Last weekend we held an evangelism conference at Living Hope Community Church in upstate NY. During the conference we focused on what the biblical gospel is and how to speak the gospel of the kingdom and the cross to a world in desperate need. The weekend included teachings, an interactive video workshop, role playing, and an evening out at the park. We wanted to provide an opportunity for those who wanted to try out what they had learned while at the same time not forcing anyone who wasn’t ready to do evangelism. Fortunately a good number of people did speak to people at the park and we had a wonderful time discussing these encounters as well as some related questions regarding evangelism in general Saturday night. The teachings from the conference are now available for free download.
In a few weeks, June 6-8, we will be having an evangelism conference at Living Hope in Latham, NY. All are welcome to attend and can register online (click here). It should be a great time to dig in to the Scriptures to understand the biblical gospel and how it was preached. Then we will be working on the question of how to preach the same message in the context of 21st century western civilization. So far our schedule is as follows:
Peter Woodcock works with the Co-Mission Initiative, a church planting group in London, and is Co-Pastor of Fairfield Church, Kingston. Previously he worked as a church evangelist in London and has been involved in missions in the UK and abroad.
This talk called “Whatever Happened to the ‘S’ Word?” was delivered in 2003 at The Evangelists Conference held in the UK. In it Pete describes the white washing of sin that has occurred in our culture. Sin has been reduced to behaviorism and sinners have been recast as victims of their environment. With speed and passion Pete describes the seriousness of sin using both cultural references (like Pulp Fiction and Silence of the Lambs and shampoo commercials) and biblical grounding (the Genesis 3 account). Throughout he is engaging and enthusiastic. Though he does not share the solution to sin (that was the next person’s job during the conference) he builds a case that before one repents and accepts Jesus as Christ we are all sinners and if we do not include the conviction of sin in our evangelism we are chopping the arms and legs off the gospel. Enjoy!
Below is a 4 minute video clip that has a shocking twist at the end. Other than the obvious, erroneous heaven and hell language I thought this short clip was powerful.
If you are a parent, worker, or anyone who deals with authority, I am confident that you have heard at one time or another the following: “It’s not MY job!” People are quick to let others know that they are not responsible for any work that is not clearly defined in their job description. Granted, we could take into account work loads and lazy coworkers, but generally the tendency is lack of going-above-and-beyond.
I can venture a guess that more than 1/2 of people attending church in America, if asked to do something out of their comfort zone, would reply with “That’s not MY job.” The question is, is it really?
“Go into all the world and make disciples…….teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you.” Matt. 28:19-20
Last weekend we held an evangelism conference at Living Hope Community Church in upstate NY. During the conference we focused on what the biblical gospel is and how to speak the gospel of the kingdom and the cross to a world in desperate need. The weekend included teachings, an interactive video workshop, role playing, and an evening out at the park. We wanted to provide an opportunity for those who wanted to try out what they had learned while at the same time not forcing anyone who wasn’t ready to do evangelism. Fortunately a good number of people did speak to people at the park and we had a wonderful time discussing these encounters as well as some related questions regarding evangelism in general Saturday night. The teachings from the conference are now available for free download.
This talk called “Whatever Happened to the ‘S’ Word?” was delivered in 2003 at