Kingdom Outreach Guide: Kingdom Empowerment Resources

By Angah Cedric

Have you ever wondered how the early church reached out to the masses and infiltrated the entire globe, without a single microphone, a loud speaker, bill boards, vehicles, mega halls,

stadia, amphitheatre, television adverts and shows?

Jesus made a fervent prayer request Matthew 9:37-38, "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest".

There has always been a crucial need for more harvesters in the harvest, therefore, there is absolute need to admonish, educate and equip soul winners for the kingdom.

This book is a profound study on Biblical evangelism, it's mandate, unveiling challenging realities encountered in the evangelistic field and proposing Scripture inspired strategies in order to urge, prepare and arm Kingdom Harvesters for the great commission.

Evangelism which is spiritual outreach is the act of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Apostle Joshua Selman defines Evangelism as deploying any and every scriptural strategy that enthrones Christ in the heart of men. Evangelism therefore has three main parties involved, the teller, the message and the hearer and they will be explored critically in this book.

This book has four major parts:

The first part focuses on the Evangelistic Mandate; the mission/ assignment, the challenges, the message and post-evangelism (chapter 1,2,3 and 4).

The second part focuses on the Evangelistic Field; exploring the different Soil categories, reactions and resistances incurred from different world-views and apologetic approaches to different world-views (chapter 5).

The third part discusses Evangelistic Tools; explaining presentation approaches, strategies and styles in passing the gospel message, vital communication tools, current statistics for global evangelism with systematic approaches for a more effective outreach and finally questions concerning the gospel (chapter 6, 7 and 8).

The bone of conjunction is this, there is a great depth of wisdom to grasp from the evangelistic energy and strategy of our founding fathers. This is the ultimate grail carrying this book, unleashing the ultimate mandate, method and tools of Evangelism as portrayed in Scripture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angah Cedric
• Release date: Apr 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223301578

Book preview

DEDICATION

To my savior and redeemer — Jesus Christ

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

May the almighty God be praised for His assignment and enablement, He who assigns and equips.

I am thankful to my family, my mom Mrs. ANGAH ESTELLA and dad Mr. ANGAH DENIS and my entire family for their patience throughout my passive family presence in the period of writing.

I am profoundly grateful to all the persons or works that have been a consulted, contributing directly or indirectly to the information and insights that shaped this piece of writing. With regards to resources, I am infinitely grateful to Mr. RAY COMFORT whose video resources and teachings on practical evangelism have been incredibly energizing to my work. My heartfelt gratitude goes to a man whose impact lives on, whose apologetic teachings have helped me build a solid evangelistic foundation—Mr. RAVI ZACHARIAS.

I am profoundly grateful to my spiritual leaders, to Mr. TASIH EMMANUEL for reviewing this book, to my mentor Mr. ACHA ANENG DONALD and his wife Mrs. WAMEY THELMA for their encouragements and prayers, to my beloved pastor Rev B. MASOK EMMANUEL.

PREFACE

Have you ever wondered how the early church reached out to the masses and infiltrated the entire globe, without a single microphone, a loud speaker, bill boards, vehicles, mega halls, stadia, amphitheatres, television adverts and shows?

The bone of conjunction is there is a great depth of wisdom to savvy from the evangelistic energy and strategy of our founding fathers. This is the ultimate grail carrying this book, unleashing the ultimate mandate, method and tools of Evangelism as portrayed in Scripture.

Jesus made a fervent prayer request Matthew 9:37-38, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

There has always been a crucial need for more harvesters in the harvest, therefore, there is absolute need to admonish, educate and equip soul winners for the kingdom.

This book is a profound study on Biblical evangelism, it’s mandate, unveiling challenging realities encountered in the evangelistic field and proposing Scripture inspired strategies in order to urge, prepare and arm Kingdom Harvesters for the great commission.

Evangelism which is spiritual outreach is the act of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Apostle Joshua Selman defines Evangelism as deploying any and every scriptural strategy that enthrones Christ in the heart of men. Evangelism therefore has three main parties involved, the teller, the message and the hearer and they will be explored critically in this book.

This book has four major parts:

The first part focuses on the Evangelistic Mandate; the mission/ assignment, the challenges, the message and post-evangelism (chapter 1,2,3 and 4).

The second part focuses on the Evangelistic Field; exploring the different Soil categories, reactions and resistances incurred from different world-views and apologetic approaches to different world-views (chapter 5).

The third part discusses Evangelistic Tools; explaining presentation approaches, strategies and styles in passing the gospel message, vital communication tools, current statistics for global evangelism with systematic approaches for a more effective outreach and finally questions concerning the gospel (chapter 6, 7 and 8).

