Epilogue

Now how do we accomplish our divine mandate in a world that is so complex and
changing? Understanding the world in which we live will always be a challenge. The
world is as John’s sea that ever changes and places challenges before the world
evangelist. But this is not the greatest task we face. The greatest task is ourselves. We
have in many cases digress into a churchianism that is ineffective. We must therefore
repent and restore the first works. We must remember who we are as the children of
God, and then get on with the task that Jesus set before us.
There are no magic formulas for repentance and restoration in this matter. I have no
sociological or pyschological paradigm to which we must turn and implement in our
lives. We have only the Bible. There is no magic methodology that will programme our
lives into an effective ministry to the lost. But we do have the Bible. And I might add
that it takes no Bible scholar to reach into the Scriptures and discover what must be
done. The Holy Spirit offers a New Testament textbook of what to do, as well has
several case histories of how common people successfully followed the textbook, and
subseqently turned the world upside down in the first century. Therefore, in your
personal studies of the textbook, see if the following concepts were implemented in the
lives of the early disciples in order to take the gospel to the world:

A. Restore our ministry of prayer and fasting.
In the initial years of the existence of the Antioch church in Acts 13, the prophets
and teachers continually ministered and fasted (At 13:1). It was not that the Holy Spirit
called Paul and Barnabas, and then they fasted. The text reads that as disciples they
(This series of blogs compose a book that carry the title, “Making Disciples In A Global Community.” )
ministered and fasted as a behavior of life in their work of preaching and teaching.
When leadership restores ministry and fasting, then God knows the qualified men He
can call into a greater world ministry.
After the leaders qualified themselves through ministry and fasting, it was then the
Holy Spirit who asked that Paul and Barnabas be separated unto a greater ministry. And
you know the rest of this story.
If we are to get into the world as Jesus would have us, then we must qualifiy
ourselves through ministry and fasting. I have found that there is not so much a problem
with the ministry, but with the regular fasting. In discussing this matter with church
leaders I have had some leaders even argue that fasting is not a command, and thus for
them it cannot be a part of their Christian life. And herein is the problem. The truth is
that fasting is not a command. However, Jesus said that in His kingdom His disciples
would fast (Mt 9:14,15). It is not that there must be a command for fasting. It is as the
prophets and teachers in Antioch. When sincere and passionate men are serious about
the commission to take the gospel to the world, fasting and prayer is a way of life.
When leaders start fasting about the work, things start happening. What we often
try to do is get by with a cheap prayer. But sometimes words of prayer are just that, just
words. But when the action of fasting is linked with prayer, then God knows that we are
serious. And it takes serious people to be called by the Holy Spirit to move on to a
greater ministry. Therefore, unless our prayers are linked with fasting, the Spirit cannot
find passionate leaders to get the job done. I believe that the lack of fasting in churches
will continue to greatly hinder the potential of what can be done by any particular
church. On the other hand, if a church starts fasting, look out. The Spirit will start
working abundantly above all that we can imagine.
B. Restore our search of the word of God.
The correct translation of 2 Timothy 2:15 is, “Be diligent to present yourself
approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth.” Diligent preachers and teachers will be diligently into the word of God.
The problem with the religious culture of the churchian world is that adherents give a
religious performance for God that is directed by professional clergymen, but the
adherents do not know the Bible. Churchians are often so busy in their secular life that
they have no time for serious Bible study.
If we do not believe that people will be saved by their good works, then we will
have no desire for evangelistic outreach to these “good people.” And thus, we have no
passion for the word. We now live in an extremely biblically ignorant churchian world.
Because of this ignorance of the word of God, the foundation is laid for the development
of numerous religious movements that direct the minds of men away from God. What is
more scary is that many churches assume that the preacher is the one who is to be the
authority in the word, and thus they have given themselves over to what little knowledge
he has of the word. This behavior sets the foundation upon which preachers can lead
religious groups wherever their desires so choose.
Any disciple who seeks to do what God wants him to do will seek to let God
continually communicate to him through the written word. In prayer we talk to God.
But God cannot do something with a child who will not listen to Him. Because of
laziness in Bible study, what people have done in order to find a message from God is to
place great emphasis on dreams or experiences. I often hear the statement, “God spoke
to me.” In all these humanistic adventures, people are trying to get a cheap message
from God. But what God has instructed is that diligent disciples diligently get into the
word of God. There is no easy way to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior. Through long hours of study we will know the will of God. With a knowledge
of the word of God we will guard ourselves from being led astray by the theologies of
men, and more importantly, by our own misguided behavior. When Christians are truly
into the word of God, they are diligently into all the world because they want to teach
others what God has taught them through His word. For this reason, therefore, we must
repent and restore diligent Bible study in the family of God.
