On Tuesday morning I begin to devotionally read the text that I will be preaching on the following weekend. I am beginning to think through possible approaches, areas that I want to research, etc.
An Anglican Archbishop defined evangelism this way: “To evangelize is to present Christ Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that men and women should come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their Savior, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His Church.”
We recently completed our third discipleship campaign at Vineyard Columbus. The first was titled “The Good Life”; the second, “Fully Alive”; and the third, and most recent, campaign was titled “The Real Jesus”. Our goal this year was to deepen our understanding of who the Real Jesus is and how we can better respond to him in his various roles. We considered the Jesus of History, and Jesus as Teacher, as Healer, as Social Revolutionary, as Suffering Servant, as King, and as Savior. As in our prior campaigns, we aimed at discipling our whole church from toddlers to empty nesters. By multiple objective measures and by anecdotal responses, this was our best campaign ever!