Youtube Video

Summary

Stephanie Kenyon explores the true meaning of evangelism, emphasizing that it is a universal calling for all Christians, not limited by gender or status. It highlights practical ways to serve, disciple, and share Christ’s love within the church and community, using biblical examples like Tabitha and Lydia.

Chapters

00:00 The Role of Women in Evangelism
05:17 Lessons from Tabitha: Servanthood and Community
15:19 Lessons from Lydia: Hospitality and Spiritual Mindedness
29:18 Practical Evangelism: Engaging with the Community
43:21 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript *This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.*

Stephanie Kenyon (00:00)
so I don’t know about you, but a lot of times I think when we think of the word evangelism…

We just think about like a men’s job, right? And they kind of touched on that in there a little bit. And it can be kind of hard. It can seem like a man’s world when we talk about evangelism. But you are an evangelist. If you are a Christian, you are called to proclaim the message of Christ. It doesn’t give a gender specific role. Have you ever heard of blue chores and pink chores around the house? That’s kind of a newish thing. You know, our blue job, like taking out the trash would be a blue job. Washing the dishes is a pink job, which at least in my marriage, everybody does.

pretty much all the jobs unless we hate them and then hopefully your kid or spouse wants to do it. But Rick and I both hate folding the laundry. Well no, putting away the laundry. We both hate putting away the laundry. So it typically just sits in the basket on the floor until one of us decides we’re tired of tripping over it. yeah, and so.

Evangelism is not a blue job. Evangelism is for everybody. It’s for every soul that has ever obeyed the gospel. There’s a quote that comes to mind, if you’ve ever heard, ⁓ evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread. Have you ever heard that? So it’s actually from a different quote. Someone paraphrased it, a preacher paraphrased it. so it’s evangelism is witness. It’s one beggar telling another beggar where to get food. The Christian does not offer out of his bounty because he has no

bounty. He is simply guessed at his master’s table and as evangelists he calls others too. And that is so true. What we’re proclaiming is not ours, it is God’s. Whether male or female that’s all evangelism is. It’s showing the love of Christ.

that we so desperately crave and without which we wouldn’t have our salvation. It isn’t a question of capability because God told us all to do it. So there is no, I’m not good enough. I’m not as talented as she is. You are capable. God has made you capable. It is a question of commitment to God and a concern for lost souls. It’s learning to disciple people instead of just dunking them. Evangelism is more than just a sprint to the baptistry.

It is helping people find Jesus, and once they’ve made the decision to give their life to Him, it’s helping them learn to live for Him after that point, to seek Him desperately and earnestly, and for them to help me seek Him desperately and earnestly, no matter how long I’ve been a Christian. If my goal is just to get to heaven, I’ve missed the point. If my goal is just to get others to heaven, I’ve missed it.

How good would heaven be without the author of joy and peace and love and us being among him? My evangelistic efforts should always point others to my heavenly father and to seeking a deep and meaningful relationship with him.

Which that’s discipleship, right? Teaching people how to walk the walk, not just get dunked and then ditch them. Discipline it means modeling behavior. If you have kids, know, like they learn things by watching you. In the church, our newborns, our babes in Christ, our small children in Christ, they watch those who are among them and they learn what to do from them. What are we modeling? Am I teaching them to imitate me as I imitate Christ or am I teaching them to imitate me as I follow

the world and just put on a mask twice a week.

There are a lot of women in scripture that we could point to who were evangelistic. I included a lot in the manuscript. I think about the Shunammite woman in Second Kings 4 who built a room on her house so that the prophet could come and have a place to stay. She partnered with him in his mission. I think about Iodia and Syntiki who were reprimanded, but it said that they labored side by side with me. ⁓

Hold on, I’m not used to doing this on a tablet, because I didn’t print anything off. Labored side by side with me in the gospel in Philippians 4.3. In Colossians 4.15, there’s a sister mentioned named Nimtha. And Paul says, give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nimtha and the church in her home. She had a spiritual mindset, an evangelistic mindset.

You’ve already heard about the Phoebe group that comes from Phoebe in Romans 16, one through two. She was commended by Paul and called a servant and a patron because of what she did for those working for the Lord. Tomorrow, you’ll hear from Carlyssa about Priscilla and how she worked alongside her husband. It doesn’t say Priscilla or Prisca supported Aquila in his work. She worked with him.

And then obviously today, even though it’s not on the screen and it was super cute, I’m so sad you guys don’t get to see it. I’ll post it. I actually have a QR code for y’all to scan to get some digital things that are practical toward the end of the lesson. And so I’ll just leave it up here and you can come scan it on your phone. The thing is, it’s not in there yet because I am going to compile what you say. ⁓ And in fact, I was gonna ask somebody and I didn’t. Does someone wanna take that list down and text it to me?

Or write it great and that’ll be toward the end as long as we sprint through the rest of this We’re not sprinting to the baptistry, but we are sprinting through this lesson ⁓ But we’re gonna talk about Tabitha and Lydia today and how they both this is not a comparison and contrasting So I apologize for the clickbait lesson We are gonna talk about them, but then we’re gonna move on into practical ideas for how we can be like them and evangelize So if you want to well definitely let’s just all go ahead and turn to acts nine ⁓

I don’t have the full chapter. It’s just a short chunk of scripture. It’s 36 through 43. I’ll give you guys a couple seconds to turn there. And I’m gonna grab water.

And it says, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, please come to us without delay. So Peter rose and went with them, and when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics.

and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa. And many believed in the Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.

