Christ Centered Evangelism: What it isnt

In my last post I covered what I saw as one of the main problems when we get our method and purpose for evangelism confused. I think I made it pretty clear that evangelism is supposed to be centered upon sharing the good news, which in our Christian setting, is the Gospel.

I mentioned a few things that I was willing to say evangelism truly isn’t. I am going to go down a list now and give you reasons why each one isn’t and shouldn’t be confused with true biblical evangelism. Please, if you disagree, take this with a grain of salt and listen in on what I have got to say.

Here is the paragraph from my previous post…

Some Christians believe the good news to be that we can be healed from all our sickness, while others believe that it could be that there is a great church in town with some really good music. Here are some more examples. God can change you life. You can become more disciplined. You can stop sinning if you come to church. You can meet great people. You can… You can… You can… I’m really hoping that you see what I’m trying to point out here.

1. The good news is not that we can be healed from all of our sickness. I know what you may be thinking right now, “yes it is, when Jesus died on the cross it healed us from all of our sins, and this includes the healing of our sins.” You are right. That did occur, but that in and of itself is not what the Gospel entails to… It is much greater than that.
2. The Gospel is not inviting a person to your wonderful church. Please don’t mistake me on this. All of you who choose to use asking people to church as your form of evangelism are doing a great job at leading people to a place where they can hear the Gospel spoken to them. I just hope that you realize what I am saying. Inviting a person to church isn’t going to provide them their salvation, but when they hear the Gospel evangelized to them in whatever form it may come, whether it is from the pulpit, or in a small group, that is going to be where they receive their salvation.
3. The Gospel is not that God can change your life… God can and will change your life, but once again, that isn’t what the Gospel is. Your life will begin to change once you hear the Gospel and begin to live by it. When you apply it to every aspect of your life, that is when you will receive the life changing affects of it. These affects, let me add, are also going to be much different than you may think. You aren’t necessarily going to be rich, or healthy, but you will have a transformed perspective on why you are here, and you will learn to love others as God has loved you, trust me. This is the best type of life change out there.
4. Learning discipline is not the Gospel. It is simply an affect which further shows the changing power of the Gospel.
5. Living a life free from sin is not the Gospel. Anyone can religiously live a life which is completely free from sin. I mean, obviously there will be a mass amount of sin still in a person’s life if they aren’t living by the power which God has made available for them. But it is only when that sin free life is a result of the love for God which has been implanted into you from the Gospel message of Jesus Christ dying on the cross to set you free from all of your sins and bondages, it is innacurate and misleading, even decietful, to tell somebody that all they have to do is live a good life to recieve the gifts of God.
6. Filling your life with great people is not the Gospel. As much as people want to say that when you come to church and begin to meet people, you are in the flow, and therefore you are covered by God’s saving grace, it is still wrong. Just because a person meets a bunch of God fearing people doesn’t mean that they too will have a God fearing relationship with their Creator. It is only once the seed of the Gospel finds root in their hearts that they will be saved by God’s grace.

As a conclusion to this post, I want to leave you with this. The Gospel is so much greater than these worldly things we try and relate it to. I hope that you have taken the above discussion into consideration. Pray about it. Comment on this post, e-mail me… Whatever. Let’s figure this thing out! My next post is going to cover what the Gospel is and how it should look. It will also be the conclusion to this mini series.

Until next time…

Christ Centered Evangelism: What is it?

Evangelism. This is a topic which many people find themselves afraid of. People are often too afraid to share there faith. It is also true that it is very important to share our faith with others. It is important that we tell everyone the Gospel. I have been somewhat infatuated with evangelism, well… ever since I became a full blown Christian. What really got me going though was the Way of the Master DVD series my youth pastor taught. After grasping and learning the material on these DVD’s, I began to teach it myself. Then I started to write and teach my own lessons, and then I began teaching a full fledged 8 week course on evangelism to youth who wanted to participate. Today, I am taking a class called Personal Evangelism here at the Portland Bible College. Through all of these different experiences I have learned that evangelism has many wrong definitions and many false interpretations. I am going to be writing a series over the next few weeks which will cover some of these falsities, and I hope to share some things I have learned which seem to be what evangelism is supposed to be. To head off the series, this post is going to cover what exactly evangelism means.

