Keller on Movements

From Lausanne 2010:

It takes a movement to reach a city Reaching an entire city takes more than having some effective
churches in it or even having a burst of revival energy and new converts. To change a city with the
gospel takes a self-sustaining, naturally growing movement of ministries and networks around a core
of new church multiplication.
What does that look like? Christians live in the city in a posture of service. New businesses and
nonprofits renew their slices of culture in large and small ways. Believers integrate their faith with
their work so that every vocation becomes a kingdom activity. Campus ministries and other
evangelistic agencies organically produce new Christian leaders who stay in the city and move into
the churches and networks. People use their power, wealth, and influence for the good of others on
the margins of society, to advance ministry, and to plant new churches. Churches and individual
Christians support and commission the arts. Let’s break this down.New churches form the heart of
these gospel ecosystems. They provide spiritual oxygen to the communities and networks of
Christians who do the heavy lifting, over decades, to renew and redeem cities. They are the primary
venue for discipleship and the multiplication of believers, as well as being the financial engine for all
the ministry initiatives. This ecosystem is, therefore, a critical mass of new churches. They must be
gospel-centered, urban, missional /evangelistic, balanced, growing, and self-replicating in diverse
forms, across traditions, integrating races/classes. This is the most basic core of the ecosystem.The
ecosystem also fosters networks and systems of evangelism that reach specific populations. In
addition to campus ministries, which are especially important as a new leader development engine,
other very effective, specialized evangelistic agencies are usually necessary to reach the elites,
reach the poor, and reach Muslim, Hindu, and other particular cultural/religious groupings.Networks
and organizations of cultural leaders within professional fields, such as business, government,
academia, and the arts and media, are part of this ecosystem, as well. It is crucial that these
individuals be active in churches that thoughtfully disciple and support them for public life. These
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What Is God's Global Urban Mission? - http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/details/10282
The Lausanne Global Conversation - http://conversation.lausanne.org/
leaders must also network and support each other within their own fields, spawning new cultural
institutions and schools of thought.The ecosystem is also marked by agencies and initiatives
produced by Christians to serve the peace of the city, and especially the poor. Hundreds and
thousands of new non-profit and for-profit companies must be spawned to serve every neighborhood
and every population in need. United and coordinated church alliances and institutions also serve
Christian families and individuals and support their long-term life in the city (e.g., schools, theological
colleges, and other institutions that make city living sustainable for Christians over the
generations). Additionally, this ecosystem has overlapping networks of city leaders. Church
movement leaders, theologians/teachers, heads of institutions, and cultural leaders and patrons with
influence and resources know one another and provide vision and direction for the whole city.
Tipping points Isolated events or individual entities crystallize into a growing, self-sustaining
movement when they reach a “tipping point.”
The gospel movement tipping point. A church planting project becomes a movement when the
ecosystem elements are all in place and most of the churches have the vitality, leaders, and mindset
to plant another church within five to six years of their own beginnings. When the tipping point is
reached, a self-sustaining movement begins. Enough new believers, leaders, congregations, and
ministries are being naturally produced for the movement to grow without any single command-andcontrol
center. The body of Christ in the city funds itself, produces its own leaders, and conducts its
own training. A sufficient number of dynamic leaders is always rising up. The number of Christians
and churches doubles every seven to ten years.

Cole on Discipleship

If you can’t reproduce disciples, you’ll never reproduce leaders. If you can’t reproduce leaders, you’ll never reproduce churches. If you can’t reproduce churches, you’ll never see a movement.

David Murray on Evangelistic Preaching II

Every sermon text can be preached with an evangelistic application. But this isn’t what we are calling evangelistic preaching. Remember our previous definition: Evangelistic preaching is preaching which expounds God’s Word (it is expository) with the primary aim of the conversion of lost souls (rather than the instruction of God's people). So, though every text can be preached with an evangelistic application, there are certain texts and topics which are especially suitable for such evangelistic preaching. Let me propose four categories of evangelistic sermon:

"Warm-up" sermons
These are sermons we preach to clear and prepare the ground for the gospel. They address some of the common objections to Christianity; the caricatures of and prejudices against Christianity. Such "apologetic" sermons will set out to prove the truth and relevance of Christianity and demonstrate its doctrinal and practical superiority.