So some lessons we can learn from Tabitha. Servant-hearted people connect others to Christ. One of my favorite songs is Make Me a Servant. Most of you have probably heard that song. We sing it a lot. It’s like our homeschool anthem. But we sing it a lot in Bible time. when my kids are catching an attitude, if I say, hey, can I have you take out the trash? Or hey, can you go help her open the door? I’ll say, you’ve been singing Make Me a Servant. Do you mean it? Which really I should be holding a mirror up right here.

because I definitely complain even if it’s not out loud when I have to do things I don’t want to do. But we know from Mark 10, 45 that, what does it say? Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Another lesson we can learn from Tabitha, ⁓ and this is something that I’ve just.

I don’t know, it may make you uncomfortable. So I apologize if it does, but I do truly believe it or I wouldn’t say it. Not all evangelism is done outside the body. I know we like to think of it as an external thing and that evangelism is approaching a soul that doesn’t know about Jesus and directing them to Jesus. But there is a way to evangelize those within the body, not just the wanderers. Tabitha was very active in the body. We can see that. She had a dedication to God and his people so much so

And what I could find is that how far Peter was away, and I maybe…

wrong about this because it is a cultural commentary, but it was about four hours distance to travel by foot there one way. So eight hours from when they sent for him and when he potentially could have been back. And it says that when he got back, they were still there. They were still in her house waiting for him to tell him about what all she had done. I think there are two types of evangelism shown in this passage, internal and external. The external can be seen at the end of the text where people believed

and they believed in the Lord because of what they heard about what happened to her being raised. ⁓ But there’s also internal evangelism at work here. I think sometimes we limit our evangelism to those who have never heard of Jesus, and we narrow the work of the church by thinking that the only discipling that needs to happen involves those outside the walls. But there are people sitting in our pews that have even made a trip to the Baptisteries sometimes. ⁓

that need the discipling and the encouragement. They need to be reminded of love. The young moms who are in the thick of it, like Kelsey back there. Sometimes it’s surviving. And sometimes they need to be reminded, like you’re a soul and you have spiritual needs. And this is a season and it’s hard. But God sees you and he loves you. The lonely widows that sit in our pews. The quiet sister that feels like she doesn’t quite fit in. And I have been there. I am there a

of days and I’m a preacher’s wife and I have we love the congregation that we’re at and everybody’s so lovely but it you can feel very isolated and so we can minister to each other by sharing the gospel what are we doing to exhort one another you know Hebrews 313 and bear one another’s burdens Galatians 6 2 how are we encouraging each other to follow Christ in our lives and as Colossians 1 9 and 10 says walk in a worthy manner

How many times have we heard of someone falling away because they felt that the church only cared for them until they got wet? And once they were out of the baptist tree, you’re here, we’re fine. One of the most helpful things we can do as Christians is to pair spiritual, baby Christ with a mature sister or brother.

that will walk beside them and help them because Satan is inevitably going to come for them. It’s not a question. And how much more powerful is it to stand against him when you’ve got someone holding your hand, when you’ve got a sibling in Christ to help you stand firm? To Duncan Ditch New Christians in my mind is equivalent to James 2, 15 through 17, which says, a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the

What good is that? So also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead. So how can we pull spiritual infants out of the waters of baptism and tell them to go in peace and be filled without actually showing them how to spiritually eat? How many babes in Christ have died from spiritual failure to thrive? Have you heard of failure to thrive? I mean, I don’t know if I’ve heard of anybody having it recently, but I know it was a thing back in the day with babies, you know, that were malnourished and they would diagnose them with

You’re to thrive. I think we have a lot of people sitting in the pews that are failing to spiritually speaking, and that is so tragically preventable. It is not hard. None of us are walking into eternity alone, no matter our destination.

Discipling isn’t just limited to new Christians either. It’s a lifelong process. I’m in the process of being discipled by those around me. I am constantly learning from my tightest two sisters. I hope that my child is learning from me. I sometimes question that. ⁓ But there are times when we need to remind those among our numbers of the good news. We do so by opening God’s word together, singing hymns to uplift and teach each other, but also by sharing God’s love with one another. And we see that because Tabitha demonstrated her love by

Bye.

caring for her sisters and making garments for them and what could be more Christ-like than selfless service. Her legacy is one of dedication to God, love for her neighbor and a commitment to use her abilities to glorify God. She wasn’t looking at other people and wondering what she should do like them. She was doing what she could with what she had and she was an embodiment of 1 John 3, 18 that says, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. She utilized her talent and her skills to serve others. She saw a need

and she met it. And sometimes evangelism is just that simple. We tend to make things hard. We tend to complicate things and overthink things. We don’t need to formalize evangelism. Sometimes it is just sitting down with someone and listening to them for a while, letting them pour out what’s going on, and then pointing them to Jesus. Sometimes it’s sitting in silence like Job’s friends and just caring for them and crying with them. You know, we have…

Romans, I think it’s 12, 27, and 1 Corinthians 12, 26 or 27 in there where it says, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Did you know that you are fulfilling your duty when you do that? And it’s good to cry with your sisters. It helps things. If you’ve not done it, I highly recommend it. It really breaks the ice, because then you can look at each other and know, she’s not perfect. She doesn’t have it all together. But this sister specifically was busy serving what we would call a vulnerable population, the widows. It’s well known that widows in that day and age were powerless to protect themselves. It was different than now, which even so, we still have elder abuse.

and men that are vulnerable to scams and all kinds of horrible things that people do. Sometimes it’s people outside the church, sometimes it’s within. But even the kings of heathen nations felt responsible to protect orphans and widows. God is described as a champion for the widow in Deuteronomy 10, 18. There is commandment in the Levitical law on how to treat widows. David also captured this view of God in Psalm 68, 5, Father of the fatherless.