C. Restore personal relationships with one another.
The New Testament is saturated with passages that encourage relationships. These
are called “one another” passages. There are simply hundreds of such passages that
teach Christians to pray for one another, sing to one another, give to one another,
consider one another, encourage one another, watch out for one another, bear one
another’s burdens, etc. Christianity is relationships, and if one would seek to spiritually
grow, he or she must establish a close relationship with fellow disciples.
Relationships prepare us for heaven. Relationships prepare our characters for
eternal dwelling because our close contact with other people helps us to fine tune our
own personalities. We learn to dwell with others, and thus we discover different
qualities in our own personality that may need more attention in order to cohabit with
others. The better our relationship is with others, the better we understand ourselves.
Churches that seek to establish close relationships between Christians are usually
those churches that are seeking to serve the needs of others. They are churches that
have members who know how to work together in accomplishing ministies that touch
the lives of other people.
We live in a world with religions that are sustained by traditional ceremonies that
identify their existence among other man-made religions. These groups are often cold
and very impersonal. They are built around the function of a pastor or clergy that is
viewed as the sustainer of the group or organization of churches. But people want more
than attendance at a religious ceremony. They want people. If the church is what it
should be, there will be a natural appeal to the hearts of others who are seeking friends.
They will thus be drawn by our love of one another, not by our doctrinal correctness,
nor by our ceremonies.
And this is exactly what Jesus said would be the signal of our identity. We should
be known by our love (relationships). Churches that would be successful in world
evangelism, therefore, are churches that are built on loving relationships that draw
people to them. This brings us to the true identity of the church.
D. Restore our love experience.
Everyone knows Jesus’ mandate that we be identified by our love of one another (Jn
13:34,35). It is this love that moves us to do what Paul said in Philippians 2:4. “Let
each one not look out merely for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
When a group of Christians start doing this, then their love is manifested toward others.
Slaves seek others to serve. But when a church becomes introverted, they are not
seeking to serve, but to be served.
When love is truly practiced by disciples, they gather together in order to find
someone unto whom they can express their love. The serendipity of the gathering of
those who seek to serve, therefore, is that one is exhorted by being served. We do not
come together in order to see what we can get out of our assemblies. We come together
to find someone to love. By this we are identified as true disciples of Jesus.
In order to do this, look at the preceding verse to Philippians 2:4. Paul wrote, “Let
nothing be done through rivalry or empty conceit, but in humility of mind let each
esteem others better than themselves” (Ph 2:3). In order to develop a group that is
loving in relationships, each member of that group must learn how to “esteem others”
better than himself. Those who do this will continually seek to serve others. And this is
the magic of evangelism. People usually first come to Jesus because of our love of one
another. Once drawn, then they are taught the truth in order that they obey the gospel.

Now consider this. Do you think others will be drawn to loving groups of disciples?
Will others who are wounded and hurting come for rescue where there is a family of
disciples who are seeking to care for them? This is church. It is a relational
environment that draws those who seek help and friendships. Unless churches restore
this type of environment among the members, they have no appeal to those who need
help.
The primary reason why people are drawn to the church is not because it has the
right doctrine. They come for loving friendships. If churches can restore such among
the members, then the church will grow numerically because those who come will grow
to know Jesus through the behavior of the members. This was what Jesus wanted the
fallen Ephesian church to do. If they would restore their first love, then others would be
drawn to Jesus. But if there is no love, then the lampstand of light has gone out.
E. Restore good works:
Paul exhorted Titus to remind the brethren to “be careful to maintain good works”
(Ti 3:8). Because of the warning, we must assume that there is always the possibility of
apostasy away from maintaining good works in our lives as disciples of Jesus. The
reason for this is that we often take for granted the fact that we were bought with the
price of Jesus’ sacrificial offering on the cross. We thus forget to be thankful with a
response of good works (See 2 Cor 4:15).
When the church in any area moves into the generation of disciples who have grown
up in the church, there is a tendency for members to take for granted who they are and
what they have. As stated in previous chapters, when the church moves into the second
and third generation, they often become unevangelistic because they exist on the
evangelistic work of their forefathers. They become unevangelistic because the church
is composed of those who have grown up in the church, and thus they have forgotten the
chaotic religious confusion out of which their fathers were converted. Good works
cease because there is not appreciation for the freedom that was gained in Christ
through obedience to the gospel.
