Teleios

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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

So what exactly does it mean to share the Gospel?

Welcome back to my blog. I'm happy that you came to visit.

Teleios recently evaluated how often evangelical Christians share the Gospel and what makes a person fear doing so. We surveyed all attendees at one Sunday worship service in a Midwestern Evangelical Church. Approximately 370 people participated.

Last week we discussed that this survey indicated Bible believing Christians have generally high ratings of wellbeing. Although some respondents confessed to fear in explaining the Gospel to others, they continued to present with better wellbeing than those who do share the Gospel.

Approximately 30% said they share the Gospel verbally once a month or more. However, they also indicated that they felt a need to exaggerate how frequently they actually evangelized! Why? Perhaps they overstated how much they shared because of their hesitancy to tell the Gospel to others. This is probably consistent with many of our experiences.

The survey also discovered what many people consider to be sharing the Gospel may not necessarily include a verbal explanation! In fact, a verbal Gospel message came in only number five on the list of how people say they share. Most common methods are noted below.

Table 1 - Most common methods to share the Gospel

Question	N	%
I normally share the Gospel by doing any of the following (choose all that apply):
Lifestyle example	288	78%
Praying for others	263	71%
Encouraging others	260	70%
Loving others	251	68%
Verbally communicating the elements of the Gospel message	110	30%
Inviting others to church	106	29%
Giving videos or books	85	23%

Is it important you actually verbalize the Gospel? Is simply living a pure life or praying for others sufficient?

The Bible indicates in Romans 10:13-15 that someone has to actually hear the words of the Gospel to understand salvation. Further, the apostle Paul in 1st Thessalonians 2:9-10 noted that although he worked day and night to live a blameless life in front of the Thessalonians, he still verbally spoke the Gospel to them. In other words, non-verbal efforts, although important, will not bring somebody to belief. A non-Christian needs to hear the specific Gospel message.

Is sharing the Gospel message to be feared? In a humanist society where Christians often are demonized as judgmental, and our adversaries claim they are more loving because they accept all religions (except Christianity), we often feel ashamed. Yet if our God is the God of the Bible, He has given us His power and truth to salvation and for daily living. We have a wonderful message to give our colleagues, family and friends. We are correct and society is wrong! Therefore, we should be confident in sharing these truths in a patient and loving manner (II Timothy 2:24-25).

As a physician, if I knew the truth about someone's life-threatening medical condition and also knew how to cure it, would I withhold disclosing the diagnosis in case my patient found it offensive or didn’t believe me? If so, I would be a terrible doctor! We have the truth which we can help others. Our society needs the truth of the Gospel!

How do we effectively share the Gospel in our complex culture? That's a great question and we'll discuss this next week. Please join me as we discussed how to share the Gospel.

WC Stewart

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Sharing the Gospel - Do I look Baptist?

Welcome back to my blog. I'm happy that you can visit.

Do you ever fear sharing the Gospel? Almost everyone does, so you're not alone. We recently evaluated how often evangelicals tell others about the plan of salvation and what makes them fear the process? The results are very interesting so come with me as we explore them and you might discover something about yourself and God.

We surveyed all attendees at one Sunday worship service a Midwestern Evangelical Church about telling others the Gospel. Approximately 370 people participated.

Almost all (96%) participants said they feared “sharing the Gospel’ but thought they should explain it more often to others (5.1/6.0 rating). Further, participants confessed to some guilt in not explaining the Gospel (3.0/6.0 rating). In total, 31% indicated that they shared the plan of salvation verbally with someone once a month or more frequently. However, perhaps the fear or social pressure to explain the Gospel might have caused participants to confess they exaggerate how often they actually explained the Gospel (4.9/6.0 rating).

Why do people fear sharing the Gospel? Participants indicated most often that they do not know what to say (56%). This makes some sense to me personally from teaching individual Bible studies, because I've never encountered one single student who was able to explain the plan of salvation clearly. Other common reasons were fear of offending the non-believer (28%) and an inability to answer objections (36%). The participants expressed hesitancy although they overwhelmingly believed that the Bible is true.

However, participants who disclose the Gospel to others compared to those who do not, were statistically more likely to demonstrate better wellbeing (i.e., peace, joy, contentment and purpose). Why would this be? Several causes might be possible:

Believers may feel better after discussing the Gospel realizing they are fulfilling an injunction from the Bible.

A Christian who explains the message of salvation may derive joy knowing they are providing good advice and helping others.