Protector of the widows is God in his holy habitation. He pronounced a woe to the scribes and Pharisees who devoured widows’ houses. Paul entreated Timothy to honor the widows. And James described pure and undefiled religion in James 1.27 as taking care of widows and orphans. So we can, without a doubt, beyond a shadow of a doubt, know that if we are serving our sisters who are widows, that we are doing what God wants us to do.

intricately involved that honoring them that when it was her who had died they spent their time honoring her in grief. ⁓ We can see a beautiful example of service and Christlike love from all those in that picture. Moving on to Lydia we read about her in Acts 16 and on the Sabbath day ⁓ actually 16 13 through 15 I should probably give you the rest of reference and let you turn there.

And on the Sabbath day, we went outside to the gate to the riverside where we suppose there was a place of prayer. And we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us saying, if you had, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon.

this.

And then if you skip down to 35 through 40, it says, when it was the day the magistrate sent the police saying, let those men go. And the jailer reported these words to Paul saying the magistrates have sent to let you go, therefore come out now and go in peace. But Paul said to them, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison. And do they now throw us out secretly? No. Let them come themselves and take us out. The police reported these words to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman

citizens so they came and apologized to them and they took them out and asked them to leave the city so they went out of the prison and visited Lydia and when they had seen the brothers they encouraged them and departed. So some lessons we can pick up from Lydia just from this text. We should be spiritually minded and seek those of like precious faith. Where do we first observe Lydia? She’s by the river with other women at a place of prayer. Luke called her a worshiper of God in verse 14.

She may not have been a Christian yet, but since she was already a worshiper of God, she listened to Paul’s teachings, which moves into kind of the next point. the next point is we should practice humility like she did. ⁓ But she practiced humility in that she listened, and then she submitted her will to God’s, being baptized for the remission of her sins.

In effect, this at least challenged the faith system that she had most likely known her whole life. But we see an example of her humility further, and that she opened herself up to examination in verse 15. What does she say there? If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. She said, examine me, look at me, and if you find me faithful, come to my house and stay.

So some background on that, because I thought that there’s got to be some significance to that besides just we should be hospitable. So in that day and age, ⁓ men would have probably been staying in an inn and that would not have been a reputable thing. And she had a household. So while it may have been frowned upon for them to stay with a woman, if she had a household, they wouldn’t have been alone with her. So it was OK. ⁓ So she would have offered them a chance to kind of save their reputation somewhat.

to be in a better situation than among those of ill repute in that inn. Also, she was possibly a wealthy woman. ⁓ She sold purple, which was a luxury good.

And I could go into all this you’re probably not interested in. If you are, I will send you the information. It’s from a Bible background commentary, just talking about the die. ⁓ But well-to-do women sometimes became patrons of spiritual or even pagan religious associations. ⁓ Those attracted to Judaism helped support Jewish causes. Paul and his companions were probably staying at an until the Sabbath, but Lydia offered them the proper hospitality and invited them into her home, which was her partner.

in their work. She was showing them the love of Christ and I mean we see here she was baptized and it was immediate right?

So sometimes I think we just, some people just have really good soil. Sometimes we get to that soil and it’s dry and crumbly. And sometimes we meet people and you think like, how are they not a Christian already? Right? And so I think sometimes we miss out on opportunities that would be very easy where we talk ourselves out of opportunities because we think someone is a certain way or it’s going to be so hard. This is going to be an obstacle. I mean, it’s not the case. Lydia seems like she was pretty much ready to go. She was spiritually minded and we should follow her.

example in that way, we should be spiritually minded. ⁓ Why I said earlier, you sometimes it’s evangelizing within the walls, but also we should notice that we don’t have to be in a church building, you know, to encounter people that are spiritually minded. ⁓ Since she was by the riverside, she wasn’t in a synagogue and there, there are other ideas about why there was no synagogue, but the fact was there was no synagogue and that’s why they were meeting by the river. And so that’s where they found

her and when she was in when she encountered the truth her heart wanted to do what was right and that was on her right I don’t have to mold anybody’s heart to make them want to know the truth either they do or they don’t we are told that we have to be lovers of the truth right and so when we meet someone who is a lover of the truth we should not withhold we should never withhold but definitely when we meet someone who’s a lover of the truth we should use what we have to help the brethren like I mentioned it’s possible she was wealthy whatever the case she

appears to be the head of the household and I mean it’s not impossible that she was married. She may have been married to a husband who simply did not care and let her have free reign of what she was doing. But a lot of people think she was a wealthy widow or just a wealthy single woman or divorcee and that’s how she could do this. But she opened her home in hospitality to these men and that is a great example for us. But just like Tabitha and Lydia, we should be willing and able to

leverage our circumstances, our worldly goods, our talents in order to show others Christ. Our blessings in general should never be sacrosanct. ⁓ And that’s a big word. So they should never be out of reach for use. We should never put them up on the shelf and say, these blessings are meant for me alone. They’re meant to be shared. They are meant to be used. We often say like, God just gave me my kids. They’re just on loan, right? We understand that principle. God just gave me my house. It’s on loan.

God’s house. I should be using that to bring people to Him. God just gave me my car. God just gave me whatever I have, literally whatever I have. My clothes, it should be used. It should be, I should be willing to give whatever I have, whatever resource, whatever circumstance I’m in, in order to connect people to Christ.

