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A Manual for Church Planting by
Edwin Stube
CONTENTS
3 Practicing Evangelism Our purpose in evangelism is to lead people as quickly as possible through the four-fold process of being born anew.
In our initial presentation of the Gospel, we use as few words as possible. We are introducing our friend Jesus. In making introductions, we often tell a few significant facts about the people we are introducing. Then, as they begin to get acquainted, they can fill in the details. It is not helpful to give a long explanation, from Creation to the Second Coming of Jesus or the doctrine of the Trinity, to people who are not yet born again. They will not understand it, and it will just raise more questions whose answers they also cannot yet understand.
Once I went with a young Indonesian evangelist to pray for a sick girl. The father was a Christian, but the mother was not. The evangelist began to speak to the mother, reading John 14:6 very slowly. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way . . . the truth . . . and the life . . . . No one comes to the Father . . . except through Me.’” He explained the verse in about three short sentences, emphasizing certain words. Then he told her, “Jesus loves you very much.” The woman began to cry, and confessed her sins without being told to do so. She spontaneously acknowledged her need of Jesus as her Savior and invited Him to take over her life. She was immediately transformed. Jesus was introduced, and received, but the introduction took only about one minute. Then we all prayed for the girl's healing together.
Sometimes people want to ask many questions and try to understand the Gospel thoroughly before accepting it. We have to tell them this is impossible, because God is infinitely greater than their understanding. It is best for them to get acquainted with Jesus first, then the other things will begin to be clear.
One day a young Moslem neighbor came to our Training Center with a list of theological questions. Jerimia, one of our students, talked with him. Jerimia said, “There's no use of my answering all your questions, you can't understand because you aren't yet born again. Go home now, and decide if you want to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. Then you will be able to understand.” The boy went home, but before six o'clock the next morning he was on our doorstep again. “I couldn't sleep,” he said, “I want to receive Jesus now.” Since then, he has done a great work for the Lord among the college students in the nearby city, and effective missionary work with the primitive tribes on the islands of Irian Jaya and Timor.
When we go to evangelize, we don't go anywhere we like, nor do we indiscriminately knock on all the doors on the street. It is better to let the Spirit tell us exactly where to go and to whom to speak. Often He will lead us to a person who is in obvious need of healing or of other help. We can then minister with the gifts of the Spirit, and a miracle can take place. This encourages belief. Sometimes when there is a healing or other miracle, the friends, neighbors, or the whole neighborhood will gather, and we can introduce them all to Jesus.
In a little village church started by one of our students, the teenagers, and even the little children began to experience the gifts of the Spirit. There was a word in their prayer meeting saying, “Go north two kilometers and west one kilometer. There you will find a lame person. Heal him and bring him to church.” They went out as directed, entered the house the Lord indicated, and found the lame person. He was healed by the power of God, and walked back to church with them. Another time the Lord woke some of the young people in the middle of the night. He told them to go to a certain house where they would find someone in trouble. They knocked on the door, and a woman opened it. She was weeping and distraught, unable to sleep. They ministered the love and peace of Jesus to her.
We should always go out by two or three to evangelize. While one person talks, the others can pray. If we watch the eyes of the person we are evangelizing, and are also sensitive to the Lord's voice, we can know the moment when the Spirit has moved his heart to receive the Lord. At that moment, let us not talk or explain anything more, even if we think we have more to say. If we delay, the moment will pass and the decision will be more difficult.
At that moment of desire, we must stop and say, “Would you like to receive Jesus now? Do you want to know Him now?” or words to that effect. Then we pray with them, encouraging them to pray and invite Jesus to come into their lives and take over as Lord and Savior.
Then a miracle occurs in their lives. They are justified (made righteous) before God. The peace and joy of God, which surpasses all understanding, descends on them, and they become new creatures in Christ. Perhaps they will want to confess their sins, and we should encourage them to do so truthfully and hopefully, with full assurance that Jesus forgives, forgets, and sets them free. Old things have passed away, the new has begun. It is a glorious moment, and a great privilege just to be there when it happens.
