8. Reaching the Lost

Reaching the Lost - sharing his love with others

Mission is the true church's great passion and purpose.  As every fire exists to burn, so every congregation should be a holy blaze reaching out to the people around them with God's infinite grace and love.  Often churches either spread the gospel or suppress it in shame; obey the Great Commission or pretend that it is nothing to do with them; reach the lost or leave them to perish.  There is no middle way.  Nobody  pretends that this is easy - and we know that it cost Jesus his life, and that the missionary church has always faced a mixture of apathy and opposition.

By studying this module, you will have a much better understanding of God's purpose in sending us into his world with his gospel, the different ways that we should spread the gospel, and the resources that he has given us to equip us for this task.  That you will be so convinced by the truth of the gospel, so euuipped with the power of the spirit and so motivated by the love of the Father, that you will start to reach the lost and hurting people around you with gospel effectiveness.

Reaching the Lost covers the following topics:

• Evangelism
• The lost
• Motives for evangelism
• The message of evangelism
• Personal evangelism
• Church evangelism
• Evangelism and discipleship
• Evangelism and the Spirit
• Evangelism and prayer