Our efforts can’t be obligation driven. I know you know that. I feel like I’m preaching to choir. You all are here on a Wednesday afternoon. So let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 10, 31 to 33.

It says, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to the Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved. Whatever we do, whatever actions we take, everything about us should give glory to God. And he says, I try to please everyone in everything I

But not seek my own advantage what rights am I willing to give up in order for others to come to Christ? You know what things can I set aside when a neighbor comes to me and says hey, that’s really loud. Can you turn that down? Should I say I’m well within my right? This is my property. It’s staying. Is that a Christlike attitude? No, it’s very easy to get what we call salty over that It’s very easy to say it. I have that right like I should exercise that but we should be willing to sacrifice

that so that others may be saved and why would they be saved is it because the actions I do know it’s because of Christ because they see Christ if you go one verse further be imitators of me as I am of Christ and that’s the context context there we have to grasp that evangelism is so much more than the cheap substitute that it’s been boiled down to in our modern culture it’s so much more than we have boiled it down to in the Lord’s body the world has no idea about evangelism they think they know ⁓

There are people out there that think they know. And I’m going to get on a soapbox for a minute. if it offends you, I apologize. But I feel pretty strongly about it. And I’m going to talk about social media. And that’s my job. I live on social media three days a week as a virtual assistant for a food blogger. So I don’t see a lot of drama other than worldly people pressing at us for literally no reason. ⁓ But in an age of digital connection, have to realize that that connection is extremely limited. It is very easy to be bold behind a

It is very easy to be ugly behind a screen. While social media is not in and of itself inherently bad and using it to spread the gospel is somewhat commendable, we have to acknowledge that it can’t replace an actual physical connection with people. In fact, in most cases, it hinders that. It gives the user a sense of fulfillment that they’ve done something. I’m not saying using social media is bad. If you want to use it, use it. ⁓ But it’s very easy to share a graphic of a verse.

or blog post, or even like in my case, I have a podcast and we share a podcast link on there. ⁓ But to feel like I’ve done my work for the day. I’ve shared Christ with people. I don’t need to get out among people. I don’t need to make connections. And of course, as we know, social media is a time suck, right? You get on there. It’s not long before you’re scrolling. If you don’t know, there is literal science behind it for how like how long they make reels and how their time so that you keep scrolling. They have engineered those platforms to suck you in, give you a dope

drop and get you hooked. Saint loves it. We’re too busy commenting, liking, and sharing content to be concerned with evangelizing.

But while social media might be a platform that can be utilized and to tell others about Christ even, we have to consider our motives, right? Social media is very shiny. Influencing is very shiny. And we have to consider those motives often. A friend sent me this quote last year. It’s kind of lengthy. I know I’ve been reading to you guys. I apologize. But I’m going to read you this lengthy quote because it made an impact on me. Humans were not fashioned by God for celebrity. We can’t take it. I’m telling you, it’s too much.

To be greatly adored or greatly abhorred, either one is crazy making and both attend celebrity. A lot of celebrities crash, but all of them crack. We’re craving our own public breakdown. If God lends you an audience for the gospel, and mind you, it will just be lint.

Not kept. Keep your head down. Keep mature people around you who can tell you when you’re an idiot. Prepare to be humbled constantly and submit to it. And do not, I say again, do not make crowds your god. It’s idolatry. Don’t clamor for big numbers and don’t kid yourself that bigger is better for the sake of the gospel. She says that’s bull.

We do the lifting up of Jesus. God does the drawing. Just serve as faithfully as you know how. Repent regularly. Ride the waves and long for the shore. Nobody gets out unbloodied. Cling to your healer. Know when you need stitching up. Don’t crave what will kill your character. I’m telling you social media kills character. If God, what she didn’t say that I’m saying that. If God entrusts you with a crowd, refuse to play to it. That’s what sucks a once faithful servant into the crazy making quicksand of celebrity syndrome. And she wrote this like,

preachers and people that are on speaking circuits I think but I think that that applies to social media ⁓ very much so if my focus of evangelism is to go viral or for others to look at me I’ve missed the whole point of Matthew 5 13 through 16

Like I said, there’s an undeniable shininess to social media and wanting to be an influencer. So some questions to consider in utilizing social media platforms for evangelism. Am I more interested in gaining followers of my own or making followers for Christ? Am I more driven by my likes than by the love of my savior? Am I more interested in my approval rating or the approval of Jesus?

Am I more concerned about who shares what’s in my stories than I am about sharing his story? And am I more excited about seeing engagement on my posts or excited about engaging my God in quiet prayer like the Savior did when he went off by himself? Evangelism is not a spiritual side hustle. It’s not a hobby. It’s not meant to be used for content creation. It’s about sharing the Lord of all creation. Evangelism is more than a good sound bite and we really like a good sound bite. If it can be put on a magnet, we really

like it, myself included. You saw my computer with all the stickers. ⁓ Evangelism is a perspective and a way of life. It’s a commitment to see souls above flesh and to let God’s love throw through us and out of us to other people. It’s so much more than just you and me. It’s an eternal purpose-driven task that starts with our first breath after our second birth and ends with our last breath on this earth.

Even then our influence won’t die. Our legacy, like Lydia’s and Tabitha’s, hopefully will live on in those we’ve discipled, whether those be within the walls of our home or without.

