Evangelism Today I. What is the current status of evangelism in the western church? A. Most churches have reached their plateau or are declining. B. Most pastors do not focus on the area of evangelism as their primary purpose. C. Most church members feel inadequate in communicating the Gospel to another person.

II. Why is it that most believers do not evangelize? There are many potential reasons why most believers do not evangelize. They may not evangelize because: A. They are unsaved themselves.

B. They have a wrong belief system 1. They do not believe that Jesus is the only way. 2. They do not believe in a literal hell. 3. They believe that if you are “basically good,” you will go to heaven.

C. They are fearful. 1. They fear discussing serious spiritual matters with people. 2. They fear potential confrontation. 3. They fear potential rejection. 4. They fear talking to strangers.

D. They are procrastinators (John 4:35; II Cor. 6:2). E. They are discouraged. F. They misunderstand their call (II Cor. 5:18-20; Acts. 1:8). G. They misunderstand the needed qualifications (John 1:40-51). H. They are indifferent to the idea of witnessing.

I. They have had bad personal experiences in the realm of evangelism. J. They have wrong priorities (Luke 9:59-60). K. They have been affected by wrong stereotypes. L. They are intimidated by people in the world.

M. They are not proud of their local church. N. They are ignorant of the process of salvation. O. They are ignorant of how to witness of Christ.

III. How do we deal with our guilt for our lack of evangelism? A. We do not want to evangelize out of a sense of guilt or because we feel that we have to. B. We want to evangelize because we want to.

The only way that we can move to the realm of desire in this area is to get a better perspective about what is actually happening in the eternal realm. When we share our faith we have the potential to assist people in:

1. Coming out of death into life. 2. Coming out of darkness into light. 3. Coming into an experience of abundant living. 4. Fitting out their place in heaven.

C. We need to see the difference of bringing people to Christ and bringing Christ to people. D. We need to understand that we are not the ones who open and close doors (Col. 4:2-4). E. We need to understand that fear is normal but it can be overcome