By Mariam Bello
It begins with an opinion, a careless remark, a speculative comment. Yet, as it spreads from person to person, What starts as a seemingly insignificant utterance can ultimately shape perceptions, influence actions, and leave a lasting impact.
There are careless statements that can make others undermine the genuine motivations behind evangelism and can lead people to question the church’s integrity. One of such statements that I want to point out is the claim that churches prioritize evangelism solely to drive numerical growth and, ultimately, increase their financial resources.
Have you encountered arguments and criticism about the church from non-Christians? They cook up all kinds of claims and tend to make people believe the Church is all about money..
Unfortunately many Christians help to strengthen this belief. They share unsubstantiated claims during evangelism with those who are already skeptical about church, further solidifying their bias.
Their evangelism is all about getting people to come to church. Some churches even reward members who bring people to church making the whole exercise look like a charade. While people should be encouraged to come to Church, the goal should be that they will know Jesus and have a relationship with him.
In Acts 10-11, we see a remarkable example of how people can focus on the wrong thing. After Apostle Peter preached to Cornelius’ household, the Holy Spirit miraculously fell upon them, and they began speaking in tongues.
However, when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the church members didn’t celebrate the miracle. Instead, they criticized him, saying, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them’ (Acts 11:3).
They completely overlooked the extraordinary event of the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit and focused on a perceived infraction. Thank God Apostle Peter was patient enough to explain the matter from beginning to the end.
This story reveals how some of the things we hear about the church can distort what is most important. It is that same attitude that is replicated when the issue of growth and money are the motivation for Evangelism.
When we go for evangelism, even before we speak, they are already saying point-blank, “I am not coming to your church.” They say this from a mindset that our goal is to drag them to our Church.
The attitude of some evangelists who go out to preach their church and only invite people to their local church also make people assume that is the purpose of evangelism.
It is, however, important to note that as preachers of the gospel, the goal is not to preach our church. We are to preach Christ and Christ.The gospel, as postulated in 1 Corinthians 15, is first and foremost our priority. We are not to argue or preach that our local church is better.
In understanding this, does that mean we should not invite people to church or deliberately neglect talking about church to avoid backlash? No, of course! Any person who has received the life of Christ must understand that the church is the best platform for spiritual sustenance
Therefore, after salvation, the person must find a bible-believing church to ensure growth. As new born baby that needs milk to grow so is the person who is newly born again. That person needs the milk of the word of God to grow. It is only through Bible study programmes in the church we can get the word that will make us grow apart from personal study of the Bible..
The evangelist must understand that ensuring the person gets planted in a church is important. If the person has a church, good; the preacher can still invite the person to special meetings that can be of blessing.
If they don’t have a church, by all means invite them to your local church where they can be under your tutelage or a bible-believing church around them and must ensure you do proper follow-up so they won’t go back to the world.
We are not to force our converts to our own local church, we are to ensure they are going to a Bible-believing church. The miracle does not happen in our local church alone. It is also not a war of which church has the most members.
Thus, it is essential to avoid the temptation of doing evangelism for numerical and financial growth of our church. This practice can create a wrong impression about evangelism and ultimately make people think the church is all.about the business of money and numerical growth.