Dec 19, 2013
Talk about God’s news, Host an Evangelism Workshop
by Andrew J. Camenga
Can you talk about the Gospel? I’m not asking if you are prepared to spring the Gospel, like a trap, on an unsuspecting soul. I’m not even asking if you’re prepared to look for an excuse to direct any conversation you have toward Jesus. I’m simply asking, “Can you talk about the Gospel?”
In the midst of a Sabbath School class, can you see God’s Gospel at work and then tell other Christians what you see? As you sit at a meal with believers, can you talk about how God’s Gospel touches your life? If an unbeliever walks up to you and says, “I know you believe in Jesus. What must I do to be saved?” are you ready to help?
The Board of Christian Education has developed a workshop which should let you say “Yes” to all of those questions. It is an evangelism workshop designed to help you “live into” talking about God’s Gospel.
The basic idea is that evangelism is talking about God’s Good News—whether the listener is inside or outside the Kingdom of God—and that most Christians will be better equipped to talk with non-Christians about the Gospel after they have learned to talk about it with Christians.
The goal of the workshop is to have believers accept a challenge to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. That is, the workshop challenges believers to know the Gospel, to talk about the Gospel, and to make it part of life.
Because many of our churches have limited time to gather as a whole, this workshop is developed to fit into a typical Sabbath experience. The workshop leader provides a Sabbath School class, a sermon, and a 60-90 minute session following a shared meal. The workshop can be tailored to specific timing needs and can even be delivered in a more traditional 3-hour format.
If your church would like to host this workshop, just contact the Board of Christian Education office. We’ll work with you to find a date.
We also provide other workshops:
Diaconate: This workshop is designed to help a Seventh Day Baptist diaconate understand its role in the local church. The short form (3 hours) provides a summary of findings from the Bible and from history, examines Biblical qualifications for deacons, and explores the breadth of current diaconal roles in our churches. The longer form (6 hours) includes more interactive learning, encourages individuals to find areas where they can grow, and begins a conversation about how the diaconate does and should work in its local congregation. The workshop is suitable for use in a church or diaconate retreat.
Sabbath School: Sabbath School can be a tool which helps support the overall ministry of the church. This workshop is designed to help the church begin asking and answering questions that can lead to using the Sabbath School as an intentional part of the way the church makes disciples.
Muriel Osborn Seminar for Teachers: The goal of this seminar is to encourage teachers, to remind them of what we are doing in Christian Education, and to help them find ways to be more effective. It works. If you haven’t hosted the seminar recently, you should really consider hosting it.
Stewardship: One reality of the Christian life is that we are stewards of the king. This workshop explores what that really means and challenges individuals to identify and tear down the personal kingdoms that are being built alongside God’s Kingdom. [While time-management and money-management are important aspects of stewardship, this workshop does not focus on skills particular to those areas of life.]