Matthew 11:5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Andrew Wommack in his article Discipleship vs. Evangelism[xii] writes
Most Christians believe that the primary purpose of salvation is to avoid hell. That may have been what you were taught, but it’s not what the Bible teaches. In fact, that kind of thinking serves to inoculate people from the truth of the Gospel concerning salvation.
If we simply ceased to exist at death and if there was no hell, I still believe that Jesus would have come to earth and died for us. Why, because salvation is about having a relationship with God. God’s main reason for sending Jesus was to restore fellowship. It just so happens that as we restore our relationship with God through salvation, one of the perks, one of the great benefits, is that we miss hell and gain heaven.
Nowhere in Scripture did Jesus tell us to go and make converts. Let’s look at what is commonly referred to as the Great Commission, found in Mathew 28:18-20. It says this: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Jesus told them to teach them to observe all things He had commanded. The word "teach" is derived from the word that is translated "disciple" throughout the Bible. The New International Version translates this, “Go and make disciples.” The emphasis here is that the Lord commanded us to make disciples, not converts. Somewhere along the way, the church has changed the emphasis of this message from making disciples to people being born again, leaving discipleship for the “mature.”
Did you know that Jesus never preached on being “born again”? In the third chapter of John, He talked to Nicodemus about the spiritual birth compared to the natural birth, but He never taught or preached to the people about being “born again.” You may be asking yourself, “How can Andrew say that? That’s the centerpiece of every evangelistic effort.” You’re right, it is, but I believe the Bible teaches that the church has placed the emphasis in the wrong place. By making that the focus, we are actually lowering the standards, leaving people with the misconception that all they need to do is just be born again and discipleship is optional. That is not what Jesus commanded us to do.
Statistics tell us that thirty-three percent of all “born-again Christians” still support things like abortion and New Age thinking. That certainly does not reflect the attitude of a person who’s truly been born again. Billy Graham was quoted as saying that only fifteen percent of all the people who professed to be Christian are truly born again. Here is something else that may surprise you: Katherine Kuhlman said that only fifteen percent of those who were healed at her services kept their healing when they left the service. These numbers should tell us something about how we measure success in ministry.
I am not saying that being born again and living eternally with Jesus is not important; it’s essential! I’m saying that we have changed the message from the way Jesus taught it. We have reduced the definition of “born again” to the point that in our society today, it has actually become socially popular to say you’re born again and gain acceptance in certain circles. Jesus said that we are to make disciples, followers of Christ. When we ask people to accept Jesus as their Savior, we need to teach them that this is a total commitment of one’s life to the Lord. It means becoming a disciple of Jesus.
Jesus’ attitude toward evangelism is much different than that of most Christians. Jesus is more concerned with the quality of ministry than the quantity.
John 2:23-25 says, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man."
It says that Jesus did not commit Himself unto them although they believed on Him. The word "believe" and "commit" are actually the same word in the Greek here. So you could say that they believed on Him, but He did not believe in them. He knew they were not disciples. He wouldn’t commit Himself to them, because He didn’t want man testifying out of their own ability. When we hear that someone has been born again, we are ready to put them to work, especially if they are public figures with name recognitions. It’s like we are trying to sell a product by associating it with someone famous. That totally violates what Paul said in 1 Timothy, chapter 3, concerning placing a novice in a position of authority. These are the kinds of shortcuts believers resort to when they limit the true definition of being born again to a simple confession of Jesus as Lord.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I would have been a Christian if I hadn’t met one.” Before leading the revolution in India, he was exiled in Africa. There, he was seeking the Lord, reading the New Testament. He had become convinced that Christianity was the true religion and that Jesus was the Christ. He decided to attend a Presbyterian Church service for the purpose of confessing Jesus as his Lord. But because of the color of his skin, they wouldn’t let him in. Those people who were so determined to evangelize did not have enough of the nature of God on the inside to look past his color. Gandhi then led 750 million people into a pagan religion.
On a trip to India some years ago, I learned there were 12,000 Methodists in the city of Ahmedadad, the result of a great revival in the 1890s. When I asked the head of the church in that city how many were truly born again, he responded by saying there were only two or three families. The rest were still worshiping other gods. All they had done was added Jesus to their list of gods to make sure they didn’t miss one. They were obviously not disciples. To those in India, Jesus was just another of the thousands of gods. That is not God’s idea of evangelism.
John 8:30-32 says, "As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
We often say that if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. That is not correct. More correctly, these verses say that when you continue in the Word, then you will know the truth, and the truth you know sets you free. In these verses, Jesus was speaking to those who already believed on Him. Jesus knew that only those who became disciples would truly become free. There is more to believing than just mouthing words.
What we ought to be preaching is that God calls us into discipleship, and it begins with making a commitment to the Lord. If we understood that and acted on it, we would have much greater success evangelizing the world.
Consider this: If you evangelized 1,000 people per year for fifteen years, you would have 15,000 new believers, assuming they were all genuine conversions. If you led 1 person to the Lord every six months and spent the next six months discipling that person so they could reproduce themselves, what do you think would happen? In one year there would only be two new Christians. However, after twelve years, if each continued to reproduce themselves every six months, there would be no one left on earth to evangelize. Jesus’ method of discipleship would have produced nearly 6 billion disciples in less than thirteen years. Discipleship Evangelism works!
I really believe that the church has missed it in the area of evangelism. We have been making converts and not disciples. By now, you may be thinking, "Andrew is right, but I have no idea how to disciple anyone; that’s best left to those who are more knowledgeable in the Word of God." Well, I have good news: If you can read, you can change a life!
My good friend and associate minister for over thirty years, Don Krow, has developed a discipling tool to help you fulfill God’s command to go and make disciples. Don has entitled it Discipleship 101, but I call it “Discipling for Dummies.” It’s simple, it’s easy, and it’s effective. It’s made up of thirty-four powerful real-life stories. All you do is read a short story, ask prepared questions, give the prepared answers, and watch God work in the life of another. You can’t miss with this. I believe it will be a big blessing.
EXTRACT FROM Be Not Ignorant
http://walthope.tripod.com/ignorant.htm
http://walthope.wordpress.com
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100302133262254344211/posts
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