The Bible versions used throughout this book are the English Standard Version (ESV), the New King James Version (NKJV) and the King James Version (KJV).

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

PREFACE

CONTENTS

PRELIMINARY

PART 1:

THE EVANGELISTIC MANDATE

WHAT IS OUR Mission?

1.1 The Assignment of Evangelism

1.2 The Weakness in Evangelism

1.3 The Cause of the Weakness

1.3.1 The Force of the Harvest/ Spirit

1.3.2 The Faith of the Harvester/ Messenger

1.3.3 The Power of the Harvesting Sword/ Message

WHAT IS OUR MESSAGE?

3.1. What is the gospel?

3.2 Essential elements of the Gospel Message

1. The Problem/ Cause (to admit)

2. The Good news/ Cross (to believe)

3. The Invitation/ Call (to commit)

3.3 The Problem with Evangelism Today

3.4 The Evangelistic Process

WHAT NEXT? (POST EVANVELISM)

4.1 Orientation and Discipleship

4.1.1 The Challenges with Discipleship today

4.2 Church Planting

PART 2:

THE EVANGELISTIC FIELD

Soil Categories & World-VIEWS in Evangelism

5.1 Soil Categories and Approaches

5.1.1 Unreached Soils

5.1.2 Unyielding Soils

› The Resistant

› The Hesitant

5.1.3 Fertile Soils

5.2 World-views and Approaches

5.2.1 The Carnal worldview

Nature and science (the expressed revelation)

History and Revelation (the spoken/written Revelation)

Reality and Existential Testimonies (the living revelation)

5.2.2 The Social worldview

5.2.3 The Spiritual worldview

🔘 Monism

🔘 Polytheism

🔘 Pantheism

PART 3:

EVANGELISTIC  TOOLS

PRESENTATION TOOLS (APPROACHES, Strategies & STYLES)

6.1 Evangelistic Approaches

6.2 Evangelistic Strategies

6.2.1 Passive Evangelistic Strategies

6.2.2 Active Evangelistic Strategies

6.3 Evangelistic Styles

6.4 Pillars of Effective Communication

6.4.1 Intellectual Connection (Informs)

6.4.2 Emotional Connection (Inspire)

6.4.3 Artistic Connection (Entertains)

GLOBAL OUTREACH STATISTICS and strategies

7.1 How far have we gone?

7.2 Some Challenges in reaching unreached areas

7.2.1 Few Witnesses

7.2.2 Religio-political Resistance (Restrictions and Persecution)

7.2.4 The Great Imbalance

7.2.5 Geographical Challenges

7.2.6 Language Barrier

7.3 How we can change the narrative

Questions CONCERNING the gospel

8.1 Are we saved by doing good works?

8.2 Is Salvation for the elect or a selected people?

8.3 Can Salvation be lost?

8.4 What about those who haven’t heard the Gospel?

8.5 What’s the difference between Preaching & Teaching?

8.6 How can God be three in one?

8.7 Why do you think the Bible is true?

8.7.1 Historical Adequacy

8.7.2 Internal Authenticity

8.7.3 Impact Potency

8.8 Has the Bible been corrupted?

8.9 The Problem of evil

references

PRELIMINARY

There was once a kingdom ruled by a wealthy and influential king. The king was loved and respected by his people for his integrity, his justice and his ability to keep his word.

The king had a good relationship with his people, he often visited them to show them his concern and he provided their needs. He will often send surprise gift bags at the door of every household in the kingdom early in the morning.

One day, the king noticed that there was some disorder in the kingdom. Some people got up and didn’t find their packages at their door, meaning some person(s) got up early to steal the packages of others.

The king then made a law, he passed a decree that henceforth, anyone who will be caught picking up a package from someone’s door will be expelled into the wild forest without food or water for a month.

However, the stealing didn’t stop so one day, the king secretly called some of his guards and told them to keep watch over the gift bags from a distance so that they could find out who often gets them stolen. The guards did as the king commanded. The next morning, they caught of a young man in the act of stealing packages.

The young man was brought to the Palace at once. The king stepped forth to pass judgement and command that this thief be taken to the forest as the decree stated. As the king was about to pass his judgement, he bent down to look at the criminal in question, and he was shocked at who he saw: this criminal was his own son.

The king was disturbed and embarrassed; however, he had to keep his word, if not he would be unjust. He stepped forward and said you are condemned to one-month expulsion into the forest for disobeying the law given by the king.

