How often does ‘evangelism’ without preaching the cross or the resurrection of Christ occur in the COG.I recall one incident in a Bethany church back when they were with GBI, the Indonesian part of the COG, and probably still the biggest national assembly. Bethany later split and that congregation probably is still with GBI, but I did not really follow that. In that meeting, without explanation, the preacher said, Who has never ‘prayed that prayer’ to receive Christ? A first-time guest raised his hand, was asked to come up to the front and repeat a prayer while facing the congregation. It was obvious from the look on his face he was giving in to social pressure. It was weird. I felt embarrassed for him and for us and felt like I was watching one of those embarrassing movie scenes that makes you want to crawl under your sofa. He told me later he thought it was a rhetorical question.I moved recently. My wife and I have been planning on starting a house church, which we are planning to start off with a first meeting tonight, but it was Sunday morning and we decided to visit a local Charismatic church.The preacher preached on God taking care of us through these difficult times. Then as a quick add-on, he asked who had never accepted Jesus into their life, had us all repeat a quick prayer to accept Jesus into our life, then declared those who did so saved.I’ve resolved to communicate with preachers who have people repeat prayers and declare them saved without mentioning that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, unless the Lord directs me otherwise. Lots of preacher’s contact info for the organization were online. His wasn’t. I Facebook friended him and sent him a letter, written as nicely and kindly as I could. The Gospel is being water down. The cross is being left out. The resurrection of Christ is being left out. Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God is being left out. The 70 or 80 year old rituals are being honored, but truncated. People complain about repentance not being preached. That has been an issue for a long time in some churches, but now preachers are leaving out Who Jesus is and what He did. And the audience sits there saying nothing, acting as if this is normal.
“There is a need for the ministries real evangelists, not just itinerant ministers with their names on cardsâ€.This is 100% true. The ministry of an evangelist is just as vital to the corporate body as is the pastor. The fact that God-called evangelists have nearly been frozen out of the local church is a tragedy that has weakened the local church in many ways________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
“There is a need for the ministries real evangelists, not just itinerant ministers with their names on cardsâ€.This is 100% true. The ministry of an evangelist is just as vital to the corporate body as is the pastor. The fact that God-called evangelists have nearly been frozen out of the local church is a tragedy that has weakened the local church in many ways.
Good points Link and Fl Ron. Jesus asked people to count the cost of following Him as evidenced by many parables, the rich young ruler, a scribe in Matthew 8and other instances. Once people committed their lives to Christ we can see the letters written to the churches encouraging them to grow in love, holiness and other things of God’s kingdom. I don’t see any emotional pushes trying to get people to repeat a prayer for a ticket to heaven.Matthew 16