, organic.

In other words, we are trying to encourage the saints, build up the saints through the word on Sundays, preaching. It's a means of grace, Christ-centered, Him we proclaim. There's admonishment. There's encouragement.

There's reproof. There's rebuke. There's exhortation. There's teaching and doctrine. And then the people are equipped. They're reminded about who Jesus is and eternal truths. And then they go and sit next to somebody on a plane.

They have somebody at work, at lunch they're talking to. They have children. It's, that's the way evangelism is in the New Testament, certainly. Just people you know and you meet and you just...

Well, I mean, here's the funny thing. In your own life, you know, before you were a pastor, did you ever preach the gospel to anybody? You know, before you were in seminary, did you ever, you know, preach Christ and Him crucified to anybody?

I mean, it's like, what is it about people that just makes them think, well, you know, I can't do that. That's only for, you know, the pastors and the elders and the, you know, the really spiritual people.

I can't do that. Well, when I was in seminary, I was then, and I hope I am now, excited to be a Christian and enthusiastic that the Lord would forgive me my sins. And I want to go tell other people about the good news, right?

It's called the gospel. I have good news. You could be forgiven for all your sins. All your sins? Yes, all your sins. What do I have to do to have all those things forgiven? Well, you don't have to do anything because it's been done for you.

You receive it by faith alone. And I wanted to tell people, so I would go fly out of LAX often. And there was a lady there at 530 in the morning when I have to catch this flight. And I regularly would see her and she had a bucket and she was asking for money.

And she had a garb on, a nun's garb on. She was a nun. And I would say, if you can tell me how to get to heaven, I'll give you some money. And she couldn't tell me. So I'd say, well, let me tell you how to get to heaven, right?

There's something, I'm glad you're trying to raise money for orphans someplace in Nicaragua, but the real issue is forgiveness of sins. And if you can tell me how to get to heaven, right? It's like my wife, when she's at work, she'll say sometimes to people, the priests with the backward collar, do you have any good news today?

And they're like, uh, and then she's like, well, the good news that Jesus is alive and he's conquers stock markets up. Celtics traded Tatum. So what we're trying to say, as Hebrews 8, 1 would declare, the point in what we're saying is this, we have such a high priest.

Now the point in what we're saying is this, evangelism programs are fine. They're just additions. They're just extras. They're just helpful. You dear Christian are the evangelism program, right? I too, being a pastor, I want to proclaim good news.

But when I leave, I think to myself, how am I going to wedge in a gospel conversation here? Right? Steve, you don't really fish much. I don't fish much, but I keep telling Amos, my grandson, we're going to go fishing.

Because that's kind of what grandpas do, right? You go fishing because you can't say, let's go run a 440 together because the kid's too small and I'm too old.

Although I did, I was racing cold around the house the other day.

That'd be a sight to see. One of the most amazing things I've seen in my life lately, because Pastor Steve has kind of wrecked his body to some degree in jail contortions, arresting prisoners and such.

When you slid down that slide at Ray Johnson's house, that inflatable slide, it was like a story up and then that little incline and you kind of flipped around and went head first down to the bottom. I thought I was going to pass out with laughing.

I didn't even do it. And I'm the one Tabs all over. Steve's philosophy is don't get hurt. My philosophy is have fun. So it was flipped that day. Yeah, I was just having fun.

So I do race. I did race cold around the house. And all the time I was like, I'm winning. He goes, no, I'm winning. And I was actually winning.

Well, when you lapped him, he figured you were just behind him after you lapped him.

Well, I'm not really one for ADD. But when we're racing around the house, he's like, he's ahead. And then he just stops to look at something. I'm going, I'm not stopping. You can stop if you want. But see you later, pal.

Tell him not to do that on the track team. Yeah, exactly. Steve, what about preaching the gospel to Christians or those sitting in the congregation? What if you're preaching the gospel to Christians and there's an unbeliever there in the congregation, then what?

I guess it's okay. All right, here's another question. Would it be good for pastors or Bible teachers or Sunday school teachers to tell their audience, their congregation, their students, oh, the other day I was on a plane and I sat next to a plane and I started talking about the Bible.

