A recent article notes “Evangelism is on life support in most churches.” The article reports a poll in which only 1% of pastors surveyed say their church is very effective in sharing the Good News about Jesus.
Here’s the data:
Does this relate to your church? Maybe a little? I’ll let you answer that for yourself. As we’ve already heard in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul has great affection for the Christians in Thessalonica. He is so happy that they not only became followers of Jesus, but also that they have continued as faithful followers, even despite facing suffering. Paul says that the Thessalonian Christians were so faithful as followers of Jesus that their reputation was known far and wide.
What is amazing about that, in my opinion, is that Paul only spent three weeks with them. So what was his approach to outreach? It seemed to go really, really well. Maybe the 99% of pastors who report that their churches are less than very effective at outreach could learn something from Paul’s approach?
As we continue studying Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian Christians, this week Paul describes his approach to ministry. What Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapters 2 and 3 will be very helpful to us as we think about what outreach can look like in our culture.
Does Paul say we need to memorize a bunch of Bible verses? Does he say we need to do Bible studies with people? Does he say we need to cold turkey confront people with the gospel? Nope. None of that.
Read 1 Thessalonians 2:1–12 and 2:17–3:5 and see for yourself. Then join me back here on the blog on Monday as we talk about Paul’s relational approach to ministry.
Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 