So what do I do with what I have? Because my ability to evangelize never changes. God called us to do this, right? We already talked about that. But how I evangelize will most certainly change. As your circumstances fluctuate, you need to adapt your evangelism methods. But I will tell you, there is no time in your life, post-baptism, that you are excluded from this. You are able to evangelize in every season of life. It’s gonna look different. ⁓

So we’re not gonna do this next part. I had an inventory, I’m gonna post it on the website and it’s just some things to walk through to consider, which is probably best for time’s sake that we don’t do it anyway, But just some questions and I’m gonna go ahead and read them to you. ⁓ This podium’s not big enough for all my junk. It’s kinda like my house. No, my house.

It’s just a mess because I’m a mess. ⁓ Let’s see. Let me pull up. So I want you to consider these things. And like I said, this will be a thing posted on the QR code once I get it up. ⁓ And it goes from a scale of zero to five, zero meaning not true, ⁓ and or hold on, let’s see. Zero meaning never true and five meaning always true. ⁓

⁓ And I’ll post that with it. I can describe who God is to another person. I can describe my relationship with God. I feel comfortable discussing spiritual things with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I feel comfortable discussing spiritual things with non-believers. I feel confident in my knowledge of the scriptures. I’m actively working on increasing my knowledge of the scriptures. Evangelism is scary. Evangelism is enjoyable.

I know and understand my purpose as a Christian. I am connected with my church family, and I am confident in my salvation. And so I think some of these questions, at least for me, help me consider where I’m at. Like, I can gauge myself. And I think our answers change from time to time ⁓ with each season of life. ⁓ But I want us to think, what is the biggest hindrance to our evangelism? It’s me.

because there’s nothing that prevents me except for me. There’s a quote and I had a cute thing and it said, maybe the mountain is me. Lord help me move out of my own way. And sometimes that should be our prayer. But one of the biggest hindrances that do involve us obviously is our lack of biblical literacy. And I feel like this is the soapbox I have everywhere I go. ⁓ We have so many people sitting in our refuse who are afraid to share the gospel because they don’t really know much about the gospel other than the perfunctory things they learned in order to be

baptized. ⁓ don’t order, maybe they don’t have a confidence in their knowledge. They feel like they don’t study enough. They’re not comfortable with the text ⁓ and they just don’t see the Bible for what it is. A depiction of a loving and just God who desires to be in covenant with his creation because the Bible is one big picture. I do jail ministry and that’s we say that I think every time we’re there. Genesis to Revelation is one big picture and we’ve broken it up into books but it’s all one beautiful story of God who created us.

and wants to be in covenant with us. We fell away, he sent his son, and now we all have the ability to be back in covenant with him. ⁓

If we don’t understand the Bible for what it is, we cannot love God for who he is because we don’t know who he is. ⁓ Instead of inviting and asking people, we answer for them, right? We say, she’d never, there’s no way I could get her here. There’s no way she’d ever want to talk about Jesus. ⁓ And instead of reaching out to those who have left, we kind of spiritually ghost them. And I’m not saying we as in this room. mean, we as a whole in the church as Christians, you know that song we sing, know, seeking the lost.

kindly and treating. Maybe, really, we should be saying seeing the loss, yes, quickly retreating, because that’s how we act, right? ⁓ We got to be honest with ourselves.

And I mean, even I struggle with evangelism, but I think I struggle because I put it in a box. I want to see it packaged neatly. And evangelism, my husband spoke earlier and he was talking about evangelism is more like the sugar in a cake or another ingredient, pick an ingredient that’s throughout the whole cake. It’s not just one slice. It should be in every part of my life. It should flow out of me. But some ideas to set ourselves up for success, get in the word. You can’t love God for who he is if you don’t truly know.

who he is. We’re too quick to stick our nose into some brotherhood book or curriculum that we think will solve all our evangelism woes and stick our nose in the book. ⁓ We only need to look at the dust jackets in the church library to see that there’s a desire to evangelize.

but somewhat of a lack of knowledge to know how to go about doing so. It’s not quick, it’s not easy, it’s not a one size fits all approach because people are unique and their needs are unique. And like I mentioned the other day in class, we’ve gotta be in it for the long haul. Evangelism, like I mentioned before, is not a sprint to the baptistry. There’s nothing that turns people off quicker than feeling like you have an agenda, you view them as a project or another number or a notch in your spiritual belt.

You don’t need a program or a course or a special curriculum. There’s nothing wrong with using one, but you don’t need one. There’s never any guarantee of conversion with a book or anything other than God giving the increase. There is simply effort. There’s no exact formula. And in my mind, the idea that if I give you this book, buy my product, do these things. You know, it’s kind of like a salesman. You know, buy my product, do these things, make money.

If we translate that into spiritual terms, buy my book, say these words and your Baptist tree is going to have a line wrapped around the building. And if you want to call it for what it is, that kind of mentality is spiritual snake oil.

There’s no program book curriculum that can replace a burning heart for God, rooted in his word, earnestly seeking to share the bread of life with other beggars. Second, you need to have a healthy prayer life. If you’re not connected to God, you can’t connect others to him. And then some practical things. Turn off the radio in the car. Turn on the audio Bible. Ask spiritual questions among your family members in the car. Limit your screen time. As we mentioned, it’s a time waster and a mental health risk and a time suck.

Listen to praise and harmony, listen to worship music, make a list of everyone who you wanna share Christ’s love with, and then pray for boldness as Acts 4.29, as the disciples did. Anticipate rejection, but do so without fear because it’s not personal, they’re not rejecting you, right? Jesus told you, they’re rejecting him, and he calls you blessed for it in Matthew 5. Anticipate success, but do so with humility.

