The Importance of Church Evangelism and Discipleship

Evangelism and discipleship summarize the calling of the church. There are various definitions for evangelism provided by Timothy Beougher in his book, Invitation to Evangelism. The three I liked best are the ones by William Temple’s committee of Anglicans in 1918, D.T Niles, and that produced from the Lausanne Covenant. Funny enough, I said something quite similar to Niles, “Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food”[1], in response to a discussion earlier in the week. I like the simplicity of the saying, and the spirit behind it as well. It does well to sympathize with the lost, however more substance would be helpful for a concrete definition. The Anglicans articulated it, “to present Christ Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men shall come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their Savior, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His church”.[2] I do not agree with Packer’s negative assessment of this definition, claiming that it makes the essence of evangelism dependent upon the result of converts.[3] Though, I believe in essence it is the sharing of the gospel, and that we may firmly trust God in His providence to make something more of that effort of ours. But obviously the purposed end of evangelism is souls converted. Besides, it is good that this definition strikes at the heart of membership in the church, and its claim of citizenship into the kingdom of God. Unlike Packer, I believe the lack of this definition is where it only vaguely mentions presenting Christ Jesus. While that may be purposefully all encompassing, it lacks specificity. For this point, the definition provided in the Lausanne Covenant is helpful for making clear, “the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead”.[4] Even more is added to describe the good news of Christ after this phrasing, but I particularly thought the emphasis on the resurrection was worthwhile.

            Briefly, I would define discipleship as aiding another believer in their Christian maturity and submission to the Holy Spirits work of progressive sanctification in their life. The means by which this is accomplished is too vast to narrow down, other than making mention of fellowship, accountability, and encouraging their participation in the means of grace. These notions are important for the church because they clarify its purpose and mission. The church as a gathered body is purposed towards the discipleship of believers, while its mission is to spread the gospel in hopes of their being more believing disciples, via evangelism.

            Evangelism and discipleship are important to the life of the individual believer as well, because there is no higher individual purpose than to aim for this God glorifying goal of spreading the gospel, and making disciples in all the nations. In his opening to, The Soul Winner, Spurgeon puts it well, “Soul winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; indeed, it should be the main pursuit of every true believer”.[5]

            To conclude, our efforts in these areas make up the whole of our responsibility as believers both individually, and together as the church body. With compassion for the lost, and zeal for the kingdom of God, we have a responsibility to spread the good news of our Lords moral example in life, substitutionary atonement in death, and victorious resurrection, so that all may hear and believe. And for those who do, we must preach, teach, admonish, and guide, and seek this for ourselves, so that we may steadily progress in our sanctification, and persevere unto the end.

CITATIONS:

[1]  Timothy K. Beougher, Invitation to Evangelism: Sharing the Gospel with Compassion and Conviction (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2021), 8.

[2]  Beougher, 7.

[3]  Ibid.

[4]  Beougher, 9.

[5]  Charles Spurgeon, The Soul Winner (Louisville, KY: GLH Publishing, 2015), 2.