How Christ Methodist Wants to be a Church That Witnesses Boldly
How can we witness boldly in a culture that resists spiritual conversations? Learn how the early church, John Wesley, and modern Christians worldwide share the Gospel intentionally and boldly.
-
Peter and John Before the Council
4 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyedbecause they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were ofthe high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus[a] is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.[b] 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men[c] by which we must be saved.”
Christ Methodist New Vision Statement
In Fall 2024, we entered a teaching series on the new Christ Church Mission Statement:
Christ Methodist Church exists to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.
However, we have also adopted a new Vision Statement. What’s the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement? Our mission statement is the cutting edge of what Jesus has called us to do. A Vision Statement is what we aspire to as we live into our mission.
The Christ Church Vision Statement is:
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered community who magnifies Jesus Christ as we worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly while serving the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized, spreading scriptural holiness in our city and to the nations for the spiritual awakening of all.
As we expand upon the sections of our Vision Statement, we previously covered, “By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered community who magnifies Jesus Christ as we worship passionately, loving extravagantly…” In this blog, we’ll examine “witnessing boldly.”
The Early Methodist Church: An Example of Gospel Intentionality
The modern church in Western culture has a problem: We don’t have a positive track record regarding witnessing, evangelism, or offering people Christ.
According to a 2012 LifeWay study, 80% of people who attend church at least once per month believe it is their responsibility to tell others about how to become a Christian. However, 61% admit they haven’t done that in the last six months.
Let’s contrast that data with Jesus’ words:
JESUS: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Studies also demonstrate that the pattern of sharing Christ, or evangelism, is not only declining among younger generations but it’s socially frowned upon. According to a 2019 Barna Research study, almost half of practicing millennial Christians say evangelism is wrong.
Again, let’s contrast that data with Jesus’ words:
JESUS: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:18-20a
JESUS: “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:32-33
In the book, The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?, the authors, Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan P. Burge, share the findings of the largest study ever done on dechurching in America. They reveal that in the last 25 years, nearly 40 million adults have stopped attending church.
Despite the vast number of mega-churches launched in America over the last 25 years, there are far fewer persons in the church, fewer Christians in North America, and 40 million have dropped out. Every year, fewer people are active in the life of a local church.
How do we wrap our heads around that kind of anemia, drift, and decline?
If the church in the Book of Acts were the American church, I’m not sure there would be many churches today. The Church in North America is very ill, but we’ve been here before. This isn’t too dissimilar to what John Wesley faced in his day. See what he wrote in 1745 in A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion:
“And one plain reason why, notwithstanding all these churches, they are no nearer being reclaimed is this–they never come into a church, perhaps not once in a twelve-month, perhaps not for many years together. Will you say (as I have known some tender-hearted Christians), ‘Then it is their fault; let them die and be damned’? I grant it is their own fault; and so it was my fault and yours when we went astray like sheep that were lost. Yet the Shepherd of souls sought after us, and went after us in the wilderness. And ‘oughtest not thou to have compassion on thy fellow-servants, as he had pity on thee? Ought we not also ‘to seek,’ as far as in us lies, and to save that which is lost?”
When Wesley wrote that, multiple realizations were awakening in his soul, including:
People weren’t coming to church to worship.
The church has become indifferent to the lost.
And the need to reawaken intentionality about reaching people far from God.
However, let’s establish this isn’t the case for the church worldwide. The church is moving and expanding rapidly in parts of South Asia and Africa. The difference between the Gospel expansion in other parts of the globe versus the Western church is intentionality. The pastors and laypersons intentionally go to people and have spiritual conversations, often leading to Gospel presentations and conversions. They’re doing this with much prayer and scripturally informed patterns.
Wesley was also strategic about helping clergy and laypersons take the gospel to people in his day. In his day, Wesley would do what’s called field preaching, which is preaching outside the walls of the church.
However, and feel free to push back, but I don’t think that an effective way of reaching the North American culture is by proclaiming the Gospel on a street corner. However, let’s note the importance: they intentionally went outside the church walls and culture. John Wesley said this about field preaching:
“I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields…having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.”
