evangelism - john journey style sharing jesus

Evangelism - John Journey Style

L O U I S B L O M

h e r e , t h e r e a n d e v e r y w h e r e

SHARING

JESUS

Sharing Jesus

Copyright © 2019 Louis BlomFirst edition, first print 2019ISBN 978-1-92843-683-6

Production and printing: CMP [email protected]

www.christianmediapublishing.com

Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version of the Bible

© 2011 Biblica Inc.

All rights reserved under international copyright law. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part

of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

ContentsINTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

SESSION ONE

THE GREAT COMMISSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

SESSION TWO

LESSONS LEARNT FROM HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

SESSION THREE

JOURNEYS OF EVANGELISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

SESSION FOUR

CURRENT EVANGELISM STRATEGIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

SESSION FIVE

FOUR FORMS OF EVANGELISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

SESSION SIX

LEADING A PERSON TO CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

ABOUT THE AUTHOR DR LOUIS BLOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

IntroductionAre you the leader that is dreaming of a church where all the members are continually engaging in reaching lost people for Christ? I am talking about a church that is regularly baptising new believers and discipling them to follow Christ, a church that is constantly growing. The church exists to equip and send believers to reach the lost, it does not exist to entertain the saints.

John Journey has been an awesome tool for thousands of leaders throughout Africa over the past decade. Mobilising, training and resourcing God’s labourers to gather this great harvest for our God. However, John Journey is more than just gathering, it’s about discipling new believers and planting relevant churches.

This is the first book that Judea Harvest is publishing in our new and exciting revamping of our John Journey Strategy. The strategy starts with prayer; prayer is the key to reaching lost people for Christ. Every believer can engage in praying for the lost: here, there and everywhere. I present some very practical and doable strategies on prayer evangelism followed by friendship evangelism. Other very relevant and much needed strategies and ministries are also presented to engage all believers in reaching out to the lost in our communities.

In this book I am tabling a fresh perspective on evangelism that brings evangelism within reach of every believer. I present various evangelism strategies that is culturally relevant, yet biblically sound. This

book is a must for every leader, pastor, evangelist and church planter in Africa, that is serious about reaching his or her community for Christ. “Sharing Jesus”

is more than just a good read, it will equip you with practical tools and resources to mobilise each and every one of your members to engage in reaching lost people for Christ. Enjoy the journey!

Dr Louis Blom2019

9

The Great CommissionWHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN SESSION 1:

� What the real meaning was of the last instruction that Jesus gave to His apostles (the Great Commission) before He was taken up into heaven.

� What the familiar pattern is that we find in many expressions in the New Testament.

� What the broad and inclusive approach to the Great Commission is all about.

� What the difference is between “reached” and “saved”.

1.1 JESUS AND THE GREAT COMMISSIONIn the Gospel of Matthew one finds the most concise version of the Great Commission.

The Gospel of Matthew is essentially a missionary text because of the missionary vision of Matthew. He was more focused on providing this newly founded community of believers with the understanding of its calling and mission than providing an account of the “life of Jesus”.

Reference is often made to the commission to the Church to evangelise the world as “The Great Commission”. These words

are seen as the greatest and most important command Jesus gave the Church. As previously mentioned, this command appears five times in the four Gospels as well as in Acts. We will now give an exegesis of the Great Commission as found in Matthew 28:18-20.

In the Great Commission Matthew includes all the nations (In the original Greek: panta ta ethne). He does not give the Jews special privileges. He treats them as part of all the nations to be discipled. The risen Christ boldly and unreservedly sends His followers into the entire world to disciple “all nations”.

Matthew explains that Christ desires that the newly founded Christian community no longer regard

SESSION ONE

THE GREAT COMMISSION 10

itself as a sectarian group that broke away from Judaism, but to boldly and consciously regard itself as the church of Christ (in Greek: ekklesia) and the true Israel.

A Familiar Pattern: Indicative – Imperative – Promise

The Great Commission follows a familiar pattern often found in the New Testament. The pattern starts with an indicative (a statement) and

is followed by the imperative (an order, instruction or commission). The imperative and accompanying details that provide the content of the imperative are then followed by the closing promise. The Great Commission as found in Matthew 28:18-20 also follows this familiar pattern.

First: the Indicative Statement“To Me is given all power” is Christ’s proclamation after His death and resurrection. The victory over the enemy was achieved by Christ on behalf of man. The nature of the authority Christ spoke about, was firstly His earthly authority proclaiming God’s kingdom to heal the sick and to drive out demons. Furthermore, He spoke of His heavenly authority to judge and to rule. Therefore, Christ’s resurrection maintains and proves the trustworthiness of His authority.

Secondly: the Imperative, Building on the Previous IndicativeThe imperative consists of three parts, make disciples, baptise and teach. These three aspects give real content to the imperative of the Great Commission, and therefore to the mission of the church. Because of the vastness of the content it adds a strong holistic angle to the Great Commission.

The first verb is the call to discipleship. The second is a call to community. The last verb is a call to instruction with the view towards obedience.

Making disciples, baptising them and teaching new disciples to obey Christ are as broad as Christian

READ IT IN THE BIBLE

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “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 of the Son and of

the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I

have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to

the ends of the age.”– MATTHEW 28:18-20

11THE GREAT COMMISSION

life itself. It is in regard to these three aspects of the Great Commission that the evangelism efforts in Southern Africa fall short. More thought must be given to the building of healthy churches with healthy members and healthy teachings.

The theme of discipleship is central to Matthew’s gospel and to his understanding of the church and to its mission. The word “disciple” is mostly used by Matthew. He uses it seventy-three times in his gospel, compared to the forty-six times in Mark and only thirty-seven times in Luke. Paul never uses the term disciple, but it is the most important word in the New Testament that describes the followers of Christ.

The imperative of the Great Commission “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” in Matthew 28:20 along with “baptising them” appears to be the real content of the disciple making process. Matthew consistently distinguishes between teach (didasko), and proclaim (kerysso), whereas Mark uses the two terms as synonyms.

According to Matthew Jesus never preached to His disciples. He taught them, but He preached to the masses and the unbelievers. Therefore, the content of the disciple making process is firstly to teach the new believers all the things that Christ commanded us. This is a very large and lifelong journey for every believer and church.

Furthermore, Matthew never understood the teaching of believers to be only a mere intellectual enterprise, as we seem to understand teaching. Jesus’ teaching is an appeal to the will of His listeners, not primarily to their intellect. His teachings included a strong call for a concrete decision to follow Him and to submit their lives to God’s will. Therefore, the content of the discipleship process of the disciples of Christ should be to teach people to submit their lives to the will of God.

Thirdly: the PromiseThe imperative is followed by the promise, “I will be with you.” It refers to the baptism in the Holy Spirit that is to come at Pentecost. Therefore, every believer should be actively involved in the reaching of unbelievers. Omission to do this is disobedience to the will and command of the Lord. This command is an all-comprehensive command with four verbs: “go”, “make”, “baptise” and “teach”. This all-comprehensive and multifaceted command requires thorough study.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe familiar pattern often found in the New Testament, for example in the Great Commission:

z The indicative statement: “To Me is given all power.” z The imperative commission: “Go therefore ...” z The divine promise: “I will be with you ...”


A Broad and Inclusive Approach to the Great Commission

The study above on the Great Commission as described by Matthew clearly indicates the broad approach to evangelism. There are many missiologists that also advocate such a broad and inclusive approach to executing the Great Commission. More value should be placed on the execution of the Great Commission than the proclamation of the gospel. The service of the believers to the world, the mutual relationships between believers and, lastly, the public worship of God is the core ministry of the church.

It is a compelling necessity that churches and evangelistic ministries in Southern Africa take note of the multifaceted and holistic approach to execute the Great Commission and make the necessary adjustments. I am of the opinion that in the inability to fulfil this comprehensive approach to executing the Great Commission, lies the weakness of the church in Southern Africa.

The Great Commission includes a process with different components, each of which must be diligently executed. This holistic missional approach with all its components must be restored within the Southern African evangelism models.

If the Church of Christ is to complete the Great Commission, urgent attention must be given to the process of the Great Commission, as it is the primary task of the church.

1.2 REACHED AND SAVED EXPLAINED The missional task of the church includes the taking of the gospel of Christ

to all people in the whole world. Reaching all nations with the gospel is one of the expected goals of the church. In the endeavour to understand the challenges that the church is facing in Southern Africa pertaining to its missional task, one also needs to understand the concepts of “saved” and “reached”.

There is much confusion between these two concepts in Southern Africa, as most Southern

Africans are reached but not necessary saved. There is a very good example of how these concepts function and interact in the book of Acts.

After the Holy Spirit was poured out, the disciples of Jesus

preached the gospel in Jerusalem. The allegation that the high priest brought in against the apostles only weeks after they received the promise of the Holy Spirit, confirms that they did not take very long to preach the gospel.

From this allegation, one can gather that the gospel was preached


“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name”,

he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with

your teachings and are determined to make us guilty

of this man’s blood.”– ACTS 5:28

13THE GREAT COMMISSION


“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and

in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

– ACTS 1:8


“And the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.”

– ACTS 2:47

to all the citizens of Jerusalem. There were already thousands of Jews who became followers of Jesus, and the church grew on a daily basis.

However, there were still thousands of Jews who had not yet accepted the gospel. The allegation against the disciples was that they filled the city with the gospel and that there were thousands of people who converted to Christianity. The difference between “reached” and “saved” must be understood within this context. The whole of Jerusalem was reached, but not all inhabitants were saved.

As a working definition for the purpose of this book, the word “reached” will involve the following: � To communicate the gospel to at least every person in the city. � To present the gospel in such a way that individuals will have a clear understanding of the gospel. � To present the gospel in such a way that people can respond to it. � And to put macro and micro strategies and structures in place to

focus on the social needs of people.

Consequently, in this book the word “reached” will not mean: � All people have accepted Christ as their Saviour. � All people belong to a Christian church. � All people are mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

During the growth of the early church it can be said that Jerusalem was reached. Every citizen had the opportunity to hear the gospel and to accept Jesus as Redeemer and Saviour. The gospel of Jesus Christ was preached in the whole city, in the temples and from house to house.

When a city or area has been evangelised accordingly, it

does not necessarily mean that every citizen has been saved, but that every citizen has heard the gospel. The disciples were thus witnesses in Jerusalem, and therefore obedient to the first part of the plan in Acts 1:8. They reached the city of Jerusalem

for Christ, and those that responded positively to the gospel invitation were saved.

The church in Southern Africa has to come to a clear understanding of peoples and areas being reached and or saved. In Judea Harvest

the words churched and unchurched are also being used to describe the stages of the work of the kingdom of God.


LET US SUMMARISE SESSION 1:1. Before His ascension Jesus gave an important instruction to His church.

They were told to make disciples of all the nations, to baptise them and to teach them to observe all the teachings of Jesus Himself. This is called the Great Commission.

2. The Great Commission contains a statement (“To Me is given all power”), an imperative or instruction (“Go and make ...”) and a promise (“I am with you always”).

3. Obedience to the Great Commission entails much more than the proclamation of the gospel. It also has to do with the service of the believers to the world, the mutual relationships between believers and, lastly, the public worship of God.

4. There is a specific difference between “reached” and “saved”. Many people may have heard the preaching of the gospel (they are reached) without accepting Jesus as their Saviour (they are not yet saved).

Lessons Learnt from HistoryWHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN SESSION 2:

� How effective evangelism was in the world as a whole. � What role players made the greatest contributions to evangelism in Africa. � What great demographic shift took place in the Christian world in the 20th century.

� What John Journey’s new approach to evangelism entails. � What the difference is between evangelism and disciple making.

2.1 HOW EFFECTIVE WAS EVANGELISM IN THE YEARS GONE BY?Since Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commandment almost 2000 years ago, believers have been responding to that call by evangelising, campaigning and planting churches throughout the world. Although the church has come a long way and made much progress, it is obvious that there is still a lot of work to be done, especially in Africa and other unreached parts of the world.

Evangelism Worldwide

The Christian faith has never had a greater than 34% success in any country or people group. According to Dr Johan Carstens, a well-renowned missiologist and strategist in South Africa, the four leading religions in the world have the following percentage of followers in comparison with the total population of the world today:

z Christianity: 32% z Islam: 18% z Hinduism: 12% z Buddhism: 7%

SESSION TWO

LESSONS LEARNT FROM HISTORY16

Although the church is currently growing at a phenomenal rate, we need to notice that there are currently twice as many people born daily as those who receive Christ as Lord and Saviour. It means that our current methods of spreading the message of Jesus has become ineffective. For the first time in history the percentage of unreached peoples is not declining, but increasing. Currently the percentage of unreached peoples is estimated to be around 28.8%, although the people groups who never had a Christian presence is sharply declining.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe four leading religions in the world have the following percentage of followers in comparison with the total population of the world today:

z Christianity: 32% z Islam: 18% z Hinduism: 12% z Buddhism: 7%

Christian Population

0 - 6%6 - 35%

35 - 50%50 - 75%

75 - 95%

2006:380 millionChristians in Africa

2045750 million

53 countries in Africa750m people in Sub-Saharan Africa

75% understand English50% - 55% Christian

227m Christians literate1/3 of the children in the world

1900:10 million Christians in Africa

The Facts

17LESSONS LEARNT FROM HISTORY

Evangelism in Africa

The people of Africa have experienced the convergence of many remarkable evangelism efforts from indigenous churches and from mission agencies from across the globe. As a result, Christianity has shown astounding growth in the entire continent of Africa during the past 100 years, thus becoming the religion of the masses, especially in Southern Africa.

