Quote:
Originally Posted by blhowes  Do you agree that this is the correct response.
I'm not a pastor/elder, but with my imagination I picture myself sitting in my church study, with aspirations of doing great things for the Lord with the church he'd entrusted me with, but I have a manpower problem. I can't count on all the members to be at all the services, and getting people to help out with much of the mundane things that need to be done is like pulling teeth. I preach sermons (again, with my imagination) that should stir them to help out out of gratitude for what their savior has done, but volunteers don't come forward. A few do, and they're stuck carrying more of the load than is necessary (and eventually get burned out).
So there I am, sitting in my office, wondering what it is that's competing for their time to just spend an hour or so helping out. Do they even want to help out? If not, why not? |
The pastor must preach the gospel in every sermon so that his people understand how it relates to every facet of life. Soul winning is the work of the gospel message, not the preacher. The preacher must know how to present the gospel clearly.
As far as motivating his congregation to evangelize this is done by preaching the obligation to witness and yes, out of gratitude. Paul did this very thing in 1 Cor 9:
1 Cor 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
and again in Rom 1:
Rom1:14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
If we have been forgiven the heinousness of our sins, if we have been brought from death to life, then out of gratitude we shall obey the commandments and work to fulfill our debt to our neighbor.
I once included in a sermon that if you are going to stick a fish to your car then obey the speed limit. I had so many people irritated with me because I had tied there trip to work with their gospel witness. This is the power of the Word, it constrains us from doing things we shouldn't and compels us to do the things we should. How? Fear and gratitude. The fear is the fear of what might have been had not God worked his grace, and fear of mocking his holiness and trivializing the cost of the Cross. Gratitude that you were included amoung the elect to receive adoption and the full heritage of one of God's own children. These ought to be motivation enough to overcome our fear of man and embarrassment of the faith and to prod us to deliver the good news.
As sinners, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world. We have been given the only message of hope and we are obligated by scripture to deliver it.