Grown & Go - November 2024
Building Relationships To Build The Kingdom
Many of us can think back to that moment when God first gave you “eyes to see and ears to hear” (Matt 13:16-17) the truth of the Gospel for the very first time. That moment when you recognized that sin has separated you from God (Is 59:2) and you needed saving, and the only way this could occur was by turning away from sin and trusting in Christ Jesus (Rom 10:9-10; Jn 14:6). Now think back to that time you were saved and remember who God placed in a relationship with you to bring you to himself. That is my point here as Elmer Towns wrote in his book Winning the Winnable: Friendship Evangelism “A relationship between Christians and unsaved people has proven to be the most effective means of influencing unsaved people to get saved.” In John 1:35-36 we hear an example of this where Andrew introduces his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. Then the next day, Jesus located Philip who lived in the same town as Andrew and Simon Peter. In these encounters, the men were friends and were part of Philip’s coming to know Christ. There was also a friendship when Philip found his friend Nathaniel and brought him to Christ (Jn 1:45-46). Dave Earley explains that “Evangelism Is . . . Winning three battles so Jesus can win the War.” 1 Those battles consist of “winning friends, winning them to your church, and winning them to Christ.” 2
Who was your friend who loved you enough to point you to Christ? I can remember before I was saved of the many friends who were pointers in my life that led me to the saving power of the gospel. The first thing they did was simply to build a relationship with me so that I might hear. Are you inclined to listen more to someone you call a friend, that you love and trust, over a complete stranger? For me, it involved many years, many small steps, and many Christians’ witnessing to me, having not been raised in a Christian home before victory was won and I was saved. We can produce all kinds of programs and methods to win people to Christ, but the same holds true today as with Andrew and Simon Peter – your relationship with others is the most effective way God will use you to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:12-27)!
There has been one thing overwhelmingly apparent in our College and Career life group Amy and I have in our home on Tuesday nights – God does His most transformative work to point people to the Church when unbelievers see and experience real, authentic, and genuine gospel community. Young people have come to this group and witnessed a gathering of the people of God who genuinely love to study the Word and strive to live out its precepts. This sort of biblical community changes lives. As one of Oakhill’s pastors, there is nothing more encouraging for me to see than the genuine lifelong friendships that have organically formed revolving around the word of the Lord. Seeing people who naturally desire to spend time with one another outside of the Sunday gathering. With all the things pressing in from the world, gospel-centered friendships are one of the most convincing ways to win people that they might come to church and worship with God’s gathered people.
Once we have made the friendship and were trusted enough by an unbeliever for them to come alongside us to the church, we can’t stop there. We must use our words to win them to Christ. Proverbs 11:30 reminds us that, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise”. We must exit our comfort zones, open up our mouths, and proclaim the gospel message for our friends to be saved. Paul exhorts “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching” (Rom 10:14)? My prayer for us is that we will use our authentic relationships with others to win people to Christ and his Church by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us as God’s people.
1 Dave Earley and Dave Wheeler. Evangelism Is . . . How To Share Jesus With Passion and Confidence.
2 Ibid, 189.