The growth and success of Christianity in Africa has been nothing short of a miracle. Burnett ascribes this astonishing growth to the extraordinary evangelism efforts during the past decade and the favour of God on this work. Missiologists agree that Christianity is experiencing an extraordinary growth season in Africa, resulting in this rapid church expansion.

The first people to be confronted with the gospel after the arrival of the Dutch colonists in 1652, were the nomadic Khoi-khoi tribes. The first person of colour to be baptised was a girl named Krotoa who was in the service of Maria, the wife of Commander Jan van Riebeeck. Since the start of the mission work of the Dutch Reformed Church, this church has been doing missions very successfully. The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa also played a significant role in preparing for the coming of Pentecost in the early 1900’s, especially dr Andrew Murray and the revival in Wellington. Murray emphasised the work of the Holy Spirit, empowering every believer to be an effective witness for Christ.

Three other Important Role Players in Africa

On the other hand, the Pentecostals sprang up in the early 20th century and their growth was just as spectacular. Dr Peter Wagner, a research and church growth specialist, reports that the Pentecostals led the church growth movement during the 1960’s, 1970’s and the 1980’s. In the 1900’s there were virtually no Pentecostals, but in the year 2000 there were 115 million.

Pentecostals are by definition evangelical as well as the first wave charismatic. Then came the second wave charismatics and later the third wave charismatics that are largely the independent churches. Historic Pentecostal denominations, charismatic denominations, post-denominational networks as well as the African Independent Churches have also shown astounding growth. In 1900 they were less than a million and in 2000 they were 345 million.

In South Africa, nearly ten million people are linked to some six thousand African Independent Churches. Rev Nehemiah X Tile was the first black person in the history of the church in South Africa to break openly and permanently with a church of the Western tradition. In more than one sense, it may be said that Nehemiah Tile was the father of the Independent Church Movement in Southern Africa. Independent of the guidelines and authority of the whites he brought a vital factor to the fore – the self-confidence and dignity of the black personality within the framework of the Christian faith. Many of these Churches are influenced by African traditions and can be highly syncretistic. However, the hope is that these churches may retain the best of African culture, yet become biblical and accountable to the wider Body of Christ.

The charismatic movement in Africa began as a strong reaction against the cultural irrelevance of the


Western missionaries from the traditional mission churches. The African leaders initiating the Independent African Churches began a radical process of contextualisation. Therefore, the growth of these churches far outstripped that of the traditional churches.

These three above mentioned groups represent and demonstrate the incredible growth of Christianity, especially in the non-Western world.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe four important role players in the history of missions in Southern Africa:

z The Dutch Reformed Church z The Pentecostal Movement z The African Independent Churches z The Charismatic Movement

A Shift in the Centre of Gravity of the Christian World

It is widely recognised that a demographic shift in the centre of gravity of the Christian world has occurred within the 20th century, which means that more than half of the world’s Christians live in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific, and the proportion doing so grows rapidly. In 1900 less than 20% of all Christians were non-Westerners and in 2000 more than 60% of all Christians are non-Westerners. An unprecedented harvest is being won in Africa, Asia and Latin America in contrast to the stagnation of Christianity in North America, Europe and the Pacific.

This means that one has to regard South American, Asian and African Christianity potentially as the representative Christianity of the twenty-first century. The Christianity typical of the twenty-first century will be shaped by the events and processes that take place in the Southern Continents and above all by those that take place in Africa.

Half of the Christians in the world today live in developing poor countries. The forms of Christianity in these countries are very different form Western classical church stereotypes. They have been profoundly affected by several factors, including the desire to have a more contextual and culturally relevant form of Christianity.

A PRAYER FOR TODAYPraise Him, o Africa, with the roar of your mighty rivers, praise Him in the music

of your mountain breezes. Wave your praise to Him with your trembling trees, praise Him in the song of your endless oceans. Yes, we praise the One on whom we lean

and who will never let us stumble. Let every living creature praise the Lord!– ANONYMOUS PSALM FOR AFRICA


A Great Responsibility on African Christian Leaders

The reason for the growth of Christianity in Africa significantly includes the way the Africans have attempted to deal with their threatening fears, especially witchcraft. The Pentecostal church has addressed this fear and therefore reaped the benefits of this with its rapid growth.

The growth and success of Christianity places a mammoth responsibility on African Christian leaders: the responsibility to manage this favourable season in such a way that the church in Africa reaps maximum benefits from this season and will become a model for the future to the rest of the world.

The quantitative growth of Christianity in a nation cannot be the only measurement of successful evangelism. Qualitative growth is the growth expected in a new believer’s life concerning aspects like moral values, ethical issues, behavioural patterns and work ethics. The qualitative growth in a Christian’s life is the sign of the strength of that person’s Christianity.

The problem, however, is that the evangelism efforts of churches, mission and evangelism ministries in the past may not have followed a holistic approach capable of producing the long term community transformation, as expected when the gospel is introduced to a nation, town or village. The missional character of the church dictates that a new definition of evangelism and missions is necessary to facilitate the changes needed in the church in Southern Africa, in order to rise to the challenges that the church faces.

As a new believer grows in relationship with the Lord, that believer’s life will change and changed lives will lead to a changed community. Thus the need for a more effective discipling method for new believers have become imperative in Africa. Millions of people in Africa have been evangelised and responded positively to the gospel invitation, but non-Christian customs and world views have invaded the church. Syncretism is a major problem in many areas.

Thorough repentance and renunciation of sin and the works of darkness is often lacking in Africa, and many Christians are not free from the fear of witchcraft and evil spirits. Furthermore, the problem of qualitative growth is that the number of trained ministers is lacking far behind the demands of the numerical growth. This means that there are not enough trained leaders in Africa to disciple, train new believers and build quality disciples and strong churches.

THE WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIAN“We can point out no other way to salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same time, we cannot confine the saving power of God.”

– DAVID BOSCH

The low priority of discipleship and training may have caused the Southern African church to also develop a lack of quality, well-equipped leadership. This lack of training is proven by the unacceptably low level of training that the Southern African Christian leaders have. Leadership development is imperative to the growth and development of the church, as a lack of well-equipped leaders will inevitably lead to a weak


and shallow church, which in turn opens up the church’s doors to syncretism. In addition, it will not be able to deal with the multiple challenges it will face in the Southern African

context. The traditional African religions with their various witchcraft practices will not be dealt with in a Biblical manner when leaders are untrained and immature. Such a situation presents the danger that the church in Southern Africa could completely disintegrate into syncretistic practices and even a neo-paganism.

During a recent conference the Centre of Excellence (COE) of the Training Quality Authority (QCTO) in South Africa it became clear that there are 185 000 pastors in South Africa doing ministry without any formal training.

Dr John Maxwell coined a phrase stating that everything rises and falls on the leadership of a church. As it goes with the leaders, so it goes with the church. Maxwell adds that the ability of the leader, for better or for worse, always determines the effectiveness and the impact of the organisation. In Africa there is a lack of funds for training and supporting full-time workers, and therefore leadership is limited at every level.

2.2 A NEW APPROACH TO EVANGELISM: JOHN JOURNEYThe purpose of this manual is to introduce a fresh biblical approach with regards to the implementation of the Great Commission. The mission of the church as recorded in Mathew 28:19, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” involves Evangelism, Discipleship and Church Planting.

This new approach is called JOHN JOURNEY. John Journey is a cost effective and practical strategy to mobilise and equip all believers to be obedient to the Great Commission. It also has the power to foster rapid church multiplication. John Journey makes use of four steps, namely:

1. Coffee with John 2. Growing with John


3. Planting with John 4. Church with John

The ordinary believer is mobilised and equipped to take responsibility for evangelism, discipling of others, as well as church planting.

A secondary aim of John Journey is to create a church planting movement and culture within the church. Such a church planting movement will take the church all over the world and ultimately help the church the complete the Great Commission. We are of the opinion that a church planting movement will saturate communities and make the church accessible to all communities.

John Journey is therefore an instruction manual to assist the local church to mobilise believers to become effective witnesses of their faith, to move them into a process of one on one discipleship and mentorship and to become successful church planters.

John Journey employs the Cross and the Gospel of John as instruments to share faith, to mentor disciples, practise prayer and plant new churches. This manual will offer the reader a practical how to do guide on the implementation of evangelism.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe four steps of John Journey:

1. Coffee with John.2. Growing with John.3. Planting with John.4. Church with John.


2.3 THE PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF EVANGELISMSouth Africa, a republic with nine provinces situated at the Southernmost point of Africa is home to almost 50 million people. With the fall of the apartheid system in 1991 the country’s first free national democratic election took place in 1994. The first democratic president, Mr Nelson Mandela, and his government worked hard to set up a free, non-racial government and constitution, and initiated the long healing process with commendable success.

Some of the challenges for the young country are the following: z The need for ongoing healing and reconciliation. z The need for economic betterment is huge. Reality shows that there are extremes of wealth and

poverty with the attendant evils of corruption and crime. z Another challenge that needs to be overcome is the AIDS/HIV epidemic. Daily 1 200 victims are

buried. In 2000 there were more than 400 000 AIDS orphans. Over 20% of the adult population and a third of the teachers are infected.

The above mentioned is nothing more than a wake up call for the Body of Christ as the church cannot be blind to the above conditions.

While there has been much enthusiasm among believers regarding prayer networks and evangelism outreach programs, the church in general has been advancing slowly when it comes to making true disciples. Mainline denominations are declining while charismatic movements have multiplied among all population groups.

Judea Harvest however is of the opinion that this growth among charismatic movements is only a change of address as believers move from the one church to another. We also question whether the current institutional church can really make a spiritual difference in the democratic South Africa. Can the hierarchical structures of power and authority in the current church adapt to new models of organisational structure and governance?

In a constantly changing world, one can rightfully ask how the religious and liturgical language of the structural church will evolve to reflect South Africa’s understanding of religion. Will the structural church be able to articulate a strong vision of a humane global society based on Christian notions of peace and justice, or will it become a bastion of unexamined tradition?

The Difference between Evangelism and Disciple Making

Judea Harvest also challenges the current modus operandi of the church when it comes to making disciples. We ask: what did Jesus mean when He said “make disciples”? What is the difference between evangelism and disciple making? This is another question we’re asking. Although the word “evangelism” does not occur in the Bible, we accept the fact that it is woven into the very fabric of Scripture. God’s concern for all people is not only visible in the New Testament, but can also be found in the Old Testament. However, the current evangelism strategies of the church are under scrutiny.


Currently the church invite people which they call sinners or lost ones to strange places (churches), make them sing unfamiliar songs, talk about biblical things and tell such people, if they don’t give their heart to the Lord they will go to hell. The focus is rightfully on salvation. But where did the “come to us” invitation come from?

George Whitefield in the UK was the first modern-day evangelist to preach to outdoor crowds in the open air. He is the man that shifted the emphasis in preaching from God’s plans for the church to God’s plans for the individual. The popular notion that “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” became prominent after Whitefield. If anyone in the crowd wanted to be part of this wonderful plan for his life, the preacher would present a well worked out step by step “salvation” plan of action.

z The listener would be challenged to raise his hand as an indication that he wanted to get in line with God.

z The next step would be to invite him to come forward and stand in front of all the people. z All those that came forward are then led in the sinners’ prayer by the preacher. z As soon as they said amen, the Body of Christ will applaud them. z They are then told to get involved in a church so that they can grow to maturity.

Many of these converts will never make it to maturity as there is no one to father them. That is why real church growth, as in new disciples (from baby to maturity) seem to be sluggish in the church today.

THE WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIAN“To know that you have shortcomings does not disqualify you to be a witness for the Lord. It is all the more part of an exceptional

capability, because in our weakness we discover the power of God.”– GARY D STRATMAN

How did Jesus Bring te Good News of Salvation?

Luke 8:1-56 shows how Jesus brought the good news: z He preached. z He demonstrated His power over the forces of nature in saving His fearful disciples. z He exorcised a demon. z He healed a poor woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years. z And He raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead.

Clearly He brought the good news by word and deed and not by word only.Jesus also sent out 72 messengers in Luke 10:1-16. These disciples were not unique in their


qualifications. They were not better educated, more capable or of higher status than other followers of Christ. What equipped them for this mission was their awareness of Jesus’ power and their vision to reach all the people. Something worth noting is that these followers of Christ did not pitch a tent and invite people to come to them. Is this maybe where we as a church went wrong? What can we learn from the story in Luke 10?

Jesus was sending 36 teams of two each to reach the multitudes. These teams were not to try to do the job without help; rather they were to ask God for more workers. Thus, before praying for the unsaved people, we should pray that other concerned disciples will

join hands with each other in reaching the lost with the good news. Prayer is not only a tool to mobilise the Body of Christ, but by praying for the lost believers will eventually focus on their calling, especially when they realise that God has work for everyone.

These disciples had to go into the houses and develop a friendship with the inhabitants. When a friendship has been established, they were to heal the sick and tell them about the kingdom of God. Luke 10 does not offer a twelve-week program in which the unbeliever is guided to make a decision to become a follower of Christ. We believe that making disciples should be an enthusiastic lifestyle and a permanent process which believers should engage on. We realise that to change believers’ understanding of evangelism (program driven action of the church) to disciple making will bring a radical paradigm shift.

