This summer, I had the privilege to go on a short-term mission trip to London to spread the gospel to the Londoners. London is a beautiful, historical, and very diversified city, but it is also a very dark place and in dire need of the gospel. Therefore, our church in the U.S. sent a diversified team of brave and godly men and women to partner with Gracelife, a local church in London, to spread the gospel there. Our mission was to proclaim the gospel message in London.
At the underground stations, we handed out the “Mind the God Gap” tracks to those who came in and out of the tube stations and attempted to have gospel conversations with them. The responses that we got varied. Some people responded positively. Some cursed at us. Some threw the tracks away. But we trusted that God’s Word will not come back void but will accomplish what He has intended and achieve the purpose that He has sent it.
While being on the trip, I have learned a few things that could help your future evangelism and mission:
- Teamwork makes the dream work
When Jesus sent out His disciples, He sent them out in twos. In Luke chapter 10, verse 1, Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples and sent them two by two to the town where He was about to go. In other words, evangelism is not an individualistic effort, but a team effort. You are not supposed to be a lone ranger in this endeavour. You need other brothers and sisters in Christ, who will care for you, encourage you, and pray for you so that you can be a more effective evangelist for the Lord.
There is no “I” in a team. While I was evangelizing to a Muslim, I struggled to answer his questions about the deity of Christ. However, one of my teammates helped me out and gave the Muslim the best defence of the divinity of Christ, and I am grateful for that.
- Ordinary Christians can witness
You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in evangelism to evangelize, and obviously, the Lord never requires any of His disciples to have a degree in evangelism. When Jesus sent out His twelve disciples, He only needed them to carry the message that, “The kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew chapter 10, verse 7). In other words, any Christian can witness. All it requires is that you are a Christian, you know the gospel, and you proclaim the gospel in love.
However, to evangelize effectively, you have to be trained to be able to defend the hope, which is in you (1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15). Apologetics has much value in evangelizing and can be a useful tool to prepare the way for the gospel. All realities testified to a Creator (Psalm 19 and Roman chapter 1, verse 20). However, the most effective apologetic is to admit our presuppositions and show how they make sense of the real world and then challenge the unbelievers’ presuppositions. To effectively evangelize, you need to be equipped with the knowledge of the truth.
- Missions exist because worship doesn’t
While evangelizing to the thirsty woman at the well, Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John chapter 4, verse 23). The purpose of evangelism is to change the worshipers of false gods into worshipers of the true God. We evangelized to the Londoners because ultimately, God deserves to be worshiped in London.
John Piper, an ambassador for God-centered worship, wrote, “Mission is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. Worship is the ultimate, not missions because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever.”
In other words, the goal of missions is that God is to be worshiped among the nations, especially in London. Missions exist because God is not worshiped among the nations. We evangelized in London because the Londoners are worshiping the unknown God, and God is seeking the true worshipers to worship Him. We have tasted the joy of worshiping Jesus, and we want all the people of London included.
Dat Nguyen is a student at the Master's Seminary and a member of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California. He desires to be a faithful minister of the Word of God. He loves playing basketball and watching movies.