#134 Family Evangelism Plan
My current view of evangelism is shaped by my work. I currently work as a missionary in a support role. Presently I work with YWAM Youth With A Mission. Where I do IT work, maintenance, preaching, and videography. While in 2023 I served with a small church planting organization in New York City. That organization focused on planting house churches among unreached peoples in the city. I worked in the office in Harlem on social media and videography. To put that position in context, I decided to leave that organization over theological, practical, and leadership issues. Around the same time as I left, about a dozen others decided to do the same thing out of fifty people that worked there. The organization focused on evangelism as something that all christians are called to do at all times. This is my contention, that evangelism, while important, is just one important thing in a christian life. Many if not most Christians I believed are not called to evangelize most of the time. Since leaving that organization and starting to work with YWAM my view has shifted a bit. I now think that we are all called to evangelize whenever God gives us the opportunity to do so. Yet it is possible, even probable that you may never have an opportunity to share your faith and that is okay. For example my wife is a homemaker and is homeschooling our young children. I would not call the fact that most of her time is spent around other christians an issue, in fact I would call it a blessing. Furthermore, people like myself whose work requires me to spend most of my time around other christians may not have any opportunity to do evangelism. Although I will concede that there is a value in perspective for people like me to remember why we do what we do.
This past term I have learned practical methods of evangelism that have challenged some of my perceptions about evangelism. The idea of servant evangelism was like a light bulb moment to me. It made me realize that this is something that I have been doing all my life without realizing it. That combined with the book Share Jesus Without Fear by William Fay opened my eyes to some of the opportunities that I have missed out on over the years due to a skewed perspective. As a teenager I was involved with the homeless ministry at the mega church I was a part of. I worked with a team of fourty to feed about two thousand people a month. It was common for people to ask me why I helped and cared. I recall not really having an answer to those questions. Except to say that I enjoyed serving God by helping others. Servant evangelism pointed out to me the obvious fact that questions like that are opportunities to share your faith. There have been many similar instances that I have missed out on since I have failed to recognize the opportunities in front of me. While at the same time I have considered sharing my faith a bit of a challenge. While reading Fay’s book most of my questions about sharing my faith were answered and I have been able to incorporate some of his methods into my Bible that I use for counseling.
Evangelism will not become part of every area of my life. But it will become a larger part of my life. I do not see myself asking the waiter at a restaurant for prayer requests for example. Yet I have made changes to how I will do evangelism. I am seeking out more opportunities to serve non believers and to show God’s love to them through action. With the next six months I am not sure what I may do on this front but the vision becomes more clear after that. I am finishing up my Master of Divinity in the next two terms, while also working, and I have a third baby on the way this next term. Right now my family and education is my focus. Yet I am seeking to be more aware of evangelism opportunities as they arise. I am heavily involved in the men’s ministry at my church. Which has non believers in recovery who attend off and on. My hope is that I will have the opportunity to share my faith with them. I am also offering premarital counseling for a few couples. As part of that I am opening and closing my sessions with prayer seeking to always make God part of the conversation.
After graduation my ministry will be changing significantly. I plan to join the Air Force as a chaplain this summer after graduation. We may be moved across the country or world for all that I know. We will be surrounded by many more non-believers than we are currently. There are some limitations on chaplains regarding sharing their faith in the military yet it seems there will be many chances to share my beliefs with others. Our hope as a family is to be family to as many young service members as possible. For our home to be the place they can come for thanksgiving dinner if they have nowhere else to go. To have BBQ’s that they can be a part of. To care and be present in the lives of as many people as possible. To show the love of Christ to our community. I believe this course has better equipped me to make the most of the opportunities that I am seeking out. It is my hope that God will take these efforts and use them for His glory.
Other changes that I am making are in my family life. My children are very young, aged three and four. Yet I want them to grow up as prepared as possible for the challenges that life will throw at them. Part of their homeschool curriculum right now is Bible stories. Daily my wife is teaching them the stories of the Bible. Furthermore, as a family we read a chapter of the Bible before bed. And to pray with our children before bed. We have recently also started to pray with each meal regardless of who else is around. We often eat meals with other people and by praying at all of our meals we bring God into more of our conversations. As our children get older I hope to continue their Biblical education at an even deeper level. And to give them opportunities to serve and share their faith. As our life and ministry changes in the next year a thing we are praying about is the possibility of making church planting and service part of our ministry. Where we potentially help launch church plants wherever we are stationed. This would likely look like us getting the church planted. By raising funds, finding a location, partner churches, and recruiting others to be involved, and then taking a more background role as I would already be fully occupied in the military. Yet we will have to wait and see where God leads us in this.
Long term I do not know how evangelism will affect my family. I just remember in college I did an internship at a church. My third week of the internship the senior pastor died. At his funeral over two thousand people were there. I recall and still think to myself how amazing a legacy that is to leave behind as a pastor. To see such an impact from just one life. I gauge my effectiveness as a pastor and leader by that standard, did I make enough of an impact that this person would be at my funeral? It is of course not about my impact but rather God working through me. For my family, I hope that my children will see people come to faith and that this will give them a boldness in their beliefs and action.
Family Mission Statement
Our family will stand for Christ, living the values of the Bible. Needs, conflicts, and issues will be addressed according to God’s word and our established practices. This is based on the passage 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
This statement is not perfect by any means but it is a starting point that we will be refining. Our family stands for Christ and none other. Our values will be those of the Bible. As parents we will be teaching our children to do right according to the Bible. That will be our standard. If as parents our children show us how we are wrong according to the Bible we will change. We will be consistent, intentional, and address all issues that come up. We believe that the Bible is an adequate explanation of our needs and how to address them.
