Spiritual warfare in evangelism

One of my passions in life is to share the gospel with the lost and to stir up Christians to do the same. I truly believe there is no other activity we can do on Earth which is more dear to the heart of Christ. However, if you're doing it Biblically, you can guarantee that you'll be on Satan's radar too. Preaching the gospel to the lost is an act of spiritual warfare and Christians should be aware that much of the fear and nervousness they feel about witnessing is normal, and should be expected. To make this point and give tips on fighting through it, I'd like to share my recent experience. Hopefully, if you read this and find yourself nervously sitting on an evangelistic fence, this will encourage you to hop off the fence and join the fight!

For a week, I had planned a time to do some evangelism on the UIUC quad. This is nothing new. It's been my favorite 'fishing hole' for years, and though I'm out of practice due to the long winter, I've surely done this more than a hundred times before. Yet, as I'm gathering my tracts before I leave, I'm overcome with a wave of nervousness. This is nothing new either, but is as strong as I've ever felt, forcing me to take a deep breath before I push myself out the door.

As you go through these feelings, you should immediately recognize them as spiritual warfare. You're going out there to steal members from Satan's family – of course he's going to fight! The demons tend to use the same tactics. They're predictable, but can still be very effective. They'll pull on every desire, weakness, and heart string that will take you away from your destination.

As temptation arises, the thoughts enter my mind as I drive toward the campus. “You're really tired, should just go home and rest.” “You're sick, maybe you can push through, but you'll feel even worse later.” “You're alone again. Who could blame you for quitting?” Wherever the thoughts originate from, I swat them aside and try to push through some prayers for strength and wisdom. I feel my chest tightening the whole time.

In times like these, you have several weapons at your disposal, and it pays to be prepared. Prayer is always a good option, but don't just wait until you're in the battle. You know the fight will happen, so pray beforehand as well. Scripture is great for encouragement and conquering temptation. Read it and memorize it. Songs can help as well – yet another reason to know some strong hymns. There's no magic formula for each situation, you must simply fight on. The Lord never promises to completely remove temptation, but he does promise that we will be able to handle it and that there will be a way out.

As I park my car, I'm hit with a wave of strong and completely irrational fear. I can't find it in me to open the car door. I pray a little more, then sing to myself a few lines of “Lord, send me anywhere”, a hymn that has often comforted me. I ask myself out loud, “Is your love for Christ so weak that you can't overcome this?”. Now it's on. There's no way I'm going to let a challenge like that stand. I collect my tracts, get out of the car, and walk toward the quad. On the way there, I see my first face and the crippling fear melts away instantly, replaced instead by love and concern, surely a mere fraction of a shadow of what Christ has for these lost sinners. I smile and cheerfully hand him a tract, “hey man, a free gift for you.” The next couple of hours are enjoyable and relatively easy.

I've found that this pattern repeats itself almost every time that I go out to preach the gospel. As I've talked to others who share the same convictions and act upon them, they report the same struggles. Though preaching the gospel is incredibly enjoyable and rewarding, there's nearly always a huge up-front energy barrier that must be overcome, usually in the form of fear/nerves. To be clear, as a scientist, I've done important presentations to superiors, public speaking at conferences, etc. Those things are work – not as enjoyable as sharing the gospel, but there's less fear associated with those things. However, when it comes to doing this thing that I really enjoy, there's a huge barrier of nerves/fear before I get started. Isn't that interesting? This can only be explained by spiritual warfare. Recognize this, and fight back! As I related in my story, the biggest struggle is overcoming that initial barrier, but it gets easy after that. Remember, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Finally, I recommend taking some time to debrief after you are done. This is obviously useful with regards to content (What objections were raised? How can I handle them better? What do I need to study? What verses should I memorize?), but it's also useful when it comes to handling spiritual warfare. Sometimes you won't be able to see the whole picture, but often you can. For example, you'll likely find that spiritual battles are more intense than normal if you are about to walk into a big opportunity. As you begin to recognize these trends, it teaches you to fight harder, recognizing that if the enemy is opposing you strongly, it might mean that this is a particularly important battle. In the example that I gave above, it turned out that there was a softball game that just ended, so there were many more people at the quad than normal. I was able to have several conversations, one which ended in great clarity, and hand out ~150 tracts, several times more than I'm able to do on an average day at the quad. That's certainly a good cause for the devil to want to keep me away from there. Was it the number of tracts? Or maybe the conversation with a pair of professing Christians where I pointed out that they are obviously not yet converted – and related their need of repentance, faith, and the new birth. Maybe both. Most of the time, you won't know how much difference your efforts will make, but the stakes are heaven vs. hell! If you could make that kind of difference, even for just one soul, would that not make every battle worthwhile? The point is, recognize the enemy's tactics, and don't forget what you're fighting for!

