EDITORIAL
Transformation | Derwin Gray
Small Church Pastor,
I believe in you! But more importantly, the God who bled for you, who died for you, who rose from the dead for you, and who now lives in you through the Holy Spirit, believes in you. The church you serve may be small, but you are on a big mission with Jesus (Matt. 28:18–20). Here are three practices that will cultivate evangelistic passion in your church.
First, your spiritual formation—as you rely on the Holy Spirit—will cultivate evangelism in your church. As you are formed into the image of Jesus, you will want what Jesus wants: the lost people found (Luke 19:10). The more you know and love Jesus, the more you will want your church to know and love Jesus (Phil. 3:7–10). Your passion will fuel your church to know Jesus and make him known.
Second, your Spirit-empowered preaching will cultivate evangelism in your church. Evangelistic preaching builds the believer and simultaneously reaches the lost because the gospel is not simply how we come to faith; the gospel is the faith. The life, death and resurrection of King Jesus justifies, sanctifies and glorifies us. All of Scripture echoes with the name of Jesus (John 5:39–40). A congregation transformed by the gospel will share the gospel with the lost.
Third, your organizational leadership will cultivate evangelism as you design clear systems and processes. A system determines how things are done. Systems also create behaviors, behaviors create habits and habits create our destiny. Processes are the things you do for your system to produce the desired results. If you want your church to be evangelistic, design systems and processes that allow evangelism to flourish.
Your mission is big. Trust in our big God to accomplish it.