Realizing that God gives the increase and that’s not even the success the success is that you made the effort you were obedient Pray for God’s wisdom not your own and then pray and pray and pray and pray for it again

Find a partner to help you stay on track. Find someone to do these things with you. ⁓ So in the last eight minutes, because that’s what we have, or we might have longer if the guys go longer, but I want us to talk. And in the book, you’ll see some of these, but some different areas of personal and ⁓ I’ve got it as levels of work, personal, family, and congregational. So I think.

I was told to talk about how women can evangelize. This is just how humans can evangelize because you’re no different. Like I said, this is not a pink job or a blue job. This is an everybody job. This is a Christian job. ⁓ So even in these, I’ve got some sections and I’ll give you a couple of mine, but I really would love your feedback and that’s what you’re going to be recording. ⁓ Thank you for doing that. You’re amazing. ⁓ But in your personal life, if you have children, your children are your ministry and I’ll say

this really quick as a caveat because I have all the caveats because I have all the words. If you haven’t noticed I’m a talker and I’m trying to squeeze it all in and I’ve lost my voice this week so I feel for you. ⁓ But it’s worth mentioning that including your children in your evangelism efforts is crucial to raising disciples in your home. It’s not enough for them to watch you do it. It benefits them to see us doing it but it also benefits them to actually partner with us now. Of course they may not be Christians but for them to do the habits

before the heart is there. That’s an organic development of an evangelistic mindset that when they become mature and make that decision, the habit’s already there. That’s so much easier than waiting for the heart or starting with the heart and then teaching the habits to catch up. It will be wonderful helping them in their formative years. It’ll just make them good human beings. As the world would call them decent people. ⁓ So just keep that in mind.

do in your home. You can read a Bible storybook together. We do family Bible time every day. You can embrace teachable moments when they’re a little bitty. So you’ve got infants in preschool. You’ve got young school-aged children and tweens and teens and adult children. That’s what I have in the book. And there’s a few ideas for those. Do you guys have any ideas that you’d like to share with the group for any children? Don’t be shy.

when you’re out in nature. Don’t shut

especially try to out design. And emphasize it was designed by God.

Intelligent design demands an intelligent creator. That’s a good thing to point out. And I mean, you start out when they’re little, when they’re Kelsey’s age. Who made your belly? Who made your smile? You you’re playing. It’s not formal. You’re just talking. You’re having a conversation. And I think a brother mentioned that earlier. It’s so easy when you do it that way because it’s something you naturally do. You just slide God in there. I, you know, I always talk about you drag God into every conversation, whether they

want him there or not. He wants to be there. ⁓ But you embrace those teachable moments with nature that’s so easy. But just talking about God in discipline. You know, I was so shocked because I remember I had non-Christian parents that were like verbally abusive and they, you would spank us. I remember just being so upset and mad at them and not wanting them. And so when my kids would cling to me after spanking, I’d be like, what is

This makes no sense to me. It’s so backwards, but it’s not when they are disciplined and they know it’s done in love They crave you and I mean we should be that way with God too. We’re often not But in that moment, we would take the time to pray We’d stop and we’d say God help us with whatever we were disciplining for before we spank because we want them to know that Repentance and change doesn’t always negate the consequences after but stopping and praying for that is such a simple thing spiritual sword drill

You’ve probably heard of those devoting time to weekly memory work as a family Teaching them to make cross references. That’s a very basic skill For teens and tweens, maybe it’s engaging in topical studies doing word studies Bible marking Bible journaling copying scriptures verse mapping prayer journaling ⁓ Even when your kids are adults, especially before they have their own home But maybe even after they have their home if you want to connect your families and do things together you could but enrolling together in a class at a preaching school, that’s free

You pay like a $5 fee. And encouraging personal visitation. When they’re at college, know, evangelism isn’t for you right now. You’re busy studying. No, that is a lie. No, are you connected? What are you doing in your church family? Having a text thread or a shared note just for prayer requests, that has been encouraging to me in the past. Having friends that I can text and say, oh, this week is awful. Can you pray for this?

once my kids get older, hopefully we’ll have that. That’s what I want, that’s what I hope for. they don’t have technology because no thanks. ⁓ But once they get it. ⁓ But past that, so we’re not just personally evangelizing, we’re evangelizing as a family. And who would we evangelize? We would evangelize our extended family, our church family, our friends in our community. Something I think about if you’ve seen it is grief groceries. Have y’all seen anything about that? In grief groceries. So like when you have a church member

that has a family member die instead of saying, can I bring you dinner or what would you like for dinner? You just buy a bunch of groceries and have them delivered from Walmart Plus or wherever to their house. And you say, be home in 30 minutes or when will you be home? Figure that out, have it delivered because the last thing that is on their mind is having to make decisions about what they want to eat. so you just, I mean, don’t do anything, buy frozen pizza and chicken nuggets for their kids. doesn’t have, unless you know they’re

gonna eat those. You some of us don’t eat those. But maybe it’s you know carrot sticks and celery and apples and peanut butter and just stuff that they can grab that’s not gonna take them cooking ⁓ to take that off of them because they’re in the midst of grief and sometimes it’s hard to just get out of bed and we all know that we’ve been there. I’m doing a U version study with people really honestly just spending time with people being among each other. U version sorry. I seen that it’s an app on your phone. ⁓ It is a

Bible app and so they have plans that you can do reading plans. Some of them involve devotionals of course take that with a grain of salt but some of them don’t and so you can do that with a friend and you can make comments to each other at the end of your reading.