From the early 1800’s, when Africa was still unreached, churches in the USA and Europe sent white missionaries to Africa to establish new mission stations and churches in different areas and countries. Some of these exist till this day. These missionaries learned the language and brought the gospel of Jesus to the locals, and often established mercy ministries like hospitals and schools as a way of getting access into the community. Many of these missionaries belonged to mission organisations. These people did a remarkable work.

However, today it seems the church as a whole in Southern Africa has delegated, by default or form or maybe tradition, the responsibility of missions to missionaries and missionary organisations. This separation has grown through the years where now there is a very clear distinction between church and missionaries and mission organisations. We are now at the point where the missionary and mission organisations are not sent by the church, but these missionaries and organisations has to go to the church and ask for support.

It is estimated by Judea Harvest that currently only about 10% of South African churches has any


Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another,

proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

– LUKE 8:1


After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent

them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where

he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful,

but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,

therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

– LUKE 10:1-2


meaningful missions program. The rest of the churches are totally inwardly focussed and spend all of their resources to maintain their system. It also seems that bigger congregations seem to have a mission’s budget and program, but most smaller churches perceive missionaries, missions organisations and missional programs as a threat to their livelihood and as bodies that make demands on their scarce resources.

This is alarming, and if you take into account that most national church groups do not have an active church planting program, strategy or budget to ensure that church planting happens, the picture becomes more bleak. It is our observation that a shift has occurred. The church once sent missionaries to extend their work, but now missionaries have to go to the church and ask them to become involved in mission work and church planting.

The world, especially Africa, is plagued by many problems, such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, corruption (even in governments), civil wars, natural disasters (like droughts and floods), political instability and diseases such as malaria and cholera. In Africa there are 900 million people. According to Johnstone & Mandryk, the authors of Operation World, the 11 countries of Southern Africa had a total population of 118 million people in 2000. Currently the total is 137 million. Due to many factors the economy of Africa has been stagnant for the last 40 years, and therefore the people of Africa have lagged behind in the development race of this world. This is significant in that Africa is today still seen as the poor continent, who lacks many resources and infrastructure.

A PRAYER FOR TODAYO Lord, give me a pure heart – so that I can see You.

Give me a humble heart – so that I may hear your voice.Give me a heart full of love – so that I can serve others while I am serving You.

Give me a heart full of faith – so that I may remain in You.– DAG HAMMARSKJOLD

The Role of Mass Evangelism Crusades

Africa has been evangelised by the Western world over the last century and has seen some remarkable evangelism efforts over the past 100 years. Observation caused us to realise that these evangelism efforts were marked by certain tendencies in the last 50 years. African evangelism was focused around mass evangelism crusades by the likes of Reinhard Bonnke and others. These efforts focused on getting people to pray the “sinners’ prayer” and so become “legal” Christians. It might be argued that this process created


The apostle Paul said, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I

have become all things to all men so that by all

possible means I might save some. I do all this for the

sake of the gospel ...”– 1 CORINTHIANS 9:22-23


a lot of converts, but making disciples of these converts was not possible given the lack of churches and pastors in Africa.

A further aspect compounding the problem is that these mass crusades were not done by indigenous leaders, but by foreigners who were not able to stay and build a sustainable system for church planting and discipleship. This history might have resulted in our current situation where a large part of Africans accepts Christianity or even profess to be Christians, but do not live the Christian lifestyle nor practice Christian disciplines. Although 48% of all African people profess to be Christian, a large portion is nominal Christians. Judea Harvest has found that the traditional African religions (with witchcraft practices) still play a key role in the lives of many African people, and hence still have a significant influence in their lives.

In South Africa it is estimated that only 5% of the 87% who proclaim that they are Christians, regularly attend a church service. In the rest of Africa only 48% proclaim to be Christian. Of the 6.8 billion people in the world, only 10% have responded to the gospel.

A PRAYER FOR TODAYPray about these alarming statistics:

1. In South Africa it is estimated that only 5% of the 87% who proclaim that they are Christians, regularly attend a church service.

2. In the rest of Africa only 48% proclaim to be Christian.3. Of the 6.8 billion people in the world, only 10% have responded to the gospel.

Focus on the Community as a Whole

Another observation is that most evangelism efforts of the last 50 years were focused on the poor, destitute and starving. It seems that strong evangelism ministries have been developed who focussed on reaching the hungry people, prostitutes, homeless people, drug addicts, people in prison and other people who find themselves at the bottom of the human chain of existence. Although this is definitely part of our Christian duty and it is recognised that to feed the hungry is an effective method of reaching people with the message of Jesus, these efforts miss those people who do not fall into these categories.

It needs to be noted that from a Western perspective all Africans and Asian people might seem poor, but from their own perspective not all are considered poor. We have to ask ourselves, how do you reach those who do not fall into these categories we have labelled, or who does not perceive themselves to be in


such a category? Has the church got no message for them? The question we have to ask now is, how do you reach the happy,

healthy, self-educated, sustained person who has no pressing crises with the message of Jesus?

Judea Harvest believe the church has missed a large part of these people because it brings the message of Jesus only in the form of humanitarian help presenting a God who heals the sick, feeds the hungry and releases the oppressed. The message of Jesus is more than that and we believe it is now time to investigate a more holistic approach.

These observations are alarming and for this reason Judea Harvest is rethinking the way evangelism,

discipleship and church planting should be implemented. Churches and all Christians should take ownership for what is happening in their respective communities. Evangelism and discipleship can act as a catalyst against crime and sin in the community. But a new effective evangelism strategy is needed.

THE WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIAN“To witness is not a hobby nor a one day in the week activity. It is a

lifestyle. You do not ‘witness’ for Christ when it suits you. You are a witness. You live your witness, even when you do not think about it at all.”

– RE COLEMAN

The Best Pulpit in the World

Judea Harvest is of the opinion that the best pulpit in the world is the coffee table in the house of an unbeliever, and that is where the church needs to go. Judea Harvest intends to mobilise Christians to take the good news into every home and to every family, whether the home is a well-established house, a mud hut, a squatter hut or an RDP house. It is Judea Harvest’s submission that the church is a major role-player in creating the right climate for sustainable peace, stability and development in Southern Africa.

There are churches of different sizes in communities. In Africa we make use of the following metaphor from nature to describe these churches:

z A rabbit church is a small community of believers that regularly meet in a house to read and talk about the Bible, to worship the Lord together and to have fellowship with one another.

z A lion church is a larger group of believers, usually more than a hundred, that come together once


a week for biblical teaching, worship and the sacraments. This is a more formal church that has leadership and more often the use of a church building.

z An elephant church is a mega church with a thousand or more members. It is usually very well organised and serves as a resource for other churches and church leaders in the vicinity.

For the last 50 years a popular way of church planting in Africa was to pitch a tent and hold an evangelistic crusade for one or two weeks. At the end of the two weeks you hope to end with a list of names you collected during the crusade. These names were usually those who responded during the services to some form of appeal to “get saved” and pray the sinners’ prayer. Pastors then hoped to take these new converts and start a lion community church. These converts are then pressured to join the church planting and asked to participate in some form of discipleship program. It may take many months to disciple these people with the effort of one pastor. In addition, he has the challenge to mobilise these new converts into people who would help him establish his vision and help him finance the project.

This type of church planting has a low success rate and a slow growth path. Although some success has been achieved by some strong pastors, we do not believe this to be the best strategy.

Our observation is that traditionally evangelism in Africa has largely not been done by local individuals, but by the corporate/institutional Western church, who planted churches locally by sending a missionary or by sending groups to plant churches. Many times they sent pastors or evangelists to come and “reach out” to the “lost” of Africa. We believe individual Christians or church members rarely take individual ownership for the task of the “Great Commission”, but see and practise it as a task of the institutionalised or corporate church.

A further observation is that the church was introduced to Africa and to the rest of the un-churched world as an organised institution, and church planting focussed around getting pastors to plant local institutional churches. We do not perceive that Africa has grasped the idea that the Church of Jesus Christ is a living body that naturally groups and becomes the Body of Christ formed by individual believers.

Our observation is that due to the way church planting has been done in Africa, the concept of the church in the minds of the community has been significantly altered. Today the church is seen as an organisation with strong rules and obligations that is divided by political, theological and practice differences. Oftentimes these divides have led to animosity between churches and pastors that hampers the growth of the church.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe best pulpit in the world is the coffee table in the house of an unbeliever, and that is where the church needs to go.


The answer for Africa

We believe the answer for Africa and the world is to mobilise local indigenous believers to take responsibility for the Great Commission, so that they will evangelise and plant churches or house groups irrespective of whether they belong to a institutionalised church or not.

The last fifteen years of mentoring, equipping and resourcing individuals in church planting made it clear to us that now the greater part of new churches are not planted by existing assemblies or national church groups, but by individuals. In almost every instance such an individual was given the blessing by his church group, but was not supported in any significant manner by his respective church group. These individuals had to lobby and pressure for support, resources and funding.

Judea Harvest has supported hundreds of individuals with church planting resources and often had to urge the local church to become involved. We have yet to come across a church group in Africa who has an active church planting movement, budget or system. Most church plants even in denominations are done by individuals in an opportunistic hap-hazard style.

It has also become clear that for the greater part these church plants were planted in the less affluent and often poor areas where there was already a lack of resources. In most cases these individuals had to personally sacrifice a lot to give birth to new churches. In almost all cases the wife of the church planter had to become the main bread winner to enable the pastor to plant the church. This lack of funds then almost always inhibited the establishment and growth of the new church and often lead to pre-mature failure.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe greater part of new churches in our time are not planted by

existing assemblies or national church groups, but by individuals.

We profess that the responsibility for evangelism should move from the church or an organised institution to the individual Christian who is part of the church as the Body of Christ. When we read the church history in Acts, we see individuals who started house churches in their homes and who were visited and mentored by the apostles.

We hope to mobilise the current individuals in African churches to evangelise the people around them and start house churches. We believe pastors and church leaders should and will mentor and grow these house churches. It is clear that our evangelism effort of the last 100 years consisting of foreign missionaries, evangelism crusades and mercy ministries have served us in establishing a case in Africa. This has certainly not been adequate. We believe the next step is to mobilise every believer.


LET US SUMMARISE SESSION 2:1. The percentage of followers of Christianity is 32% of the world population

today.2. Although the church is currently growing at a phenomenal rate, we need to

notice that there are currently twice as many people born daily as those who receive Christ as Lord and Saviour.

3. The institutionilised churches, the Pentecostals, the charismatics and the African Independent Churches have all played an important role to insure that Africa experienced an extraordinary growth season in the 20th century resulting in rapid church expansion.

4. A demographic shift in the centre of gravity of the Christian world has occurred within the 20th century, which means that more than half of the world’s Christians live in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific.

5. Leadership development is imperative to the growth and development of the church in Africa.

6. John Journey is a cost effective and practical strategy to mobilise and equip all believers to be obedient to the Great Commission.

7. Making disciples should be an enthusiastic lifestyle and a permanent process which believers should engage on.

8. The answer for Africa and the world is to mobilise local indigenous believers to take responsibility for the Great Commission, so that they will evangelise and plant churches or house groups irrespective of whether they belong to a institutionalised church or not.

Journeys of EvangelismWHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN SESSION 3:

� How Jesus approached evangelism. � How Louis Blom’s personal testimony on evangelism can inspire you. � What Judea Harvest’s journey of evangelism has achieved up to now.

3.1 JESUS’ JOURNEY OF EVANGELISMJesus made this profound statement concerning His sending out by God the Father (His Missio Dei). The mission of Christ was the mission that He received from His Father. Jesus therefore is the embodiment of the Missio Dei. The life and ministry of Jesus exhibits the first signs of the Missio Dei in the New Testament, as He was the bearer of the good news of salvation.

Jesus came to Seek and Save – and that is also the Task of the Church

Jesus Himself declared that He came to seek and save those who were lost. Now Jesus also declared that He likewise has sent the church out into the world on the same Missio Dei.

Dr David Bosch, one of South Africa’s most renowned missiologists, states that through Jesus’ public appearances and utterances the inclusive theme of the Old Testament is confirmed: “What amazes once again and again is the inclusiveness of Jesus’ mission. It embraces both the poor and the rich, both the oppressed and the oppressor, both the sinners and the devout.” The missional task of the church therefore becomes the natural expression of the church as modelled by Christ.

Jesus proclaims that He came to bring the good news and He

SESSION THREE


Jesus prayed to His Father about His disciples and said, “They are not of the world,

even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctified myself, that they

too may be truly sanctified.”– JOHN 17:16-19

JOURNEYS OF EVANGELISM32


Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

– LUKE 19:10

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord

has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor.”

– ISAIAH 61:1-2; LUKE 4:18

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,

no-one comes to the Father except through Me.”

– JOHN 14:6

read about it from the prophesy of Isaiah. After He had read that, He declared that this day the scripture was fulfilled in their hearing.

That was the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, accompanied by signs and wonders. The sick were healed, blind eyes opened and the deaf could hear. Cripples were raised and demons cast out (Luke 11:20; 13:32). Jesus ministered to sinners, publicans, prostitutes and Samaritans, declaring that the doctor had come for the sick (Matthew 10:1).

The word “euangelion” used by Jesus is the Greek for good news. Jesus was sharing this good news with everybody He had contact with. Jesus brought salvation to the people, and Luke called Him the Saviour (in Greek “Soter”) in Luke 2:11. The word salvation (in Greek “Soteria”) means to make whole, to renew and to restore. Therefore, Jesus is the Saviour that came to proclaim and work salvation for His people.

Jesus was the one delivering the good news, the good news that God loved the whole world and wanted to save the whole world. Jesus further declared Himself the only way by which one could be saved.

