Archive: Evangelism for a New Era

by Steve | Mar 26, 2001 | Archive - 2001

Archive: Evangelism for a New Era

By Nicky Gumbel
March/April 2001
Good News

I have never been a natural evangelist. I have never found it easy to talk to my friends about Jesus Christ. Some people are completely natural evangelists; they find it the easiest thing in the world. … I’ve been looking for ways in which ordinary people like me, who aren’t naturally gifted evangelists, can communicate their faith with friends, family, and colleagues without feeling fearful or risking insensitivity. …

The Alpha course began in our church, Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London, in order to present the basic principles of faith to new Christians. It is a 10-week informal course offered to explore the basic meanings of the Christian faith. What we discovered was chat most of the people taking the course were not committed Christians, but people who were merely curious about the faith.

When Alpha first started growing I thought, “How could something that started in Central London work elsewhere?” Alpha currently runs in more than 100 countries: in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and many others.

While at an Alpha conference in Zimbabwe, I discovered that Alpha was not only running among the English-speaking white Zimbabweans but also among the Shona-speaking people in their own language. Zimbabwe has a population of just over 10 million people: there are 80,000 whites in Zimbabwe but 90 percent of the black population speak Shona. While I was at the conference l met Edward Ngamuda who had originally done Alpha in English but then thought that he would like to run the course in Shona. A couple who had come to Christ on Alpha asked him to come and run the course with the 900 people who worked on their farm. Thirty people came on the first course and 50 came on the second.

I asked him whether these people were Christians when they came on the course. “No,” he replied, “we had a Muslim, a witch doctor, and a polygamist come.” I asked how the polygamist happened to be there and was told that his first wife came on the first course, and that she had brought him and the other two wives on the next one! Edward assured me that Alpha worked better in Shona than it did in English. It was then that I began to realize that this course, which started in London, could operate in different countries and cultures. Why is this?

Evangelism is a process. Conversion may take place in a moment but it is part of a process. Jesus used the expression “born again” (John 3:3) for the beginning of a spiritual life, and the New Testament speaks about becoming a child of God. While the birth of a child may be one event, there is a much longer process before and afterwards. The Bible uses many other images to represent spiritual growth: some are taken from agriculture, others from the ideas of building or journeying. All these involve a process.

Alpha is a 10-week course involving a total of 15 talks which include a weekend and a celebration party at the end. We do not expect people to respond to the gospel after the first week (although some do). We recognize that people need time to think, watch, listen, and to talk through their questions and difficulties. Each person is beginning at a different stage.

Some are already Christians but will often say in retrospect that at the start of the course they were Christians “without any real experience of God.” Others are at the point of new birth when they begin Alpha. Some have already given their lives to Christ at the party at the end of the previous course, others at a special event before the beginning of Alpha. Still others come to faith through the witness of their family or a friend. Many are still a long way off when they begin Alpha.

Some are convinced atheists, some are New Agers, some are adherents to other religions or cults. Many are living in lifestyles which are far from Christian. … We welcome them all. Some will complete the whole course and still not be Christians at the end; … others will give their lives to Christ somewhere on the course. For nearly all of them, Alpha will enable them to take a step forward in their relationship with God.

The fact that there is a process spread over 15 sessions enables us to give longer to aspects of the Christian faith than one would be able to in one evangelistic talk. For example, in 1994 I saw a man standing at the back of the room who looked very suspicious and worried. When I introduced myself he said, “I don’t want to be here, I’ve been dragged along.” I said, “Great! Let me introduce you to 11 other people who don’t want to be here,” and I took him to meet my small group. At the end of the evening I heard him chatting to someone else in the group.

“Are you coming back next week?”

The other man replied, “Yes, I’ll be here.”

To which the first man said, “Well, if you’re coming back next week, I’ll come back next week.”

Six weeks later he said to me, “This course is like a jigsaw puzzle. Every time I come back another piece fits into place. And I’m beginning to get the picture.”

Furthermore, the fact that Alpha is a process enables trust to develop. There is a great deal of cynicism, skepticism, and distrust about the Christian church. I had no idea of the extent of this until I spoke to someone who said that for the first three weeks of the course he had not eaten the food in case it was drugged. That was an extreme case of distrust, but many people wonder if the church is after their money, their mind, or something else.

The whole person. Evangelism involves an appeal to the whole person: mind, heart, conscience, and will. Each talk is designed to appeal to all four, although in some of the talks the emphasis will be on just one.

