People (church members) often get really excited at opening night of an evangelistic series. The crowd, the new speaker, the backdrop, and all the busyness of getting people registered, greeted, announced, etc. The excitement is truly there. And for many people, the excitement wears off rather quickly because they stop coming.
But for me, the most exciting time of evangelism is in the final week. That’s when people begin making decisions for following Christ. That’s when life-change really begins to happen. When a person makes a decision to follow Jesus, they are making a decision to change where they’ve been and enter into a new life. It changes the community, one person at a time.
That’s where we are right now. Eric Flickinger has been going for two weeks now. We are in the final two weeks. Yesterday, I saw a friend of mine make a decision for Christ. He’s going to get baptized. He’s going to follow Him all the way. I told him, “Don’t worry about the baptism, I only hold people under until ALL their sins are washed away!” “Oh no! I’ll be under there for an hour!” He said. The good news is, all that is washed away immediately. And God throws a party.
God’s party. That’s why I like the last week better than the first week. The first week is all about the looky-Lou’s. The last week is all about lives being transformed. The fun of evangelism happens when people commit their lives to Jesus. Yes, evangelism is a lot of work. Yes, it’s hard work. But getting ready for any party is hard work. But I don’t do it for the hard work. I do the hard work for the party at the end! God’s party.
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