3 March 2013 by Rev. Albert Kang- Elijah Challenge, Malaysia
Since 2000 tens of thousands of believers and servants of God have attended The Elijah Challenge Basic Training to be equipped according to John 14:12. Some of them have gone on to proclaim the gospel powerfully with accompanying miraculous healings, to minister healing to the infirm effectively, and to train other servants of God as they themselves have been trained.
Rev. Albert Kang explains the powerful evangelism work he is doing:
The End Time Model of Evangelism equips every believer according to John 14:12 to heal the sick as Jesus taught His disciples to demonstrate to the world that He is the only way to the Father. It has been accepted by both evangelical and charismatic churches and has brought reconciliation and unity. It is instrumental in equipping the Church to fulfill the Great Commission. The age of the superstar "one-man-show" evangelist is fading and the age of the nameless and faceless believer is at hand. Like the apostle Peter we do not bring you "silver or gold," but what we have we give you: we will equip you to heal the sick in Jesus' name (Luke 10:9) to reach the most gospel-resistant people groups.
Mass evangelism usually focuses on a single gifted preacher who performs most of the ministry in a very large and expensive venue like a stadium. He (or she) can be a very powerful and anointed speaker. Many sinners may convert to Christ when the invitation is given.
Outside of the industrialized West, mass Crusades are often even larger and involve an added dimension: miraculous healings of the infirm. But as in the West, the one anointed servant of God does all the preaching and the many miracles take place only as he ministers or prays for the sick. After the Crusade is over, the miracles cease and the excitement dies down. It is generally back to business as usual in the participating churches after the anointed servant of God leaves. Generally, only charismatic or pentecostal churches are involved in such Crusades, and evangelical churches choose not to participate. This potentially erodes the unity of the body of Christ.
The primary goal of mass evangelism is the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This goes beyond simply preaching the gospel. The Great Commission also includes discipling the nations and new believers after they receive Christ. Therefore participating local churches should be growing if mass evangelism is performing its intended function. But this is not generally the case.
In the industralized West, only a tiny percentage of people accepting Christ at a Crusade actually ends up joining and being discipled in a local church. The rest are "lost." The statistics are even worse for mass Crusades on the mission field. In Indonesia, for example, thousands of people accepted Christ at a 2003 Crusade held in the Indonesian city of Bandung after they saw great miraculous healings and heard the gospel. But due to the protest of a mainline Christian denomination against this very high-profile event, the meetings were stopped by the local government. Moreover, people pressure against the new believers ensured that virtually none of them could be followed up and discipled.
Today the Lord is restoring to the Church a scriptural model of evangelism which will enable churches and believers to fulfill the Great Commission.
• In this model based on John 14:12, "ordinary" disciples of Christ will preach the gospel and minister miraculous healing in low-budget, low-profile, relatively small (or even one-on-one) meetings. When the listeners see the miracles and hear the gospel, their hearts will be open to accepting Christ.
• The new believers will be followed up by the believing friend, family member, neighbor, or business associate who brought them to the meeting. Such personal follow-up of new believers will be more effective than the impersonal follow up after large mass crusades. There is a far greater likelihood that the new believer will join the church and be discipled for Jesus Christ.
• This kind of evangelism involving miraculous healings and the demonstration of the Spirit's power is through ordinary disciples and therefore not dependent on the presence of a specially gifted and anointed minister. As such, evangelism of this kind can be an ongoing and continuous feature of the life of every local church.
• This model of evangelism is not based on the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit but rather on principles gleaned from the ministry of Jesus Himself. Thus both conservative evangelical as well as charismatic pentecostal believers are able to preach the gospel in this way and even work together in a spirit of unity.
• When every church is equipped with the end time model of evangelism, the Body of Christ will be significantly closer to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
How did the Apostle Paul preach the gospel?
1 Corinthians 2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
Hebrews 2:4 God bearing witness with them by both miraculous signs and wonders, and by various works of power, even by distribution of the Holy Spirit, according to His will.
For the most part, the Church has not emulated the example of Paul in its presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Often we preach the gospel with persuasive words deriving from man's wisdom and philosophy. In the West in particular, needy people are drawn to churches through very positive messages of encouragement that minister to people’s "felt needs." However large a church may grow with new souls through this type of preaching, there is a diversion from the main focus of evangelism which should be Jesus Christ and him being crucified. Why has this taken place?
Part of the reason is due to the lack of a demonstration of the Spirit's power when the gospel is preached today. The visible demonstration of miraculous healings accompanying Paul's preaching was convincing proof to the listeners that Jesus Christ had indeed suffered on the cross to save them from sin and death. No eloquence of superior wisdom was needed. But since this visible demonstration is for the most part lacking today in our churches, we tend rather to minister to people's "felt needs" as a means of evangelism. This approach may indeed bring many new people into a church. It may in fact be important in the teaching and discipleship of born-again believers. However if we use it as an evangelistic tool to reach the lost we run the risk of them ultimately basing their faith on men's wisdom and not on God's power. Of course this approach would appear preferable to running the risk of proclaiming God's power to heal in a gospel meeting but then no miracles taking place. This is the spirit of fear that restrains the Church from proclaiming the gospel the way Paul did.
But God is restoring the Apostle Paul's model of evangelism to the Church. During September 2004 in Indonesia, Brother William and his team witnessed Buddhists, Hindus, and idol-worshippers come to Christ as the gospel was preached in the way that Paul taught. First, Jesus Christ was presented in a very concise way as the Savior who suffered on the cross and the only way to the Father. Then trained local disciples of Christ—at times both evangelical and charismatic—were called to minister healing to the infirm at the meetings to prove that the gospel as presented was indeed true. The sick, both believers and non-believers, were healed in Christ's name and came forward to testify. (No manifestations such as people being "slain in the Spirit" occurred.) Only then the invitation to accept Christ was given. Because the listeners saw the demonstration of the Spirit's power and heard the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they responded to the call.
This is just the beginning of the Lord's restoration of the scriptural model of evangelism to the Church.
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