"The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38).
The great evangelist T.L. Osborne wrote a book called, . He states that many of us in the church have gotten things backwards. We are praying for God to send the souls INTO our churches, and God is praying to send the believer's OUT into the harvest.
In other words, our prayers aren't even scriptural!
The late great evangelist, Dr. Bill Bright felt that 50% of Americans would turn their lives to Christ if the gospel had been lovingly presented to them by someone they trusted. Just think - 50%!
But it won't happen!
Not unless the church (you and I) change our strategy. Believers need to be intentional and GO OUT so that new believers COME IN. It's as simple as that! We've been doing evangelism backwards. We want them to come in, but we won't go out.
The harvest is not the problem - Jesus said the harvest is plentiful. And it is! Everywhere I go I try to share in 60 seconds what Christ means to me, and I've found that people are VERY open to hear my story!
The message is not the problem. 'JESUS SAVES' still works; especially when you tell them what Jesus did for you.
A good E-Free pastor friend of mine told me that he went to Bill Hybel's conference a couple years ago. He said that they admitted to have made a lot of good decisions, but they fell short in one specific area - they should have made evangelism their top priority.
My friend, if you want to experience that first love all over again, let's teach and equip each other to share our faith in the marketplace and in our neighborhoods. When I conduct training and outreach seminars, the people that complete it are so happy they did. They finally feel equipped to share their faith with their friends, and share it joyfully, confidently and intelligently!
Ready to fall in love with Jesus all over again? Let's go out!
Intentional for Souls,
Tom Elie
Evangelist/President
Oasis World Ministries
1 comment:
Dear beloved President Tom Elie, Thank you so much for you visited Remote Villages of Andhra Pradesh and I am very glad to see your ministry photos and I am requesting to you kindly visit my village and see our poor children home and uplift our ministry with your kind blessings.looking for your reply.yours faithfully in Christ. Pastor Raja Sekhar rajsekhar_p@yahoo.com
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