by Pastor Patrick Cho

When one of our members resigns their membership at Lighthouse San Diego, we typically try to schedule an exit interview to bless them and pray for them. Over the years, these exit interviews have been a really sweet way to say goodbye and reaffirm the loving relationships that have been built up through the fellowship of the church. One question we ask during the interview is, “From your perspective, what is something that we can be doing better at Lighthouse?” By far, the most frequent answer is that the church could be more evangelistic.

Why is this a problem? Well, it’s a problem because one of the reasons the church exists is to proclaim the amazing grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even our motto at Lighthouse is that we would serve to be a beacon of God’s truth and love! So if our members are not seeing that the church is striving to be evangelistic, then this needs to be more of a focus of our ministry.

But this is also a problem because the measure of a church’s evangelistic ministry is directly proportionate to how evangelistic its members are. If the church’s members were devoted to evangelism and responded to the urgency of reaching souls for Christ, then surely the church would be characterized as evangelistic. In other words, evangelism is not firstly a program. Evangelism is the responsibility of each believer in obedience to the call of Christ and the command of Scripture.

Of course the church could initiate some exciting new evangelistic program. At first, many people might get involved perhaps because of the sheer excitement of it. But over time, we have seen that participation dwindles. The excitement fades. Sadly, enough time passes and the ministry is barely being held together by the faithful few who truly have a heart for it. How can this be avoided? It doesn’t begin with starting newer and better programs. Honestly, it must begin in the pulpit through the faithful preaching of God’s Word. Only there can the Spirit of God work through what is preached to light a fire in the hearts of the church’s members to love what the Lord loves and to commit to what the Lord requires.

This is the reason our theme for 2017 is “Resounding Faith” from 1 Thessalonians 1:8, where the Bible says, “For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.” The key phrase is “sounded forth.” It means to ring out and describes the blasting of a trumpet. The reputation of the Thessalonians was that they were faithful in their proclamation of the gospel to the extent the Apostles were hearing about their faith throughout all of Greece.

But what led to the Thessalonians’ commitment to being a faithful witness? It wasn’t some clever church program. They simply recalled the drastic life change that took place when God rescued them from their idolatry. They maintained a keen awareness of the effect of the gospel in their lives not just to bring them to salvation but also with its ongoing application. In v. 5, the Apostle Paul testifies of the power of the gospel and the work of the Spirit in their lives to bring about radical change. In v. 9, the actual transformation wrought by the gospel in their lives is undeniable. They had turned to God from serving idols. Having experienced so great a salvation, testifying to the grace of God became a natural outflow of their lives.

As we unpack this theme throughout the year, hopefully it will challenge the church to consider: 1) Do you regularly preach the gospel to yourself remembering how the Lord brought about radical change in your life? 2) Do you seek to grow in your understanding of the biblical theology of salvation so that you can better know who God is, what He does, and what He requires of you? and 3) Does your testimony and experience of conversion fuel your evangelism? I’m praying that the teaching we work through this year will cause the church to be bolder in their witness taking risks of faith to tell others about Jesus because of what is at stake.