By: John Mitchell
A football coach said, “My team is acting like they forgot how to play football.” He met with the team and said, “We need to start all over again from the beginning, and learn the basics about football.” He held up a football and said, “This is a football.” I believe that in the life of every Christian, it is good to go back to the basic fundamental truths that a new Christian should be taught from the beginning. This basics class could help the long-term believer to renew his or her zeal in order to bear good fruit, and it could also serve as a class teaching on how to teach new Christians. Sometimes we (myself included) can get into a rut of going through the motions and not really treating some things with the importance that we should. I have noticed that in our Sunday morning and Wednesday night Bible study, the brother teaching the class will way, “Last week we discussed why this book of Colossians, or Galatians, or Titus, was written. Can anyone tell me why it was written?” After a pause, many times a long pause, one person may have the answer or no one answers. The teachers study, research, and write their Bible study so that they can teach it to us, and a week later it is as we were not there when it was taught. We may have been there physically, but mentally we were somewhere else. We need to be more serious about the importance of these Bible classes that God has blessed us with. Taking notes, studying at home what we were taught in class, and reviewing our notes a week later on the day of our next class, is all very helpful. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe” (Hebrews 5:12-13). God expects each one of us to study, learn, and produce good fruit. Colossians 1:10 says, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” I believe it would be helpful for both, long-term and new Christians, to revisit the basics of evangelism. For example, first what is an evangelist? An evangelist is a person who preaches the Gospel, the Word of God, to the lost and teaches them how to be saved. Second, who is an evangelist? Some say that evangelism is the sole responsibility of our leadership. If this is true, then the preacher, elders, and deacons are the evangelism team and the rest of us are like a group of cheer leaders shouting, “Go team go! You’re doing a good job! Keep up the good work!” This, however, is not true. It is the responsibility of every Christian to be an evangelist, by preaching the Gospel to those who are lost. Jesus was an evangelist. He preached the Gospel to the lost. Jesus taught His disciples how to be evangelists, so that they would continue His evangelism. Evangelism helped us avoid being lost forever. It can lead other people from death to life as well. We need to evangelize for He “has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2nd Corinthians 5:19-20). We must remember that “we are God’s fellow workers…” (1st Corinthians 3:9) and that “the harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few…” (Matthew 9:37). It is our duty to evangelize. We may be planting the seed, someone else may be watering the seed we planted, but it is God who adds to the body of Christ: “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not forget this: IT IS ALL ABOUT LOVE, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us…” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Paul also clarified that “though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1st Corinthians 13:3). The Word of God, the Gospel, was given to us because of God’s love for us. A Christian preached the Gospel to us, who once were lost, because of their obedience to God’s calling and because of their love for the lost. We need to preach the Gospel to the lost in obedience to God and because of our love for them as well. Finally, to whom do we preach the Gospel? “…go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every living creature” (Mark 16:15). I can honestly say that for seventy years, not a single member of the church of Christ ever gave me any written information or even talked to me about the church of Christ, my salvation, or anything spiritual. Perhaps they thought that whatever my beliefs were at the time were too strong and I would not be able to change from that belief. I have visited and belonged of many different religions while on my seventy-year search for the Truth. There were three I had never visited: Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, and the church of Christ. I had heard the church of Christ did not have any musical instruments in their services, and thus I “knew” they did not know anything about the Truth. When I was finally taught correctly the Word of God, I quickly realized that I was the one who did not know anything about the Bible. I tell this true story to emphasize that we are disobeying God if we decide someone is a hopeless, hard case and a waste of our time to evangelize like I perhaps was once viewed. Those of us who have been blessed with the Gospel message of salvation, must also bless others with God’s Gospel message of salvation. “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bond servants for Jesus’ sake” (2nd Corinthians 4:5). Many times, when I meet people out shopping, at a doctor’s office, or even on my way to my car in a parking lot, I tell them that I write short Bible studies and I would like to share one with them. I give them the Bible study with a paged attached to it. On the top half of the page is God’s plan of salvation, and on the bottom half is an invitation for them to be our guest at the Southeast church of Christ. It includes our address and schedule of all our services. I remember one time, at the post office, I gave one of my writings to a gentleman who in turn gave me a copy of the plan of salvation. It turns out that he is a current member of the Fort Sam church of Christ, doing the same thing I was doing! My hope and prayer in my evangelizing effort is that people will read the treatise I wrote with the intent to help them realize that we, members of the Lord’s church, are not strange at all and that we believe what the Bible teaches. I hope that once they have realized this about us, they will be more open to visiting a faithful church of Christ. In two and a half years of doing this, I have been blessed to plant many seeds for others to water, and hopefully to reap a harvest of new creations in Christ (cf. 2nd Corinthians 5:17). THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PERSONAL ONE ON ONE EVANGELISM.