Evan 525 Evangelism Vision Paper
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Evangelism Vision Paper
Christie Johnson
EVAN 525: Contemporary Evangelism (D03)
August 16, 2023
1
Table of Context
Table of Context………………………………………………………………………………….1
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….2
Evangelism in My Life……………………………………………………………………………2
Challenges I Faced………………………………………………………………………………...3
Personal and Family Mission Statement………………………………………………………….3
Ideas for Mission Statements………………………………………………………………….3
Personal Mission Statement…………………………………………………………………...4
Family Mission Statement…………………………………………………………………….4
Changes I Need To Make…………………………………………………………………………5
My Future as an Evangelist……………………………………………………………………….7
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………….10
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Introduction
“Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, NLT). This is what is called the Great Commission given by Jesus Christ. Now, we know what Jesus commands us to do and knowing that He is with us as we do it. I like that because now I have a purpose. This following paper will detail what I have learned from this class, what my personal and family mission statements are, and how I will incorporate this into my personal evangelism.
Evangelism in My Life
Before taking this class, I did not have an idea of how I was to do what He is calling me to do. I feel that since I have taken this class and read the books, I have a better understanding of how I can fulfill what He has for me to do. One thing that I learned was that God can take anyone to spread His Word, you do not have to be important in the church. This gives me confidence. I learned valuable ways of how to go out and spread His Word.
One thing that stuck out to me from the reading came from the book Share Jesus Without Fear
is about lifestyle evangelism. “To me, lifestyle evangelism is when we live our lives in a way that is open, vulnerable, caring, and matched by equal amounts of integrity and character. This way, people will be fascinated by our differences and motives. The undergirding this lifestyle brings is a deep love for people and a deep devotional life with God—because it is out
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of the overflow of our hearts that people will come to know him.”
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This is what I am striving to be like. I want to live my life like Jesus did. I want people to see Jesus in the way I live my life. This chapter helped me to see what Jesus wants for us to do. When learning about the Peanut Butter and Jelly section in the book Everyday Evangelism
, I really did learn something new about how to be an effective evangelism. I like that it stated that “effective evangelism, especially of secularized people, requires both proclamation and affirmation.”
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I am going to incorporate both of these into my own evangelizing. Challenges I faced
A challenge that I faced in this class was I did not exactly know all that it entailed to be an evangelist. I enjoyed all the books and articles that I read. They made me really take a look at my life and see where I can improve on. One of the most challenging things that I had to do in this class was to go out and witness
someone who was a non-believer. Because almost everyone I know is a believer in some way. It really challenged me in finding people to witness to. I am also shy, so it was somewhat hard for me to witness them. But I am glad I had to do that because it helped me step out and do what God is telling me to do.
Personal and Family Mission Statement
Ideas for Mission Statements
In the book Family to Family
, it talked about how to have a healthy family. I like where Footnotes
1.
William Fay and Linda Evans Shepherd, Share Jesus Without Fear,
(Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publisher, 1999), 126-127.
2.
Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Everyday Evangelism: Sharing the Christian Faith
, (Tennessee: B & H Publishing Group, 2010), 179-180
4
it talked about “A healthy family is… One that spends quantity and quality time together.”
3
I have been trying to do that with my granddaughters. I try my best to spend time with each of them, to make them feel valued. I also like where it talked about it starts with the mom and dad to show how to live for God. My children are all grown up now, but I have been trying to show them how to live for God and depend on Him. I have made it a mission of mine to start showing my granddaughters now that they are young so they can have a much better life. Another thing that I took from that book on having a healthy family life is that “One that has healthy time together centered on God’s purpose.”
4 My husband and I been living our lives centered on God.
for the last 15 years. I have now started to get my granddaughters to get their lives focused on God as well.
Personal Mission Statement
With all of these things from this book, I have integrated it into my personal and family mission statements. I am going to take both these statements and start living by them. My personal mission statement is:
I will show love to all, live my life according to Jesus, and stay focused on my husband, children, granddaughters, family, and my neighbors. I will strive to show
Jesus to all either by my actions or speech. I will fully go into my purpose that God has for me which is to spread my story of how Jesus restored me to help those who are lost.
Family Mission Statement
As I am living my life to my personal mission statement, I will be also working on my family mission statement. My husband and I sat down and wrote the following family mission Footnotes
3.
Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee, Family to Family: Families Making a Difference
, (Tennessee: Wordsearch,2018), 11
4.
Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee, Family to Family
, 14
5
statement:
We as a family will show love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and gentleness to each other, our children, and granddaughters. Then, continue it to our extended family and community. We will strive to show Jesus’ love to all through our actions and speech. To spread the Gospel of Jesus to all we met. We will pray and bring Jesus to the forefront of our lives. With both of these statements, they have given me a way to be able to show Jesus in my life and to others. The book Family to Family
has shown me how to incorporate these statements
into my life. “To be on mission means to intentionally carry His love and His hope to your family, friends, neighbors, community, and acquaintances out of the overflow of an intimate walk
with God”
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I am going to have the quote as a reminder of what Jesus wants me to do. To go out and reach others. I am going to start with my family first by showing them Jesus in my life through my actions and speech then continue to show my extended family and the community.
Changes I Need to Make
One change I must make is to truly believe that God loves me. I sometimes struggle with that. Because it is hard for me to fully believe that someone can love me like He does. As a child, I lived in a home where I felt that I had to do good to be loved. I was always called the problem child that all I do is cause misery to the family. I grew up not having any friends or anyone who loved me for who I was. Then, I was shown love in the wrong way. But thanks to God, He was always with me growing up keeping me safe. In February 2006, I met my second husband who helped me turn to God. My second husband shows me God’s love daily, but I still struggle with it. For the last two years, I have gotten better at understanding God’s love for me Footnotes
5.
Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee, Family to Family
, 10
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and now I am ready to go out and share with others God’s love. By slowly believing in God’s love for me, I feel that I will be able to do His purpose He has for me. God has shown me that I will be traveling and spreading His love to all by telling them my story of how God has changed me and restored me. A second struggle I have is that I am not real familiar with the whole Bible or even how to go about spreading God’s Word. So, to remedy this I have gone back to school. By going back
to school, I am hopefully that I will get the education that I need that will show me how to be effective as being an evangelist for God. This class has helped me tremendously. I now, have the
basics of what it is to be an evangelist and how to do it. I am going to take all that I have learned
from this class and future classes and apply it to my life, so that I am able to fulfill what God’s purpose in my life.
Another change that I need to make in my life is to be confident in being an evangelist for
Jesus. I sometimes doubt that I can do what God has shown me that I am going to be doing. But
by reading The Great Commission to Worship: Biblical Principles foe Worship-Based Evangelism,
I have gained more confidence in it. It talks about how Jesus perfects,
God is in the process of perfecting you and me. He wants to refine, hone, improve, and sharpen our abilities and talents and in the process faithfully develop our skills for His glory. This is a process. His sweet, precious Holy Spirit is actively working in each of us.
As we faithfully seek God’s direction, counsel, and guidance, He seeks to conform us to His image, temper our dispositions, smooth out any rough areas in our personalities, give us vision for ministry and school us in righteousness.
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This quote has helped me understand that all that I have gone through in life has been for a purpose that God has for me. I am to take all that I have been through and let God use it for His Footnotes
6.
David Wheeler and Vernon M. Whaley, The Great Commission to Worship: Biblical Principles for Worship-Based Evangelism
, (Tennessee: B & H Academic, 2011), 58-59.
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good. It helped me realize that He is just refining me right now, so that I can be a successful story of His to others. I am going to take this quote and allow it to help guide me in my evangelism.
I will take the steps that where described in the books, Share Jesus Without Fear and The Great Commission to Worship: Biblical Principles for Worship-Based Evangelism.
I have written
down the five questions and the scriptures that were given and have placed them in my wallet. This way I can have them available when I am witnessing. Those five questions have been a big help to me because I am a shy person, and it is hard for me to talk to people I do not know. They
have given me a platform to use. Then, the scriptures help me fill more comfortable when I am trying to show the person about Jesus. I feel that I am going to be able to implement these five questions and scriptures into my daily evangelism.
My Future as an Evangelist
For the last two years I have been working on my relationship with God. I had a turning point in my life back in the month of August 2021 that is when I started to want to know who God really was. I was at a low point in my life, and I ask God to show me who He really was. He did. I have been studying the Bible and many books these past two years and I have grown so
much from them. During that time, God showed me what He has planned for me. God plan for me is to go out and speak my story to the world. He has shown me that I will be traveling around the world spreading my story of how God restored me.
Besides doing all this for the past two years, I have decided to attend college again to be able to help me fulfill what God’s purpose is for me. I was not exactly sure how to do it. So, I say the first thing I did was get in the Bible to get to know God. Then, He showed me to go back
to school to get the tools that I need to fulfill the purpose.
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While attending college, I will continue to work on myself to get stronger in God. As well, I will continue to use what I have learned from my classes and continue to be a witness of God to the world around me. After college, I plan on stepping into my purpose and start to use social media to share my story as well as traveling where He sends me. A way that I am going to step into my purpose is to take what I have learned from this class in my reading and apply it to my life. One thing that I will do is take the formula called SALT that Roscoe and Maryanna Lilly use in their ministry. The SALT formula is “Seeing people the way Jesus saw them. Accepting people the way Jesus accepted them. Loving people the way Jesus loved them. Touching people the way Jesus touched them.”
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I am going to incorporate that formula in my life going forward. I have not always been so concerned about others. But since I have been developing my relationship with God, I have been more caring about others. So, I will start to see people the way Jesus did. I will become more accepting of them which in turn will help me love them like Jesus does. I hope to touch people lives the way that Jesus touches people lives by showing them Jesus’ love for them and living my life like Jesus. I will also take the keys to effective spiritual farming described in this book as well. I will start being more prayerful in my life. I pray every day, but I can start to pray more effectively. I can include praying for the lost people of this world. I can start to pray for God to send the people that He would like me to witness to. I will also be more positive about my life and accept others. I will be consistent in my life and also in doing all that I need to do to fulfill His purpose in my life. I will also be intentional in what I am doing. I will always allow the Footnote
7.
Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Everyday Evangelism: Sharing the Christian Faith,
(Tennessee: B & H Publishing Group, 2010), 335
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Holy Spirit to led me to who needs to see and hear about Jesus and when He does be committed to doing what is ask of me.
The last thing that I will definitely being doing is allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me. I will listen to the Holy Spirit because He is God. I know that for me to be effective in my evangelism, I am going to rely on the Holy Spirit. Because I am not the one who can save someone, only God can. All I can do is share about Him with them and allow the Holy Spirit to work on them. “You cannot know everything that is going on in the other person’s life or mind, but the Holy Spirit does. You cannot save anyone, but the Holy Spirit can.”
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I am going to take.
this statement and engrain it into my mind, so that I can remember that I am only the messenger not the saver, the Holy Spirit is. From the book, Family to Family: Families Making a Difference,
I am going to take this sentence to heart and have it be my driving forces, “Going in the power of the Spirit leads us to effectively do whatever He has given us to do, no matter the size of the task.”
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I am going to have to have faith that I am going to be able to do the calling that God has on my life. I will rely on the Holy Spirit to help me fulfill God’s calling on my life. This class has helped me begin to do this. The most important thing that I will do to be the evangelist that God wants me to be is to always listen to what He is telling me and follow Him.
Footnotes
8.
Dave Earley, Everyday Evangelism: Sharing the Christian Faith,
(Tennessee: B & H Publishing Group,2010) 140-141
9.
Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee, Family to Family: Families Making a Difference
, (Tennessee: Wordsearch, 2018), 107
10
Bibliography
Early, Dave, and David Wheeler, (2010), Everyday Evangelism Sharing the Christian Faith,
Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group.
Fay, William, and Linda Evans Shephard, (1999), Share Jesus Without Fear,
Tennessee:
Broadman & Holman Publisher
Pipes, Jerry, and Victor Lee, (2018), Family to Family: Families Making a Difference,
Tennessee: Wordsearch
Wheeler, David, and Vernon M. Whaley, (2011), The Great Commission to Worship: Biblical
Principles for Worship-Based Evangelism
, Nashville, TN: B & H Academic