Evangelism literally means to bring good news. So in the Christian context what is the good news? I am prodding you right off with this question because I believe it to be very important. If we are going to take a word and use it, especially if it comes from the Bible, shouldn’t we know exactly what we are meaning when we say it? So. The good news of Christianity. To me this is a very simple question, it may be simple to you too, but honestly, it seems to me that most Christians really don’t know what the good news is.

Some Christians believe the good news to be that we can be healed from all our sickness, while others believe that it could be that there is a great church in town with some really good music. Here are some more examples. God can change you life. You can become more disciplined. You can stop sinning if you come to church. You can meet great people. You can… You can… You can… I’m really hoping that you see what I’m trying to point out here.

The good news of Christianity is literally the Gospel. So now the big question. What is the Gospel? I’m not going to take you on another question and answer, so here it is. The Gospel is simply this…

God created the earth. After he created the earth and everything on it and within it, man sinned against God by his own free will. This brought sin into a perfect world. Ever since sin has been in this world man has been trying to redeem himself by various acts. But it is obvious that these acts and religious ceremonies have done no good. The sins which we see in this world are worse than ever. But God had a plan to redeem man from their sins, because he knew of our incapability to be equal with his holiness. So God became a man and lived as Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life. At the end of his life he was murdered. He suffered a horrifying death, which was long and treacherous. This had to happen for no other reason than to redeem mankind from their sins. After three days in the grave, he rose from death conquering the grave. He rose to heaven, and he will someday return to finish all that is left. The Bible tells us that in order to be born again, we must deny ourselves, and believe in the God who lived, bled, and died for our salvation.

That is the Gospel. Please think about this. Does living a good life compare to this? I don’t think so. I think that it is the most amazing thing in the world to hear about how my creator did more than just create me, but he has chosen to love me so much that there is a plan set forth throughout all of time to redeem me from my own wretched sin.

The next post is going to be thoughts on why we shouldn’t confuse the other things I mentioned above as evangelism. See you soon.

Becoming Wise Because of God

Hello! I am sorry. I know I haven’t posted to this blog for quite some time now, but I have gotten to a place where I will once again have the time to do so. When I split this blog into joeyfrancis.org, I tried to make this page too formal, so I have now decided to split my writing between the two blogs in this fashion. I will write on here about God, and God only. I won’t go off on rants or personal journey’s, but on my other blog, I will post about what I am up to, and random rants and endorsements of things I pass by through my life.

So to the point of this post…

About a year ago, I got the opportunity to speak for five minutes at a men’s meeting at my church, and I spoke on wisdom. I spoke about becoming wise and being young. The reason I have thought about this is because I have recently began attending Portland Bible College. Being around so many people who are practicing spiritual disciplines has really got me thinking about my own life, and one of the things that I said I would strive for, at least a year ago, was wisdom.

This wisdom I am seeking after is not something I can learn in a book, or be told my any man, but it is something which God will give me by my disciplines towards the life and responsibilities he has given me. Read Job 32. It is a great chapter, in fact read the entire book of Job. This is the scripture I use as a foundation for wanting to make a covenant with God, where I rely on the wisdom in which he may impart towards me. If you are unfamiliar with the chapter, let me summarize it for you.

Job has been in conversation with his “friends” about the sin in Jobs life and the fairness of God. Pretty much Job is defending himself the entire time. He is saying that he has lived a life which doesn’t deserve the punishment and suffering he has gone through. His friends have said that God does not make wrong judgments, so Job must be a horrible, dirty, wretched sinner. In the midst of this conversation, there has been a young man standing to the side, listening. He doesn’t speak because he feels he does not have wisdom, because he thought wisdom came with years. But after thirty-one chapters of this debating, which is going nowhere fast, the young man decides to speak up. He says that he has learned that you are given wisdom by God, and although he is young, God has given him more wisdom than the older men before him.