Follow Me – and be Fishers of Men

One of the first things Jesus did, was to call His disciples and to send them out to declare the message of the gospel to the whole world. It is noticeable that Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, and together with this came the calling to be fishers of men (Mark 1:16). The calling to become a disciple and the calling to evangelise is part of the same commission.

The strategy of Jesus was to prepare a nucleus of labourers for the harvest. These men were to reach and train others to do the same. Christ had a strategy to fill the whole world with the gospel using the principle of multiplication in discipleship (Matthew 24:14).

A pattern is developed in the New Testament by those who meet Jesus as Saviour and then spontaneously begin to tell others. The Samaritan woman that Jesus met at Jacob’s well, went and told a whole town how she met the Messiah (John 4:29). She became the carrier of the good news after she received the good news herself.

Furthermore, according to Acts 1:8, every believer

33JOURNEYS OF EVANGELISM

has the promise of the Holy Spirit’s power to make us effective witnesses for Jesus. As this is an important aspect of evangelism, it will be discussed in depth in a later section.

Jesus had Compassion with People in Need

Jesus was the shepherd that Micah prophesied about, that would come, lead, and shepherd God’s people (Micah 5:2). Jesus Himself declared that He was the good shepherd (John 10:11), that came to lay down His own life in order to save the lost sheep. The life and ministry of Jesus was characterised by Him bringing the good news to the poor, healing the sick and caring about people.

The Gospels regularly report on the compassion and empathy that Jesus had with people in need, and people going through all kinds of suffering (Matthew 9:36; 14:14). The connection Jesus had with the needy seems to be missing in the church in Southern Africa today. The same God that we serve is also the God that made the whole world.

The church and Christians are only a piece of this world that God has redeemed and now loves and controls.

Therefore, the church should always be going back to the world, taking this wonderful good news to the world just as Jesus did. The church can never detach itself from the needy and lost world,

because it would then have no message, no impact and no purpose.One of the miracles of Christianity is that Jesus not only executed

His “Missio Dei”, but also invited His followers to participate in God’s “Missio Dei”. The followers of Christ are now called God’s fellow workers (1 Corinthians 3:9), and therefore continue the

missional work that Christ started (Drummond, 1972:59). The risen Christ, boldly and unreservedly, sends His followers to disciple “all nations” (panta ta ethne), as the reign of God is now entrusted to God’s new people, the church. Jesus ended off His ministry on earth by giving His disciples the command to go and preach the gospel to every creature

(Mark 16: 15).

The Command of Christ has a Broader Meaning

The command of Christ to preach the gospel, to proclaim the good news to all nations has a much broader meaning than just preaching alone. There are various words being used in the New Testament to express


The first words Jesus spoke to His disciples were

meaningful, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19). The last words He spoke

to His disciples were, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing

them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of

the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things that I

have commanded you.”– MATTHEW 4:19; 28:19-20



Paul refers to the importance of the task of preaching, “How, then, can they

call on the one they have not believed in? And how

can they believe in the one of whom they have

not heard? And how can they hear without someone

preaching to them? And how can they preach unless

they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who

bring good news!”– ROMANS 10:14-15

the task of the church to spread the gospel, and these words are being used concurrently. The main four words describing the preaching task of the church are (in Greek) kerussein, euangelizesthai, didaskein and parakalein, as Professor Jan Hattingh explains.

1. Kerussein – ProclamationThe term kerussein points towards the proclamation of the good news of the gospel with the authority that Christ spoke of in the indicative of the Great Commission in Matthew 18:19. This is all done in relation to the work of Christ on the cross and in His death and resurrection on behalf of all those that will believe in Him.

In Matthew, there is a distinction between the two words of kerussein and didasko. Kerussein is the ministry in action when the gospel is preached to those unbelievers outside in the world. When Jesus teaches His disciples, the word didasko is being used. Therefore, kerussein is the activity of preaching and proclaiming the gospel to the unsaved and unreached outsiders. This is the main task of the church and is performed by pastors and evangelists.

2. Euangelizesthai – Bringing the Good News of the Gospel

The term euangelizesthai refers to the message of the good news of the gospel with specific reference to the things that are accompanied with the kingdom of God.

This term deals with the total redeeming work that Christ has done for the church and the believers (Hattingh, 1984:103).

This aspect of the preaching task of the church deals with more than just the salvation of the soul, it deals with the total wholeness and restoration of the person. Euangelizesthai is


therefore the proclaiming of the gospel to the world with the goal of the restoring and the “making whole” of the person.

3. Didaskein – Teaching and TrainingDidaskein means the proclamation in terms of teaching and training of the new and existing believers. A good example of this teaching in the life of Jesus is found in Matthew 5 – 7, where He teaches His disciples on various life issues. This teaching is known as the Sermon on the Mount, and is directed to the disciples. The teaching aspect also has an equipping component where the believers are expected to develop a ministry skill after hearing the cognitive teaching principle.

4. Parakalein – Request for Help and ComfortParakalein is the word used to describe the request for help and comforting and sometimes correction. Preaching as parakalein is the activity of the church that builds up the members of the church by

These four words with each having its own unique meaning confirm the broad and holistic command that Christ gave His disciples before He was taken up. The church of Christ in Southern Africa needs to carefully consider the four dimensions of preaching the gospel as suggested by prof Hattingh, as this encapsulates the broad and holistic nature of the missional task of the church. The preaching and proclaiming task of the church is therefore expressed in preaching and testifying in the words and in the life of Christians.


The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of

sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the

year of the Lord’s favour.”– LUKE 4:17-19


Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a

mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,

and he began to teach them ... When Jesus had

finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at

his teaching, because he taught as one who had

authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

– MATTHEW 5:1; 7:28-29


BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe four dimensions of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ:1. Kerussein – Proclamation.

2. Euangelizesthai – Bringing the good news of the gospel.3. Didaskein – Teaching and training.4. Parakalein – Request for help and comfort.

3.2 LOUIS BLOM’S EVANGELISM JOURNEYThe John Journey was birthed because of my passion to see the

people of South Africa and Africa reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite all of the many efforts over the years to bring the gospel to the African people, Christianity is still facing many challenges. I am convinced that, in spite of the incredible work done, some major errors have been made by those endeavouring to bring the gospel to the people of Africa. Most of these errors have obviously not been made deliberately, but rather because of

cultural and contextual ignorance.

The Blessing of a Spiritual Father

My passion to reach the people of Africa was born during my first few years as a Christian whilst growing up in Newcastle in the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I devoted my life to Christ at the age of twenty-one, and was blessed to have a spiritual father named Koos Vermeulen. He was a chemical engineer with ISCOR where I studied Industrial Instrumentation Engineering. Koos Vermeulen was a man with a passion for Christ and a love for lost souls. He discipled and taught me from the beginning of my Christian journey on the importance of receiving the blessing of God and then sharing it with unbelievers and needy people. Therefore, growing spiritually and reaching people for Christ, became part of my life.

I soon became aware of the deep-rooted sin of racism in the white South African church in Newcastle. I became a member of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa and discovered that, along with all the other white churches in town, our church had very little to no involvement with the Zulu people. I could not understand this racial division in the church, as the vast majority of the people in our town were Zulus and we excluded them from our evangelism endeavours. Having a desire to reach people for Christ and focusing on the white population only while excluding the Zulu people, just did not make any sense to me. I knew that this habit of ignoring the need for the gospel of people of other cultures would become a serious problem for Christianity in South Africa.


Involved in Evangelism and Youth

I completed my training as an Industrial Instrumentation and Electronic Technician and continued my studies to become an Instrumentation Engineer. During these years my wife Thea and I diligently served the Lord in our local church and were very involved in evangelism and the youth movement. Though we reached many of our friends for Christ, most of my circle of influence was resistant to converting to Christianity. Winning people for Christ was an art that required much training, dedication, prayer and commitment.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISWinning people for Christ is an art that requires

much training, dedication, prayer and commitment.

A defining incident in my spiritual growth was when I led the store-man in our workshop, Jeffery Tswala, a Zulu man, to the Lord. His eagerness to learn and to grow was unknown to me. His openness and receptiveness to the gospel and willingness to change really impressed me. It was no effort to disciple Jeffery Tswala. Today he is a pastor in the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa and planted a church in Mathadeni, Newcastle.

The experience with Jeffery was so much different from the resistance we encountered amongst people in the white community. My wife Thea and I were ill-treated and chased out of many people’s homes as we conducted door-to-door evangelism among the people of the white communities. During this time my passion to see lost people saved fueled me to embark on a time of reaching one soul per day for many months. This was where I realised the dire need for discipleship, especially for new believers, because many people I led to Christ every day never made it to serving the Lord.

The Calling of God to Full-time Ministry

During this time of spiritual growth and service in our local church, we became increasingly aware of the calling of God in our lives to enter into full time ministry. After much prayer and preparation, we left Newcastle and our old lives behind and moved to Johannesburg for theological training. In January 1989 I started my theological training at the Apostolic Faith Mission Theological College. After graduating in November 1991, I started my pastoral ministry in the Apostolic Faith Mission congregation in Kempton Park.

I became increasingly frustrated with our white church model of ministry, focusing on the white minority and giving little or no attention to the two million African people in our city who were living in a township called Tembisa. We ask God to bless us, we pray for revival, but we exclude the masses of our population from our lives and ministry. Frustrated and with no support I started to arrange some outreach


activities, and made contact with some of the black church leaders in Botswana and in our city. Building relationships and friendships with some of these African leaders had a profound impact on my life and ministry.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY“Yes, Lord, I am beginning to understand that You want to use me in small

and humble ways. You send me to bring a glimmer of light in the dark despair and meaninglessness of the people around me; a little bit of joy where

people are fighting to make a living; to speak healing words of love where people murder each other with verbal and emotional violence.”

– MALCOLM BOYD

The uncomplicated passion for Christ and the commitment to minister to the people of Africa without earthly rewards exposed the very materialistically driven Western type of ministry of the white church. Our sorry and poor mission programs made me extremely ashamed of the church that I represented.

The congregation I led as the senior pastor started reaching out to our brothers and sisters in Tembisa, and soon we started to conduct crusades and planted new churches. This passion grew to the point where the congregation had a goal to place and support more ministry staff in the field (Africa) than we had in our local church in Kempton Park. We achieved this goal and dream within two years, as our congregation made a profound impact across Southern Africa.

We planted many new churches and were involved in various projects supporting and developing church leaders. However, this church was the exception. Ten years after democracy little has changed in the white church in South Africa. I dreamt of the day when white and black Christian leaders will take equal responsibility and start sharing their resources to bring the gospel to all the people of our nation in a relevant manner.

A World Evangelism Conference took place

In February 1999, at the Emmanuel congregation in Kempton Park, we hosted a World Evangelism Conference. During the conference pastors Hansie Henning, Hennie Jacobs and I launched Judea Harvest. The vision of this newly founded evangelism ministry was to mobilise and equip evangelists to bring in the harvest. Judea Harvest is a grass roots evangelistic movement empowering local African evangelists with training and resources to win their own area for God, by preaching the gospel and planting new churches in tents.

To date Judea Harvest has trained tens of thousands of evangelists and church planters, deployed 3 300 tents and planted more than 10 000 new churches. It has been my greatest joy to serve in Judea Harvest


since we founded it in 1999, where we have seen the most incredible miracles as the harvest of our Lord is being gathered in our network of tents.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISJudea Harvest is a grass roots evangelistic movement empowering local

African evangelists with training and resources to win their own area for God, by preaching the gospel and planting new churches in tents.

We have a very large vision for this ministry, and trust God to mobilise, equip and resource thousands of labourers with tents and other ministry tools to transform our nation and beyond with the power and gospel of Christ. I hope and believe that this John Journey training manual will also contribute towards the sharpening of the various strategies that Judea Harvest utilises.

During the past nineteen years I have travelled extensively throughout the world and lectured, trained and preached in more than 30 countries. The purpose of this ministry is to assist the Body of Christ to be efficient in reaching the lost with the gospel, focussing on Africa. This passion was also my motivation to complete my doctorate (D Litt et Phil) in evangelism and missiology at the University of Johannesburg. Testimony to this passion is that over the last 18 years Judea Harvest has been instrumental in planting more than 10 000 new churches in the 27 Countries we work in, throughout Africa.

3.3 Judea Harvest’s Journey

Judea Harvest was established in February 1999 and currently (2018) celebrates nineteen years of ministry. Since the birth of Judea Harvest the world’s population has grown from six billion to seven billion people, and the task of world evangelism is ever increasing.


A Non-profit Great Commission Organisation

Judea Harvest is a non-profit Great Commission organisation. The head office with numerous regional satellite offices across Africa functions in faith and solely depends on gifts and donations for its operational costs. The mission of Judea Harvest is to mobilise, equip and resource God’s labourers to transform the nations of Africa.

For this purpose, Judea Harvest provides pastors, evangelists and church planters with training, resources and hands on training events. Bibles, Christian books, training manuals and DVD’s, audio Bibles and marquee tents and snap churches are made available to teams in the Judea Harvest satellite system. A satellite is a group of like-minded Christian churches of any denomination that take corporate responsibility for the harvest in their own Judea-area.

