The fall is an exciting time of year. There are many sports fans (me included) that eagerly await the start of football season. On the next three weekends we will see kick off first of the High School season, then of the college season and finally of the NFL season. People arrange their schedules, travel to games and spend hundreds of dollars on tickets and souvenirs. They organize fantasy leagues so they can compete against their friends. In short, they prepare for football above all else.
Statistics say that less than TWO PERCENT of professing Christians share their faith regularly. It got me to thinking: “what if there were an Evangelism season?” Would people gear up? Pray up? Print tracts? Plan to get going to share the faith? Would they travel to other cities just to share the Gospel? Would they create fantasy leagues to track their favorite evangelists to see who would preach the most or share the most Gospel tracts? Well, I submit that it is Evangelism season:
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:1-3 (NIV)
Look at Paul’s charge to Timothy, “Preach the Word.” OK. That is pretty clear. Now the question is when should we do it? The verse continues, “be prepared in season and out of season”. That covers all the time. We should preach the word both in season and out of season. Or any time.
So it is not really accurate to say that it is the beginning of Evangelism season. Rather it’s just a continuation. If you are already involved in preaching the Word, great! If not, here are some ideas how to get involved:
- Join the Bezeugen Tract Club. Receive 30 tracts per month and hand out one each day.
- Attend a scheduled Evangelism Training Seminar or schedule on for your church, small group or Bible study class.
- Participate in Project Ezra and read the Word in the open air.
- Or purhaps God is calling you to one of the Ambassador Accademies in 2010.
Please keep in mind, that I love football as much as the next guy. This fall we will be at the Hebron High School games every Friday night. I’ll tune into Oklahoma games and other collge games as well. And Sunday’s, well, you might catch me tuning in the NFL and tracking my fantasy team. The thing is, keep it in perspective. Football is not the most important thing. Jesus is! So if you are not already engaged in sharing the Gospel, let’s get started!
