A preacher, one of my former students, wrote me with a question. He was in contact with a person who wanted to be baptized in a church that baptizes in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He asked me about my experience with such situations. I responded to his question, also noting that my experience in Latin America is often the opposite—-those who insist on being baptized in the name of Jesus only. Both situations, although they arrive at opposite conclusions, suggest the same themes and verses for the Bible study.
Our communication was obviously more involved. Saturday morning, I received his report.
“So…it went really well. She is new to Christianity and about a month ago started reading the NT. She made it to the end of Matthew and decided she wanted to get baptized, having not read anything else. So, we journeyed through the other gospel accounts and Acts and it came clear to her that her “issue” wasn’t what she thought. It led to a bunch of other questions and turned out to be a really great first Bible study. Thanks for your insights and clarity.”
Although I do not have all the details about the “who, how and why” of this contact, I applaud all who have contact with interested persons who are diligent and serious seekers.
We in the church face many problems with regard to evangelism. An increasing number of Christians fail to grasp that the Lord commissioned his followers to share his message. The average member does not know how to tell their story and share their faith. More and more Christians do not believe it is necessary. The church has developed a “come and see” attractional approach focused on the corporate body, rather than a commitment to incarnational presence by individual members. The church has become dependent on a “clergy class” that is responsible for ministry. Ministry and mission have been redefined in humanitarian terms that have taken precedence over spiritual concerns…the list goes on and on.
In the midst of such challenges, it strikes me that the greatest problem may be that the average church in the U.S. has little contact with or connection to the unchurched masses all around us. We are not in touch with the people who are interested in spiritual things and are seeking spiritual answers. Let us pray for such contacts, let us pray for open eyes so that we can see, let us pray for soft hearts (ours and theirs), let us pray for the ability to say and do the right things to initiate Jesus-sharing conversations with the multitudes around us.
[Note: One of the first topics I present in my evangelism workshop is how to develop interest in studying and understanding the Bible. By learning how to initiate Jesus-sharing conversations, we can find more people who already have interest in spiritual things. By learning how to develop interest, we can motivate interest in those who do not recognize their interest, those who have lost interest, and those who will automatically reject more traditional, confrontational encounters.]