Judea Harvest currently has more than 300 satellites across 27 Southern African nations and 10 East African nations. In this satellite system more than 3 300 tent churches have been deployed over a period of 19 years. There are approximately 10 000 churches involved in these satellites. Over the last 19 years more than 15 734 crusades have been conducted in this tent network and approximately 10 000 new churches have been planted.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISIn the first two decades of the history of Judea Harvest the following was achieved:

z More than 300 satellites across 27 Southern African nations and 10 East African nations.

z In this satellite system more than 3 300 tent churches have been deployed. z There are approximately 10 000 churches involved in these satellites. z More than 15 734 crusades have been conducted in this tent network and approximately 10 000 new

churches have been planted.

The Potential to have a Major Impact

The Judea Harvest concept has proved that it has the potential to have a major impact on the continent of Africa to uplift, empower and transform the nations. Tents are an extremely cost effective and mobile way in Africa to penetrate the previously disadvantaged areas and positively impact the lives of the African people. The strategic process of Judea Harvest enables the satellites to implement a holistic ministry in order to complete the Great Commission in its own area.

This strategic process starts with prayer mobilisation followed by evangelism training. Secondly a comprehensive discipleship program is implemented to teach and disciple all new believers. Thirdly a church planting strategy is implemented to work towards saturation church planting. Finally, a comprehensive community development plan is implemented in every satellite, addressing needs such


as HIV/AIDS, AIDS orphans, food for the hungry, clothes for the poor, pre-schools and micro-economic projects, called our Judea Hope programs.

Address the Needs of Untrained African Pastors

During the last couple of years Judea Training was also founded to address the needs of the approximately one million untrained African pastors. Regional co-ordinators, satellite co-ordinators and trainers are being empowered to strategically co-ordinate the implementation of the vision.

During the last couple of years Judea Hope was also founded to address the needs of the millions of vulnerable children living in the Rural areas of South Africa as well as the informal squatter settlements. Judea Hope has a very specific focus to provide safe spaces for these children at risk, to eat, play, learn and prepare themselves towards school readiness. Judea Hope has more than 1 300 early child development centres across the country that are taking care of approximately 80 children each!

The challenge for Judea Harvest is to unite the existing resources and efforts within the communities with other local and national role players, in a partnership to address the needs on grass roots level. The contribution of each role player may vary from funding, training, socio-economic upliftment, job creation to erecting physical structures.

Judea Harvest has already successfully facilitated partnerships with international organisations such as Walk Thru the Bible, Every Home for Christ, International Cooperating Ministries and various others. The phenomenal results achieved by Judea Harvest in the past 19 years are only because of the unmerited favour and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

However, when we look at the unchurched portion of the rural South Africa and Africa as a whole, not to even mention the other unreached parts of the world, it becomes clear that this vision is also not enough. We need to do something extraordinary and something different to complete the great commission in our lifetime in Africa.


LET US SUMMARISE SESSION 3:1. One of the first things Jesus did, was to call His disciples and to send them

out to declare the message of the gospel to the whole world.2. The life and ministry of Jesus was characterised by Him bringing the good news

to the poor, healing the sick and caring about people.3. The command of Christ to proclaim the good news has a broader meaning: it

entails the proclamation of the good news, the restoration or “making whole” of the person, the teaching and training of existing believers and the provision of guidance, comfort and correction to all the followers of Christ.

4. God gave Louis Blom a very large vision for his ministry and he trusts God to mobilise, equip and resource thousands of labourers with ministry tools to transform our nation and beyond with the power and gospel of Christ.

5. The mission of Judea Harvest is to mobilise, equip and resource God’s labourers to transform the nations of Africa.

6. Judea Harvest currently has more than 300 satellites across 27 Southern African nations and 10 East African nations. In this satellite system more than 3 300 tent churches have been deployed over a period of 19 years.

Current Evangelism StrategiesWHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN SESSION 4:

� What the true nature of an evangelist is. � What different evangelism strategies have been employed in the past. � What the four steps of John Journey’s evangelism strategy is all about.

4.1 EVANGELISM STRATEGIES IN THE CURRENT CHURCHWords such as church, evangelism, missions and discipleship go hand in hand in the church. All will concur that the church that does not evangelise, do missions and make disciples are not a true church at all. Many churches over the years however have employed evangelism, missions and discipleship as programs with the purpose to grow their church. In most cases the outcome was disappointment.

The True Nature of an Evangelist

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe metaphor from nature to describe different sizes of churches:

z A rabbit church is a small community of believers that regularly meet in a house. z A lion church is a larger group of believers, usually more than a hundred. z An elephant church is a mega church with a thousand or more members.

The church, whether a rabbit church, a lion church or an elephant church, is a body (Ephesians 5:22-23) and not a business. Christ Himself is head of this body. The church is an organism and not an organisation. Programs will keep believers busy, but does not guarantee growth and efficiency. In terms of the John

SESSION FOUR

CURRENT EVANGELISM STRATEGIES44

Journey the following section will take a look at how the church has dealt with evangelism. This will set the table for “Planting with John”.

Many believers, especially some from the older generation, have called me an evangelist. This is not a surprise at all, because their perception of an evangelist is the one who preaches to the lost. My journey and actions in the church confirmed this perception. But, what is evangelism? Is it a Christian duty or obligation? Is evangelism a salvation plan that is presented in five easy steps to get saved? Is the need for evangelism found in Scripture and did the Lord command believers to evangelise?

Some spiritual leaders place a lot of emphasis on evangelism. This is normally done from the pulpit during Sunday morning meetings. However, with every word the pastor utters, believers only feel guiltier because they are told that the church is not effective with its evangelism strategies.

Is every believer an evangelist? The New Testament is clear that not all believers are called to be evangelists (1 Corinthians 12). Philip was an evangelist (Acts 8:5-6, 40). And Timothy, who was an apostolic worker, was encouraged by Paul to do “the work” of an evangelist (2

Timothy 4:5). While all believers can evangelise and teach and shepherd, not all of them are called to be evangelists, teachers or shepherds.

Different Evangelism Strategies

This section offers an overall view with regards to evangelism strategies in the current church. Interestingly there in nowhere in the New Testament epistles to the churches where one word is said to them about the need to evangelise! There is also not one word of command to evangelise. What is found in the New Testament is that the sharing of Christ was done spontaneously among the members of the early church and it was driven by love. The New Testament does encourage believers to speak the gospel fearlessly, graciously and respectfully whenever an opportunity presents itself (Colossians 4:2-6; 1 Peter 3:15).

Nevertheless, history tells us that believers have used many different approaches to spread the gospel over the years through the practice of evangelism. Although Christianity originally began with only a few different evangelism methods, over the years many different forms of evangelism have been employed by different groups to spread the faith.

Evangelism in the current church is understood as the active calling of people to respond to the message of grace and commitment to God in Christ. Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity. Christians who specialise in evangelism are known as evangelists whether they are in their


Each one should use whatever gift he has received

to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as

one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised

through Jesus Christ.– 1 PETER 4:10-11

45CURRENT EVANGELISM STRATEGIES

home communities or living as missionaries in the field. Some Christian traditions consider evangelists to be in a

leadership position. They may be found preaching to large meetings or in leadership roles. Christian groups who actively encourage evangelism are sometimes known as evangelistic or evangelist. The scriptures do not use the word evangelism, but evangelist is used in Acts 21:8, Ephesians 4:11 and 2 Timothy 4:5. The communication of Christian faith to new geographical areas and cultures is often referred to as evangelisation, or specifically world evangelisation.

1. Open-air PreachingTraditionally the evangelist is one that travels from town to town and from church to church to spread the gospel of Christ. Many evangelists would use open-air preaching as the method to reach the lost with the gospel. Evangelists supporting this method will point out that Jesus preached in public areas. It is one of the oldest approaches to evangelism.

Billy Graham and Reinhard Bonnke are seen as modern day open air evangelists who preached the gospel to large crowds all over the world. The message at most of these open air meetings is the salvation message. An altar call normally follows the message and thousands of people which are lead in the sinners’ prayer become born again.

2. TV and Radio EvangelistsOpen air evangelists have been gradually replaced by TV and radio evangelists. Televangelism was started in the United States and Canada in the mid-20th century, as a primarily evangelical Protestant approach to evangelism. It made Christian viewpoints much more visible in the world at the time than they were before.

Radio evangelism is an approach to evangelism which began around 1921, and has reached more people per hour than any other kind of evangelism, according to The Encyclopedia of Protestantism. Television and radio evangelism according to the broadcasters reach millions of people each day with the gospel.

3. Placing Bibles, the Jesus Film and the InternetPlacing Bibles at strategic locations such as hospitals and hotels are also perceived as evangelising. Showing the Jesus Film, a movie which has been translated into 80 languages, is widely regarded as one of the most efficient evangelism tools. The Jesus Film is a representation of the life of Jesus Christ.

Current trends used by believers to evangelise are social networks and the internet. Internet evangelism may include a website defending the accuracy of the Bible or a certain controversial or “hot” topic.


Paul wrote, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open

my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery

of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”– EPHESIANS 6:19-20


4. Evangelism Programs in ChurchesMany churches run evangelistic programs. Need orientated evangelism, where believers go to municipal parks to feed the homeless and then share the gospel once a week, is a common method to reach the non-believers with the good news.

Believers are also encouraged to invite non-believers to church services. During these meetings the pastor will share the gospel. Dramas which depict fictional characters that die and learn whether they go to heaven or hell are used to reach the lost with the gospel as well.

Well known VIP’s who are born again will testify at churches and lead sinners to God. Music is also used in modern day evangelism. Christian rock concerts in which artists exhort non-believers’ attendees to pray a prayer for salvation have become common during the last part of the previous century.

5. In Small Groups or One-to-oneEvangelism is also done in small groups or on a one-to-one basis. Believers are taught many different approaches that can be employed to reach the lost with the gospel.

Trickle-down evangelism is an approach to evangelism primarily concerned with converting high ranking members of a society, so that their influence can serve to help spread Christianity throughout the society in question. It was practiced especially often during the Middle Ages.

6. Door to door PreachingDoor to door preaching is another evangelism method. Believers will go from door to door in a certain area to evangelise to residents and hand out gospel tracts. The international organisation Every Home for

Christ began door to door preaching in 1953 throughout many countries, and as of 2010, total home visits by their members became 1.3 billion. Many local parishes and churches worldwide use this approach to evangelism.

7. Lifestyle EvangelismLifestyle evangelism is an approach to evangelism characterised by someone demonstrating their faith by their actions in the hope that people around them will be impressed with how God affects that person’s life, and become a Christian. According to The Encyclopedia of Protestantism printed in 2004, approximately 100 million people use this approach to evangelism.

Supporters of this approach to evangelism often cite Matthew 5:16 as a proof verse. Supporters also often point out that Jesus drew people to God by showing them kindness and performing good deeds, while detractors sometimes note that people may not realise one’s good behaviour is due to Christianity. Supporters claim this is more effective than direct evangelism because of the perception that it is harder to live “righteously” than to preach a sermon.


The apostle Paul said, “I have become all things to all men so that by all

possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I

may share in its blessings.”– 1 CORINTHIANS 9:22-23


8. Evangelism using a Phone or Creative ArtsAnother form of evangelism is phone evangelism. This approach to evangelism involves using phones to contact people in order to spread the gospel to them. This sometimes takes the form of random phone calls, or someone would contact the evangelist to recommend people to whom the evangelist could convey the good news.

Other forms of evangelism are creative evangelism where the creative arts (such as music, visual art, drama, film) are used to present a gospel message.

9. Creation EvangelismCreation evangelism, which should not to be confused with creative evangelism, is the use of creationist philosophical and theological arguments to prove the literal interpretation of Genesis and thus the reliability of the Bible and the truth of the Christian gospel to people so that they may become convinced that Christianity is true. This approach to evangelism is often used by mission organisations in parts of the world that have tribal cultures who have not been exposed to Christianity before, since their relatively unsophisticated world view renders them susceptible to this form of argument.

10. God speaks through a Christian to a Non-believerThis is a method employed mainly by charismatic Christians. This is where (as its practitioners believe) God speaks through a Christian to a non-believer to say something that will prompt that person to seek God.

On most occasions it is something that the speaker could not have known naturally. For example: someone who is having a secret affair may be told that God knows they are doing wrong and wants them to change their ways. However, some critics of this approach note that other religions appear to use a similar method to spread their faith.

11. Friendship or Personal EvangelismThen there is friendship evangelism. With these method believers are encouraged to develop relationships with non-believers in order to show them kindness and talk to them about God eventually. These “friends” are normally those working with a believer, family members and next door neighbours.

Personal evangelism is sometimes referred to as “one to one” or “personal work”. This approach to evangelism is when one Christian typically evangelises to one non-Christian, or only a few non-Christians, in a private manner. A 1982 Gallup Poll revealed that 51 percent of all Americans had tried to convince someone to become a Christian during their life.


Jesus said: “You are the light of the world. ... In the

same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise

your Father in heaven.”– MATTHEW 5:14, 16


BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISWith friendship evangelism believers are encouraged to develop relationships with

non-believers in order to show them kindness and talk to them about God eventually.

12. The EvangeCubeAnother well-known tool to evangelise especially among the illiterate is the EvangeCube. This cube is a puzzle-like pictorial teaching aid of eight interlocking blocks which tells the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ:

z Mankind’s separation from God. z The death of Jesus on the cross for mankind’s sin. z Jesus’ body sealed in a guarded tomb. z Jesus’ resurrection. z The way to God open through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. z The choice to receive God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

The seventh face illustrates five practices for the new believer to follow: love for God and others, prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship and sharing the gospel of Christ with others.