This is one of the reasons why the Hebrew writer exhorted the older disciples to
whom he was writing to not forsake the assemblying of Christians together in order to
stir up love and good works (Hb 10:24,25). Those who are not careful to maintain good
works will not show up at assemblies that promote love and works. This is usually what
happens to churches in their second and third generation of existence.
In order to get growing again, it is absolutely imperative that stagnant churches
repent and restore their first works. There is no alternative to this. Members may be
willing to do good works when the works present themselves to be done. But this is not
the problem. If their is no initiative to go to work by implementing plans to accomplish
work goals, a church is dead. If there is a supposed faith that is not expressed by work,
the church is dead. When members stop coming to assemblies wherein good works are
identified, the church is dead. Repentance that is manifested by fruit is the only escape
from this death. As Jesus exhorted the Ephesian church, we must remember from where
we have fallen and repent in order to restore the first works (Rv 2:5).
F. Restore an evangelistic outreach.
“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men …” (2 Cor 5:11). In
order to restore our desire to persuade men through the preaching of the gospel, there
must be a restoration in our lives of the fear of God, not only for what God will do to
those who do not obey the gospel, but also to us for not preaching the gospel.
Every Christian must be evangelistic. If one would disagree with this statement,
then the spiritual death of that person is identified. If we bring together an entire group
of disciples who agree with the one who disagrees with the statement, we have the
answer to why churches stagnate and die out of existence. Unevangelistic churches
have created a religion after their own desires, and thus the entire group of members
who are part of that church ushers themselves together into death.
If churches believe that they can start growing again without the entire body of
members becoming evangelistic, then they have deceived themselves into believing that
an unevangelistic disciple is acceptable to God. Every member must be evangelistic.
No one can sit idly by and allow others to do all the work. If those who idly sit by
become the majority of the group, then death has set in.
The curse of fulltime preachers who stay with a specific church is that the church
who pays their salary often hands over to them their evangelistic responsibility. This is
not something that I am teaching of my own opinion. This is an axiomatic truth, that is,
a truth that is self-evident. When churches become financially rich, they seek to hire
their work done for them. Members then sit idly by when the fulltime evangelists does
the work. You know this is true.
It is difficult to convince one who is obsessed with a successful secular job that he
cannot buy his way out of personal involvement with a paycheck to a fulltime preacher.
The problem is not in the preacher, but in the one who thinks he can be obsessed with
his work in worldly things while someone else assumes his responsibility in being
personally involved in good works and evangelistic outreach.
Though it is almost impossible to restore rich churches who have hired a staff to do
their “spiritual business,” there is always hope. But the hope lies only in the repentance
of those who have chosen to sit on a bench during the “hour of worship” while someone
else becomes personally involved. Only repentance will salvage a church house full of
such people. By repentance I mean that every member must make a commitment to
become personally involved in what Jesus would have every disciple do. This was what
Paul exhorted Timothy to tell the rich. “Command those who are rich … that they be
rich in good works.” (1 Tm 6:17,19).
G. Restore daily discipleship.
We have created a religion that naturally dies once it has reached the end of its life.
Now think about this. We have now the “hour of worship.” This is not a New
Testament concept. It is the result of an industrial/business culture that seeks to
departmentalize every aspect of the life of a disciple. We reason that since work is
departmentalized between 8:00AM and 5:00PM, then certainly “religious time” can also be
departmentalized. In order to enforce this concept, the departmentalized “hour of
worship” is boxed in between an “opening prayer” and “closing prayer.” Fulfilling
one’s personal duties as a Christian is thus confined to an assembled “hour of worship,”
outside which, one is on his own time and free from any responsibilities to fulfill one’s
service to God. This is the belief and behavior of the dead church. It is true churchian
doctrine at its best.
Acts 5:42 is a record of the behavior of the early church. “And daily in the temple,
and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”
There was a daily obedience in the lives of the early disciples because they realized the
urgency of their calling. As priests of God who never ceased doing the responsibilities
of priesthood, they were daily into the work of God to preach the gospel to the lost and
teach the disciples. There is no such thing in the New Testament as an “hour of
worship.” There were no opening or closing prayers. Discipleship was a lifetime, allthe-
time commitment to serve. Anything different in belief is an apostasy from the
truth. Anything different in behavior is an apostasy to a religion that we have created
after our own desire to shirk our duties and separate ourselves from personal
involvement in the lives of others.
In order to start growing again, we must restore in our lives daily discipleship. We
must be daily priests of God who minister the word of God to the world. When we once
again become excited about sowing the seed of the kingdom because we are excited
about the need of preaching the gospel to the world, we will start growing. We will
have more conversions only when we grow in the conviction that every disciple must
become involve daily in preaching the gospel to the world. Nothing else will keep the
church growing into all the world.