Discipleship and Evangelism

New research into the reasons why Australians don’t accept Christian faith has been released by Olive Tree Media. Olive Tree Media produces a range of Christian media resources including television series, daily radio spots, e-mail devotions and devotional books.

“We decided a few months ago that we wanted to address some of the ‘blocker’ issues that stop people in the Australian community from coming to faith,” said Olive Tree Media’s CEO, Karl Faase. “Whilst we can guess what these might be, we realised we didn’t actually know,” he said. “Once we discovered these ‘blockers’, we plan to produce a television series that addresses them,” said Karl.

Olive Tree Media commissioned McCrindle Research to carry out the research. The research revealed the top ten barriers to Christian faith as being: Church abuse, hypocrisy, judging others, religious wars, suffering, issues around money, church being outdated, hell and condemnation, homosexuality and exclusivity.

“The survey was completed by 1,094 Australians from a national representative sample,” said Mark McCrindle from McCrindle Research. “This was followed up with three focus groups made up of non-Christians. We had a group in their twenties, Generation Y; those who were starting families, Generation X and then baby-boomers,” said Mark.

“We started with the national census data which reveals that three out of five Australians tick the Christianity...

Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty churches – bring your friends to the Greg Laurie event 25 or 26 June, Victor Arena, Auckland.

With support from Jeremy Camp, The Katinas, Phil Joel, Parachute Band and Martin Smith. Shine TV is supporting the event with live coverage of both nights.

Neil Hamilton writes…

Greg Laurie is the Evangelist and Harvest Ministries outreach group. We have been greatly blessed in this partnership with over 200 “participating churches” and many other churches involved.

We are believing that God will bring over 2000 people to faith through the two nights at the Auckland Vector Arena. Equally wonderful is the commitment being made to establish a full discipling programme for all new believers.

We invite you as a church to participate in this great opportunity. We apologise for this late notice but decisions on the link for live Shine TV coverage of the event have only recently been finalised.

The offer for your consideration is as follows:

1. This is only being addressed for obvious reasons to churches outside of the Auckland Region. Please ignore this if you are an Auckland church.
2. Live coverage of both event nights, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th at no cost.
3. Broadcast start time, Saturday 25th 7 pm, Sunday 26th 6 pm.
4. Technical – TV to projector and use of a “big screen” would be suggested.
5. The church would invite the...

On 13 April 13th, a group of Christian leaders gathered in Auckland to discuss the challenge of preaching the Gospel in New Zealand today. In attendance were representatives of many of NZ's evangelistic ministries, leaders, pastors, and scholars with an interest in evangelism. Brief yet challenging presentations were given by Max Scott, Bruce Patrick, Anne Bowie and Mark Keown.

Some time was given to considering the nature of gospel, and particularly in what sense is the Gospel a message of individual salvation as well as a message for the transformation of all of life. It was agreed it is both-and, but that the personal dimension must retain a certain priority in the mission, for it is from individual salvation that all else flows.

That being said, contributors spoke of the need for the sharing of the Gospel to be holistic with the spoken word, the power of God by the Spirit, the power of love in community, the power of works and whole lives lived for Christ.

Culture was seen as critical, with deeper thought given to models of evangelism appropriate for NZ's post-Christendom context, where the Gospel has in many cases been rejected, but where there is openness among some. There is a need to dig deeper into the Scriptures and Church History to learn how the Gospel was preached in analogous situations.

A desire was expressed for the church and ‘specialists' in evangelism to work more closely in partnership. We heard of Northcote...

Some questions and thoughts
from a meeting of evangelists, pastors, and theologians
Northcote
13 April 2011
To download the document, click on the link below.

New Zealand Christian Network (visionnetwork) says new research indicates that times are changing for evangelism.
It used to be that a copy of the Four Spiritual Laws, the Bridge Illustration, and a Bible with passages such as John 3:16 underlined in red were the prime tools of an evangelist. But research undertaken by Campus Crusade for Christ in the United States shows that the old methods are generally not working among today's young people. NZ Christian Network National Director Glyn Carpenter says the report is pinpointing issues especially relevant to New Zealand. It contains such quotes as: ‘Unbelievers are telling us that there is a disconnect between our efforts to convey the good news about Jesus and their willingness to listen to us tell that message. ‘We found in a world where savvy collegians filter most incoming information, our presentational approaches have become the unwanted "pop-up ads" on the computer screen of their lives. ‘Of the believers we interviewed, 95% made a decision for Christ through the direct influence of a trusted friend. Natural mode evangelism was by far the single biggest contributing factor. ‘"I stopped using the Bridge Illustration. I felt it was less effective in communicating the heart of the gospel to the heart of people. Our audience has taken three steps away from my starting point. This is a difficult culture to minister in ... the majority of the culture is turned off." ' Ralph Ennis, Navigators Mr Carpenter...