The idea of EvangeCube was born in 1998 after creators Nathan Sheets and Jim Wyatt returned from a short-term mission trip to Haiti and encountered a marketing promotion using a cube in their mail. The cube’s illustrations were completed with the help of two artists: a comic-book illustrator and stained-glass designer. The cube has been readily received by the Christians around the world with more than 3 million distributed since January 2000.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe different evangelism strategies that played a role through the centuries:1. Open-air preaching.

2. TV and radio evangelists.3. Placing Bibles, the Jesus film and the internet.4. Evangelism programs in churches.5. Small groups and one-to-one.6. Door to door preaching.7. Lifestyle evangelism.8. Evangelism by phone or creative arts.9. Creation evangelism.10. God speaks through a Christian to a non-believer.


11. Friendship or personal evangelism.12. The EvangeCube.

The Real Evangelist in the Early Church

Who was the evangelist in the early church? In the first century the greatest evangelist was the church (in Greek: ekklesia) of God, a close-knit community of believers that loved Jesus, showed Him forth by their life together, took care of one another and served others. Whenever she – the ekklesia – is functioning according to her spiritual nature, she trumps every other evangelism program known to man.

That’s still the case today when she’s reflecting her Bridegroom as God called her to do. We can only hope that those who love evangelism, but think that the way a church expresses itself isn’t important, will give this point serious consideration. The way a church expresses itself is terribly important. Biblically speaking, the church is the premier witness to Jesus Christ.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISIn the first century the greatest evangelist was the church of God,

a close-knit community of believers that loved Jesus, showed Him forth by their life together, took care of one another and served others.

The Difference between Evangelism and Disciple-making

Looking at all the above mentioned evangelism methods tells us that churches are serious about spreading the gospel. It also reveals that evangelism is progressive and it adjusts with times. However, we at Judea Harvest are of the opinion that evangelism has formed a general understanding among believers that only certain members of the church are evangelists making most members non-compliant to the call in Matthew 28:19-20.

John Journey therefore offers a slight focus shift in reaching the lost or un-churched with the gospel and calls it disciple-making. Is there a difference between traditional evangelism strategies and making disciples? If there is – what are the differences?

Jesus commanded His disciples to go and proclaim the gospel to all nations and teach people to become true disciples. The good news is that everyone can now become members of the kingdom of God. Evangelism is the presentation of the gospel to someone with the purpose of bringing that person to have faith in Christ. This means that evangelism is more than just preaching, as the word “presentation” opens up the interpretation of evangelism to many other methods, including preaching. In Southern Africa, this broader approach to evangelism has been lacking, as there are many ways to evangelise effectively besides preaching.


The church in Southern Africa is facing an enormous challenge concerning the execution of the Great Commission. The aspects of preaching the gospel and challenging people in crusades to accept Christ received much attention, but the teaching and training aspects of the Great Commission still needs much attention.

After all the efforts of preaching the gospel in the past 100 years, one would assume that the continent of Africa would portray the relevant Christian values and ethics in its communities. However, Christianity has not affected the people of Southern Africa as positively as one would have expected.

Implement a Broad Evangelism Strategy

This situation developed because of the thousands, and even millions of people that attended a crusade, raised their hand to accept Christ, and left the crusade without ever embarking on the discipleship journey to follow and obey Christ, but now consider themselves Christian. The only solution to this problem is to implement a broad evangelism strategy.

The church should rediscover its apostolic roots, as the winning of the lost and making disciples of Christ are in the DNA of the church, because this is what the church is there for. The fact that there are more unbelievers alive today than ever before in history should certainly be of concern.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY“Lord Jesus, use me! Help me to spread the fragrance of your presence wherever I go. Fill my life with your disposition of love. Take control of my whole being so that I will

radiate the lustre of your love. Shine through me. Become part of me to such an extent that everyone that I come across today will become conscious of your presence in their life.”

– JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

In the year 2000 there were 6,065 million people on the earth and only 10% were Christians. These included nominal Christians, which leaves approximately 4 billion people un-evangelized, un-reached, and therefore unsaved. The reason for the weakness in evangelism is the low level of love and passion for Christ in the lives of Christians. I have noticed that churches and denominations with no growth in membership also have no active evangelism programs.

Thus, it is important that every church, denomination and mission organisation should develop an evangelism strategy, which not only focuses on preaching, but also focuses on discipleship and mentoring to maturity, to complete the Great Commission. The role of the evangelist is not only to preach the gospel, but also to equip the believers to be effective witnesses according to Ephesians 4.

Aspects like prayer, witnessing and building meaningful relationships with unbelievers can be important evangelism tools. Furthermore, the serving of the people in need in the impoverished Southern African


communities can greatly excel the evangelism efforts of the church.

4.2 THE JOHN JOURNEY STRATEGY OF EVANGELISMJudea Harvest believes that God has given us a new strategy to be an answer to some of the challenges the church faces today. This strategy has been packaged as John Journey. John Journey is an attempt to provide churches and Christians with a tool and a strategy to take responsibility for completing the Great Command of making disciples of all nations.

THE WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIAN“People understand just as much of the love and grace of God as they can see in your life. The first Bible that many people will read, is your life.”

– REBECCA MANLEY PIPPERT

John Journey has four main aims: z Firstly, to change evangelism from a corporate centralised program based event to an informal

de-centralised culture practised by every believer. z Secondly, to move discipleship from a pulpit-based, shepherd-flock-model to a mentorship process

that happens between believers. z Thirdly, to create a culture of house church planting that will move the church from institutional

church growth by clergy to organic church growth by Christians. z Fourthly, to change church planting from a haphazard opportunistic attempt by individuals to a

strategic process in targeted communities.

This process uses the Gospel of John as a tool to empower all Christians to evangelise, disciple new believers to become mature followers of Christ and plant house churches. John Journey uses two tools namely: the Gospel of John and the cross. The symbol of the cross becomes a symbol for prayer and discipleship.

The John Journey process includes four steps: z Coffee with John – Evangelism strategy. z Growing with John – Discipleship process. z Planting with John – House church planting process. z Church with John – Community church development.



After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of

him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the

harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

Go! I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”

– LUKE 10:1-3

The First Step: Coffee with John

Coffee with John is based on the strategy that Jesus provided believers in Luke 10. The Lord sent out 72 of His disciples and told them to search for a man of peace or an open house in the city. He then told them to enter the open house and connect with those people in a meaningful relationship. Jesus commanded his disciples not to jump from house to house, but to stay in the house that has been opened for them.

Jesus told them to bless those people, pray for the sick, pray for their needs, offer them food, and proclaim the good news to them. Thus, believers are to trust God to do miracles for the family, and

then they should tell them that the kingdom of God has come, and lead them in a lifetime commitment to follow and serve Christ. This is how Christ sent out His disciples.

However, history has shown that believers tended to do evangelism in the reverse way. Normally believers think about evangelism as talking to strangers on the street and confronting them with the gospel. This is the opposite of what Jesus commanded the church. Jesus told believers according to Luke 10 to first connect, fellowship, bless and then to share the gospel. Believers are not to share the gospel first and then, if unbelievers have responded positively, bless and fellowship with them as they become members of their churches.

To be obedient to the Great Commandment Judea Harvest is recruiting house evangelists who will go into communities to connect with people who are open to the gospel. These labourers will enter the homes of those who are open-hearted and share the peace of God with them and fellowship with them.

The Second Step: Growing with John

The second step is to equip every trained house evangelist who has implemented the “Coffee with John” process, with the necessary tools to start a new discipleship study group in his or her area. Jesus told His followers to make disciples and not only converts. This process is what Judea Harvest calls “Growing with John”. Judea Harvest uses the Gospel of John to disciple new believers and to teach them to obey Christ’s commands.


Relationship with unbelievers – share, care, go, pray.

The cross of Jesus is used to symbolise the four parts to this journey.

Relationship with God – fasting, prayer, holiness, Bible.

Relationship with believers – care, share, give, love.

Overcoming sin – witchcraft, disease, death and sexual immorality.

“Growing with John” provides a process that will assist every new believer to study through the Gospel of John at least four times. In this process the new believer will study the principles of living a Christian life.

The Third Step: Planting with John

Judea Harvest is thinking in a new and fresh way about church planting. The matter of finding enough money to build or rent buildings or place tent churches to take care of the harvest is a daunting task.

However, Judea Harvest believes that a more effective way to take care of the harvest is rapid multiplication of house churches. These house churches will be clustered together to become local formally organised community churches. The manner in which these house churches will cluster to become the local church will depend on the circumstances in that area and must be led by every local pastor. Judea Harvest is keen to gather a bigger harvest for God than ever – this can be done with less money and fewer resources.


WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIANLife is like a mighty river with thousands of non-believers that are quickly

drifting downstream in the direction of a waterfall. How can we as Christians remain standing on the riverbank waving them goodbye?

– PAUL LITTLE

In South Africa, Judea Harvest already has four million copies of John Gospels available and is embarking on a process to reach four million houses and twelve million people with the message of Jesus in South Africa. Judea Harvest aims to plant thousands of John Journey discipleship groups and house churches.

The Fourth Step: Church with John

Judea Harvest is of the opinion that the local community church is still the best long term strategy to help people live a Christian life. The local community church is also God’s method of combining the strength of individuals to change this world and spread the message of Christ. Communities do not need large churches so much as they need a large amount of new churches.

A permanent community church is a registered and affiliated church organisation with official membership, programs and ministries. Judea Harvest has developed a specific church planting strategy to establish a formally organised community church. This strategic process has three steps and a detailed time table that helps the pastor to successfully plant community churches.

Partner with Judea Harvest and help us reach millions of people in their homes and provide them the John Journey.

BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe John Journey process includes four steps:1. Coffee with John – Evangelism strategy.

2. Growing with John – Discipleship process.3. Planting with John – House church planting process.4. Church with John – Community church development.


LET US SUMMARISE SESSION 4:1.Many churches over the years have employed evangelism, missions and

discipleship as programs with the purpose to grow their church. In most cases the outcome was disappointment.

2. While all believers can evangelise and teach and shepherd, not all of them are called to be evangelists, teachers or shepherds.

3. Different evangelism strategies have been deployed over the years with different degrees of success.

4. Evangelism is the presentation of the gospel to someone with the purpose of bringing that person to have faith in Christ.

5. It is important that every church, denomination and mission organisation should develop an evangelism strategy, which not only focuses on preaching, but also focuses on discipleship and mentoring to maturity, to complete the Great Commission.

6. John Journey implements four important steps to provide churches and Christians with a tool and a strategy to take responsibility for completing the Great Command of making disciples of all nations.

SESSION FIVE


“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks

be made for all men.”– 1 TIMOTHY 2:1-2

Four Forms of EvangelismWHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN SESSION 5:

� What the importance of prayer evangelism is. � How friendship evangelism can be practiced. � Why service evangelism is important and how to do it. � What power evangelism is all about.

5.1 PRAYER EVANGELISM

Prayer must always be the first strategy that is employed when one plans to win people for Christ. The church has a clear biblical mandate to pray for the lost. Therefore, prayer is a basic and very important Christian activity that is vital to successful evangelism.

The person that did much to re-establish the importance and value of prayer in evangelism is Ed Silvoso. He developed an evangelism

model called “Prayer Evangelism”. Silvoso defined prayer evangelism as follows:

“Simply put, Prayer Evangelism is talking to God about your neighbour before talking to your neighbour about God.”

He argues that intercessory prayer for the needs of your neighbours provides God with an opportunity to bless them, and it opens up their hearts to the gospel. The power of Silvoso’s model is that it is simple enough for

every believer to engage in, and because of the potential mass mobilisation of believers to engage in evangelism, it is the key to completing the Great Commission. Silvoso shares this gripping story of how he discovered the power of prayer evangelism:

FOUR FORMS OF EVANGELISM58

The Story of Ed Silvoso

“Before we can change the spiritual climate over our cities, we must have a working knowledge of one of our primary tools: prayer evangelism. I introduced the essence of the concept of prayer evangelism in That None Should Perish in 1994, but since then much has been learned from using this potent weapon on the front lines. Several years of working side by side with pastors and leaders in cities all over the world have enriched tremendously our initial understanding of this concept.

“Simply put, prayer evangelism is talking to God about our neighbours before we talk to our neighbours about God.” This definition, coined by Beverly Jaime, has helped us to put at ease thousands of Christians who have a genuine desire to witness to the lost, but who feel inadequate or scared to share the gospel with them.

THE WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIAN“Prayer evangelism is talking to God

about our neighbours before we talk to our neighbours about God.”

– BEVERLY JAIME

“I know those feelings of inadequacy very well; they used to torment me as a brand-new Christian. Shortly after my conversion, a visiting evangelist pounded on the pulpit at my church and declared, ‘No one should hear the gospel twice until everybody has heard it once! Therefore, since all of you have heard it more than once, I will not preach to you. Instead, I will organise you into pairs to witness door-to-door to those who have not heard it yet.’ At that moment panic struck, and I found myself foolishly wishing that an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, anything catastrophic, would hit our town so I would not have to go out to witness to strangers.

“Why such a negative reaction? I wasn’t opposed to witnessing; I was just scared of talking to strangers. Being the shy person that I was, even if I had mustered enough courage to try, fear of rejection would probably have immobilised me anyway.

“As it turned out, neither flood nor earthquake hit town to alleviate my anxiety. So I began to fervently hope I would be paired with a vivacious, engaging, talkative individual – someone to whom I could say, ‘Obviously, you have the gift and the anointing for door-to-door evangelism. You take the point and talk to people, while I step into the background and silently pray for you.’ But it was not to happen that way.