While Wesley was a straight-laced Anglican, he recognized that sharing God’s love was done through being intentional in the culture. The church had become baptized in indifference to the lost, and this was his warning:
“It is the cooping yourselves up in rooms that has damped the work of God, which was and never will be carried out to any purpose without going into the highways and hedges and compelling poor sinners to come in.”
Wesley realized that the primal expression of Christianity needed to be restored to the 18th-century English church.
“In the evening I preached at Stroud; where to my surprise, I found the morning preaching was given up, as also in the neighbouring places. If this be the case while I am alive, what must it be when I am gone? Give up this, and Methodism too will degenerate into a mere sect, only distinguished by some opinions and modes of worship.” John Wesley, March 15, 1784
This reflects the DNA of the birth and movement of Christianity through Methodism.
There are 3,006 counties in the United States. The Methodists are believed to be the only religious body to have a congregation in every county and state in America. In early Methodism in North America, the population went from 2.5% to 34.2% Methodist Christians. That’s an unprecedented growth rate among a religious body in American history. From 1776 to 1850, those attending church among U.S. Methodist Christians went from 1 in 40 to 1 in 3!
However, the early Methodists shared their faith. When you have friends who aren’t believers, do you think they wonder why you’re not mentioning what you claim is the most important thing to you? The author Reid once said, “Lost people are more amazed at our silence than offended by our message.”
As followers of Christ, we should follow the examples of Peter and John, who said, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
How Does God Open Doors for Gospel Conversations?
So, how does all of this relate to our passage, Acts 4:1-12?
Let’s back up and look at what happened in Acts 3. God worked through Peter and John to conduct a very dramatic healing. They had gone to the temple at the hour of prayer (around 3:00 PM) when they saw a 40-year-old man sitting at the temple gate, begging for money. Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).
And he did! But he did more than walk, he leapt about, praising God for his newfound health This miracle provided Peter with an opportunity to be a witness. Acts 4:2 and four share, “They were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.”
Often, some event or conversation gave rise to speaking about Jesus. To use Paul’s terminology, it’s an “open door.” There are ways for us to grow in being intentional. Often, we encounter times, events, or circumstances when God opens a door for us as believers to have a spiritual conversation.
In Colossians 4:3 (NIV, emphasis added), the Apostle Paul shared, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.” Our prayers are so we that we’re not rude or misdirect the conversation, instead it allows God to open a door to share His love. This enables us to posture ourselves in prayer and availability. God oils the gears for a believer to have spiritual conversations with others.
Once, while overseas on a mission trip, a local pastor shared, “In your country, when God heals someone, you people write books and go on tours. When God heals someone in my country, we share the Gospel.” Isn’t that exactly what the story in Acts illustrates (Acts 4:5-12)?
By lifting God’s love through Christ, this healing resulted in Peter and John having spiritual conversations and pointing people to Jesus. The great takeaway for us is to let the Lord let our circumstances, the mundane and the dramatic, open doors for God to allow us spiritual conversations outside the church’s walls.
How to Have Spiritual Conversations in Our Modern Era
If a new family moved to town in previous decades, you could introduce yourself and get to know them for 15-20 minutes. In that conversation, you could say, “Do you have a church home? I’d love to invite you to ours.” While that worked in a certain era, and it can still work at times now, I’d like to invite you to tweak the conversation.
1) About Our Church
“Do you have a church home? I go to Christ Methodist. We share how our sins can be forgiven through faith in Jesus.”
Many people carry guilt and don’t know what to do with it. By extending this, you’re opening a door for a spiritual conversation and the opportunity to talk about the hope in the person of Jesus.
If a person wants to talk about sins or forgiveness, explore that. However, if they don’t, move on.
2) Offer Prayer
“Is there any way I/we can pray for you?”
It’s a simple question. Sometimes, people will say no, but others will open their hearts and say yes. If they say yes, that opens the door for spiritual conversation where you can lift the beauty and majesty of Christ.
3) Two-Minute Testimony
“Before I met Christ I was searching and unfulfilled, but now I am at peace and am fulfilled. Do you have an experience like that?”
You might fill in the blanks differently, but it’s a great way to initiate a spiritual conversation. LEARN MORE: How to Craft a Two-Minute Testimony.