And then they, the students, the congregation say, oh, that's good. I'm glad our pastor's evangelistic. I should probably do that too.

Yeah, I think that's fine.

I mean, hopefully my motive isn't to brag, but if I run into someone and I get to preach the gospel to them, I like to tell the congregation because I'm trying to encourage them to follow my lead. And sometimes it's the humble brag.

I think you might be better at that than I am. What? I'm just, I just like, I just lead with my forehead. But not the humble brag. Most other things, you're correct. Okay.

So what do you got there? You got something from Titus? No, I'm just, I'm just kind of, I'm just thinking about the church, you know, and just thinking about it being the pillar and ground, you know, the truth and, you know, just kind of reading through, just kind of glancing through the pastoral epistles.

And I'm like, you know, false teaching, this, that, and the other thing. Well, all these things given to these men to do what? What are they essentially doing? And again, they're training the people. Paul never says, you know, do these things in isolation from the church or whatever.

No, it's, you know, the whole goal. I mean, even Paul's life, when you think about what did he do? Spent all of his time preaching the gospel and people said, well, there you go. No, wait a minute. He was making disciples.

Why did he take Timothy around? Why did he, you know, why did he do all these things? Why did he have Titus on Crete? Why, you know, and it was always with the objective of discipling other people.

Steve, perfect point. This is like the highlight of the show, I think, in terms of theological content. Let me explain it this way. I was reading that Jocko book that you recommended on leadership, and it was convicting in lots of areas.

And I think some things I've already changed in terms of how I process things. Well, we had a class at my home for 10 weeks about leadership. And the last class, which was this week, I said, let's do a biblical view of leadership.

So, we're going to look at 10 passages in the Bible that help us understand leadership. And one was Matthew 20, where, of course, the boys want preeminence. The boy's mom wants preeminence for the boys.

And Jesus said, I come to serve and leadership is serving others. And then we looked at Philippians 2 and Jesus with humility and how He humbled Himself and taking the form of man and just this humble leadership.

I also said, what are the products? Here's my point to piggyback on what you said. What's the product of a godly leader? Second Timothy chapter 2. It's not widgets. It's not things we make. It's not styrofoam cups.

It's not plastic containers. It's not stock market results. And what you have heard from me, Paul said, after he said, be strengthened by grace, which you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

The leader's product, if it were to be put so crassly, and of course, it's God working through leaders, it's other men, other leaders. And of course, Titus 2, there's ladies teaching other ladies. But the product of the leader is other leaders who then go help other people.

Right? That's exactly what you said. And I like it that he goes on to talk about soldiers, athletes, farmers, right? And you think about what each one of those has to do in terms of how hard they have to work.

They kind of sound like antinomians, but that's another sermon. And then he says, out of all those, though, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, offspring of David, as preached in my gospel. And therefore, today on No Compromise Radio, we're just talking about evangelistic programs are fine, but they're not necessary to make a church evangelistic.

I think sometimes, Steve, of course, we have our faults. But if somebody says the church isn't loving, it's just too general. What do you mean by not loving? Well, we don't shovel widows' driveways. Oh, well, you know what we do?

We just don't broadcast it. We don't take care of widows' homes and heaters and plumbing. Oh, no, we do. You just don't know about it. Or if we don't do something, we don't do it. But it's just like a slam.

The church isn't evangelistic. Like, what do you mean by that? You have to be more specific if you're going to say that.

Yeah. I mean, what should we do? Have like a little brag sheet that we, you know, along with the program. These are the things we'd like to brag about this week. The things that we...

Well, it's almost like the Deacon Fund. People are like, well, what do you do with the money of the Deacon Fund? Well, we give it to needy people. Well, who are those needy people? Well, you're not allowed to know, right?

Because we're giving that, you know...

We're not in the practice of, you know, shaming people in need, right? I mean, so-and So had a need and we met it. Well, who was that person? Okay, well, you know, if you were in need and we helped you, we wouldn't run around telling everybody, you know.

