Today’s guest post comes to us from Daniel Darling from churchplants.com.

Evangelism is the one topic that is guaranteed to get the most amens in church and yet produces the most fear and guilt in those of us called to share the good news of the gospel. And today, in an increasingly post-Christian culture, the job of fulfilling the Great Commission seems more impossible than it was a generation ago.

So how do we do this? Three things must happen to a follower of Jesus to motivate him to become a bearer of good news in his circle of influence:

1)   Enraptured by Jesus

It strikes me that Jesus’ words to the disciples in Matthew 28 don’t necessarily emphasize the “go,” but the word “teach.” Most Greek scholars agree that go is sort of an English construction designed to help us understand Jesus’ words. The emphasis is on the teaching part. Jesus assumed the disciples would go and tell. After all, they’d just witnessed the bodily resurrection of the Son of God. Nobody experiences that and doesn’t tell someone.

In a sense we are all evangelists. Even the most introverted person can quickly get animated if the subject is right. Think back on your last few conversations. What dominated those conversations? Perhaps a good experience, like attending a conference, going on vacation or someone who served you in a surprisingly good way. I’m guessing you didn’t have to be prompted to retell your story to those close to you.

2)   Embedded in the Community

There is an easy tendency among Christians to gather with other Christians. This is good. There is a need for us to develop rich, deep, lasting friendships with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Furthermore, the life of the church, this Spirit-knit unity, brings God glory and shows the world a glimpse of the world to come.

And yet we must recognize that if we are to be God’s instrument in bringing the gospel to the nations, we must embed ourselves in the very communities he’s called us to reach. But we must do more than this. We must fall in love with our communities and with the people of our communities.

Our calling as evangelists will also require us to build deep friendships with people who might be living in ways that violate our biblical values. We don’t have to condone sin, but if we keep our neighbors at an arm’s length, if we don’t invest our time, resources and affections, we’ll never get close enough for them to see Jesus in us. We need to embody what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves.

3)   Equipped With a Fuller Gospel

There was a time when tried and true methods, utilizing a few key verses from the New Testament, were all it took to lead a person to Christ. Most targets for evangelism had a background in church or at least a working knowledge of Christianity. But today our cities are filled with people hailing from all kinds of religious backgrounds, whose knowledge of and trust for the Bible is minimal.

Click here to read the full article.

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson