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The
response to our recent evangelistic campaigns – especially in Brazil
- has been unprecedented. For us, this is a
special moment, a final great harvest before the Lord returns. The photos tell the story well.
“All over the world this gospel is
bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the
day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth.”
Col. 1:6
The Apostle Paul wrote that
Jesus Christ gave himself “to purify for himself a people that are
his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14) The Lord designed His
project of salvation to produce a people
who belong to Him - a Body, the faithful church (“eager to do what is
good”). Our approach to
evangelism reflects this understanding of salvation – that the Lord
wants to save people, but he also wants the saved people to be “a people,” a Body.
If you are a church member…
For our members who visit this site, we
hope that:
1) you find it edifying, and
2) you will
send us photos from your church or region – your services, your
seminars, outreaches, etc.
We receive many photos of people with
their friends, but we wish we had more that actually depicted different
aspect of the Lord’s Work – along the lines of the ones we have
here. Please send photos to the
“askapastor” email address (see the
menu near the top of the page).
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EVANGELISM
The evangelistic efforts of Maranatha churches
generally fall into two categories: the ongoing efforts of each local
church to reach their surrounding community, and special evangelistic
events (often with tens of thousands in attendance) hosted by the churches
in a geographical region working together.
In the larger evangelistic events or campaigns,
some have had 30,000-40,000 in attendance.
We do not usually advertise such events, and we never announce who
will be preaching beforehand (there is no value in elevating a
preacher). For us, an ideal meeting
has more visitors than church members, and the two events featured here are
examples where we had this result.
We never ask for money or take offerings at such events. The purpose of the event is to reach
outsiders, and we have something to give
them, not take from them. Legions of
volunteers from our churches in the region handle all the planning, setup,
sound, and cleanup afterward. Almost
all the visitors have been invited by a member of the church (sometimes a
single member will bring dozens to the event), which means the visitor has
a contact already who can bring them to the local church in the days
following the event. Our goal is to
get every visitor integrated into our local churches in that area so they
can grow and develop spiritually. We
are less concerned about the numbers who come than about the numbers who
stay, who become committed servants in the local church. Evangelism must be an activity of the
Body.
Rio de Janeiro (April 2005)
 
 
 
Special songs for the children 600
volunteers did all the setup the day before
 
Musicians – volunteers from the local churches Sign language for the deaf
attendees
RECIFE (Jan 2005)
 
 
 
On the local church level, our church members
constantly pray together and fast together for the Lord to touch the hearts
of our family members, neighbors, co-workers, local authorities, etc. The members of the church invite people
to the church services, having prayed faithfully for the person being invited.
Most services in our churches have the goal of enabling a visitor to
come and have an experience with the Lord: our services are short, the
messages are simple, clear, and positive (and biblical), and visitors are
welcome to stay after the service to receive prayer individually for their
needs. The goal is to have each
local church attract and retain new members who are experiencing the
operation of the Holy Spirit in their lives – so we want each visitor
to have an experience with the Lord in their first service, and to return
for more.
Maranatha’s approach to evangelism and
spreading the gospel is an outgrowth of our understanding of the Body. For us, evangelism should
be fully integrated with the church, because the faithful church is
the Body of Christ. Evangelism
should be done by the church and should bring newly saved souls into the
church. Our modern culture is very
individualistic, and this has had an unfortunate influence on the way many
Christian groups approach evangelism.
In Acts 2:41-42, we read, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three
thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and
to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” This was the first major evangelistic
event in church history: the day of Pentecost. In a single day – after one
evangelistic sermon - the church grew from about 120 people (Acts 1:15) to
over 3,000.
It is interesting to note what happened to these
3,000 new converts: they immediately joined the church and acted like
serious members. This is God’s
plan – to integrate every new believer into the Body of Christ. Today, many people attend large
evangelistic meetings with famous preachers, respond to an invitation at
the end, and then go back to their previous lives. Often they take months or years to commit
themselves to serving the Lord gradually – and some never do. This can be a sign that something is
wrong with the form of the evangelism itself. The biblical model is for the Holy Spirit
to transform a person’s life completely, to make them true disciples
or followers of Christ. The new believers
in Acts devoted themselves to the
apostle’s teaching (listening to teachings and preaching), the
fellowship, prayer, etc. In other
words, they immediately began to attend gatherings of believers faithfully,
where they could hear the Word, find support from other believers, and
offer themselves in service to the church.
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