Every church plant should have a strategy for the evangelization of its city. What does that mean? And what does it look like for Sojourn?

I will write from two angles:
(1) philosophy of disciple-making, and
(2) methodology of disciple-making

PHILOSOPHY
Followers of Christ are commanded by King Jesus to make disciples. Check it out in Matthew 28:19-20. This sounds like a task to tackle. However, that is only a part of a whole. The Greek language captures that the beginning of this passage could be interpreted, “As you are going disciples should be made.” Put another way, if we are living as missional disciples, there should be disciples in our wake.

Evangelism is not supposed to be a separate, non-relational part of our lives. Rather, being a follower of Christ comes with an expectation that God will have people in field of vision who need us to be Christ to them.

Therefore, we embrace a philosophy of life called missional living. We believe that we are missionaries in our own city.
We are called together to experience community as a spiritual family.
We are sent out into our city to take the love and story of Christ to predisciples (non-Christians).

METHODOLOGY
What is the method then? Here is the missional life:
(1) Engage your culture - There are elements of culture that we embrace, elements we use and elements we reject. But do not separate yourself from the world that you have been sent into. See Jesus’ words on this in John 17:15-18.
(2) Engage predisciples - These are “normal” people. Christians are “abnormal” because they swear allegiance to King Jesus above any earthly powers. Eph 1:21-23
(3) Invite predisciples into your life - Invite them into your calendar. Ask them to eat with you. Invite them into your home. Note the prerequisite in Titus 1:8 that church leaders must be hospitable. The leaders are supposed to model this trait for the all others to follow suit.
(4) Invite predisciples into our community - This is the spiritual community, or church. This does not have to mean a “worship service,” though it will most likely include it. Most important is that a missional disciple strategically builds relational bridges between predisciples and disciples.
(5) Jesus will invite them into His life. Have confidence and an expectation that God will use His story, you and your church (read, people) to assist them in their spiritual journey toward Christ.

If a person is uncomfortable with being a missionary as described, they will probably never like Sojourn Church. But, for those who want to bring Christ glory and live join God in His mission, this is the life to live!

Do we have an evangelism program? No.
Are we raising a community of missionaries within Metro Huntsville? Yes!

I think the former way will yield many disciples who share a passion for Christ, each other and predisciples. It certainly worked for Jesus.

Commit to the missional life!

–
David Thew
Sojourn Founding Pastor

__________________________
David Thew
Sojourn Pastor
Thewblog
twitter.com/davidthew