by Ray Brandon and Kwabea Eyoome Agbley
The Great Commission passage teaches us that the gospel concerns personal salvation and the restoration of all creation. The "everything I have commanded you" relates to every aspect of life. So, evangelism, according to the Great Commission, cannot be reduced to your neighbor's "decision for Christ." The neighbor also must be taught to follow Jesus in everything. That is evangelism.
As Christians, we are called and sent to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Triune Name and teaching them everything God has commanded. Jesus promises that his presence will be with us as we continue the mission to build the Kingdom he rules. The promise is that this Kingdom extends to every ethnic group, language group, and nation.
The book of Hebrews encourages Christians to hold fast to their profession of faith, endure and receive their reward. While salvation is an event in time, a believer's enduring profession comes from the gift of faith given by God that regenerates us and leads to the predestined glory of every Christian in Christ Jesus. This confession is a gift of God's grace to the professing believer, delivering us from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Endurance stems from this fidelity to Christ, the hope of glory that we stand in, and the Holy Spirit continues to work in us, sanctifying us to carry out the work that our allegiance to Christ demands. Jesus' instructions to us in Matthew extends redemption to all areas of life that transform every sphere of human activity. And thereby, every realm of human activity comes under the Kingship of Jesus.
So how do we share the Good News of Jesus to impact the community and people where we live? The answer is counter-intuitive to the modern mind that wants to move fast and large.
We evangelize our neighbors like we smoke brisket, slow, low, bold, and over a long time. Evangelism starts with the Church, the family, and the individuals in families and then extends powerfully into our community, calling sinners to repentance, faith, and kingdom living.
1. Put the Church and worship at the center.
The Christian life proceeds from the worship of God to the mission of Christ in the world that results in the worship of God where it does not exist, namely in your neighbor’s home and new churches planted. The Church, instituted by Jesus under qualified elders through the ordinary means of grace, purifies the living body of Christ. Weekly covenant renewal prepares Christians for daily public work outside the assembly.
Unfortunately, many established churches and even new church plants create "worship experiences" "that are simply a navel-gazing cul-de-sac rather than a launch pad for the glorious reign of Jesus. The evangelical Church must return to the worship of God rather than a pagan cultural form of dashboard Jesus. Modern worship, even when preaching is "gospel-centered" "often elevates emotionalism and decisionism as the compass and final authority. Worship becomes commodified, scaled, and franchised so that the modern worshipper is nothing more than a consumer headed for the best spiritual dopamine outlet when they can't buy chicken sandwiches.
According to God's explicit instruction, worshiping God renews and sends disciple-makers into the world every week, giving them ordinary means to sustain Christ's work through them. Worship itself is the engine of evangelism. The outflow of the formal renewing your covenant with God every Lord's Day determines the culture of a church and the nature of evangelism in the community.
2. Learn to rule yourself well.
The first thing the gospel does is baptize the believer into Christ and a new way of life by teaching, i.e., discipleship and grace-empowered discipline that empowers the believer to love and live by God's commands. The rule of Christ in a believer's life that guides them to glorify God extends into every area of their life so that their profession of faith proceeds from their heart, intellect, feet, and fingertips.
3. Build your family and home life first.
Human history begins with the family as a necessary structure for flourishing. So, redemption also the redemption story begins in a believing family. Modern evangelism and discipleship often overlook the family as a structure and truncate the work of the Word in the World. If you're taking your kids and dropping them off at four VBS programs this summer, relying on the Church, youth group, or Christian school to tell your children about the Bible, you may want to reevaluate what you are doing in your home. Suppose you ignore the structures God has put into place for worship, discipleship, and evangelism. In that case, you'll be delegating your obedience or abdicating Christ's commands altogether for a little more "me time," which results in very little time sharing the gospel with others.
Evangelism begins by establishing the rule of Christ in the home. This starting point requires that parents shoulder the burden of educating their children. The home is the Bible school, the vocational school, the school of finance, the school of music, and the complete education department. If this is overwhelming, remember that Jesus said his burden is easy and light, but he also says it's difficult, gives grace, and will be with you, and you don't have to do it in your strength.
As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I specialize in complex betrayal trauma, marital infidelity, and process addictions in marital therapy. I know firsthand that modern marriage is in shambles, but you already know that. If people wake themselves up at 3 am for counseling, our counseling practice could run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. People are desperate to live a different way than the way they are living.
As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as a father and grandfather, I can tell you that the burden of a family is a joy and a blessing. And as a pastor, I see God sanctifying Christian families by the Word every day, and their family life is good news to the world. The men in our Church engage in evangelistic street preaching at Planned Parenthood and on the University campus that bears the fruit of changed lives. But when men and women who are rebels against God come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, they need to see the gospel embodied in the worship of Christ in all aspects of home life.