Examples: (i) proofs of the resurrection, (ii) evidence for creation v evolution, (iii) one way or many ways to God, (iv) do only good people go to heaven? (v) Bible's analysis of current economic, social, moral problems, etc.

These sermons are aiming at conversion, especially the early stages of conversion. They are clearing away all the rubbish that has accumulated in a sinners mind, to gain a hearing for the gospel. They deal with issues that will open the pathway for Christ and His grace. That's why I call them "warm-up" sermons. We are taking sinners who are cold, prejudiced, and opposed to Christianity, and using God's Word to break up the soil, warm the heart, and provide an opening for the core message of Christ and His grace.

Warning Sermons
Some warning sermons are characterized by a focus on the more threatening aspects of God's character, especially His attributes of holiness, justice, sovereignty, and power. Other warning sermons may focus on human sinfulness, inability, frailty, and mortality. We may expound and apply the law, showing what God defines as sin and wickedness. We might deal with the speed of time, the uncertainty of life, the imminence of death, the certainty of judgment, the length of eternity, the reality of hell, etc. These are all warning sermons. They are designed to alarm the complacent, the comfortable, and the thoughtless; to make them anxious, and fearful, and even terrified.

Examples: (i) Remember Lot’s wife - and Saul, and Judas, (ii) God's law, (iii) the end-of-time parables, (iv) Revelation's great white throne, bottomless pit, etc., (v) Ecclesiastes' view of the best this world can offer, etc., (vi) The Psalmist's view of our frailty and mortality, etc.

The great aim of these sermons is to convict, to bring our hearers to an awareness of their perilous state before God, and their need of repentance.

Wooing Sermons
Having prepared the way for the Gospel with "warm-up" sermons, and having shown the need for the Gospel with warning sermons, we then come with a wooing word. We explain the wonders of the Father’s willingness to send his Son to sinners, and to save them by His sufferings, death, and resurrection. We also focus on the Lord Jesus; His willingness to come, suffer and die for sinners; His tender, wise and winning ways with sinners. We explain the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating and renewing the hardest of hearts. We explain that God saves by grace through faith, not by merit through works. We are trying to address people who are trembling, who are fearful, who are scared, and are seeking to draw them in to the love and the mercy and the grace of God. No pastor can pluck the chord of grace enough.

Examples: (i) The prodigal son, (ii) Christ's tender dealings with sinners during his ministry, (iii) the sufferings of Christ on the cross, (iv) the atonement, (v) the Gospel invitations and commands, (vi) the sufficiency and suitability of Christ, etc.

If the aim of the warm-up sermon is to demonstrate relevance, and if the aim of the warming sermon is to bring people to repentance, the aim of the wooing sermon is to bring people to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Will Sermons
Every sermon is ultimately to addressed to the will. Yes, we address the head; and through the head, we address the heart. But we don’t just want to give people facts and feelings. We want changed lives, changed behavior. That’s surely the aim of our preaching. Ultimately, then, every sermon is addressed to the will. But evangelistic sermons, and especially this fourth kind of evangelistic sermon, are addressed especially and repeatedly to the will.

These are sermons that bring people to the signpost at the junction, with two choices. These are sermons that bring people to the ballot box, where they must cast their vote. They bring people to that point where they are faced with the two great and ultimate options: faith or unbelief, life or death, heaven or hell. These are sermons which are full of persuasion, pleading, and arguing and beseeching.

Examples: (i) Paul and Agrippa, (ii) Jesus and the woman of Samaria, (iii) Parable of the wedding invitation, (iv) Paul on Mars Hill, (v) Peter at Pentecost, (vi) Choose you this day whom you will serve, (vii) Narrow/broad way (viii) Revelation 22:17, (ix) Elijah on Mt Carmel, etc. (x) "Stretch out your hand" (Matt. 12:13), (xi) "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43).

But, is man not totally depraved? Are we not "dead in trespasses and sins?" Are we not spiritually "disabled?" Is the will not in bondage? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. There is no question the Bible teaches this. However, as the examples above show, the Bible also describes the depraved, dead, disabled and enslaved will being addressed. It may seem illogical to us, but God has chosen to free the will, enable the "disabled," and give life to the "dead" by the persuasive preaching of the Gospel.

These sermons have content for head and heart, but are especially focused on pressurizing, yes pressurizing, the will. The truth is pressed home so closely that every hearer is "forced" to make a choice. The Puritans used to speak of the Gospel vice that squeezes hearers so tightly that they cannot but say "yes" or "no."

