http://www.firstprescolumbia.org/

In a church like First Presbyterian, people usually think that everything is going well. However, everything is not well unless others are being brought into our midst and lives are being changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Book of Acts makes it quite clear that the church is to be an instrument for the expansion of God’s Kingdom. Luke the physician summarizes the general theme of his book: that the Lord is going to expand his kingdom by making us his witnesses “…in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

What image comes to mind when you think of the word “evangelist?” Some people think of a Bible-bashing, street-preaching fanatic, while others think of a money-grubbing, brainwashing TV personality.

Unfortunately, these connotations can keep us from obeying the Bible’s clear command to evangelize. Actually, the root word for “evangelist” is a Greek word which simply means “someone who announces good news.”

All of us are “…ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us,” and the appeal we make is simple and straightforward, “…be reconciled to God.” (II Cor. 5:20) Most of us first considered Christ because of Christians who told us the good news in a patient, caring, and sincere way. To equip people at First Presbyterian Church to be patient, caring, and sincere ambassadors for Christ, we have spent the last year laying the foundation to use Christianity Explored.

Over a ten-week period beginning in September 2006, we offered two “Exposure Courses” each week that met at different times. One met on Tuesdays at noon for an hour and fifteen minutes and another met on Thursday evenings for the same amount of time.

In the spring of 2007, we offered two more “Exposure Courses” in roughly the same format as the fall. Between the four “Exposure Courses” we introduced more than one hundred people to the Christianity Explored resources. The intent was to create a base of people familiar with the material.

Next we offered a “Christianity Explored Leadership Training Course,” designed for those who had completed the “Exposure Course.” The leadership course was a four week course offered on Wednesday nights for 90 minutes. It was designed for those willing to be future table leaders, helpers, servers, or people simply willing to be a hospitable presence. We need leaders, but we need greeters, too!

Following these courses, our church hosted, along with Outreach North America, a Christianity Explored Conference on Saturday, May 5, 2007. This was an excellent way to expose a large number of people to the course material and how to use it.

With this foundation in place, we are now ready this fall to begin offering Christianity Explored courses to non-Christians in our community.

While Christianity Explored has the main purpose of reaching non-Christians with the truth of the gospel, it also has a marvelous side benefit of reawakening Christians to the power of the gospel. It has energized and equipped many Christians to share their faith more effectively.

This evangelistic tool is not a “program” or “formula,” but simply a Bible study of the gospel of Mark. It allows the gospel to tell the gospel. I encourage you to see for yourself what a tremendous resource this can be in helping us bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

—Rev. Duff James
Associate Pastor of Adult Education and Outreach
First Presbyterian Church