What about Evangelism, Prayer, Missions, etc.

Hopefully you've taken the time to read the last 5 posts beginning with "The Foundational Question" and working your way through the discipleship process anchor points that are "Worship, Connect, Serve & Grow."

A week or so ago I had a chance to talk to a person in the church who consistently encourages me. He brought up a great question. He said to me, "Kevin I'm confused as to why Evangelism is not the first step in the process that you've begun to introduce." GREAT QUESTION! I shared with this brother that I had obviously not done a good job explaining the things that we are to assume. I'll try to do a better job of that here.

Without question, sharing the gospel of Christ is the most foundational and primary objective of each and every believer. We are called as Christians to be always sharing our faith with those we meet. It is being assumed that every person associated with Haven Baptist Church is sharing their faith with their family, co-workers, neighbors, teammates and anyone else they may have in a circle of influence. Evangelism, therefore, is an assumed activity naturally taking place in the lives of every believing participant. Of course that is not to say that we will never have a Church-wide event or series of events that focuses on the unchurched. But, as a general rule, we are assuming that primarily people will come to Christ in your living room, at your kitchen table, in your garage, back yard, break room, on the golf course, basket-ball court and any other place where you might be when the Spirit of God is clearly opening the eyes of the unbeliever with whom you've take time to build a relationship. You would then have the privilege of introducing them to Christ and then bringing them with you to Haven to begin their journey of discipleship.

However, we too know that it's not always that easy. Sometimes people don't let you into their lives far enough to build that kind of relationship. For this reason we want to be more than prepared for you to bring your unsaved friends with you to church where they will have an opportunity to see and hear what it looks like to be a member of the body of Christ and see first hand what being a Christian looks like. Most Sunday sermons are not generally designed as gospel presentations as they are primarily for the encouragement of the body. But that is not to say that the Holy Spirit cannot begin moving in the hearts of someone because of a song that is sung that clearly expresses the gospel or through a sermon point that focuses on an aspect of salvation or just by the study of God's Word in general. What we want to be able to provide are opportunities for visitors to have their questions answered or at the very least experience an environment that is non-threatening where they will be willing to return and possibly ask questions. But we don't want to stop there. We want to provide opportunities for believers to become skilled in sharing their faith as well as train them with tools that they can use when they bring an unsaved friend with them to a worship service. We want to equip them not only to answer their questions but also help them plan a strategy for bringing up the subject for them.

The same concept is true for Prayer, Missions, Biblical Accuracy, Sound Theology - all of these, along with evangelism, are assumed as the connecting fibers of our whole discipleship process. So basically what you have is this - Haven Baptist Church is a group of believers in Jesus Christ who are passionate about sharing their faith and partnering with others who are doing that locally and globally, who are committed to prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, who defend the essentials of orthodox Christianity and who are actively seeking to obey the call of Jesus Christ to go and make disciples. We believe that maturing disciples are believers in Jesus Christ who begin and continue to Worship God, who begin and continue to Connect in the body, who begin and continue to Serve in the body and who begin and continue to Grow in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word. We are committed to pouring all our efforts and resources into making this happen using the most effective means possible.

Hopefully this better explains why such an important concept as Evangelism (and other very important concepts) is not identified as an anchor point in the discipleship process - it's assumed activity. But if this only makes the water more cloudy, please keep asking good questions.
More to come...