Each year we dedicate the month of October to outreach, where we hand out flyers, put on exciting events and cater our Sunday services to seekers. Simply turning up like every other Sunday won’t make an impact for the kingdom. Now is the time to Pray, Invite and Engage people with the gospel, or P.I.E. So what is stopping us?
One reason could be apathy. Evangelism takes effort. Yet if you saw someone dangling over a cliff, would you refuse to help because it smacks of too much effort? It takes a certain level of callousness to resign our loved ones to eternity in hell because we couldn’t be bothered showing them the way to life.
But the more common reason is fear. As Jesus warned, evangelism will result in ridicule, losing friends, opposition, or even mean imprisonment or death. So how do we overcome such fear?
Well in Acts chapter 4, the Christian church experiences it’s first instance of persecution. The Apostles Peter and John are ‘warned’ not to speak in Jesus’ name (v. 18) and threatened (v. 21). So how does the church respond to this?
- They praise God (v. 24-28). Five out of the seven verses of prayer in Acts 4:23-31 are praise.
- They acknowledge what it at stake. In praying ‘consider their threats’ (v. 29), they declare that giving into those threats means the gospel is not proclaimed, God is not glorified and the lost aren’t save.
- They ask for God to strengthen them to proclaim the gospel boldly.
- They call upon God to do his miraculous work, which includes preparing people to hear the gospel, then allowing the gospel to soften their heart.
So across the month of October, let’s pray as a church for God to do his work, and call upon him individually to enable us to invite our friends and family along to hear the words of eternal life.