David Murray on Evangelistic Preaching

The most obvious reason is biblical warrant. The Old Testament prophets were passionate pleaders for the souls of their fellow men and women. Deuteronomy reads like an Old Testament evangelistic tract, as Moses expostulates with Israel and beseeches them to embrace the God of Genesis to Numbers. Study the weeping reasonings of Jeremiah and the powerful pictorial pleas of Hosea. Even apocalyptic and enigmatic Ezekiel contains the most beautiful calls to Israel to turn from their evil ways and live. In encounter after encounter, in public and in private, Jesus exhorted souls to seek salvation. The Acts of the Apostles show us Peter and Paul pleading with individuals, groups, congregations, and public gatherings. “Teacher” Paul cannot resist tearful expressions of angst and desire in Romans 9-11, that most doctrinal of letters.

Then we could turn from the Bible to church history and consider the regular evangelistic sermons of Bunyan, Whitefield, Edwards, Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, etc. But I’d especially like to argue for evangelistic preaching by considering the effect of its absence

Preaching becomes lecturely and academic
When sermons are almost exclusively aimed at teaching Christians, and rarely aimed at the unconverted, preaching begins to sound more like cold, objective, academic lecturing.

But, when a preacher has caught a glimpse of hell, when he really grasps the terrible spiritual predicament of the lost in his congregation, and when he is gripped by the urgency of the Gospel in the looming shadow of judgment and eternity, his preaching is transformed into present tense, personal, passionate preaching of the truth. The lecture hall is left behind as we enter the presence of God. The lectern becomes a pulpit. The “professor” becomes a preacher.

Christians become forgetful, proud, inward-looking, and prayerless
It’s not just the unconverted that are damaged by the lack of evangelistic preaching; Christians are too. As Dave Thomas commented yesterday, Christians also need to hear evangelistic preaching. Why? Well, in the absence of it, Christians forget. We forget the pit we were dug out of, we forget the debt we were in, and we forget the remarkable work of God in our life. In the absence of evangelistic preaching, the memory of saving grace fades, weakens, and disappears. In its place comes proud self-confidence and self-focus, which quickly drains prayerful concern for the souls of others. As the Gospel no longer grips our own soul, we have little motivation or desire to tell others.

But, if the Gospel is regularly preached to Christians, then they are re-humbled, re-convicted, and re-minded of what they have been saved from. They re-repent, re-believe, and re-kindle their first love. The contagious Gospel passion in the preacher infects the hearers, and the hearers become enthusiastic carriers, as they go out into the world with a renewed and prayerful vision and mission for the lost and the perishing all around them.

Christians do not bring friends to church
One of the reasons why Christians seem to have stopped bringing friends to church is that most preaching is directed largely towards already well-taught Christians. Many Christians feel that if they take a friend to church, the message will go “way over their heads.” Many of us have taken someone to church, and to our disappointment and embarrassment, there was little or nothing that our guest could understand or relate to.

But, if Christians know that, say, every Sunday morning, or every second Sunday night, their pastor will preach “simple” evangelistic sermons suited to the special needs of the unsaved, or even the unchurched, then they will be much more motivated to invite their friends, family, neighbors etc.

Children growing up in the church assume they are saved
The absence of regular evangelistic preaching often means that children grow up in churches hearing teaching and doctrine addressed to Christians. Without being continually reminded that they must be born again, they presume they are “just like the other Christians” and so never seek regeneration or saving faith.

But, if they often hear of their vile natural condition, their perilous spiritual state, their need for personal regeneration and conversion, the insufficiency of their own worth, words and works, then they will much more earnestly seek the Savior. In the church of my childhood, I was reminded every Sunday night, in no uncertain terms, that I was not a Christian and that I needed to seek the Savior. It was not comfortable or pleasant. It ruined many a Sunday night sleep. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that if I went to judgment in the same condition I was born in, I was going to hell…forever. I also knew, although I wished I didn’t, that Christ was calling me to turn, turn, why will you die!

Lost souls go to hell
I’m not saying that lost souls can’t be converted through teaching sermons. Of course they can, and of course they are. But evangelistic preaching is especially blessed to the conversion of souls. If you were to take a survey of the whole world, I’m sure that the vast majority of true Christians will say that it was an evangelistic sermon, a sermon specially directed to appeal to lost, perishing sinners that God used to turn them from their idols to Himself.