Y-O-U version ⁓ and it just says Bible. It’s the little red thing I can show you afterward what it looks like as an app. ⁓ But do that with a person, you know, with a sister that you think would enjoy the study. Listen to people and get to know them, especially your lonely sisters. For your community, take goodies to public servants. We’ve done that a lot. We take Sonic drinks to the library stuff because we’re at the library a lot because we homeschool. ⁓ I just thought of this like recently and I haven’t looked into it and everywhere you go you have to look into any of this.

and what the policy and protocol is. Ask if you can go and pray with the nurses at the maternity ward or on any floor. don’t know if that’s allowed. Take them donuts or snacks. They love that. Yeah, seriously.

And then also the nurses and say you… If you have kids, you need to be at the nursing home. it’s got a huge trickle effect. it does. And we’re in a very small community. And we’re there every fourth Sunday and we do a little sing. We go caroling there in December. But when you go, like they recognize you. They recognize your kids. And those people, sometimes you are the only person they’ve talked to all day. You know, like the widows in the church, hug them.

That might be the only hug they get that week, you know? Take a snack basket to the hospital, leave it in the ICU. The other day when Sabrina got the text that she had to take Micah immediately like yesterday, my brain was like a squirrel in a circus. And all I could think was drive to Nemours, sit with Sabrina, but I could not because I have children here and things here. ⁓ But I mean, go and sit with your sister, cry with her, pray with her. ⁓ But also in the community, take a snack basket.

to the hospital, put it in the room, say please leave this basket here but feel free to take anything in it and slip some material in there. That’s not a bad idea. ⁓

It was very, it was not a church, it was not a Church of Christ, But that was very much appreciated. Yeah, like the vending machine is crazy expensive these days. And so I know they appreciate that. I can also apply for funeral homes. Yes, funeral homes, for sure, yes. And that is a very unmet need, for sure. What does that mean?

taking a snack basket to the funeral home and for that, mean, and in the ICU, a little pack of like ⁓ tissues, some lip balm. Obviously once they use it, they should take it. Maybe you need a note on there. Or maybe we should go to Ulta and buy the little wands, like one wand per person, please. ⁓ But they, know, a little thing of lotion, you know, just creature comforts that give them a little bit of comfort while they’re there with the church name on it. Like this was provided for by the South Florida Avenue congregation. ⁓

here, a couple of the congregations here, do partnering with the schools to get out in the community. They take snacks and goodies, but they also volunteer and make copies and just help. And when they ask why you’re there, what do you do? Point them to Jesus. And it doesn’t have to be formal. It doesn’t have to say, I’m doing this because Jesus loves you and I want you to know it, and let’s have a Bible study today. And then you’re going to get in the baptistry, and then you’re going to be my sister in Christ right away. That’s not what’s going to happen. We’re going to play the long game, and we’re going to say, I’m here because I wanted to help.

Because I saw I need and I wanted to fill it. Tell me about yourself. How long have you been teaching? ⁓ Make it organic because people totally know when you are being a person you are not So you need to use these are all just practical ideas They’re not commands you need to use what you have and the natural skill set you have Someone said to me while we were here the other day. was a guy. He’s like I am NOT good at evangelism I’m just so introverted and I said no, that’s not true. That does introversion does not

mean bad at evangelism. Evangelism is taking your skill set and who you are and using it to connect to people. If you’re weird…

Let it fly, be weird. I’m married to a guy that’s weird, I’m weird myself. Be yourself because that’s what’s gonna attract like-minded people who have the same hobbies, who have the same goals, and while that might initially connect you, that shouldn’t always connect you. You don’t wanna connect on those worldly things forever. You wanna eventually connect through Christ, but just use what you have. You don’t have to be extroverted to be evangelistic. But in the community, just some ideas really quick of some vulnerable populations, because I’m over time by four minutes, because I’m such a bad person.

because I’m a talker. ⁓ Jail ministry, I do jail ministry and there’s nothing as rewarding in my mind as jail ministry and I will tell you it’s kind of like exercise you’re like it’s my week. So see a jail ministry I don’t really want to go and then you go and you’re like you know ugly crying in your car and you’re like thank you God for giving me this opportunity ⁓ because you need it more than they do by the time you’ve left and these are women who have hit rock bottom and sometimes it’s for like the 25th time and you saw them too

months ago and they got released and then they came back. And they’re like, oh, hey Stephanie, good to see you again. And I’m like, yeah, I’m glad to be here. Because I’m not glad you’re here. Most of the women that are offenders in our jail are drug users. And so it is hard to see them go through this and they lose their kids. And so they’re in there and they’re praying for the safety of their children, for their parents, for their relationships, praying that hopefully they’re released early, which we always pray God’s

be done because sometimes they need to be in there. If you have a family member who is an addict of any kind, especially drug addict, you know I do. I have a brother that’s a meth addict actually ⁓ and it’s hard to watch him relapse and go into that and so when I’m in there I think of him which helps me pray for him more. But they, watching them want to reach out to God so desperately is so humbling and you go and you’ve had a hard day and for me it’s like home school and getting dinner on the table and getting out the door and I don’t feel good today and then I get there.

And I said I’m ugly crying in my car afterward because of how humbling it is. But they are just so eager and thirsty. they ask the coolest questions. We had some people ask about homosexuality and transgenderism. And I wasn’t there that week. But it was my turn next week with one of the girls that was there. And she was like, pray for us. This is going to go so bad. This is going to be so hard. And you want to know what? It was so easy. It was one of the easiest lessons we’ve ever done.

attention everyone was drawn in because everybody is willing to talk about that apparently and they kept asking question after question and all we did was point them at the literate we are not allowed to take a phone we’re not allowed to take in pins of our own we can have a Bible with nothing in it maybe some papers but even then like they look at the papers to make sure you’re not sending a message from so-and-so’s family to some drug cartel because who knows if you’re a mole but

It happens because we’ve had people kicked out for like even giving a bookmark sadly. But you have your Bible and so you’re like all you can show them is this verse says this. And so my friend Aaron prepared some stuff and we took it and they were like, okay, that makes sense. I didn’t know the Bible said that.

