1st Year Class

I am teaching the first year Evangelism and Discipleship class.  It has been a blessing to take on and prepare.  I find myself anything but 'arrived' in this area, then throw in the African context and I feel extremely inadequate.  I have been learning so much through study and interaction with the students.  I truly hope they are getting as much out of it as I am!
One of the books I am using to help me prepare our talks is Mark Dever's "The Gospel and Personal Evangelism." 

We talked through some of his points on what Evangelism Is NOT the other day.  Watching lightbulbs popping in students heads is a hilight of teaching and that happened in this session.  A run down of his points in this section were...
1. Evangelism is not imposition - Christians are to tell and share the good news but not to impose it on others.  Sharing the gospel of Jesus is great but we can't force it onto others. 

2.  Personal Testimony - Personal testimonies are great to be shared.  But, Dever's point is that they should not be confused with evangelism.  The reason is that evangelism is the proclamation of Christ not our life. We can do evangelism through our personal testimony but it has to be about the gospel that saves. 

3.  Social Action and Involvement - Again, these are good things and to be encouraged.  But, in and of themselves they are not evangelism. 

4. Apologetics - Defending the faith or arguing points of Christianity.  May in some cases be appropriate to do but in and of itself Apologetics is not evangelism.

5.  Evangelism is not results - Evangelism cannot be tied to results of how many people converted.  This has nothing to do with whether it was evangelism or not. 

During Point #5 I knew something had hit home.  Some of the students were just sitting in their chairs laughing.  I wasn't sure if that was good or bad or what?  I wasn't sure if I was in for a big argument.  But, eventually I got it out of them that this was a new thought for them.  They had always considered evangelism only to be evangelism when someone converted.  Thus, there was all kinds of pressure on them to see results.  They expressed how free they felt by this point.  They did not need to feel guilt anymore about someone not converting.  They did not need to use pressure tactics to 'close the deal' they just needed to explain clearly and simply the gospel of Jesus and the work of evangelism was done! 

As you think of the first years pray for them as they continue to grow and mature in their faith.  I have a wide variety in the class from a retired school principal to kids right out of high school.  It's a great mix and we are having some really healthy conversations that have been very challenging.