Note: Expect Rejection
Witnessing boldly basically means witnessing intentionally; It does not mean witnessing obnoxiously. Rudeness doesn’t win people to Christ. There are ways to be winsome as we witness for Christ because that means to be “a witness” for Jesus. It means telling others what you have seen, heard, and experienced in your walk with Christ.
This is the theme of the book of Acts: “Be My Witnesses.” Does that mean you will never be rejected, misunderstood, or shunned by some? Of course not. Sometimes, people will politely tell you, “No, thank you,” and other times, they may be more offensive.
Peter and John, despite the miracle, saw pushback almost immediately. Acts 4:1-3 tells us of some controversy and misunderstanding that occurred:
“And as they were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.”
There are states in Asia where if our Christian brothers and sisters are caught sharing the Gospel, they will be jailed or even killed. But this verse illustrates that there will be times you will be persecuted for your beliefs. However, our fellow believers in Asia don’t stop sharing the Gospel for fear of suffering.
In North America we have the gift of religious freedom, thus we can bear hearing “I’m not interested.” We can handle some rejection as a symptom of maturity in Christ. He even made the affirmation that it is a reflection of your willingness to stand lovingly.
Is the Gospel Spreading Through You?
The Methodist Church was once a movement in North America and England because the church was intentional, prayerful, and Scripturally informed. Before God used John Wesley to initiate a movement called Methodism, Wesley was exposed to a movement known as the Moravians. They were on a ship together and witnessed to Wesley when he had his heart strangely warmed by the Holy Spirit. The Moravians were intentional.
“It was perhaps the most extensive movement ever since the first centuries. Certainly, it was the most extensive in Protestantism. Beginning before any of the great Awakenings and before the great mission societies formed in Great Britain and the US, it was instrumental in all these events. Before 1800 Moravians had taken the Good News to Indonesia, Ceylon, India, Central Asia, Russia, Lapland, The Gold Coast of Africa, South Africa, Greenland, Labrador, the colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and Indians in the Caribbean and South America. They also had works amongst the Jews and Muslims of Europe! All this with none of the western institutions which are considered essential today and in less than 80 years!
The Moravians were committed to propagating the Christian faith wherever they were and to go to wherever God called them. Their membership included many with crafts, skills and business ability, which opened doors of opportunity to work in other parts of the world. They would often set out in small bands of two or three after having sought the LORD and determined that He had called them to a particular place. They would settle there, learn the local language and customs and trade and develop businesses, sharing their faith and gathering the faithful into communities. Very few are well known names to the world today. It was truly “grass roots” in that simple believers drawn along by the Holy Spirit would go as God directed in small teams and begin to preach the gospel and gather those who would follow into simple communities. Truly this was a movement like the movement of the first centuries of the Church.”
—Dick Scoggins, on the Moravian Missionary Movement
David Platt once proposed: “Is the Gospel stopping in you or spreading through you?”
It’s difficult to reason that I am a baptized follower of Jesus and, at the same time, be baptized in indifference.
In The Great Dechurching, they found that 62% of people who have dechurched still believe that Jesus is the only way to God. The majority of people who have left the church still hold the orthodox belief that Jesus is the only way to God. Additionally, they found that 51% of people who have dechurched are willing to return to church.
That means that Christians aren’t losing their faith as much as the church is losing Christians! We’ve become insular. However, this is encouraging data, as we don’t need to make a case for the divinity of Jesus as much as we need to make a case for being joined to Jesus’s body, the church.
Most people only need a simple invite from a friend to consider returning. Far from needing in-depth apologetics and huge outreach programs to win people back to church, we just need to notice who isn’t with us anymore and extend a friendly invitation to return.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered community that magnifies Jesus Christ as we worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.
Discussion Questions
In what ways might the modern church in Western culture have become 'baptized in indifference to the lost,' as John Wesley observed, and how can we address this issue?
How can we balance the need to witness boldly with the importance of being respectful and non-obnoxious in our approach to sharing the gospel?
How might prayer play a role in opening doors for spiritual conversations, and how can we cultivate a more prayerful approach to witnessing?
What role does the Holy Spirit play in our efforts to witness, and how can we be more attuned to His guidance in our evangelistic efforts?
How can we prepare ourselves to face potential rejection or persecution when sharing our faith, especially in light of the experiences of Christians in other parts of the world?