Who knows what a revival of preaching, evangelism, mission and worship might result from a widespread return to evangelistic preaching in the reformed church!

Thom Rainer on Evangelism

Seven Characteristics

It is inevitable that, when we do research on evangelistic churches, we learn about one or more members in the church who, to use the book title by Charles H. Spurgeon, embody the traits of "The Soul Winner." Oftentimes one of those members is the pastor. But we have also seen many laypersons who are themselves soul winners.

In our interviews with these people, or with those who tell us about the soul winners, we began to discern some clear patterns. We called those patterns “the seven characteristics of highly evangelistic Christians.”

1. They are people of prayer. They realize that only God can convict and convert, and they are totally dependent upon Him in prayer. Most of the highly evangelistic Christians spend at least an hour in prayer each day.

2. They have a theology that compels them to evangelize. They believe in the urgency of the gospel message. They believe that Christ is the only way of salvation. They believe that anyone without Christ is doomed for a literal hell.

3. They are people who spend time in the Word. The more time they spend in the Bible, the more likely they are to see the lostness of humanity and the love of God in Christ to save those who are lost.

4. They are compassionate people. Their hearts break for those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They have learned to love the world by becoming more like Christ who has the greatest love for the world.

5. They love the communities where God has placed them. They are immersed in the culture because they desire for the light of Christ to shine through them in their communities.

6. They are intentional about evangelism. They pray for opportunities to share the gospel. They look for those opportunities. And they see many so-called casual encounters as appointments set by God.

7. They are accountable to someone for their evangelistic activities. They know that many good activities can replace Great Commission activities if they are not careful. Good can replace the best. So they make certain that someone holds them accountable each week, either formally or informally, for their evangelistic efforts.

The “Secret” of Evangelistic Churches

The secret is really no secret at all. Ultimately, evangelistic churches see more persons become Christians through the passionate efforts of highly evangelistic Christians. More than any programs. More than any church events. More than anything else, we are the instruments God has chosen to use.

Sometimes we ask the question "What is my church doing to become more evangelistic?" But the better question is "What am I doing to become more evangelistic?"

Charles H. Spurgeon was right. We need more soul winners.

We need more highly evangelistic Christians.

I.H. Marshall on NT Mission

It can be affirmed that mission is the origin of the New Testament documents. At the same time, the documents are concerned in part with the forwarding of the actual evangelism and contribute to a theology of evangelism.
Marshall then cautions those of us who theologize:
Focusing on this activity can carry with it the temptation to ignore the task of mission as the sharing of the gospel with those who have not yet heard it or beleived it . . . Even today believers may find their attention diverted to teh study of theology and other aspects of Christian living to teh detriment of evangelism, and this presupposition may give them a skewed reading of the New Testament.

Calvin on the Church

She is first of all the living body of Christ and the company of true believers. We are as ready to confess as they are that those who abandon the Church, the common mother of the faithful, the 'pillar and ground of the truth,' revolt from Christ also; but we mean a Church which, from incorruptible seed, begets children for immortality, and when begotten, nourishes them with spiritual food, (that seed and food being the Word of God,) and which by its ministry, preserves entire the truth which God deposited in its bossom

Tim Keller on Missional Church

Most traditional evangelical churches still can only win people to Christ who are temperamentally traditional and conservative... but this is a 'shrinking market'. Eventually evangelical churches ensconed in the declining, remaining enclaves of 'Christendom' will have to learn how to beome missional. If it does not do that it will decline or die. We don't simply need evangelistic churches, but rather missional churches.

Leslie Newbigin on Church and Mission

The church... is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.

Gospel Coaltion on Missional Communities

The ministry we have outlined is relatively rare. There are many seeker?driven churches that help many people find Christ. There are many churches seeking to engage the culture through political activism. There is a fast?growing charismatic movement with emphasis on glorious, passionate, corporate worship. There are many congregations with strong concern for doctrinal rigor and purity and who work very hard to keep themselves separate from the world. There are many churches with a radical commitment to the poor and marginalized.We do not, however, see enough individual churches that embody the full, integrative gospel balance we have outlined here.

George Whitefield on Evangelism

When it comes to evangelism, I think like a Calvinist and preach like an Arminian.