CONTENTS  Preface  1. Born Anew  2. Scriptural Teaching on Evangelism  3. Practicing Evangelism  4. How to Pray  5. Sanctified Christian Living  6. In the Spirit  7. Forming Fellowships  8. Training for Ministry  9. Prayer and Ministry  10. One in the Body  11. New Testament Order 12. On to Maturity

Preface  This book was not really written, it just grew. It represents the unfolding of my own understanding of life and ministry. Parts of it were developed when I was pastoring a church in Montana in the 1960's and beginning to experience life and ministry in the Spirit. Most of it grew out of my experience as a missionary in Indonesia where I served from 1965 to 1977. It represents the lessons we learned through Bible study and practice of Biblical principles. We have tried these insights out and found that they work. Jesus' parting instructions to His followers were that they should “Go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples” (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15). He also said very emphatically that “this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations [peoples], and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). Apparently the return of our Lord awaits our fulfillment of this commission. Some years ago we moved to a small town in East Java, Indonesia. There were twelve churches in town. But just two kilometers outside the city no one had ever heard the name of Jesus. We also discovered that hundreds of tribes on other islands had never heard the Gospel preached in their native languages. In our own country, a new generation is growing up without any knowledge of who Jesus is or what Christianity is really about. Prayer and Christian teaching are no longer allowed in our schools, and parents either do not know the Gospel or do not know how to convey it to their children. Evangelism has never been more needed throughout the world. To make sure that we were getting a full picture of the biblical patterns of life and ministry, we developed our own system of Bible study. Whenever a question came up, we made a chart of all the relevant Scripture passages. For example, when we wanted to learn about evangelism, we listed all the relevant Scripture passages down the side of the chart. On the top we placed all the questions we could think of, like: Who was evangelized? Who did the evangelizing? What words were used? What was done? What changes occurred when someone accepted Jesus? How did the bystanders react? What did the religious leaders do? When we had filled in the chart as much as possible, we added up the columns and drew conclusions. Then we went out to the villages round about to try out what we had learned. Our study of Biblical methods led us to some very radical ideas on evangelism, church planting, church order, and worship. We discovered that, in order for our ministry to be effective, the Cross had to be applied to our personal and corporate lives, and our relationship with our Lord had to become the consuming passion of our lives. I had known other methods of evangelism. As an Episcopal priest, I knew how my church does evangelism, namely, by holding services and hoping someone new comes in. I had also tried evangelizing in bars, with little success, and I had even had a little experience with big evangelistic campaigns. But we were open for the Lord to show us more effective and more scriptural methods of evangelism. In time we had to learn a great many lessons about training new converts, church planting, and church growth. None of the elements of Christian life and ministry work well in isolation. They each form a part of the whole. All are necessary; and all need to be in balance. New Testament church order, for example, will not work unless people are thoroughly converted and walking in the Spirit. Evangelism is not much use unless it is followed up with teaching and church planting. The gifts and fruit of the Spirit are both necessary and have to be in the right combination. And none of it works unless we are hearing and obeying the Lord's Voice. The following chapters present some of the insights we have learned in bringing Christians through birth and growth processes and pointing them on to maturity. Preface to the Fourth Edition The teachings presented in this book were originally published in the Indonesian language as a guide for the instruction of young people trained in our Indonesian discipleship training centers. The English language editions of 1981 and 1986 have been widely used in seminary missions courses, and by missionaries and pastors, both in this country and in the Philippines and several countries in Africa. Baltimore, Maryland, 1995 Fr. Ed. went to be with the Lord on February 16, 2001.

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