The reason I have brought all of this up is because I believe that God does truly give wisdom to those who really do seek him and take the time to listen to what he has to say. I hope that this can be an inspiration for you young people out there, and I hope it can be an encouragement to you older people who don’t believe that God can actually use young people to speak profound truths…

The Word of God - Part 1

The Word of God is something which is greatly controversial, even among the church. Some people will choose to say that God can speak through many forms, where others will say that God can only speak though his written word (the Bible). Also, people will either believe that God’s Word is perfect in every sense, or that it is full of errors and cannot be completely trusted.

I personally take the stance, and fully believe, that the Word of God is completely inspired and it can be shown through several different ways. I believe that it is perfect and completely infalluable. This stance makes many people quiver. They will feel as if I am stepping too far, and that I am now very dangerous with a stance on God’s Word like this. I don’t see it as something dangerous, actually, I see it as something very beneficial. It helps me not react to my emotions, and turn towards the wisdom of God, therefore, making better decisions when I don’t know what to do.

Through these next few posts we I will be examining the validity of the ways in which we claim that God speaks. As usual this will be following along with Wayne Grudems book title Systematic Theology. If you plan on following along with this series of blogs, I would highly recommend investing in a copy of your own. It is a great book, because it really helps you understand a wide perspective on many different Chritian beliefs.

The first way that God can speak to us, more or less, did speak to us, is through Jesus Christ. We are told from John, in John 1, that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” If you continue to read this chapter you will find that John is referring to the Word as Jesus Christ. This shows that the entirety of scripture and what we call the Word is contained and represented through Jesus Christ, although, it is clear right here that it is speaking of Jesus, we must remember that Jesus is just one part of the Triune God, therefore, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, contain the entirety of the Word as well. Maybe a better way to think of it would be that the entirety of God is actually represented through God’s Word.

I am going to stop here, but I want you to think about what it is that you belief about the Word of God. Try to figure out where you stumble with it, or where you fail to have complete understanding. Through the next couple of posts we will talk about how God communicates his Word to us. Whether it is through writing, speaking, through other men, or just through God. We will try to investigate these.

If you have any questions or comments (maybe about the new direction of this site) feel free to leave them in the space provide below. Thanks!

Systematic Theology - Part 2

If you have read my last post on Systematic Theology you will be somewhat familiar with what this form of theology is. If you have not, you should first read that post by visiting Systematic Theology - Part 1. After reading that first post you may see that systematic theology is obviously a great way to study the Bible, but you may not really understand why it is that we need to study the Bible in this great of depth.

Well, rest assured if this is what you have been wondering. I too have thought about why it is that we need to take the time to really study the Bible, especially, if you are not in any sort of ministry. First without any scriptural references, because like I said, I’m not a Bible scholar. I want to tell you why I believe it is important that every Christian takes the time to study out the Bible a bit further than just reading it every day.

Sometimes we get stuck in situations where we feel as if we are compromising on God’s Word. In these situations it would be very helpful to understand what the Bible says about what you are doing, and why you are feeling the way that you are. There are a lot of unlearned people who really don’t completely understand the Gospel, so I believe that with going above and beyond simply reading the Bible, by going through some good books like Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. People will gain a much better understanding of the Gospel, and they won’t base their salvation upon what they are doing, but instead, upon what God has done for them.

Secondly, I feel that it is important to understand the Word well enough that when some Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Mormons come knocking on your door that you can clearly explain to them where your faith and their faith are different. A lot of people come to this belief that as long as the person at the door says something about Jesus, that they are the same, well, that will be covered here in about nine or ten weeks, so lets save that for later discussion. By understanding the Bible in a more complete sense we will be able to stand more firmly on our beliefs when we are confronted with systems of beliefs which are different.