We appeal to the mind because we believe that Christianity is based in history: on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We preach “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2). We seek to persuade with every argument we can muster, just as Paul did on so many occasions (e.g. Acts 18:4). We try to teach only what we can establish from the Bible and we point people to the biblical text. We do not expect anyone to take a “blind leap” of faith. Rather, we hope they will take a step of faith based on reasonable grounds.

Secondly, we appeal to the heart. Our message does not simply require an assent of the intellect to a series of propositions, but rather it calls people to a love-relationship with Jesus Christ. John Stott has written: “There is a place for emotion in spiritual experience. The Holy Spirit’s … ministry is not limited to illuminating our minds and teaching us about Christ. He also pours God’s love into our hearts. Similarly, he bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children, for he causes us to say ‘Abba, father’ and to exclaim with gratitude, ‘How great is the love the father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!’ … I think it was Bishop Handley Maule at the end of the last century who gave this good advice: ‘Beware equally of an undevotional theology (i.e. mind without heart) and of an untheological devotion (i.e. heart without mind).’”

Graham Cray, principal of Ridley Hall Theological College in Cambridge, England, has spoken with great insight about the culture of the 1990s, which is in the process of shifting from an Enlightenment culture to a new and coming one. In the Enlightenment, reason reigned supreme and explanation led to experience. In the present transitional culture with its “pick-and-mix” worldview, in which the New Age movement is a potent strand, experiences lead to explanation.

I have found on Alpha that those from an essentially Enlightenment background feel at home with the parts of the course which appeal to the mind, but often have difficulty in experiencing the Holy Spirit. Others coming from the New Age movement find that rational and historical explanations leave them cold, but at the weekend away they are on more familiar territory in experiencing the Spirit. Previously they will have been seeking experiences which have then left them discontented and only in experiencing a relationship with God through Jesus Christ do they find their hunger is satisfied.

The gospel involves both the rational and the experiential and it has an impact upon both those from an Enlightenment background who need to experience God and those who have sought experiences but who need to understand the truth about God.

Third, we seek to appeal to the conscience. Paul writes, “By setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor. 4:2). We know that every person has a conscience. Deep down we all have a sense of right and wrong. The Holy Spirit, often working through people’s conscience, convinces them about sin. Their consciences therefore are on our side. Throughout the course we are appealing to this side in urging people to repent and turn to Christ.

Fourth, we seek to appeal to the will. We recognize, of course, that no one can come to God unless he calls them. As Jesus said, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matt. 11:27). On the other hand, Jesus went on to say in the very next verse, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). In other words, he called for a decision.

There is a difference between an appeal to the will and the wrong form of pressure. We try to avoid all forms of pressure on Alpha. We do not endlessly exhort anyone to respond, or chase people down if they do not come back: it is up to them to decide. Over the period of 10 weeks, as we pray and allow the Holy Spirit to do his work, giving people the opportunity to respond, we are, in effect, making a continuous appeal to their wills.

Dynamic and effective. On the day of Pentecost such was the power with which Peter preached that the people were “cut to the heart” and 3,000 were converted (Acts 2:37-41). The remarkable events continued: “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles …. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:43-47).

Remarkable healings followed (Acts 3:1-10). People were astonished and came running to find out what had happened (3:11). Peter and John preached the gospel with great boldness: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say” (Acts 4:13-14). The authorities had no idea what to do because “all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old” (Acts 4:21-22).

Far from dwindling away through the period covered by the book of Acts, this spiritual dynamic continued. Even in the last chapter we read of Paul praying for Publius’ father: “His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured” (Acts 28:8-9). All the way through we see the dynamic effect of the coming of the kingdom of God accompanied by conversions, miraculous signs, healings, visions, tongues, prophecy, raising the dead, and casting out evil spirits. The same God is at work today among us. Evangelism can still be dynamic and effective.

The fullness of the Spirit. Jesus told his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). On the Day of Pentecost the promise of Jesus was fulfilled and “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4).

However, it did not end there. Later we read of Peter being “filled with the Spirit” again (Acts 4:8). Still later the disciples (including Peter) were filled again (Acts 4:31). The filling of the Holy Spirit is not a onetime experience. Paul urges the Christians of Ephesus “to be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) and the emphasis is on continuing to be filled.

I think that there can be little doubt that the greatest evangelist of our century has been Billy Graham (b. 1918). In his authorized biography, John Pollock tells how Billy Graham visited Hildenborough Hall and heard Stephen Olford speak on the subject “Be not drunk, but be filled with the Spirit.” Billy Graham asked to see Olford privately and Olford expounded the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. “At the close of the second day they prayed, ‘like Jacob of old laying hold of God,’” recalls Olford, “crying, ‘Lord, I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me,’ until we came to a place of rest and praising,” and Graham said, “This is a turning point in my life. This will revolutionize my ministry.”

