Many of you know I am a huge fan of Exponential. I wanted to share some thoughts about Exponential East and Exponential West as they prepare for 2014. I hope to see many of you in Orlando or in the real OC!
As part of their 2014 Seek + Save theme, throughout next year Exponential will focus on helping leaders rediscover, or rethink, five biblical truths for effective evangelism. Here’s the breakdown:
Rethinking evangelism (Matt. 28:18-20): As leaders, we have a key role to help people reframe evangelism in the context of discipleship. Evangelism and discipleship are inseparable. Understanding that evangelism doesn’t happen before someone is discipled as a Christ follower, but rather as part of the discipleship journey, is crucial for evangelism in a postmodern world. A strong discipleship culture in our church naturally produces evangelism.
Rethinking outreach (Acts 2:42-47): Possibly the greatest approach to outreach we have is the “fellowship of believers” in Acts 2:42. They lived with everything in common so much so that outsiders were drawn to become insiders. Like Paul tells the church of Corinth, we are to be the aroma of Christ to the world. To be effective evangelists today, we have to rethink how we function as a family of believers and challenge our churches to do evangelism as a community through both word and deed.
Rethinking witness (Acts 1:8): Everyone has a story that intersects with Jesus’ story—whether or not they realize (or acknowledge) it. While some of us have the gift of evangelism, all of us are called to be witnesses to the transformation Jesus has made in us. As church leaders, we have to rethink witness, equipping people to listen to others and share their God-story versus a series of “canned” propositional truths. When people are equipped to genuinely engage in spiritual conversations and share their story, all people can become witnesses for the Good News.
Rethinking preaching (Romans 10:13-15): In almost every context outside of the church, preaching is equated with bad news. Those far from God do not want to be “preached at” or talked down to. As leaders, we know preaching is important to Jesus’ core mission. It’s one way we declare the good news of the gospel. Rather than pitting Jesus against society, we must learn to offer Jesus as an attractive hope for the answers society is skeptically looking for. Rethinking preaching in ways that ultimately lead to a new perception of preaching as good news to those who don’t yet know Him is crucial to effective evangelism.
Rethinking the Commission (II Tim. 2:2): Every church leader struggles with balancing the tension between building community and family within the church (and a strong staff team) while also releasing and sending people to start new faith communities. In making disciples who are becoming more like Jesus, we need to create a culture of “next steps.” And part of these next steps is the sending and releasing of leaders to multiply and reproduce faith communities. Rethinking the Great Commission equips leaders to define and articulate what it means to multiply disciples and move toward accelerating movements in and through their church.
Exponential President Dave Ferguson says that the Seek + Save theme and rediscovering these five biblical truths are of critical importance to every church planter:
“Recent research tells us that one out of 33 Americans have not set foot in a church in any way in the past year, but Gallup reports that 92 percent of the U.S. population say they believe in God,” Ferguson says. “We have to come to grips with the reality that we’ve lost our ability to connect to this group of people who actually believe in God. As a church, we have to rethink evangelism because we have to rethink how we reach this group of people who believe in God but have not found a safe place in our churches to find their way back to Him.”
