Love Your Neighbor

The most loving thing a person can do toward another person is to share Christ. In fact, love without sharing Christ is not complete love. Sharing Christ involves both living like Christ and sharing Christ verbally.

In God’s wisdom of His purposes and plans for us, He gave us both the Great Commandment which summed up the Law and the Great Commission which gives individuals and churches priorities as we live out loving God and people.

Evangelism has two significant challenges that are helped as we live out Love Your Neighbor-Share Christ. First, receptivity to the gospel goes up as followers of Christ love those who are indifferent or negatively predisposed to Christianity. Second, seeing the sharing of Christ as the most loving act is essential to helping Christians and churches move outward toward those without Christ.

Find someone today to love by sharing Christ.

Evangelistic Church Culture/Climate

Effective evangelism flows out of a church culture where both (1) lost people and (2) those who share Christ with them are highly valued. Healthy evangelistic churches place a high priority on lost people and display a can do attitude toward finding ways to connect people to Christ. Effective churches plan for, budget for, and celebrate our love for those without Christ through a living and verbal witness.

Pastor Modeling Evangelism

The Pastor’s demonstration and communication of his engagement with lost people is the single strongest common factor among evangelistic churches. The pastor does not have to be the most effective personal witness, but his connection and the connection of other key leaders build credibility and value with their pacesetting examples.

6 EXPRESSIONS

Individuals and small groups simply living out the following six expressions are essential to effective church evangelism. As individuals and churches love their neighbors through these six expressions, people are moved toward Christ and His church.

Pray
Engage the church members in praying for lost people.

Enjoy and Serve Lost People
Engage church members in relationship building and  serving lost people.

Evangelism Training
Train church members to personally share their faith.

Friendly Up the Church
Friendly up the church both internally among the members and externally to those without Christ.

Bridging and Harvesting Efforts
Plan & conduct intentional bridging and harvesting  efforts on a personal, small group and corporate level.

Connecting & Deploying Disciples
Make a big deal of baptism, connect new followers of Christ to both a small group and the church as a whole, and help them share their faith with 4-6 friends in the first month of their salvation.

For more information on Love Your Neighbor–Share Christ, call 1-800-226-8584, ext. 3096 or email our office.