The pastor is the
catalyst to the overall success of mission and evangelism program of the
church. The input of the pastor, his involvement and his example are paramount.
The Pastor has much involvement in every ministry activity of the church so he
must not forget to make missions and evangelism the priority area.
HIS PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT
1. He must live the gospel everyday. It must be his personal goal each
week to share the gospel with someone and see that the person comes to faith in
Christ. We need to reach out beyond our comfort zones and share the gospel with
people we don’t know.
2. Be involved.
As pastor, you need to be involved in the primary leadership of your
outreach/evangelism program. Your personal involvement and visibility in the
effort is very important. People are happy to see their pastor as part of the
winning team bringing others to Jesus Christ. You need to be in the frontline
making visits to the unchurched, cultivating relationships with the unsaved and
establishing contacts with the lost.
3. Maintain a consistent life of evangelism. Keep a personal circle of influence
in evangelism. Reach out to friends, associates and neighbours. Always work
around, sharing your faith in God with someone or a group of people. Be
obedient and faithful to this task and you will thereby be expanding and
enlarging the kingdom territory.
4. Pray daily for souls to be saved. As pastor, make sure you encourage praying for the lost.
Lead the entire church to pray. Call on the selected individuals that are
gifted in prayer ministry to pray alongside with you. Pray hard for the harvest
of souls. If the laity in your church sees your prayerful spirit for the
harvest of souls, many of them will mimic that passion for souls. Prayer keeps
our eyes on the harvest, our ears attentive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We must pray regularly for those we know who do not know Christ. We, at this
point must remember men like Martin Luther, John Wesley, David Brainerd, George
Fox, Adoniram Judson and John Hyde.
Luther once
said, “I have so much business that I cannot get on without spending three
hours in prayer.”
Westley
said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer”
Brainerd
wrote,” I love to be alone in my cottage where I can spend much time in prayer”
Judson
withdrew from business and company seven times a day for the purpose of prayer.
Hyde was so
characterized by prayer that he was nicknamed “praying Hyde”.
William
Penn said of Fox, “Above all, he excelled in prayer”.
It is no
small wonder that these prayer warriors wielded unusual power and supernatural
influence for the kingdom of God.
5. Respond to cries for help. As the church grows and its ministry becomes more
specialized, the pastor may not have enough time to be involved in the lives of
every convert. Be sensitive to the benevolent needs that come your way. Arrange
to reach out to villages, hospitals, and large parks in the cities and villages.
You will always come around people with needs. Your meeting such needs will be
of great help. A true evangelism and mission heart is bent towards helping
others to regain them to Christ. We never can realize it. We might get to plant
a seed, water a seed, or perhaps harvest seed that has been prepared already. A
good example is the case of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts. 8: 26 –
40.
FOR CORPORATE INVOLVEMENT
A church and its
leaders have a responsibility to God to involve its great army of laity in
witness for Jesus.
1. Enlighten the church. Many Christians fail to witness because they are not educated or
challenged on the subject. We need to preach on the subject of soul winning.
Challenge your flock about the biblical mandate to share their faith.
Witnessing is not an option. It is a mandate for every Christian. Pastors
should keep their flock accountable before God concerning the commission every
Christian has received from God.
2. Enlist the church. Evangelism and mission must be given priority as a major emphasis of
the church, if not, many of the laity will be involved in social functions and
recreational activities that they will have no time to commit to outreach. In
the enlistment, it must be for all. The young and the Old. The rich and the
poor. The educated and uneducated, all must be enlisted.
3. Equip the church. Most lay people have a deep desire to win others to Christ,
unfortunately, most of them simply do not know how. We must learn to work with
a team of Christians to develop meaningful relationships with people through
acts of hospitality and grace. The pastor needs to be the primary person who
leads in the equipping of the saints.
4. Enlarge the church. Every church has a corporate witness to its local community. The church
must seek to help its witness strong and vibrant in the community. As pastors,
you must engage your flock to go out into the community and share their faith
with everyone who is in their personal circle of influence.
CONCLUSION
Satan does not mind
how hard working we may be, as long as he keeps us from spreading the gospel,
he is satisfied. Watch out! We can major in doctrine, in fellowship, in
prosperity and socials, in ways that bear no relation to preaching the Gospel
to every creature. We are in deception when good activities crowd out the most
urgent work.
Prayer itself, while
so vital, must not be substituted for Evangelism. Prayer without evangelism is
like an arrow shot into the air at no specific target. If we hold prayer
rallies, they should be linked to some direct evangelistic effort. To preach
the gospel is to unbind, while to withhold the gospel is to bind. Not to preach
the gospel means that we hide the medicine from the patient! Every sphere of
life cries out for the gospel, like a fish gasping on the river bank for water.
The only hope for the world’s need is the gospel.
As the pastor, your
role in church’s evangelism and mission efforts is so crucial. For your church
to keep its evangelistic temperature high, you have the key role in fanning the
flame.
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