Belong, Believe, Behave

I was at the Preaching/Teaching convention last week in Joplin, MO. There were over 600 lead ministers there and over 1,100 attending the convention. When you get that many ministers together, you are bound to see and hear some good teaching. I was so blessed to go and was so thankful that Oakwood believes in continuing education for its ministry staff. These conferences are such a blessing to all of us. They help sharpen the skills and keep the vision fresh.

The theme of the convention this year was "Go". How exciting. I was like, come on! Can we not come up with anything better than go? Though the theme was weak, it was focused on evangelism which isn't a weak topic at all. There were some really good workshops and speakers on all angles and facets of evangelism.

Phil Claycomb of Nexus Church Planting out of Dallas, TX gave an excellent workshop on Evangelistic DNA in Churches. One of the things that he highlighted in his class dealt with how people come to Christ today. We also dealt with church methodology but more in theory and principle than practical.

In the past, the stages went like this:
1. Receive information
2. Come to faith
3. Commitment to growth & church
4. Community & fellowship

But today it's more like this::
1. Community & fellowship
2. Come to faith
3. Commitment to growth & church
4. Receive information

In the past, the church's evangelistic message has been that you behave, then you believe, then you belong. But today's unchurched need to belong, then believe, and then behave.

So many times when people seek God by visiting His church, the church says to them, "Clean yourself up and behave." Then we invite them to believe and then they can belong to our fellowship. But what we really need to be doing is loving them and beginning a relationship with them and giving them a sense of belonging, that we have time and space and want them here. Then hopefully through our love and example we can introduce them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Then we can teach them to behave in the pattern of scripture.

Jesus said, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Matthew 28:19-20 The command here is "make disciples" . How? "Go" is the call to go to them and make them feel welcome and loved. "Baptizing them" happens after their belief and faith in Jesus Christ. It's the conversion part of evangelism. "Teaching them to obey" is the behave part that we often ignore or fail to put into good practice in the church.

I hope that if you are reading this you understand the implications for evangelism. We must love people and meet them where they are at first. In scripture it's recorded that Jesus had compassion on the crowds. That they were like sheep without a shepherd. There are many in our world today that are exactly the same. Sheep without the good shepherd, Jesus. What are we doing to show them love and compassion?