Preface and Chapter 1 - Due May 22nd
Intro
This book is going to challenge us to consider the strategy Jesus used for evangelism and give us underlying principles that should make up any method for evangelism. It is not our task to invent a new strategy for evangelism, but rather to rediscover his and get in step with it. His way can appear to be so different it is nothing short of revolutionary. It often requires a removal of some unnecessary activities in our life, some of which fall inside of the walls of religion and sacred organizational structures.
If chapter 1 were to be summarized it might be described by, "concentration on the few." Jesus focused on a rather unqualified small group of men who were resolved to be trainable. Jesus did not neglect the multitudes but he was wise enough to see that before the multitudes could be permanently helped, they would need more personal care than he alone could give. He trained the few to lead the multitudes to the things of God. If we are to reach the world with the same principle, we must focus in our efforts on the time and talents of a few. Yes, it will be slower and likely unnoticed by most, but the reach will ultimately be greater and further reaching than any other strategy.
Consider these two strategies, assuming both are 18 years old as freshman in college.
Bill works extremely hard as an evangelist, goes out every day and converts 100 people every day, 365 days a year. Think about the amount of effort and time it takes each day to do this. We complain about a part time job and school at the same time, yet Bill is working way harder than all of us, every single day of the week, including Christmas, and his birthday. Bill is working pretty hard and God is bringing 100 new Christians a day to Himself!
Debbie prays for two people daily and leads both of them to Christ, she spends 1 hour a week training them to be mature. She has a personal plan for both of them. She lets them into her life so they can see how Debbie lives out her Christian faith. Inspired by Debbies faithfulness they commit to praying for two people whom they also lead to Christ the next year and train with the same intentionality.
By the time Bill has graduated college he has lead 146,000 people to Jesus! That is every single person in the Greeley/Evans area! Bill is a cool guy, he is named mayor of Greeley because everyone now loves Bill. Debbie has lead 8 people to Jesus and spent a whole year focusing on just two people. She is lucky to still talk to all 8 of those people as they have decided to move to different parts of the city, state, and world to find just two more people to lead to Christ and train a year for the rest of their lives.
Bill has an amazing life and is given the energy of a 20 year his whole life, but around the age of 52 Bill runs into a strange problem. He has lead 1.24 million people to Jesus, that is half of the entire Denver area! Could you even believe walking down the street in Denver and every other person is a Christian? But for some reason, now he keeps running into Christians everywhere. And not just people who claim they are Christians, but people who really live out and follow Jesus. He starts to realize that after 34 years of laboring every day, Christmas and all, his work is accomplished because everyone seems to be a follower of Jesus. Satisfied with his life, he sits back, smiles. But then it hits him and he thinks, "If I had only reached half of Denver why is everyone following Jesus?"
Well Lil' Debbie, bless her heart, stopped leading people to Jesus at 52 also. She spent 34 years, leading 2 people to Jesus and training them to be mature follower of Jesus and do the same for the rest of their lives. She was going so strong but she had the same problem Bill had with running into mature believers she didn't even know. What was the problem? Well, all the while Bill worked his butt off to reach half of Denver, Debbie had quietly cultivated an army of laborers for Jesus. In just 34 years, Debbie had started something that had the potential to reach 8 billion people in 34 years. Not only did she make an impact that reached 99.97% of the world, but those 99.97% of the world had 1 year of dedicated, personal training to be mature in their faith, rather than Bills .03% who called themselves Christians.
When we say that we exist to help students come to know Jesus, learn to live like him and CHANGE THE WORLD through him, we do not exaggerate. We believe the ENTIRE world can be change through students, like you, at UNC. Learn from lil' Debbie, who learned from Jesus. Jesus is a pretty cool guy.
If chapter 1 were to be summarized it might be described by, "concentration on the few." Jesus focused on a rather unqualified small group of men who were resolved to be trainable. Jesus did not neglect the multitudes but he was wise enough to see that before the multitudes could be permanently helped, they would need more personal care than he alone could give. He trained the few to lead the multitudes to the things of God. If we are to reach the world with the same principle, we must focus in our efforts on the time and talents of a few. Yes, it will be slower and likely unnoticed by most, but the reach will ultimately be greater and further reaching than any other strategy.
Consider these two strategies, assuming both are 18 years old as freshman in college.
Bill works extremely hard as an evangelist, goes out every day and converts 100 people every day, 365 days a year. Think about the amount of effort and time it takes each day to do this. We complain about a part time job and school at the same time, yet Bill is working way harder than all of us, every single day of the week, including Christmas, and his birthday. Bill is working pretty hard and God is bringing 100 new Christians a day to Himself!
Debbie prays for two people daily and leads both of them to Christ, she spends 1 hour a week training them to be mature. She has a personal plan for both of them. She lets them into her life so they can see how Debbie lives out her Christian faith. Inspired by Debbies faithfulness they commit to praying for two people whom they also lead to Christ the next year and train with the same intentionality.
By the time Bill has graduated college he has lead 146,000 people to Jesus! That is every single person in the Greeley/Evans area! Bill is a cool guy, he is named mayor of Greeley because everyone now loves Bill. Debbie has lead 8 people to Jesus and spent a whole year focusing on just two people. She is lucky to still talk to all 8 of those people as they have decided to move to different parts of the city, state, and world to find just two more people to lead to Christ and train a year for the rest of their lives.
Bill has an amazing life and is given the energy of a 20 year his whole life, but around the age of 52 Bill runs into a strange problem. He has lead 1.24 million people to Jesus, that is half of the entire Denver area! Could you even believe walking down the street in Denver and every other person is a Christian? But for some reason, now he keeps running into Christians everywhere. And not just people who claim they are Christians, but people who really live out and follow Jesus. He starts to realize that after 34 years of laboring every day, Christmas and all, his work is accomplished because everyone seems to be a follower of Jesus. Satisfied with his life, he sits back, smiles. But then it hits him and he thinks, "If I had only reached half of Denver why is everyone following Jesus?"
Well Lil' Debbie, bless her heart, stopped leading people to Jesus at 52 also. She spent 34 years, leading 2 people to Jesus and training them to be mature follower of Jesus and do the same for the rest of their lives. She was going so strong but she had the same problem Bill had with running into mature believers she didn't even know. What was the problem? Well, all the while Bill worked his butt off to reach half of Denver, Debbie had quietly cultivated an army of laborers for Jesus. In just 34 years, Debbie had started something that had the potential to reach 8 billion people in 34 years. Not only did she make an impact that reached 99.97% of the world, but those 99.97% of the world had 1 year of dedicated, personal training to be mature in their faith, rather than Bills .03% who called themselves Christians.
When we say that we exist to help students come to know Jesus, learn to live like him and CHANGE THE WORLD through him, we do not exaggerate. We believe the ENTIRE world can be change through students, like you, at UNC. Learn from lil' Debbie, who learned from Jesus. Jesus is a pretty cool guy.
Form
Supplemental Resources
Intro (15:35)
Chapter 1 Selection (18:15)