Mere Missions

T he G ospel : E vangelize • 133

it is. Since hell is real, the Gospel message and its proclamation is not simply a good option or a cool thing to do but it is literally a matter of life and death. 4. Two Observable Behaviors There may be more, but, in my observation and experience, these two behaviors rank at the very top for church planters. It is these that push them in their task to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. a. Courage is fundamentally the behavior of greatest importance in evangelism. I have shared the Gospel with those who were Crips, Bloods, Nation of Islam, Black Hebrew Israelites, Hindus, Buddhists, poor and rich, male and female, gay and straight, republican and democrat. Courage does not guarantee results but there will definitely be no conversions apart from the courage to evangelize. Remember the words of Winston Churchill: “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” b. Angst The church planter is constantly thinking about the great and awesome day of the Lord (Joel 2.31; Acts 2.20). They walk this uneasy balance of, “no tomorrow,” and yesterday is gone. Today must be seized for the Kingdom. Dietrich Bonhoeffer accentuates this angst, “The world dreams of progress, of power, and of the future. But the disciples meditate on the end, the last judgement, and the coming of the Kingdom. To such heights the world cannot rise. And so the disciples are strangers in the world, unwelcome guests and disturbers of the peace. No wonder the world rejects them!” ( The Cost of Discipleship ).