So now going to scripture. My hope would be that whoever decides to really follow this with me would go ahead and get a copy of Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, so that I don’t have to quote the scriptures which he is using. I see that as just biting off of his work, and I really don’t want to do that. So instead I am going to simply quote one scripture which has been very influential in developing my want to understand the Bible in a more complete way. Acts 17:11 says, “…they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” This is talking about how a certain group of Jews responded when they heard the Gospel in it’s completeness for the first time. They didn’t take for granted what they were hearing, and they wanted to make sure that what they were going to believe in was true.

The things which are talked about throughout the Scriptures are often mind boggling. It seems to me like it would be logical to go through the Bible and attempt to understand these things at a deeper level. By doing this we can develop a better understanding which will lead us to knowing the Glory of God in a way that is only possible by the revealing of himself through the Word.

Where do some of you, who study theology often, agree or disagree? I would love to get some conversation going on here… Any one willing to spark it up?

Systematic Theology - Part 1

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going through the book  Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. This first week will be a little slow in the sense that there may not be much to talk about, but for the sake for going through the book completely I figured I wouldn’t skip the introducing chapter.

Grudem opens up the book with an “Introduction to Theology.”  In this introduction he basically is talks about what systematic theology is and what advantages it has over other forms of theology. According to this book we can define systematic theology as this, “any study that answers the question, ‘What does the whole Bible teach us today?’ about any given topic.” To me this sounds like it would be the best way to study the Bible.

It doesn’t do us much good to just know what the old testament says about a topic, or even what the new testament has to say. It is best to have a complete Biblical understanding of what God’s word is telling us. Grudem speaks of how undergoing a study of the major doctrines of the Bible, should and will have a significant impact on our lives. I hope this is true, which I know it must, because understanding what the Bible says completely on so many different topics has got to be an edifying experience.

People in general will make claims about the Bible, and in a sense they are doing systematic theology. Grudem uses the example of a person saying, “The Bible says that Jesus is coming again.” He goes on to tell us how this statement is a statement which is taking into account the entire Bible. A huge plus to this form of theology is the organization of it. It is not unorganized, so it makes it very clear when you come to the conclusion which you reach through your studies.

One thing that I find to be most intriguing is the statement that Grudem makes about the accuracy of this form of theology, “In systematic theology, summaries of biblical teachings must be worded precisely to guard against misunderstandings and to exclude false teachings.” In other words systematic theology must be very clear and use as little words as possible so that there may be no room for misunderstanding.

So this takes me to the end of my first post of the three I will be posting this week. What I want to hear from you is any preconceived opinions of this type of theology, your experiences with it, books you’ve read on it, if you’ve read this book, and things you would like to learn. So go for it, I hope to see some good discussion!

The “New” Fire of New Desire

Today I have added the finishing touches to The Fire of New Desire. This may be very surprising to many of you, but I have deleted ALL of my old posts. The reasoning for this is hopefully logical, I am going to start discussing a certain theological topic every week. For example this week I will begin going through Wayne Grudem’s book called Systematic Theology. I will read one chapter a week. After I read the chapter I will do some further study on the topic and write a post which will contain some facts about the topic, what I think and feel about the topic, and some questions about the topic. I want this to stir you enough so that this can be a place where we can talk about the many, many topics spoken of throughout the Bible and the direction of the church.

I hope to see this blog tranformed into more of a forum and resource center. Obviously I am not a Bible scholar. I have never gone to seminary. But I am going to do my best to study these topics enough that others can come along and add their more educated and experienced opinions as well.

For all of you who have previously referred to this site as Joey’s blog, I have kept you in mind! Go to my new personal blog. I will be posting everything the way I used to on here. It will be about my life, and about the experiences and thoughts I have on my walk with Christ. So be excited!