… Those who come to Christ on the course know that a radical change has occurred in their lives because they have been filled with the Holy Spirit. This experience of God gives them the stimulus and power to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and see, firsthand, the expansion of the kingdom of God.

Nicky Gumbel studied law at Cambridge and theology at Oxford, practiced as a lawyer, and is now ordained and on the staff of Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. He is the author of the curriculum of the Alpha Course. He is also the author of Why Jesus?, Questions of Life, Why Christmas? Searching Issues and numerous other books. This article is excerpted from his book, Telling Others. © 1994 Cook Communications Ministries, Telling Others by Nicky Gumbel. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Archive: How Shall We Pray for Revival

by Steve | Jan 26, 2001 | Archive - 2001

Archive: How Shall We Pray for Revival

By Nicky Gumbel
January/February 2001
Good News

“I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, They will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7).

In the autumn of 1857, New York was in the midst of what was regarded as a national disaster – a financial crash which ruined many of its 1 million population. On July 1, Jeremiah Lanphier, a middle-aged businessman, took an appointment as a missionary in the city center. Churches were suffering from depletion of membership as people moved out of town. Lanphier decided to start a lunchtime prayer meeting. On the first week, he prayed alone for half an hour until five others joined him. The following week twenty came. Within six months, 10,000 people came daily to pray and a revival in North America had begun. Samuel Prime comments, “the places of prayer multiplied because men were moved to prayer. They wished to pray. They felt impelled, by some unseen power, to pray.”

If we, too, want to see revival, how are we to pray?

First, we are to pray constantly. The watchman “will never be silent day or night” (v. 6a). We are to be different from Israel’s watchmen of the past who “lie around and dream, they love to sleep” (Isaiah 56: 10). lnstead, we are to “pray continually,” as the New Testament encourages us (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome and told them, “Constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times” (Romans 1:9-10).

The source of the river of prayer which flows in the South Korean church today originated in the dedicated prayer among missionaries and South Korean church leaders at the turn of the century. The Pyongyang revival of 1907, for example, began at a mass meeting in which thousands were caught up in a wave of the Spirit which swept over the entire Korean church. An eye witness account described it like this:

“After a short sermon Dr. [Graham] Lee took charge of the meeting and called for prayers. So many began praying that Dr. Lee said, ‘if you want to pray like that, all pray,’ and the whole audience began to pray out loud, all together. The effect was indescribable. Not confusion, but a vast harmony of sound and spirit, a mingling together of souls moved by an irresistible impulse to prayer. It sounded to me like the falling of many waters, an ocean of prayer beating against God’s throne …. As the prayer continued, a spirit of heaviness and sorrow came upon the audience. Over on one side, someone began to weep and, in a moment, the whole congregation was weeping …. Man after man would rise, confess his sin, break down and weep, and then throw himself to the floor and beat the floor with his fists in a perfect agony of conviction …. Sometimes after a confession, the whole audience would break out in audible prayer and the effect … was something indescribable …. And so the meeting went on until 2 a.m., with confession and weeping and praying.”

Another example of constant, steadfast prayer is Dr. Jashil Choi, mother-in-law of David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church located in South Korea. Dr. Choi gave herself to praying for long periods on a mountain, living in fact, for three years in a tent on the site. In 1974 a permanent building was erected and prayer meetings which attract large numbers of people have been held every day since. Prayer Mountain has grown to be a place where thousands of people come daily to fast and pray. A modern 10,000-seat auditorium has been added which is now too small to hold the crowds that come. Attendance varies, but normally at least 3,000 people are daily praying, fasting, worshipping, and praising our holy and precious Lord. In this atmosphere of concentrated prayer, healings and miracles are a common occurrence.

David Yonggi Cho writes, “I am convinced that revival is possible anywhere people dedicate themselves to prayer … it has been historically true that prayer has been the key to every revival in the history of Christianity.”

Secondly, our prayer should be disciplined. Those who call on the Lord are exhorted to “give ourselves no rest” (Isaiah 62:6), to pray regularly, day in and day out. This is not always easy.