Under-30s need support to negotiate consumerist attitudes to church and life, the Evangelical Alliance UK says. A survey taken of 800 young people at Soul Survivor's Momentum event for students and 20-somethings showed young adults are most attracted to a church by the resources it provides to support their own personal faith. Relevant preaching was ranked as the characteristic that would most attract them to church, followed by excellent worship and with people they can relate to coming third. The least attractive characteristics were the church being mission-orientated or a safe place to invite friends. Only one-third of the under 30s said they see themselves as leaders in their church.
Soul Survivor leader Mike Pilavachi, addressing the EA council, said a culture of consumerism, individualism and entitlement has "eaten into the psyche of 20-somethings". "What that mitigates against completely is commitment to community," he said, explaining that 20-somethings are always in a futile search for perfection, are afraid of going into the real world and show a great deal of pain in ministry times. "We've got to help them," he said. "We've got to love them, we've got to listen to them, but also we've got to find ways of gently, lovingly but definitely challenging some of the things that come from a culture of consumerism, individualism and entitlement." Gavin Calver of Youth for Christ and Tim Rudge of UCCF, responding to the survey, said the church has a responsibility...

The Anglican Church says Back to Church Sunday - held on September 13 - has bucked the trend of falling attendances.

June 2011 in Auckland is tentatively set for New Zealand's next Greg Laurie event. In the past few years the US evangelist has held major meetings in Wellington and Christchurch, attracting large crowds. A feature of these was the large number of churches that came together to organise the events, and the Auckland committee says this is an opportunity for smaller churches to get involved with something bigger than themselves. The event - to be held in the Victor Arena - has the support of Auckland Mayor John Banks, who has agreed to host a special breakfast for church leaders in October 2010. An official launch is planned at the Auckland Town Hall in June 2010, when Greg Laurie will conduct a "mission-type" meeting as a preliminary. visionnetwork National Director Glyn Carpenter says he hopes the events will stimulate greater interest and activity in evangelism. "In this vein, it was great to see a bus pull out of our office car park in Penrose full of evangelists headed for a recent Otaki conference. We look forward to more great things in the weeks and months to come."

“I believe the main issue facing New Zealand churches today is not evangelizing, the main issue is discipling. Maybe better discipling would mean more evangelizing.” 1 This statement by the late Brian Hathaway, former Principal of Bible College of New Zealand reflects our home scene but Bill Hull in his book The Disciplemaking Church takes it even further: “Unless the church makes making disciples its main agenda, world evangelism is a fantasy.” 2 Too often in our churches we compartmentalize evangelism and discipleship as two separate components. Jesus didn't, the great commission placed them together. When we look at Jesus as the master disciplemaker, one followed the other in a tight knit community. Therefore at any time when we are considering evangelism we need to be thinking of discipleship also. The more I specialize in this area, the less I realize I understand. There is no one set formula for making disciples. No one programme, method or curriculum is right for all people. Any set of pre-prescribed hoops for the growing believer to jump through is an over-simplification. Discipleship is not methods, it is principles, it is not curriculum, it is people. However, Discipleship does not just happen, we are commanded to “make” disciples. Not only that, expanding on 2 Tim 2:2, we are to teach, train and envision others who will be able to teach others also. So where do we begin ? Space does not permit here a...

The Love Your Neighbour Network is proudly sponsoring the ‘Outflow Tour’ by speaker and author Dave Ping in May 2009.Dave Ping has written several books, including Irresistible Evangelism, which he co-authored with Doug Pollock and Steve Sjogren. His latest book and church course Outflow has already started making an impact on NZ churches. His basic premise is that we as individuals and churches should be part of a sustainable, everyday ‘outflow’ to our world, rather than a scary, once-a-year ‘outreach’. He is a highly entertaining speaker and he has many stories and practical suggestions that flesh out the biblical basis for this approach."All of our Life Groups did Outflow, and it has transformed our church’s effectiveness in witness and discipleship," say pastors Rasik & Lalita Ranchord of the Abundant Life Centre, Wellington."Lives have been changed because their relationship with Christ has been taken to a more meaningful level. It has affected our relationships with each other as well. People are talking about their life and witness at a far more honest and transparent level and are bonding more. Our whole focus this year was on making disciples, and this just made it all ‘click’ for us."In terms of everyday evangelism, there is a new excitement. People are feeling more relaxed and are sharing Christ in an easier and more natural way. The thing about Outflow is that evangelism becomes a lifestyle, and that is what we always wanted for ourselves and our...