The Casual Christian

“With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:40–41).

Susan Boyle - Diva Extrodinaire

You have no doubt heard about the middle-aged spinster, Susan Boyle, who auditioned on the popular TV show, Britain’s Got Talent. She was a very dowdy, unimpressive contestant who had no previous record of accomplishment other than a single CD that sold about a thousand copies. But her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserable left the judges slack jawed. The video soon appeared on YouTube and within a week had become the most viewed clip in their history with over forty million hits. In this age of instantaneous global communication, such sudden exponential spread of information is called “going viral.”

The gospel is the most compelling message of all time because it tugs at a need we all have for spiritual restoration. If any message has the potential to go viral, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet we try to quarantine that virus in the familiar confines of our church buildings and programs. How many people come to Christ in your church every week? I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone make a profession of faith in Christ during a church service or Sunday school class.

Today the word “church” has become synonymous with the building where services take place. Church growth means more believers and more church buildings. The Christian faith spread rapidly in the first century despite the absence of church buildings. Believers like Priscilla and Aquilla reached out to people in the marketplace where they plied their trade as tent makers. It was there that they met Paul on his way to Corinth from Athens. They struck up a friendship and Paul, himself a tentmaker, set up shop with them. Together they preached the gospel in the marketplace and courts of the Jewish synagogue. Those who became believers began meeting in the home of Aquilla and Priscilla, receiving instruction in the Scriptures from Paul. Eventually these two moved on to Ephesus with Paul where they established another church. Then they returned to Rome, their hometown, where their lives were endangered somehow on Paul’s behalf.

Taking the Show on the Road

George Whitfield, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, William Carey, David Brainerd, R. A. Torrey, William Wilberforce, Bruce Olson, and a host of others did not wait for the lost to come to them. They took the message where it had never been, sometimes at great peril. If the church is ever going to make a difference in this generation, we will have to leave the comfort and convenience of our lavish sanctuaries and move out into a world that is morally ambivalent, dirty, and often hostile.

How are you reaching your community for Christ? Consider some of the following resources for evangelism available on the causalchristian.net website

Resoures For Evangelism from casualchristian.net:

Link                                                            Page

The Casual Christian                                    Book Site

Site Organic                                                Web Evangelism

Sample eNewsletter                                     Web Evangelism/Going God's Way

Visual Story Network                                    Web Evangelism/Tell the Good News With a Story

Training For Online Evangelism                      Web Evangelism

Facebook for Pastors                                    Downloads

Internet Evangelism for the 21st  Century       Downloads

Creating a Good Church Website                    Downloads

The Gospel: For Here or to Go                        Downloads

Seventy Tips for Effective Websites                 Downloads

Faith Explorer                                               Downloads

The Casual Christian pp. 186-187