If a Christian does not know how to share the Gospel with someone else, they may not be able to even convince themselves of God’s faithfulness in times of personal doubt, which may hurt their own wellbeing.

Also of note in our survey was that those who told others about the Gospel were more likely to be adherent in other areas of their Christian life including: teaching others, praying, praising God and having meaningful Christian fellowship. These extra measures of adherence, especially in associating with other believers, may have contributed to wellbeing (1,2).

Warning: Participants also noted a moderate level of guilt which potentially could have occurred, at least in part, from not explaining the Gospel to others. A believer’s guilt, however, is not part of biblical Christianity. Prior research has shown that greater knowledge of the faith helps prevent guilt and enhances wellbeing (1,2).

Our study suggests that practicing, Bible-believing Christians generally have high ratings of wellbeing. Although Christians may fear explaining the Gospel to others, those who do so show better wellbeing than those who do not.

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope that you'll come back again next week.

WC Stewart

1. MacIlvaine, W.R., Nelson, L.A., Stewart, J.A., Stewart, W.C. (2013). Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract, 19:251-255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2013.05.001.

2. MacIlvaine, W.R., Nelson, L.A., Stewart, J.A., Stewart, W.C. (2014). Association of strength of community service to personal well-being. Community Ment Health J, 50:577-582. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10597-013-9660-0.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Influence of Church Leadership on Congregant Wellbeing

Welcome back to my blog. I'm happy that you can visit. The purpose of Teleios is to use the scientific method to show the validity of God's word as wisdom and guidance in our daily life.

The term that we use most commonly to show the influence of God's word in a believer's life is ‘wellbeing’. This is not a biblical word, but it is accepted in the medical literature. Other biblically used words have been related to it in medical studies such as joy, peace, contentment and purpose.

Teleios has discovered through its research that Christians who have a knowledge of their salvation, understand that they are eternally secure, and are adherent to their faith [in praise, prayer, fellowship, teaching others and personal Bible study (Acts 2:42,47)] demonstrate better wellbeing than professed Christians who do not possess these characteristics.

We wished to further evaluate any links between a believer’s wellbeing and their perception of their church and its leadership. To do this we recently performed a survey in 6 Bible-believing churches in the Midwest and California in conjunction with Scott Barfoot, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.

There were 115 participants in the survey. They categorized themselves as overwhelmingly evangelical (97%), expressed confidence in their acceptance by God based on grace (97%) and in the security of their salvation (88%). The highest ratings for adherence to their faith was for prayer and praise (95% and 92%, respectively).

Our survey found that participants in evangelical churches almost always rated their personal wellbeing as good or very good (about 90%). Similar findings were shown in surrogate markers of wellbeing including contentment, peace, joy and purpose (1). Only about 5% indicated any level of negative wellbeing.

However, there was no control group in our study and our rating scale for wellbeing was unique to our survey, so based on our data it was difficult to make firm conclusions regarding evangelical wellbeing compared to other population groups. Other recent data notes that Americans rate their personal wellbeing on average as 6.9 of 10 (2). Pew indicates that in the Americas between 30-42% of people note that they are thriving in individual aspects of personal wellbeing (3).

However, such high wellbeing ratings for Christians, found in our study, are not surprising because the Bible indicates that we can receive the fruit of the Spirit such as joy and peace, among others (Galatians 5:22). A Christian who has believed in Christ for forgiveness of their sins by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9) possesses the Holy Spirit as a promise (Romans 8:9; Ephesians 1:13). Believers then may cooperate with the Holy Spirit to develop these wonderful characteristics. Consequently, we can have excellent wellbeing through the power of the Spirit operating in our lives.

How do we obtain this good wellbeing? That's the big question!

Since as Christians we have the Holy Spirit and we are not to quench or grieve Him (I Thessalonians 5:19, Ephesians 4:30), but to mature in our thinking and actions consistent with the Spirit (Romans 8:5, Galatians 5:16, 24) and to use His power to overcome to the ungodly attributes (Romans 8:13). Importantly, the Spirit operates in us by the use of God's Word [the Bible is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17)].

Consequently, we should realize that we have the Spirit wholly and we should not restrict Him through sin. In contrast, we should actively learn and follow God's Word which allows the Spirit to function in our lives to develop us into a more Christ-like person who manifests peace and joy; otherwise good wellbeing! Got it? God has something great for you!

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope that you'll come back again next week.

WC Stewart