Without the Holy Spirit convicting people of sin, our efforts are, at best, simply strong persuasions. We MUST partner with God in prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit to give us the strategies that truly work in the labour of harvesting souls!
It is obvious that we need more productive and effective strategies to preach the gospel with beer results. Our work is to express the intangible in forms that the spiritually uninitiated can understand and receive (Romans 10:14, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20). In the light of this, I would like to share a template that can be used (by individual and groups) to preach the gospel to today's generation. This template is taken from a parable Jesus told in Mahew chapter 13, verses 47 and 48. The bible calls it The Parable of the Dragnet. Read it in Mahew 13:47, 48.
The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when a net is thrown into a lake and catches all kinds of fish. When the net is full, it is dragged to the shore and the fishermen sit down to separate the fish. They keep the good ones and throw the bad ones away. Mahew 13:47, 48
It is also very clear that Jesus called us to be fishers of men.
Jesus said to them, "Come follow Me, and I will make a different kind of fisherman. You will bring in me people, not fish” Mark 1: 17 ERV
The Dragnet Parable Illustrated
"According to the words of Jesus in this parable, the net catches a great amount of ALL KINDS of fish. Our evangelical efforts should not be selective as to exclude some groups or types of people. We usually give excuses that there are some kinds of people that we are called to reach. Even though this is partially true, it is not a whole truth as we are commissioned to preach and teach ALL nations (people groups).
STEP 1: ATTRACT . The fishnet brings in ALL kinds or types of fish. (Mahew 13:47 ERV).
Our first responsibility is to GET THE ATTENTION OF OUR AUDIENCE. Geing someone's aention is the first step in communicating effectively. How do you get their aention? One way is to tell stories; Jesus did.
All these things Jesus said to the people in the form of stories; and without a story He said nothing to them: (Mahew 13:34 BBE)
Another thing to do is to innovate in our delivery. Surprise the fish! Change your approach. Do something outside the norm. Most people will pay aention to something if it appears in a way they have never experienced it before.
A third thing we can do to get the aention of your audience is to use fresh camera angles to present common themes. What this means is that we present the same content from different perspectives. It could also mean changing the cultural contexts of some of our content so that it reaches the audience we intend. For example imagine telling the story of Christmas as if Facebook existed in those days. One church did it and called it A Social Network Christmas*¹. Another good example is the retelling of the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and John Ortberg also did a major one on the Rich Fool in his book When the game is over, it all goes back in the box.
STEP 2: ENGAGE ."The fishermen pulled the net to the shore (Mahew 13:48a ERV).
After we've aracted the fish, our focus should be on BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. The operative word here is CONNECT. One of the issues with 21st century Christians is that we don't engage those we aract. Most of us have been able to come up with innovative approaches to draw unbelievers but we need to take it up a notch by establishing a connection with them. We live in a culture where the aention span of most individuals is so short. In the light of this, we must employ means and methods to engage/captivate the audience we aract.
Participation can be on the intellectual or emotional level. Our efforts at reaching this generation must evoke some kind of response. We must give room for these responses and be prepared to handle them. In fact, our work lies in creating content with the focus of geing some kind of response. This is what I mean by using conversations. We should also include some form of feedback in our evangelical efforts so we can measure whether or not we are really reaching people with Jesus.
We should focus on creating interactions by leveraging on participation. Today's youth (as youths of every generation) love to be involved in the latest trends. We can leverage this desire and then create shows, competitions, answer pertinent and relevant questions and so on. By leveraging on the desire of young people to be heard, we can get the truth of the gospel to many more open hearts than if we don't.
STEP 3 EDUCATE. "They put all the good fish in baskets and threw away the bad fish." (Mahew 13:48b ERV).
The Great Commission given by Jesus to us in Mahew 28, does not end with just preaching the gospel. We are to make disciples of all nations! The devil has succeeded in making many of today's youth disciples of his own teachings using various means to teach them how to live, the choices to make, how to handle relationships with the opposite sex, what to wear and so on. He doesn't just stop at preaching his news of lewdness and immorality but uses various forms of media to reeducate them.
We need to realize that the essence of catching their aention is to do at least one of the following.
1. Inform (TEACH)
2. Instruct (TRAIN)
3. Impart (TUTOR)
All these are essential aspects of the discipleship process. It is only disciples that can follow Christ irrespective of the challenges they face because they understand the value of His Lordship (John 6:68). Furthermore Paul's encouragement to Timothy in 2 Tim 2:2 is valid to us in these times.
And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (2 Tim 2:2 AKJV)
We need to craft ways to include these aspects of have made a case that today's generation does not like to read. As true as this may appear, some interesting events have proven that given the right motivation, young people will read. The Harry Poer books are always sold out on the day they are announced to be in book stores. The Harry Poer series caused a tidal wave of interest in magic, instructing our young people in witchcraft and evil*². The Left Behind series were also a huge bestseller when they were released. I believe that if we are able to wisely, with the help of the Holy Spirit, craft the right materials, we can infuse the truths of God into the next generation.
Footnotes*1. http://www.ignitermedia.com/products/1905-a-social-networkchristmas
*2.
http://www.worldrecordacademy.com/business/fastest_selling_book_world _record_set_by_harry_potter_new_book_70663.htm