Category — Clips

This topic has come up a lot in my personal life and ministry, and just recently in the last couple of posts on Personal Discipleship (article | audio). It’s interesting that in the last 10 or 15 minutes of this very message, Paul Washer addresses the issue. Apparently many have called him “mean spirited.” It’s a three-minute mp3, if you’d like to hear what he says, but I’ll warn you before hand: For most, it will be offensive. I didn’t find it offensive. Frankly, he’s barking up my tree. But, I’m just telling you… most will find this comment offensive.

• Paul_Washer_mean_spirit.mp3

If you would like to hear Paul Washer’s comments in context, here’s the audio from my last post, “Personal Discipleship.” The full message is well worth the 50 minutes it takes to listen to it.

• True Discipleship: The Gift Nobody Wants, part 1 (excerpt; 4:28)
• True Discipleship: The Gift Nobody Wants, part 1 (full message; 52:02)

There is a common idea among many evangelicals and evangelical churches today that “church planting” is evangelism. But, starting a church is not biblical evangelism. A new church is started as a result of evangelism (as the historical and inspired record of the Book of Acts shows us). The philosophy of “church planting to evangelize” most often results in church swapping, not new conversions–it results in “transfer growth” and not “true growth.”

Evangelism, according to the Bible, is going out to where the sinners are, preaching the cross of Christ (Law and grace; justice and forgiveness; wrath and love), and leading the lost to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When that happens with two or three sinners, then those two or three new converts can gather together and… you got a church!

Todd Friel addressed this issue on his radio show yesterday (Monday, March 31, 2008). You can listen to the 2.5 minute clip here if you’d like. When I heard what he had to say, I remembered a couple of messages I preached at a church in the States a couple years ago. I was one of several invited speakers and the thrust of the conference was church planting in the region’s growing cities (amen! wonderful vision!). I spoke first on the Mission God gave us to seek and save the lost, and my second message was about calling men to repentance. The two-part series centered around these two foundational truths: [Read more →]