The temperature in Georgia for the month of September has been unusually hot. In fact, it has been one of the hottest months of September on record. I like hot weather, but honestly, I don’t like it hot when it is supposed to be cold, and I don’t like it cold when it is supposed to be hot. I like it when the temperature is what it is supposed to be.
I share this because the evangelistic temperature in the Church ought to be hot all the time. The evangelistic temperature is never supposed to be cold or lukewarm. God wants the evangelistic temperature of His Church to be red hot.
When you read the book of Acts, you see that the evangelistic temperature in the early Church was very hot. Somehow in the last two thousand years, the temperature has dropped from hot to cold. Lukewarm at best.
This raises the question of how did the temperature in the Church in Acts become so hot, and how do we get it hot again. The answer lies in the leadership. Let me show you three principles for raising the evangelistic temperature in your local church.
1. People do what people see! The Church in Acts was evangelistically hot because their model for evangelism was Jesus. They did what they saw Jesus doing. When you are following the model messenger, you understand the need to reach your world. The New Testament Church received their evangelistic training from Jesus Himself. They did what He did.
2. What gets talked about gets done! In Christ’s very first call to His disciples, He told them to follow Him and He would make them “fishers of men.” One of the last things Jesus told His disciples was to be His witnesses to the world. The disciples were evangelistically hot because they did what Jesus told them to do. When you talk about something and repeat something over and over again, people begin to realize it is important. If local church leaders are constantly talking about the importance of evangelism, you can bet the temperature in that church will rise. What gets talked about gets done.
3. People respect what you inspect! In Luke 9:10 the disciples reported to Jesus the results of being sent out into different towns. The reason they reported back to Jesus is simply because He asked them how things went. They respected evangelism because Jesus inspected their efforts. When a leader asks people how they are doing in evangelism, it becomes important. This type of accountability will raise the evangelistic temperature in local churches.
If you have a community of leaders in your local church who are living, talking, and asking about evangelism, you can be certain the temperature of evangelism will be increasing within your church.
At Impact Discipleship Ministries, we are committed to developing resources and training to help you make disciples. One of our best resources for evangelism is called Reaching Our World. You can order this here: https://impactdisciples.com/product/reaching-our-world/.
