We seem to have forgotten to keep the main thing in focus. It seems to me that the most important command we have been given is found in Matthew 28:18-20"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (NASU) The fact that it is one of the last things Christ said prior to ascending to heaven lends great significance to it.
We have been given the command and the authority to carry it out. The command is to make disciples.
It seems to me that we could be doing a much better job of making disciples. Perhaps that is because we do such a poor job of evangelizing. Our most natural and effective discipleship relationship will be with one whom we led to Christ. A person I led to Christ is far more likely to allow me the privilege of disciple-making with him. I imagine that all of us wish we did a better and more consistent work of evangelism. It is truly the only lasting work that we will do.
We have been commanded to make disciples. Evangelism is the first and most vital step in that process. Many of our churches are annually baptizing almost no one. All of us can do a better and more consistent work of evangelism. If we really possess good news for a lost and dying world, surely we would want to share it. Many if not most of our churches have plateaued or are in decline. Evangelism is the only real way to combat that. If you want to see your church thrive, you need to be sharing the good news about forgiveness of sins found only in Jesus.
We are losing the war for our culture to the enemy. Evangelism is the only effective way to combat that. Convincing lost people to act like saved people is a lost cause. The only way to change the culture is to change the hearts of the people living in the culture. The only way to ensure a safe environment for our wives, children, and grandchildren is not through passing laws. Our hope is only in the regenerating, saving work of God who imparts life and brings real and lasting change to those whom He touches. It behooves us to introduce as many people to Christ as we possibly can. That is our only hope at changing the culture war.
If we do not do a better job of evangelism, nothing else we do in terms of long-term, short-term, local, national, or foreign missions will mean a thing. If we do not do a better job of evangelism, nothing we do in terms of benevolence, addiction recovery, etc. will matter at all. Feeding a man or teaching him a skill means virtually nothing if he spends eternity separated from the God. Helping a man or woman be freed from an addiction is of very little consequence if he or she goes to the grave apart from the loving Savior. Introducing enemies of God to the One who died for them so that they might be reconciled to Him is your best opportunity for honoring and glorifying the God you say you love.
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