Steve, I think if someone said to me, Bethlehem Bible Church is not evangelistic, I would be nice and kind. But if I wanted to just be direct, I would say, do you know what you're actually saying? That you're not evangelistic.

Right. Because we are the church, all of us. And would we all like to be better evangelists? Yes. Would we like to talk about what I say are the three M's of evangelism, the motive, the methods, and the message?

Do we need to know about the motives and how it gives glory to God? Even if no one comes to Christ, you can still have successful evangelism. Yes, we need to know that. Our methods, we preach the word, we pray for people, we're kind to them, we love them.

What's the message? Who is God? Who is man? What did Jesus do? What's the response? But to say, basically, the leaders need to do some programs so that we can call ourselves evangelistic, I just think is misguided.

Well, like you said, it really betrays what, you know, the person is not feeling good about their own evangelism, so the church is not evangelistic.

Okay, I guess it's our fault. See, don't we regularly say, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, these promises aren't for you. If you're here today and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, today is the day of salvation.

You need to believe on the risen Savior as your sin bearer for salvation. There's no other way. Yes. I probably say it, I bet you every week, something close to that.

In some form or another, I think it's announced from the pulpit almost every week.

And so, is that not evangelism?

I think it is. Well, you know, what is evangelism? Proclamation of the gospel. Do we do that or not?

And if we don't, we're fired. Yeah. Right. It's good news. Evangelism means telling people the good news. And I think what we do, Steve, here is maybe the focus is so much on Christians, you need the good news that people mistake that as, well, you're not talking to unbelievers so much.

Now, let's fast forward to Christmas time and Easter time. Do you think we're extra evangelistic, if there could be such a thing, on those times, on those dates?

Yeah. But, you know, and there's a reason for that, and that's because it's when the world, you know, couple times a year, the world takes a pause and says, what about this Jesus fellow? What's that all about, you know?

But even there, I mean, I already know ahead of time, and this is not because of who we are. I know Steve's the same way as I am. It's 1 Corinthians 2 language. You're going to ask me to speak at the rest home.

You're going to ask me to speak someplace. I already know what I'm going to talk about. It's just a matter from what passage. It's going to be about Jesus, and it might be a law that he has. It might be a comfort that he has.

It might be a challenge. It might be rest, encouragement. But I know I'm going to talk to Jesus. I'm going to talk to Jesus. Well, I'm going to talk to Jesus, but I'm going to talk about Jesus. Paul knew before I got to Corinth, I already know my subject matter.

It reminds me of John MacArthur when he'd be on Lettery King, and he'd say behind the scenes to the seminary students, whatever question he asked me, I was just going to end up talking about Jesus.

Yeah. It's just like the old Billy Graham thing, right? He'd get on there. So, what do you think about Phnom Penh? Then he'd go, well, Jesus is the only solution for our sin problem. Larry, every one of us is a sinner, falls short of the glory of God, and we all need forgiveness.

That's good. Well, today on No Compromise Radio, we've been talking about evangelism. Dear Christian, you have a wonderful privilege of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ, a steward of the gospel, and you've been trained by your pastors and your elders and those that love you to understand who Jesus is, and you see the Lord's love for sinners, and I know you have a love for sinners, and so just go tell them the good news.

If they accept it, great. If they don't and rebuke you, we're here for the long run, right? Language of agriculture and watering and planting. Isn't it a privilege to preach?

Yes, it is. And we never know, just like you're saying, we never know what the results are going to be. And you know what? The results are not our issue.

It's completely up to the Lord. And I think every once in a while, the Lord, in His kind providence, lavishes a little encouragement on us, and we hear from someone who was affected by something we said.

And it wasn't even our message, of course. It's the Lord's message. Just like when you're in California and someone says, oh, that changed my life. And it just encourages you.

Yeah. Well, it generally shocks me, but yeah, it is very encouraging.

Well, it's like when you go to California, and I go to California for the Shepherds Conference, and they ask me, where's the Tuesday guy? And I'm thinking they should be asking me for my autograph, not where's the Tuesday guy.

That's what I'd be doing if I was them. I'd be like, Pastor Mike, can I get your autograph? Thanks for listening to No Compromised Radio.