In conclusion, I've related this personal story with some commentary in the hopes that it will be an encouragement to others who are struggling through the same thing. Really, we have it quite easy in America, let's make use of our freedom. From the immature Christian struggling with the idea of sharing the gospel with strangers, to the battle-hardened elder, may we all be refreshed in our understanding of the importance of this great battle, and be encouraged to work harder for the Lord.

Book review - The House Church Book

This is a review of Wolfgang Simson's "The House Church Book". This book is the condensed version of another of Simson's books, "Houses That Change the World". I came across this book in some of my reading on house churches and thought I'd give it a shot. Simson's goal in this books is to describe house churches and give advice to those looking to start one.

I'll start on a positive note. Simson does correctly identify the unbiblical leadership of institutional churches and how it inevitably leads to a clergy-laity division, even if it's unintended by the leaders. He also presents a decent discussion of the lack of fellowship in institutional churches caused by the 'one man show' and he argues for the necessity of small house churches for real fellowship to be possible. Simson suggests that the maximum size of any individual house church should be about 20-25 in order to maintain close connections. This seems reasonable, and agrees closely with what I've heard from friends in house churches. Finally, I appreciate Simson's discussion of the 'city church' concept, where the local church really should include all likeminded Christians in the city, even if they meet with different groups. In other words, the local church really should be a network of house churches.

In short, Simson seems to understand the big picture of a Biblical model of church. However, he fails miserably when it comes to the details. I'll provide a few salient points. The most serious problems in this book stem from the author's charismatic and ecumenical perspective. Throughout, his outlook leads him to promote and speak well of false teachers such as Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and especially David Yonggi Cho (who was recently convicted of embezzling from his church). 

It should come as no surprise then that Simson is also soft on the gospel. For example, he accepts mass "conversions" of people who are run through a sinner's prayer as genuine, suggesting they would be interested in church if only churches were better. I agree that Biblical churches would tend to promote more interest and zeal in Christians...but those who show no interest in Christ, who have never repented, who have never been born again...they're not Christians at all! Shame on Simson for not recognizing this simple fact.

As if his misunderstanding the gospel wasn't bad enough, Simon's charismatic errors lead him to nearly undo his main thesis in the second half of the book. Early on, he correctly identifies key issues with the way leadership is done in institutional churches, but he makes those very same mistakes when he describes house church leadership. He describes essentially every leadership position as being outside of and separate from 'the flock'. In other words, he correctly rails against the aloof single man leading a show, but goes on to suggest that leadership should be several aloof men who lead from a distance (p.66-69). How does this make a difference?

In reality, church leaders are supposed to function within the body, leading mainly by example (1 Peter 5). For this to occur, leaders should not be considered as scouts walking a mile ahead, calling for everyone else to keep up. Rather, leaders should be more like connective tissue, woven throughout the body, connected to each part, helping the body connect with its other parts, providing structure, support, and nourishment. There are no superheroes except Christ. He should be the Head, leading the body, which operates through various roles, but follows him as one.

Simson continues to undermine his own position during his discussion of parachurch structure. Early in the book, he correctly criticizes the normal instutional model of denominations, mega-pastors, and popery. Yet, he goes on to propose that house church networks might be lead by "apostolic regional fathers" at the city, regional, and even national level (p.85). In short, Simson actually supports leadership by superstar, as long as you call them an 'apostle'! Surely the 'apostles' won't have even bigger heads than the 'pastors', right?

At first, this book seems to be a real boon to house churches, but the solutions Simson offer still carry the super-pastor leadership problems that are found in institutional church. Pardon me, I meant super-apostle. In the end, I can't recommend this book. There is some good discussion of the 'big picture' of house churches, but any benefit is drowned in a sea of errors by the time you reach the end.