4. Build friendships with people who worship well and are building Christ-filled homes.
Hebrews 10 – 12 teach us that we need Jesus, our High Priest, and King, and we cannot evangelize alone. We risk difficulty, discouragement, and becoming ineffective. His Kingdom is unshakeable, but we are not. Brotherhood and sisterhood are essential. Christian fraternity is one of the ways that Jesus mediates his presence among us. We all have the Spirit and are called to observe and identify the qualities that resemble Christ's nature, such as love, humility, compassion, forgiveness, and selflessness. It involves recognizing the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives, as described in Galatians 5:22-23. We encourage one another through worship and fellowship, prayer, discipleship, helping, and challenging one another. Holy Spirit empowerment to stir up one another to love and good works mean that we are actively connecting throughout the week in more ways than the formal programs of the Church. We act like real brothers and sisters that love each other. We share our lives, recreation, food, fun, burdens, and tips for canning vegetables and making pie crusts.
5. Work at your vocation in a way that is distinctly Christian.
There is a distinctly Christian way of doing everything. Dorothy L. Sayers argues that work is a means of earning a living, expressing our God-given talents, and contributing to the world. She believed that work in the arts, sciences, or any other field should reflect God's nature in creation and redemption. So, when we work, we redeem all aspects of life and bring them under the good news of Jesus' reign.
Are there ways to be distinctly Christian at work? Yes! Think about healthcare. If you're a nurse, do you treat your patients with dignity and respect? Do you work in a way that helps embody patient-centered dignifying care that stewards resources well? This is a tall order and will meet with some kind of HR or corporate friction along the way, but it is the straight road Christians in healthcare are called to. We could say this about farming, plumbing, retail, and all other areas of vocation. Evangelism begins with the integrity, creativity, and stewardship of creation and is not limited to leaning over the cubical wall to share Roman's road. Although, given the opportunity, don't hold back.
6. Manage your finances in a way that is obedient to Scripture, is generous, and builds long-term wealth.
Have you ever noticed how streaming services emphasize extremes? You are either stuck on a hunk of freezing tundra to survive alone or in a house filled by a hoarder. Sin loves the ditches. The glorious gospel will have none of either extreme. We are not called to vows of poverty or self-gratification. We are called to work hard, make as much money as possible, and be joyfully generous while using our vocation and finances to build wealth that can be leveraged for God's glory for many generations.
Yes, we should tithe, yes, we should give to missions, and yes, we should pay our bills. However, we must also consider building the goose rather than simply the golden egg. Building wealth isn't just sending missionaries or saving for retirement. It's about building generous businesses because they work in a way that honors Christ, giving jobs in our wicked age to Christian workers who, in turn, support families and ministries. Building business and investing for the next generation ensures evangelism grows long after you and I are gone. Evangelism in the Kingdom is not fireworks show for people to ooh, and aah, but it is building a power plant that sustains families, towns, and even whole regions where many people come under the shelter of the Savior and King for a very long time.
7. Gather around the dinner table often and often with friends.
We evangelize by being hospitable. The gospel itself is an invitation into the glorious Kingdom of God, and the invitation comes with a weekly meal attached: communion. Christians enact the gospel through hospitality first with their families and brothers in Christ and then extending to their neighbors (Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2). Hospitality embodies and incarnates the goodness and good news of the gospel.
We have an entire gospel that records Jesus' journey from table to table in Luke. There is the dinner at the Pharisee's house in Luke 7, the feeding of 5,000 in Luke 9, the supper at Bethany in Luke 10, a meal with Zacchaeus in Luke 19, and the Last Supper in Luke 22, and others in between. Jesus, who is the good news, demonstrates that he is for his creation by being with his creation, and those events are often around table fellowship. While not a license for over-indulgence, our tables are kingdom weapons against a hell of loneliness and disconnection.
8. In all these activities, engage in conversations on how Jesus is Lord over everything and call your neighbors to repent and follow Jesus in everything.
Christians must speak the gospel. What we observe in the Bible is God speaking. When God speaks, he informs our reality and pushes away the fog of unbelief. The great commission calls us to speak the gospel in every activity and to every person in all circles of our life. The conversations may be different in each context, but all the conversations reflect the same profession, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
When Christians speak, we do so as God does. At times it is a full explanation of God's plan for redemption, and at times it points to the fantastic design God planned in the roses on the west lawn. My father-in-law, John Frey, a first-generation preacher who all his children and nearly all his grandchildren are missionaries, pastors, and church planters, often would loudly exclaim, "Glory!" Because of his constant witness to the glory of God in a young man's fresh cut from the barbershop to a flock of turkeys crossing the road to unashamedly calling a man to repent of his sin and trust Jesus, when you heard, "Glory" in the house, you came to see God's work in every area of life. This evangelism is how Jesus wins the world and puts everything under his feet.
