Reactivating evangelism: Real time, real place and for real people

We will need everyone to be involved in reaching everyone - Chris Cartwright

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to represent Elim at the Amsterdam 2023 Conference. Thousands gathered from Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, ministries and mission agencies from over 120 countries around the theme ‘Everyone: reaching every person on Earth’.

That bold title is not just a strapline for a conference but an audacious goal for the decade ahead. Leading up to Pentecost 2033 (2,000 years after the birth of the church), the call is for every part of the body of Christ and every person who follows Jesus to join in the great commission task of local and global evangelism and outreach. In the words of Dr Billy Wilson, Chair of the Conference and of the Pentecostal World Fellowship, “Our aim is to pursue the goal that everyone can have an authentic opportunity to know Christ and develop a personal and eternal relationship with the one true God.”

Many would expect Pentecostals to set big goals and use passionate language. But I believe this is more than mere emotion, ambition or hype.

Such a goal cannot be accomplished by human means alone. It directs us to position ourselves in fresh humility and heartfelt prayer to seek God for his heart for those who don’t know Christ. It draws us to sense and see what the Holy Spirit is doing in our community and nation, as well as looking out to other nations, cultures and people groups. It requires a shift of mindset from maintaining church and Christian experience as we know it to fresh awareness of the need for every Christian to be a witness wherever they are for Christ.

We will need everyone to be involved in reaching everyone. The good news is that this is embedded in the message of salvation and Jesus’ call to us all to follow him.

This renewed call to reach everyone is directed by the Great Commission in Matthew 28 – “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” It’s empowered by the promise of the Spirit on all people in Acts 1:8: – “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses in…” – and Acts 2 at Pentecost as he comes upon the 120 disciples in the Upper Room.

I love what our friend John Kirkby, founder of Christians Against Poverty, is doing. In response to this growing urgency and what many are feeling about reactivating evangelism, in what I call real time, real place and for real people, John has started a new initiative called the Isaiah 61 Movement. He confesses to struggling to share his faith and in researching further has found that 80 per cent of us do too. So, he and the Isaiah 61 Movement team have launched a unique app (i61m) which aims to help us grow in confidence to ‘Share Life, Share Faith and Share Jesus’ so that others can discover Jesus for themselves. The simple, engaging app creatively provides resources, encouragement and connection to turn good intentions into action. And what’s more, the app and a range of supporting resources are free.

In the coming months, we are going to be focusing on awakening our desire to share our faith with others, on building confidence and sharing our story in God’s biggest story of salvation and in celebrating the many different ways that God is using ordinary everyone to bring others to know Jesus personally. Check out the many resources from Elim Evangelism and links to our amazing annual Elim Alpha Course and the brilliant REACH Podcast.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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