Then after he had proclaimed this sanction, he stepped down and went towards his son. He removed his crown and his royal robes and placed them down. He then placed his right hand on his son’s shoulder, looked into his eyes and said I condemned you justly as a king and judge but now I stand here as a father, I love you and I don’t want you to die in the forest, I will take your punishment, I will go to the forest on your behalf.

The people of the kingdom watching were astonished by the King’s reaction. The king put aside all his royal garments and his ornaments and went into forest with neither food nor water.

This is the story behind this book. But please note that this is not just a story, this is our story, it’s your story. And the rest of this book is for those who have understood this story and experienced the power in it.

The king is God who created a beautiful and sufficient world for us and we had a close fellowship, a relationship with God. God because of love, gave us freewill to make our own decisions and His law to guide us on the right path. But just like the people in the kingdom, we are distracted by our own desires, we used our freewill against God, we broke God’s commandments trying to satisfy our selfish desires.

And like the king in our story God is just and faithful to His word so we are condemned to receive eternal death because the penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

But while mankind was hopelessly going to face the penalty of sin; God, out of his love puts off His royalty and steps into the scene in the person of Jesus Christ, to carry the punishment we deserved.

Jesus was beaten, wounded and nailed on the cross for our sake though he was sinless and pure as 1 Corinthians 5:21 says For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

At the cross; holiness (justice), love (grace) and power (might) were revealed all together at the same time; because if God simply overlooks sin, then He is not just and so He can’t be holy but God shows His love without compromising His justice and because He was holy or sinless, He conquered the power of death by raising up on the third day proclaiming victory over the death.

But then, it's up to each one of us to decide to receive this gift by repenting from our sins and inviting Christ in our hearts. The Bible says in Rev 3:20; Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to Him and eat with Him, and He with Me.

Take a moment to reflect about this. Have you truly surrendered your life to God; by repenting from sin and inviting Jesus into your heart. This is the most important decision you ever make. You can use this opportunity to surrender to Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, just open your mouth and talk to Him in prayers; Confess your sins to Him, invite Him in your heart to cleanse you from your sins and be enthroned in your heart as your lord and savior, tell Him to direct your path and show you His will for your life.

PART 1:

THE EVANGELISTIC MANDATE

WHAT IS OUR Mission?

1.1 The Assignment of Evangelism

L

ooking at our key Scripture above, who is Paul taking about when he says we are ambassadors. The answer lies in the three preceding verses (1 Corinthians 5:17-19):

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Paul starts by saying if anyone is in Christ.... so, the passage is for anyone who is in Christ. Are you in Christ? If yes, then the message that follows is for you. You are therefore part of the we are ambassadors. Paul doesn’t say apostles, prophets, evangelist, mature Christians but anyone who is in Christ.

Do we understand what this position and assignment means? Who are ambassadors in the first place?

Oxford languages says; "An accredited diplomat sent by a state as its permanent representative in a foreign country". This implies we are diplomats representing the Kingdom of God on earth.

One word that struck my attention is "representative. It means that we are re-presenting, it's different from presenting", in presentation select the content of your message but in representation, you’re simply like a vessel carrying an assigned message; you’re like mirror, it’s about people seeing something by looking at you, you don't create your message. Therefore, the message of reconciliation is not designed by us, the Kingdom message is unique and constant; we might express it differently, but its content cannot be altered.

Paul puts it this way; "God is pleading through us. Do we understand what this implies? The king of Kings and Lord of lords is pleading". We only plead when there's need, necessity or urgency. This shows the urgency of the message we carry, the message of reconciliation.

There's no reconciliation without an "issue or conflict. The worst person to be at conflict with is your own source, imagine the danger of disconnection from one’s source, a baby from his mom, a phone from its electrical supply, fish from water, birds from the air and man from God. This reiterates the urgency" of our message.

Scripture further tells us that God desires everyone to be saved and not perish (1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9, Ezekiel 18:23, Matthew 23:37) and the end time can only come once the gospel has been preached to all nations (Matthew 24:14). Also, the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus primarily emphasized that "the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent & be baptize" other versions say is near; "urgency" is still implied.

So, are we waiting for the souls to perish, for darkness to consume the lost? There's a message we carry, we have an urgent assignment; we are ambassadors, we are God’s messengers. In verse 18 of our text, Paul says "...and gave us the ministry of reconciliation", this means the visa to the kingdom for everyone out there is already established and lies in our hands and that’s why it is Good news; but good news becomes bad news when it is not received on time.

We have been assigned to let them hear this Good news already yet today many Christians are still expecting special encounters, instructions or events to carry this message to the lost. Evangelism is not an event, it ought to be lifestyle as Paul says in Colossians