In village evangelism in our area in Indonesia, when a new convert believes and repents, our workers explain to him the need to be baptized in water. They perhaps read a few verses from Romans 6, emphasizing that in baptism our old nature is buried with Christ and we receive a new life in Him.
Then they ask, “where is the nearest river?” They go to the river immediately and baptize the new converts. God performs another miracle. They are dead to sin and alive to righteousness. Our workers encourage them to burn their old magic charms and other instruments of heathen worship. They are free from the old sinful nature, free from the power of sin, and free to live in holiness before God. Everything looks different to them and they are new people.
A man in one of the villages near us was the only Christian in his family. One day, as he was sitting at his table reading the Bible, his wife got a stick and started beating him as hard as she could. He said that a couple of months ago he would have killed her. But now the love of God was so great in his heart that he did not even feel the least bit of anger. The Lord changes people.
We believe that immediate baptism is the perfect scriptural way, and also the most effective procedure. I am painfully aware that it is in open conflict with the traditions and regulations of many church denominations. But let our focus be on Jesus and His ways and hold fast to the real New Testament pattern in our heart and our acts. Who knows how much our submissive spirit to His will may influence our fellows?
The efficacy of baptism will depend in large degree on the faith and sincerity in the heart of the candidate. We should be as sure as possible of the genuineness of his repentance and acceptance of Jesus before we baptize him. If we are sensitive in hearing the Spirit's voice, He will give us clear guidance in this matter.
When the new convert has been baptized in water, he can often immediately be encouraged to seek and receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In fact, in several instances in the New Testament, baptism in the Spirit precedes water baptism. The order of these baptisms is not critical, though, of course, conversion and repentance must precede both.
If there is not real repentance, or if people still have occult practices or magic charms, strange manifestations can occur. We need to lead the people to a complete break with the past and a thorough deliverance before we pray for anyone to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Anyone who has taken part in seances, playing with ouija boards, water witching, hypnotism, and similar practices must seek deliverance and renounce these practices before seeking baptism in the Holy Spirit.
One day in Sumatra, we were praying for a Catholic lady to receive the baptism in the Spirit. She began to make very strange noises and to shake. We stopped her and asked if she had any magic charms at home. She said she did and went home and got them. We burned them and prayed for her deliverance. Then we prayed again for baptism in the Spirit, and within a minute she was praising the Lord in a beautiful new tongue.
In Chicago, I met a young evangelist who had been unable to receive the baptism in the Spirit. The Lord told me what was wrong, so I said to him, “Ten years ago you were going to services at a spiritualist church. You need deliverance from that before the Holy Spirit can work freely in your life.” He acknowledged that this was so, renounced the spiritualist experience, was delivered from all the occult powers, and was free to receive the fullness of God's Holy Spirit.
We must remember that we can baptize people in water in the Lord's Name, but only Jesus Himself can baptize people in the Holy Spirit. Our ministry to those who want to receive the Holy Spirit consists mainly in supporting them with our prayers. Sometimes it is helpful to accompany our prayer with the laying on of hands. We can encourage them to trust Jesus to baptize them with His Spirit because that is clearly promised in the Scripture. If they believe and yield their tongues to the Lord, He will give them a new language in which to pray and praise Him. They will begin to speak in new tongues as the Spirit gives them utterance.
We should then encourage them to continue praying in this language of the Spirit.
When we have helped people to arrive at this point, the work of evangelism has been completed. They become new-born babes in Christ, and, as such, will need much tender loving care.
We have used few words in evangelism, but now we will need to give much instruction. The new converts must be built up in the faith, taught to pray, walk in the Spirit, and maintain the new life of holiness they have received in Jesus.
Some examples of the kind of teaching we give to new converts can be found in the next few chapters. We believe these are basic understandings which should be learned as soon as possible by new converts to get them properly started in Christian life.
The best way for this material to be presented is through small, informal discussions, not lectures. Discussions on the following material should be initiated as the new converts are ready for it.
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