“Although I was painfully shy, I had always been perceived by my peers to be a leader – a shy leader, but a leader nonetheless. As far back as I can remember, I was expected to lead. So, under the watchful gaze of the fiery evangelist, my pastor told me, ‘Ed, we are going to team you up with a younger Christian so you can show him how to do it.’ Me? Show someone else how to do it? I did not know how to witness

59FOUR FORMS OF EVANGELISM

myself! But soon I found myself and my young charge walking up to a door that, to me, resembled the entrance to a lion’s den.

THE WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIAN“You should not work so hard for Christ that you

have no more energy left to pray. To be strong, you have to pray. And to pray, you have to be strong.”

– J HUDSON TAYLOR

“Under the admiring gaze of my pupil, I knocked on the door as softly as I could, fervently hoping that no one would be home. I heard steps approaching, and I dearly wished it would be a child, no more than 3 or 4 years old, so I could sit down with him and just talk for the next hour while others from my church visited the rest of the block.

“I was so ashamed of my cowardliness! Fear and shame are a lethal combination for an aspiring evangelist. Even though I wanted to do great things for God, I was threatened by the prospect of having to share the gospel with total strangers.

“However, all that changed the day was that I discovered the dynamic, biblical principle of prayer evangelism.”

A SIMPLE AND YET EFFECTIVE STRATEGYThis simple yet effective strategy allows every believer to be involved in evangelism in an easy, non-threatening manner by praying for unbelievers, caring for their physical needs and by sharing his or her faith with them.

In the quest to reach the people of Southern Africa for Christ, it has become clear that one cannot rely only on the evangelists and preachers to accomplish that. Involvement in telling unbelievers about Jesus is a defining activity for all Christians, regardless of their natural talent at speaking to people, or who they are, or what they like. Gospel proclamation is for all – and Jesus has equipped all Christians with everything that they need to do so. The church should move from a condemning institution to a loving community that befriends unbelievers.


BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISInvolvement in telling unbelievers about Jesus

is a defining activity for all Christians, regardless of their natural talent at speaking to people, or who they are,

or what they like. Gospel proclamation is for all.

Sometimes on a mission-field visit, a significant amount of unstructured time is available, leaving team members and especially leaders with the question, “What do we do now?” We want to be both serving and helpful to the nationals – considering them better than ourselves and willing to do whatever might further along their church and community outreach. The challenge in leading a mission team is that at the same time we want to be sensitive to God’s leading in how we can facilitate an experience that is both a major blessing to the nationals and also helpful to our own team members. One such option that accomplishes all of the above is “prayer evangelism”.

We are always encouraged to be spiritually minded by praying all the time. This is true all the time – but especially true on the mission field! The model in Acts 2:42 gives us helpful insight into the early church and how their obedience to the Great Commission was accomplished: praying continually. Silvoso write: “I suggest that prayer – this kind of prayer – is the key to successful fulfilment of the Great Commission, then and now.” What better way is there to spend time on the mission-field than in “continual prayer”? But this must be intentionally taught and practiced in order to be mastered!

The Instruction of the Apostle Paul to Timothy

Paul (the most effective church planter in the New Testament) gave Timothy (his close associate) his instructions regarding prayer and evangelism.

To clarify, Paul was telling Timothy to organise the church so that prayers are said everywhere on behalf of all people in particular cities. The first assignment, then, was to make sure that everybody in town was prayed for. Paul then says that the outcome of this prayer is that we could live in all godliness and dignity.

Silvoso says there is only one way for Christians to live in an environment characterised by all godliness and honesty: it is for many unbelievers to become Christians, and those who don’t, to become aware of the existence of God and begin to fear Him. Then, and only then, all godliness and honesty will permeate the city where the church exists. The objective of Paul’s instructions to Timothy is very simple and extremely clear: pray that everybody in your city, and especially those in authority, will become Christians! What shall we pray for all people? We must become aware of the difference between the most important need a person has and what the person feels is his most important need (felt needs).

Lost people are obviously unaware of their most important need: salvation! When we pray for felt needs



“I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you

make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and

give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness,

in godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our

Saviour, for he wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is only one

God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people.

He is the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message that God gave to the world at the proper time. So wherever you assemble, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free

from anger and controversy.” – 1 Timothy 2:1-6, 8 (New

Living Translation, © 1996, Tyndale House Foundation.)

and God answers, their eyes are opened to the reality and power of God, and this in turn leads them to recognise their need for salvation. We usually limit ourselves to asking God in private prayer that people will accept Jesus. Silvoso suggests that we go beyond this first step – we must discern what they consider important and pray for that need to be met by God. When this happens, it acts as an eye-opener as far as the gospel is concerned. We know that although it is a paradox, it is God’s will that all should be saved (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4-6, etc), though this is not the reality! This is His will, and we must frame our prayers accordingly, suggests Silvoso!

z Make sure that everybody in town is prayed for (prayer walks, drives, etc).

z Pray for many unbelievers to become Christians, and those who don’t, to become aware of the existence of God and begin to fear Him.

z Pray specifically that those in authority will become Christians! (Government and community leaders, police, etc).

z What shall we pray for all people? Pray for felt needs – and pray that God’s power in answering the felt needs would be an open door to the gospel in their lives.


5.2 FRIENDSHIP EVANGELISMAnother powerful way to reach the lost is that believers should enter

into purposeful and meaningful relationships with unbelievers. The result is that the unbeliever will come close enough to the believer to observe the living Christ active in his life.

Unbelievers may differ with one’s preaching and theology, but they can never question one’s lifestyle, testifying that Christ

is alive in the believer. I am convinced that this is one of the most powerful ways to spread the gospel, and yet in my experience most

Christians, especially in Southern Africa, do not live in purposeful and meaningful relationships with unbelievers.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY“Empower us today, Lord, with the will power to assist those who are suffering injustice. Open our ears to hear the groans of the prisoners, the sick and the dying. And when You make us aware of the suffering around us, give us the strength to do something about it.”

– OLIVER CROMWELL

Friendship evangelism provides a wonderful opportunity to become involved in the lives of the millions of people suffering and dying of HIV/AIDS related diseases. There are millions of people who live under the breadline and suffer to make a living every day, and many vulnerable children who became orphans because of HIV/AIDS related deaths. All these people need Christ and can be reached by ordinary Christians living in their communities, by simply connecting with them and reaching out to their needs, serving them as God helps and blesses them.

The problem is that the majority of Christians consider unbelievers to be their enemy, to be avoided, and therefore most believers have isolated themselves from unbelievers. This is exactly the opposite of what Jesus modelled on earth and taught His disciples to do. Jesus told His disciples in Luke 10:5-9 to enter into the houses of unbelievers and to:

z Speak peace into their lives. z Fellowship and eat with them. z Take care of their needs by praying for the sick. z Proclaim the good news to them.


Traditional Church Model of Evangelising

John Journey Model of Evangelising


The African Culture is Open to Meaningful Relationships

This approach requires believers to enter into deep and meaningful relationships with unbelievers in the marketplace in order for them to find an access point for the gospel into their lives. In Southern Africa the African culture is very open to deep and meaningful relationships. Because family ties

and even extended family ties play a large role in the life of the African person, meaningful relationships with unbelievers can be easily achieved.

Research in the United States of America showed that 90% of all people that became Christians, did so because of the influence of and relationship with a person that is a believer in Jesus Christ.

Jesus modelled friendship with unbelievers during His life on earth, as He interacted freely with the sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes and Samaritans. He was even called a friend of the sinners by the Pharisees (Luke 7:34).

Sharing your Personal Experience of Salvation

Furthermore, friendship evangelism includes witnessing, sharing your personal experience of salvation in Christ to your friends. The Protestant reformers of the 16th century faced a Roman Catholic Church that was hostile to the idea of lay people being involved in ministry. For several years Martin Luther wrote against a church which emphasised that only ordained priests could perform any kind of meaningful ministry. However, the command for ordinary Christians to “witness” about Christ occurs 173 times in the New Testament whereas the word “proclaim” only occurs 72 times.

Today there has been much progress to developing a ministry approach that includes all believers, but this remains one of the challenges of the church in Southern Africa. Southern African Christians must, above all, be aware that authentic witnessing goes beyond the words one speaks. It also involves the life one lives. Christian witnessing has been a much-neglected aspect in the lives among the masses of Christians in Southern Africa.


The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” But wisdom is proved all right by all her children.

– LUKE 7:34-35


A PRAYER FOR TODAYO God, I am ashamed to acknowledge that I am doing so little to bring

the gospel to others around me. Lord, have mercy on me! We as human beings are lost. Help us to learn to know your forgiveness.

And bring us nearer to the day when the whole world will be made new!– TOYOHIKO KAGAWA

This basic Christian lifestyle was very much part of the success of the early church in Jerusalem, as recorded in

the book of Acts. Dr Burger, the former president of the AFM of SA, is of opinion that the witnessing and passion of the church described in Acts compares with the early days in the Apostolic Faith Mission

of South Africa, and says that the phenomenal growth of the church was due to the involvement of every member

in evangelism.

Your Faith and the Proclamation of your Faith are Two Sides of a Coin

This is also one of the key aspects of the Judea Harvest project. All the participating churches train their members to become witnesses in the tent crusades and house evangelism programs. According to Reinhard Bonnke, the renowned evangelist in Africa, faith and its propagation is two sides of a coin. A believer has no option; he must be engaged in telling others about his faith, or in some way be involved in that business.

Unfortunately, the majority of Christians in Southern Africa are not engaging in evangelism and winning of souls for God. The church in Southern Africa is inevitably on the same road as the church in the United States of America when it comes to winning souls for the Lord. Research shows that 95% of all Christians in the United States of America never led any souls to Christ in their lifespan.

In the quest to reach the people of Southern Africa for Christ, it has become clear that one cannot rely only on the evangelists and preachers to accomplish that. Involvement in telling other people about Jesus is a defining activity for all Christians, regardless of your natural talent at speaking to other people, or who you are, or what you like.

Gospel proclamation is for all – and we see that Jesus has equipped all Christians with everything that they need to do so. Therefore, all believers in Southern Africa will have to be mobilised to become witnesses for Christ, and thus engage in the witnessing lifestyle of evangelism. This is the only way the masses can be reached for Christ.


BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISInvolvement in telling other people about Jesus is a defining

activity for all Christians, regardless of your natural talent at speaking to other people, or who you are, or what you like.

5.3 SERVICE EVANGELISMThe service (diakonia) of the Christian is firstly to God, then to your fellow Christians and also to the unbelievers. John Journey proposes that a Christian’s deeds of good service are like seed that he sows into the life of the unbeliever. He provides an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to start working in that person’s life. Montgomery calls this “service evangelism”.

The premise of service evangelism is that God loves this whole world (both lost and saved) so much, and He wants to bless and save everyone. Therefore, the church, as His hands and feet, should engage in deeds of service to its neighbours, thus demonstrating Christ’s love and making Him visible and tangible for the unbeliever.

The world is not spiritually minded and is not impressed by spiritual things. Unbelievers are impressed when the believers do things that make a real difference in the lives of needy people, like feeding the poor or caring for the sick. In this way, the church takes to gospel to the people by serving the community and it opens up the hearts of unbelievers.

John Journey suggests that these acts of Christian service are also extended across the borders of the local church by taking some members on short-term outreach programs. There are many positive advantages of such outreaches and they could create wonderful opportunities to demonstrate God’s love for the world through Christian service.

In the light of the multiple problems such as crime, poverty, unemployment, violence and corruption we are facing in South Africa, the church has a great

opportunity to step up and be the salt and light it was called to be. The service of Christians and churches to people of Southern Africa will qualify true Christianity, as they become the instrument in the hands of God to touch and change communities.

Service evangelism provides a wonderful opportunity to become involved in the lives of the millions of people suffering and dying of HIV/AIDS related diseases. The millions of people who live under the bread line and suffer to make a living every day, along with

the millions of vulnerable children who became orphans because of the many deaths. All these people need Christ and can be reached by

ordinary Christians living in their communities, by simply connecting with them and reaching out to their needs, serving them as God helps and blesses them.


BE SURE TO REMEMBER THISThe service of Christians and churches to people of

Southern Africa will qualify true Christianity, as they become the instrument in the hands of God to touch and change communities.

Churches should develop active ministry opportunities for their members to engage in the needs and problems of the community. I once heard a leader say; “If they have done all the witnessing they can, then maybe it would be appropriate to speak a word or two as well.”

5.4 POWER EVANGELISMWhen believers are involved in the lives of unbelievers, it provides believers the opportunity to minister to the needs of unbelievers as they arise. Believers should then serve them in a physical manner, and pray for their needs at the appropriate time. This provides a great opportunity for God to do a miracle in the lives of unbelievers.

In the light of the many social and socio-economic problems in Southern Africa, it will be beneficial for churches to equip their members to become involved in the lives of their unbelieving family and neighbours.

There is also another aspect of serving, and that is ministering healing to the many diseases amongst the people of Africa. Healing has become important for the average African person because Malaria is the number one killer disease, followed by HIV/AIDS related deaths, cholera and many other diseases coupled with the low quality of health care services.

The disciples of Christ have the power to make a difference. They can be the salt and the light that brings change. The Pentecostal pioneers to Southern Africa stressed the healing of the body as a ministry of the church and this became a very effective tool in their evangelism efforts. The African spirituality readily comprehended the deliverance and healing of the entire person as was presented by the Pentecostal pioneers.

