Duke Street, Richmond was the venue for the second Healthy Churches Conference which took place on 5 September and is from the ‘9Marks’ background.
Last year the speaker was Mark Dever of Capitol Hill Baptist, Washington. This year, with the focus on evangelism, it was Mack Styles of Redeemer Church, Dubai.
God’s vehicle for evangelism
Just back from visiting churches in Iraq, Mack has a particular take on outreach. His insight is that the local church is God’s vehicle for outreach and that churches need to nurture a culture of evangelism with every member involved. Evangelism should not be left to the ‘gifted’ or concentrated on a week’s mission each year. It should be in the very bloodstream of the church continually.
Culture of evangelism
He spoke three times and gave plenty of opportunity for Q&A. His ten critical components for a culture of evangelism were that every church member should: 1. Know the gospel; 2. Speak the gospel; 3. Live the gospel; 4. Be confident in the gospel; 5. Not assume that others know the gospel; 6. Understand biblical conversion; 7. Be bold for the gospel and take risks; 8. Participate in the love of the church which shows the power of the gospel; 9. Ask God to use them to spread the gospel; 10. Prioritise personal evangelism over programmes of evangelism. The saying ‘preach the gospel and if necessary use words’ got short shrift – ‘it’s like saying ‘feed the hungry and if necessary use food’.
Quickest way to heresy
Here are a few other memorable sound-bites: church leaders need to both teach and model evangelism. The quickest way to heresy is to be over-sold on contextualised, relevant evangelism. The church is to be the church and its members are to be seeker friendly.
Mack is a very engaging speaker, gentle, biblical and full of exhilarating stories of what the Lord can do when ordinary Christians take seriously their calling as ambassadors for Christ. It was a day which provoked a good deal of helpful discussion which, hopefully, will lead to action.
