Evangelism and Spiritual Warfare, Mentor's Guide, MG08

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E V A N G E L I S M A N D S P I R I T U A L W A R F A R E

Character, Not Content

In a recent evangelistic youth rally, a youth minister spent very little time covering any of the doctrinal content of the Gospel with the kids participating in the event. He reasoned, “Doctrine only creates unnecessary discussions about stuff that doesn’t matter. I figured I would rather have a handful of kids on fire for the Lord and in love with him than a bunch of folks hung up on big theological words and weird ideas about the resurrection and incarnation and other doctrinal issues.” Do you agree or disagree with the rationale of the youth minister? Why or why not?

That Kind of Thing Doesn’t Help Anybody

Concerned that their food outreach ministry was becoming too silent about the Good News, a Christian worker brought up in a ministry meeting the need for the team to share the Gospel more openly and clearly. One of the fellow workers objected to the proposal, saying “We speak most clearly of the love of God in Christ with these folks when we show our care for them in our food ministry, clothing distribution, our crisis counseling, and overall care for them. When we make the focus of the time on preaching at them, we inevitably cast a shadow on our love and service, and they become objects rather than fellow human beings who need our love. If you ask me, preaching is overrated. The ones who usually preach the loudest serve the least. Frankly, that kind of thing doesn’t help anybody.” How would you respond? In sharing with a seeker who is close to accepting the Lord, you notice more and more of the ideas of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in his speech. You grow very concerned when he asserts calmly and logically that Jesus’ body never rose from the dead, only his spirit was resurrected by God. He shows you in his JW textbook how this is the case, which quotes 1 Corinthians 15.45 - Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. He demands strongly from you an answer to his question: Why do I need to believe that Jesus rose from the dead physically in order to be saved? That simply makes no sense to me. How would you answer his question? Makes No Sense to Me

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