John Arnott, the senior pastor of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, which has been at the center of a remarkable move of God’s Sprit, wrote of his struggle to maintain a disciplined prayer life:

“In my own case, the struggle has been desperate and intense. There have been seasons of wonderful times ‘in the closet with my heavenly Father, praying to him in secret and being rewarded by him openly.’ During such times, one feels that everything is working out for the good, and one wonders why we could ever be so foolish as to not spend generous hours in communion with God. Then suddenly the cares of this life descend with such fury that the now-found prayer route is derailed once more, and the battle to regain it continues.”

Thirdly, we are to pray with urgency. Not only are we to give ourselves no rest but we are to “give him no rest” (v. 7). We are called to be passionate and pressing. Jesus told his disciples a parable “to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18: 1). Although the judge in the parable “neither feared God nor cared about men” (v. 2), he gave a persistent widow justice because she kept on asking until he was concerned that she would wear him out – “I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!” (v. 5). Jesus comments, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off! I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (v. 7-8).

The persistent widow is a good model for us as we pray for revival because she challenges us to be honest about our present state and to ask God passionately for change. “Only when we realize and admit our true condition will we long for revival,” writes Brian H. Edwards in his book Revival! A People Saturated with God. “Praying for revival is not enough: we must long for it, and long for it intensely.”

The historian of revivals, R.E. Davies, wrote: “The most constant of all factors which appears in revivals is that of urgent, persistent prayer. This fact is acknowledged by all writers on the subject.”

Fourthly, our prayer should be persevering. The watchmen are to pray “till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of all the earth” (v. 7). They are to pray until the whole earth gives praise to the Lord.

Duncan Campbell writes of the 1949 Hebrides revival: “I believe this gracious movement of the Holy Spirit … began in a prayer burden; indeed there is no doubt about that. It began in a small group that was really burdened. They entered into a covenant with God that they would ‘give him no rest until he made Jerusalem a praise in the earth.’”

They waited. The months passed, and nothing happened, until one young man took up his Bible and read from Psalm 24: “Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart …. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord.” The young man closed the Bible and, looking at his companions on their knees before God, he cried, “Brethren, it is just so much humbug to be waiting thus night, month after month, if we ourselves are not right with God. I must ask myself – ‘Is my heart pure? Are my hands clean?”‘ He asked God to reveal if his hands were clean and his heart was pure. As they waited on God his awesome presence swept the barn. These men came to understand that revival is always related to holiness. Three men were lying on the straw having fallen under the power of God. They were lifted out of the ordinary into the extraordinary. They knew that God had visited them and a power was let loose that shook the parish from its center to its circumference. In a house four miles away from the barn, two sisters – one was 82-years-old and doubled-up with arthritis and the other was 84-years-old and blind – had a vision of God. They saw the churches crowded, especially with young people. They had a “glorious assurance that God was coming in revival power.”

Their minister sent for Duncan Campbell to come for a 10-day mission, but he was booked up until the following winter. The minister read Campbell’s reply to the two old ladies. They said, “That is what man hath said, but God hath said otherwise. Mr. Campbell will be here in a fortnight.”

His convention was cancelled and he arrived on the island and went to the parish church. The meeting began at 9 p.m. and continued until 4 a.m. There was a crowd of more than 600 inside, with still more listening outside. No one could explain where they had come from. Strong men trembled in the presence of God, and many fell prostrate on the floor. Within 10 minutes Campbell’s voice could not be heard, as so many were crying out to God for mercy. The sound of singing had been replaced with a cry of penitence – “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” As people experienced the holiness of God, they committed themselves to seeking after him. The movement swept into the neighboring parish. There was such a sense of God there that one businessman visiting the island said, “When I stepped ashore I was suddenly conscious of God. He met with me and saved me.”

The challenge facing the church today is to pray for God to “rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64: 1), to give us “a consciousness of the presence of God, the Holy Spirit literally in the midst of the people.” We need a new righteousness, a new freedom, a new identity and new love. It is easy to give up interceding and to grow despondent when we do not see instant results, but we need to pray constantly, calling on the Lord in a disciplined and urgent way “till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” Individual and corporate prayer are a vital part of preparation for revival which in turn leads to greater individual and corporate prayer. As Billy Graham once said, the three keys to revival are prayer, prayer, and prayer.

Nicky Gumbel studied law at Cambridge and theology at Oxford, practiced as a lawyer, and is now ordained and on the staff of Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. He is the author of the Alpha Course. He is also the author of Why Jesus?, Questions of Life, Why Christmas?, Searching Issues, and numerous other books. This article is excerpted from his book, The Heart of Revival. © 1996 Cook Communications Ministries, Heart of Revival by Nicky Gumbel. Reprinted with permission.

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