The growth of the African Independent Churches can be ascribed to the fact that they purposefully engaged in serving and meeting the felt needs of the people in Southern Africa. The church ministering in prayer and in acts of compassion to the many inflicted people in South Africa will find a valuable penetration point for the gospel.


LET US SUMMARISE SESSION 5:1. Prayer evangelism is talking to God about your neighbour before talking

to your neighbour about God.2. Prayer evangelism is a simple yet effective strategy to allow every believer to

be involved in evangelism in an easy, non-threatening manner by praying for unbelievers, caring for their physical needs and by sharing his or her faith with them.

3. Friendship evangelism helps believers to enter into purposeful and meaningful relationships with unbelievers. The result is that the unbeliever will come close enough to the believer to observe the living Christ active in his or her life.

4. Friendship evangelism is directly opposite to the traditional church model of evangelising.

5. Service evangelism helps the church, as the hands and feet of God, to engage in deeds of service, demonstrating Christ’s love and making Him visible to unbelievers.

6. Through power evangelism the church needs to rise to the challenge to help the poor. Scripture holds the church responsible for the poor and needy. They need to spread the love of Christ and His message, and address the needs of the people.

Leading a Person to ChristWHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN SESSION 6:

� How to use the symbol of the cross of Jesus when sharing the good news? � What the real challenge to the church in Southern Africa is.

6.1 HOW TO LEAD A PERSON TO CHRISTThere are many models available worldwide to lead somebody to Christ. Many ministries and Bible seminaries have gone to great extent to develop these models and millions of Christians have been trained worldwide to lead people to Christ. Unfortunately, statistics still show less than 5% of Christians worldwide have ever lead anybody to Christ in their lifetime of serving Jesus.

John Journey teaches that it is a matter of the heart, passion and lifestyle. During the evangelism strategies of John Journey, we teach that it is simple and easy for everybody to become involved in witnessing for Christ.

During this section you will be taught a very simple and memorable structure of how to lead someone to Christ. This is due to the nature of the John Journey training and strategy utilising the cross of Jesus as a symbol of evangelism, discipleship, prayer and relationship building. We will use the cross once again as the symbol whereby you can have a system to lead somebody to Christ.

We all agree: leading someone to Christ is not starting and ending at the prayer of salvation. It is starting at the point of discipling the lost person for Jesus and journeying through the prayer of salvation and progressing to the stage where that person is truly a follower and disciple of Christ. However, in this section we will focus on that moment where a person is lead to Jesus with a prayer of commitment.

SESSION SIX

LEADING A PERSON TO CHRIST70

The Cross of Jesus

1. The Top Part of the Cross: the Way to GodWe work with the top part of the cross with the “Theta” sign indicating God. Theta is the letter of the Greek alphabet spelling the Name of God, “Theos”. The top portion of the cross is pointing upwards.

Therefore, John proclaims that this is the work that Jesus Christ completed on the cross for us when He proclaimed in John 19:30, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. Jesus broke the veil between heaven and earth and made a way for man to enter into the kingdom of God. The top part of the cross is pointing upwards to show that man now has a way to God. The way to God is through Jesus Christ and through the cross of Christ.

2. The Bottom Part of the Cross: Jesus Defeated Satan

The bottom portion of the cross indicates and exemplifies the work that Jesus Christ completed on the cross concerning the enemy and hell. Christ defeated Satan on the cross. He entered into hades and destroyed the works of the devil. When Jesus said, “It is finished”

(John 19:30), He also included the work, the influence, the effect and the end of the enemy’s work in my life, when I accept Christ.

The bottom is showing towards this world and the stronghold that the devil has on me. I now accept


For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not

perish but have eternal life. – JOHN 3:16

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed

in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

– JOHN 1:12

71LEADING A PERSON TO CHRIST

Jesus Christ and that puts to an end his work in my life. Therefore, we placed the symbol “Omega” at the bottom indicating the end, as it is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

3. The Right-hand Portion of the Cross: Pleading for GraceThe right-hand portion of the cross points towards the person that was hanging on the right-hand side of Jesus Christ at Golgotha. That person pleaded for grace hanging on the cross and Jesus’ answer was the same answer as today to the more than 7 billion people living on earth.

If you are willing to say, “Lord, think of me when you enter your kingdom,” the answer of Christ today is, “You will be in paradise with Me.” Jesus extends His invitation to all people that accept Him to enter into this new life in the kingdom of God. This life leads to eternity with Christ in heaven. We placed the fish sign there as the early disciples used the fish as their secret symbol.

4. The Left-hand Portion of the Cross: Sin and Lost PeopleThe left-hand portion of the cross with the apple sign indicates sin and lost people. That is where Eve ate the “apple” and sin entered into paradise and man’s life. There are always unbelievers and sinful people in one’s life after you have accepted Christ Jesus. It is depicted by the left-hand part of the cross.

This is where the church used to make a very big mistake by preaching and teaching their people to separate themselves from these sinners and to ignore them. Jesus however demonstrated that He came to reach and to love them and reached out to them during His lifetime working with sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, women etc.

John Journey pleads with new believers whom have just come into a relationship with Christ and dedicated their lives to Jesus not to ignore the lost people in their lives, but to continue reaching out to them, loving and caring for them, sharing the gospel with them and trying their utmost to pull them over the pivot point which is the centre of the cross and the love of God.

It becomes our life journey to travel along this horizontal line of the cross between the family of God, the children of God and the lost people that we know and are familiar with, our friends and family that need Jesus.

The Prayer

Lord Jesus, I thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I accept the work that You have done on the cross for me .

I am sorry for my sinful lifestyle and I ask Your forgiveness. Please give me the power to become Your child and to follow You and to break with all the evil and negative things of this world and the enemy. I commit to leave the things of this world behind and to follow You with all my might .

Thank you for bringing me into my new family in Christ and all the children of God in my local church, town and worldwide. I commit to serve and follow You and do my Christian duties in the kingdom of God and in my local Church .

LEADING A PERSON TO CHRIST72

Lastly I pray that You will give me the strength to be Your witness and to serve and love my friends and family into Your kingdom as well. Use me to reach them for You. Thank You that I have become Your child. I will humbly and gratefully follow you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

6.2 THE CHALLENGEThe church of Christ in Southern Africa is facing an immense challenge. In the past it conducted a very one-dimensional style of evangelism that did not produce the desired results in terms of Christians demonstrating the changed lives that are expected from disciples following Christ. Today, the people of Southern Africa with all the diversity and with the contemporary modernistic and post-modernistic influences pose an even greater challenge to the church. How can they be reached for Christ?

A more comprehensive and inclusive approach to evangelism, teaching, discipleship, preaching, caring and education is desperately needed. The church of Christ is mandated to preach the gospel across the whole world. This commission is the primary task of every believer and the church in its collective form. The Bible does not offer a choice, but calls every believer to be a witness of the salvation of Jesus Christ.

WORDS OF A FELLOW CHRISTIANMany people associate serious prayer with long times

of isolation from your fellow human beings. But genuine prayer brings you much nearer to your neighbour.

– HENRI NOUWEN

When one thus speaks of the missional task of the church, one refers to the heart of the commission to the church and to every believer. Research, however, points out that sadly only five out of a hundred Christians ever attempt to win souls for Christ. Every church ought to develop relevant and biblical evangelism models, to mobilise their members to engage in the missional task of the church, in order for the Great Commission to be executed.

One calls a model biblical when it is designed after a prototype or exemplar found in the biblical witness. In closure, it can be said that:

z The church received a mandate from God to minister the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, first in its own area (Southern Africa) and then to the whole world.

z The Great Commission should be the main task of the church in Southern Africa, and should be executed in the holistic manner in which it was given.

z It is equally important to train leaders and preachers, as well as to mobilise every believer in the congregation to be a witness for Christ.

73LEADING A PERSON TO CHRIST

z In South Africa there are approximately 20 million people who stated their affiliation to Christian churches, but those churches know nothing about them. This poses a huge challenge to the church: “evangelising church members”.

z Jesus was the perfect example of someone with a passion for lost people and a very effective winner of souls, and those that follow Him should do the same.

z The Holy Spirit equips the believer for the task of being a witness. z Churches have the tendency to focus on themselves and their own well-being and survival rather than

to reach out to the lost. Therefore, churches must be mobilised to discover their missional character and engage in their missional task.

z The church in Southern Africa must follow a broad and holistic approach to evangelism in order to address the complex and multiple needs of the nation.

z Paul’s ministry offers a good model for the ministry of the church, and should be imitated. Paul’s missional approach included personal evangelism and discipleship, preaching and teaching, and the planting of new churches.

z The contemporary South African person provides the church with some challenges. However, it provides the church with a wonderful opportunity to preach the gospel through the media and many other ways like no other generation in the past. Africa has been evangelised for many decades through expensive and costly evangelistic crusades and mass meetings. However, as mentioned above, it seems that the result is not that effective.

John Journey teaches believers to move evangelism from the pulpit and from the crusades and services into the houses of ordinary people. It teaches the believers a model of friendship with the unbeliever to win them for Christ. John Journey helps lay ministers to become missionaries in their own towns and suburbs. It has the ability to move the passive Christian to be an evangelist. Let’s pick up our cross and Journey with John and Jesus discipling our nation for Him!

LET US SUMMARISE SESSION 6:1. The cross of Jesus can be used as a symbol when you lead someone to Christ.2. The prayer that is used when you lead people to Christ can also make use of the

message of the cross of Jesus.3. The church of Christ in Southern Africa is facing an immense challenge.4 A more comprehensive and inclusive approach to evangelism, teaching,

discipleship, preaching, caring and education is desperately needed.5. John Journey teaches believers to move evangelism from the pulpit and from the

crusades and services into the houses of ordinary people.

BIBLIOGRAPHYArmstrong, RS 1979. Service Evangelism. The Westminster Press, Pennsylvania.

Barna, G 1996. Trends that Affect Evangelism Today. In: Equipping for Evangelism 1996: 15-25.

Blom, L 2003. ’n Kritiese evaluasie van Ed Silvoso en enkele ander evangelisasiemodelle vanuit ’n Afrika-perspektief. Ongepubliseerde MA-verhandeling, Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit, Johannesburg.

Bonnke, R 1989. Evangelism by Fire. Kingsway Publications, Sussex.

Bonnke, R 2003. Time is Running Out. Full Flame GmbH, Frankfurt.

Bosch, DJ, Kritzinger, JJ & Meiring, PGJ 1980. Sending- en Godsdienswetenskap. Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, Pretoria.

Bosch, DJ 1982. The Church as Alternative Community. PU vir CHO, Potchefstroom.

Crafford, D 1990. Uitdagings vir die kerk in Afrika. NG Kerkboekhandel, Pretoria.

Drummond, LA 1972. Evangelism – The Counter Revolution. The Anchor Press, London.

Hattingh, WJ 1984. Verkondiging en viering as terapeutiese momente in pastorale versorging. DTh-Proefskrif, Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, Pretoria.

Heyns, JA 1978. Dogmatiek. NG Kerkboekhandel, Pretoria.

Judea Harvest 2005. The Acts of Judea Harvest. Joy Print, Pretoria.

Khathide, A 2000. The Spirit World Awareness in the New Testament – A missiological challenge. In Vos, CJA 2000. Skrif en Kerk. UP Printers, Pretoria.

Kritzinger, JJ 1988. Die onvoltooide sendingtaak in Afrika. ISWEN / IMER, Pretoria.

Mostert, BA 2001. Verander jou wêreld deur gebed. Carpe Diem Boeke, Vanderbijlpark.

Silvoso, E 1994. That None Should Perish. Regal Books, California.

Silvoso, E 2000. Prayer Evangelism. Regal Books, California.

Wagner, CP 1995. Lighting the World. Regal Books, California.

About the author Dr Louis Blom

After completing his Engineering Studies in Industrial Electronics/Instrumentation NTS 5, Louis felt the call of God to the ministry. He completed his theological training in 1991 at the Auckland Park Theological Seminary. Dr Louis Blom has been in the ministry for the past 30 years. After pastoring in two local churches, with the AFM of SA in Kempton Park for 10 years, he co-founded Judea Harvest in 1999.

During the past 30 years Louis has travelled the world extensively, preaching and mobilising the body of Christ for the harvest in more than 30 nations. Louis continued his post graduate studies at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and completed his Honours Degree in 2001 and his Master's Degree in 2004. His Master’s Degree focused on understanding the culture of the people in the continent of Africa and how culture meets gospel. He completed his Doctoral Thesis on Evangelism Strategies for Africa with the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in 2009, which confirms his passion for the gospel and the people of Africa.

Dr Louis Blom was a co-founder of Judea Harvest in 1999 along with Pastor Hansie Henning, the founder, and has been blessed and privileged to work with Judea ever since. Dr Louis Blom started Judea Hope, the development division of Judea Harvest in 2006. Africa is plagued by many problems, such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, corruption and a lack of education. Judea Hope has embarked on a number of initiatives to meet the needs of the children in the communities. We have 1 300 child care centres in our network of tents and churches. In these care centres they feed, educate and care for the vulnerable children.

Dr Louis Blom also founded Judea Training in 2013 with the main focus on training the hundreds and thousands of untrained African pastors. Judea Training has been extremely successful and impactful in this work; however, we face a mammoth task as research shows that there are more than a million untrained African pastors doing ministry without formal training. Louis lives to see the Lord’s great harvest gathered in Africa.

Dr Louis Blom has been married to Thea Blom for the past 31 years. They are the proud parents of Leonardo Blom. Together they have been involved in full-time ministry for the past 30 years. They get fulfillment in living out the plan and purpose God set out for them as a family.

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