I mean, I’ve had more resistance from members of the church sometimes on that stuff. And it was just eye-opening. But jail ministry, if you have one in your, if your church doesn’t have one, contact your jail. Because they want these people to be rehabilitated. And they know seeking a higher power often helps with that. ⁓ If you have a military base near you, we do, one town over, they are very underserved. And they move so much. And it is hard. Sometimes they won’t connect with you.

because they don’t want to get connected to anybody local. know they’re gonna move in a few years. But some of them do, and if they have church family, they are so sad that they cannot see that church family. And so that is a very underserved ministry. I would even say the LGBTQIA plus community, the whole alphabet, ⁓ they need to be served. They need the love of God.

And we should not deny them that. We don’t support what they do. But the first thing I should say to them when I meet them isn’t, you’re in sin and you’re going to hell. That’s not going to get anywhere. ⁓ So I mean, you’ve got to find a point from which to work out. But that is a vulnerable population, technically. Colleges are great. We have a college here. What’s that one downtown?

Southeastern. I lived here for six years and I can never remember that. Your public servants, your police, your politicians, your library, your schools, your fire stations, your EMTs right in Eau They love brownies. They love baked goods. They love bottled water. You know, you go through that stuff real quick. The homeless, the orphans, the single mothers. my goodness, the single mothers. We have a single mother program out of a children’s home that is like by the Church of Christ. was created, New Mexico Christian Children’s Home out there.

True orphans there more kids have been taken away from families, but the single moms that are in the single mothers program. They need help The Mormons and jw’s jw’s Jehovah’s Witnesses, I should say the full word ⁓ They need the truth You like I know we’re all like hiding behind our curtain and we’re asking because only women are on this I can say this am I wearing a bra? Can I get a bra on quick enough if I’m at home alone to answer the door? But you know they they still need the

and we shouldn’t be shying away from it. ⁓ And maybe it’s, hey, my husband’s gonna be home and we’ll stay with you later. The nursing home, like you mentioned earlier, or like we love the nursing home. You can go and you can play cards, you can paint nails, you can do puzzles. You can go and set up a karaoke machine with them. They will let you do just about anything once you have done whatever it requires for you to be there. ⁓ If you have a senior center, my kids go to the senior center like twice a month, sometimes three times a month, and it’s an older church member and his wife that come and get them and take them and they hang out with old people.

For like three hours and they love it. There’s a pool table there. They adore it ⁓ You can go to they invite us every time but we typically do like a lunch date and it’s really nice ⁓ Because Rick’s a preacher and so I can do that ⁓ But the library they love being noticed because they are quiet and they’re in the background They often get overlooked anytime we’ve taken anything to the library I get like five text messages and typically a Facebook message and next time I go in there like Stephanie They know me ⁓ but they know that I’m a member at 13

Warren Ricks the preacher and that we’re down to talk spiritual stuff. We often go in there and study together. We’ll check out a room into that. But also lastly the last idea I have and then I would love to hear if anybody has any ideas that you all were silent so I just started going through my list ⁓ is your county manager. You can get in touch with your county manager and ask them what ways can my congregation serve you? What can we do? And so we did that recently because we had a kerfuffle with something with the jail ministry and we were it was a big you don’t need to know the

thing ⁓ but we went in it with them and they saw like you’re reasonable people and yeah and so Rex like what can we do for you what else can we do for you and I like well we have this and we have this and we have this so call your county manager your city manager whatever and say what ways can my organization volunteer and you know what that does that shines your light that gets you out there in the community and gives you doors that are open and opportunities to talk ⁓

I and totally skipped over those. But I’m gonna put them in the file on the thing. Sorry, I’ll be done in a second. But all this to say, there are so many ways for you to evangelize. You don’t ever need to think about ways that you cannot evangelize because it is, I mean, it’s just too easy. It’s too easy. And like Lydia and Tabitha had, they had community, they had a purpose, and they used all that they had. That’s all we need to do, right? Right, amen? All right, let’s pray and I’ll wrap it up. I’m so sorry, guys.

like a whole three minutes late I think but that’s okay. All right let’s pray.

Dear Emily Father, you are so amazing and wonderful and we are just so in awe of you and for the gift of salvation that you’ve given us, we pray that we will never take it for granted, that we will never keep it to ourselves, but that we will boldly approach people, that we will just remind ourselves that it’s not about us, it’s about you and that we need to do everything we have or that we can with everything that we have to bring others to you. I pray that you’ll be with these ladies as they

go back to their congregations and back to their families, that they will utilize ideas of their own, that they will be bold, that they will seek to share your love with all those around them.

Please be with our sisters in Christ who are mentioned. Be with Miriam as she improved. She’s doing better today and we’re so thankful for that Lord. Please be with Sabrina as she is with Micah Nemours. Please help them to get everything where it needs to be so that he can go home soon. That you will give her peace and comfort. That you will just be with that whole family Lord. We love them so much.

We love each other and we’re thankful for our bond and our sisterhood in Christ. We’re thankful for the opportunity and the privilege that it is to serve you and to work in the kingdom. And we pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for your attention, ladies.