²⁷ “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. ²⁸ For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.  Luke 16:27-28

Watch this video by Penn Gillette, an atheist, as he talks about a time a man came up to him, gave him a Bible, and talked to him about God.

Do we really believe the message we preach? If we do, we should have a burning passion in us to tell everyone we know about it about God. It’s so easy to lose sight of the importance of evangelism! It’s so easy to pass the people we know don’t know Christ everyday and think nothing of it. I do it, you do it, we all do it.

Do we really believe this message we preach? And if we do, how bad do we have to hate someone to not tell them about God?

If you’ll be open and ask God to use you, you’ll start to see opportunities all around you everyday to share Christ with people. When the opportunity comes, go for it! You never know the impact a few words could have, even if they don’t react the way you’d want them to.

Finally, I just want to make note that the man who talked to Penn, did not freak him out. I see so many Christians that are so “spiritual” that they drive everyone they meet away from God. They make me not want to be a Christian! So please don’t be so “flaky” when you talk to people about God that you turn them away. I’d recommend watching Perry Noble‘s seminar on Evangelism, he’s got some great advice!

How bad do we have to hate people to not tell them about God?

Who are you going to tell?

I read a quote from Erwin McManus yesterday that said, “Jesus’ strategy to bring change to the world was to begin conversations.” If we’re going to reach this world for God, we need to become much better at evangelism.

A student in our youth group recommended I check out this Evangelism Seminar that Perry Noble did. I watched it last week and I think it’s something every Christian should watch. I think Perry does a great job giving us practical advice on how to do that.

It’s well worth the time to watch. Watch it and then Go  & Tell!

I got the privilege to go to NewSpring’s Unleash Conference today. It was an incredible experience. It was amazing to see what God has done here! This will be a 2-part review! One with a summary of key takeaways and another of the practical ministry takeaways. Here were my big takeaways:

It’s All About Making Jesus Famous One Life at a Time - This is NewSpring’s Vision. It is beyond evident that the vision is burning in the hearts of every staff member and volunteer. Everything they do as a church, is done with the intention of changing people’s lives. When I say everything… I mean everything!

Quit Playing Games and Start Preaching the Word - I love how simple Newspring is. I.E. The youth – ALL they do is preach, worship, small groups, and a summer camp. It’s all centered around pointing teenagers to Jesus. Period. I love it!

People Act Like they Don’t Know Christ, Because they Don’t Know Christ - Let me clarify! They had a 5th grader that went to their childrens ministry for the first time. He saw a PS3 and Wii and said, “They have a PS3! A Wii! This s*** is awesome!” Those are the people we’re trying to reach, we need to have people like this coming to church! Instead of correcting them, let’s love them and point them to Jesus. They’ll only change as a result of knowing Him!

People Can Believe in You and Go to Hell - I love Perry. He was saying that we should never try to get people to believe in us or think we’re awesome. We need to constantly be getting their eyes off  of us and onto Jesus. He’s the only one that can save them.

Celebrating Wins is Critical – Every staff meeting they start with sharing victories in their church. Then they celebrate them – this fuels them with passion every week becasuse it helps them recognize they are doing what God called them to do!

They Don’t Know How They Grew! - Twice in their church their attendance has doubled in a one week span… from 400 to 900 and 4,000 to 8,000. What did they do? Nothing… They have no idea how it happened! Perry always relays it like this: Leadership is as easy as listening to God. Then do what He  says! Perry said, “If you can explain what God is doing in your church, He’s probably not that involved in it!

I loved being at Newspring! I know it definitely fired me  up to come home and do more for Jesus. I’m so glad they are doing what God called them to do and inspiring the body of Christ while they do it!

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the practical things I learned that we can implement in our ministries!