How to Fail as a Missionary - Part 4
I watched for several minutes as my outreach partner used different angles and arguments trying to persuade a New Age practitioner to make a decision to put his faith in Jesus Christ. No matter what he said, the New Ager listened politely, but was unmoved. My partner might as well have been trying to persuade a brick wall to move.
I asked a few questions, but after I realized that this New Ager was not open to the Gospel message, I backed off.
After a very long and one-sided conversation, my partner finally gave up. Walking away from the encounter, he said, “That was exhausting.”
But why was it exhausting?
It is pointless to try to persuade a person to receive Jesus unless God is actively drawing that person to Jesus. We are just spinning our wheels. We must realize that a person cannot make a sincere profession of faith unless the Father is working in that person’s life to draw him to Jesus. It is impossible unless God is actively drawing the person to Jesus.
“No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me”—John 6:44 (AMPC)
In contrast, a woman came to our team at a festival event and revealed to us that she was a high priestess. She was definitely not a disciple of Jesus, but she was very interested in experiencing greater spiritual truth.
We ministered to her for several minutes, and just before we ended the encounter, I felt prompted to caution her about potentially harmful influences in this festival environment. She asked me what I meant by that.
I explained that there could be some people at the festival who might seem harmless at first, but could actually have a negative impact on her life if she allowed them to influence her.
Two days later, as I showed up at our tent to prepare for the day’s encounters, she was the first one in line.
“Alan,” she said, “What you warned me about happened as you said. I met a group of people who seemed nice at first, but then they tried to hurt me. Because of what you said, I was alert, and I was able to get away from them. Would it be possible for me to have another session this morning?”
Not only did she have another session with our group, but she developed a growing friendship with my very insightful female outreach partner. By the end of the week-long festival, this former high priestess made a commitment to travel regularly in order to spend more time with my outreach partner and learn more about the Truth that she had discovered in our encounters. It would not be easy for her. She lived in another state, but to her, it was worth it because of her hunger for greater Truth.
What was the difference between these two encounters?
The first encounter failed because there was a pre-determined agenda to push that New Ager into making a decision to follow Christ. In the second encounter, we had no agenda. We were simply there to demonstrate God’s love and respond to her needs, whatever they might have been at that time. We would have been just as satisfied with that encounter if we had done nothing more than give her a cup of cold water to quench her thirst, but she was thirsty for something deeper, like the woman at the well.
“Whoever helps any of these little ones because they are my followers will definitely get a reward, even if they only give them a cup of cold water.”—Matthew 10:42 (ERV)
We must learn to work together with what God is doing in a person’s life, as Jesus did. We must not assume that we already know what is best for the person. We must wait and discern what God is already doing in the person’s life. Everyone is in process. Everyone is in a particular place in their relationship with God. Some are very far away, and others are very near to the Kingdom of God, as was the scribe in Mark 12:34:
“Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, ‘You are not far from the Kingdom of God.’”—Mark 12:34 (NLT)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same way.”—John 5:19 (NASB)
Some people are simply not ready to receive the Gospel message. They are not open to it. If we insist on forcing it upon them before they are ready, trying to push them to make a commitment they are not ready to make, there is a real danger that we could push them farther away from the Lord. This would undo much of the work that God may have done to get them where they are in their spiritual journey and make it harder for God to draw them back to Jesus later.
Jesus warned us clearly that we must work *with *God, otherwise we may only succeed in scattering people away from Him, frustrating His efforts to bring in the harvest.
“Anyone who is not with me is against me. Anyone who does not gather sheep with me scatters them.”—Matthew 12:30 (NIRV)
When we come with a pre-determined goal to “save” people by imposing our beliefs on them using a one-size-fits-all approach without regard to their background, culture, or circumstances, we will miss what God is already doing in His process to draw them closer to Jesus, and we may actually drive them further away from any relationship with God.
The Key to Making Disciples
In contrast, Jesus did not use the evangelistic approaches and techniques that are taught as fundamentals by many Christian leaders.
One of the reasons He did not use our traditional approaches and scripts is because He was working *with *God moment by moment. There were no scripts. He only did what He saw His Father doing.
Another reason that Jesus did not use our traditional approaches and techniques is because His goal was to make disciples, not converts.
When our goal is to make converts, we will do most of the talking in each encounter. We will impose our beliefs on others whether they are ready to hear them or not. We will pressure people to make decisions without delay because “sealing the deal,” or “making the sale” is the whole point of each encounter.
In many ways, Jesus did the opposite of what is taught in our traditional evangelical approaches. In individual encounters, it was common for Jesus to ask questions and to let the other person determine the direction of the conversation.
- “What are you looking for?”—John 1:38
- “Do you want to be made well?”—John 5:6
- “What do you think?”—Matthew 18:12
- “Why do you call Me good?”—Matthew 19:17
- “What do you wish?”—Matthew 20:21
- “What do you want Me to do for you?”—Matthew 20:32
- “But what do you think?”—Matthew 21:28
- “What do you want Me to do for you?”—Mark 10:36
- “What do you want Me to do for you?”—Mark 10:51
- “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”—Matthew 22:42
- “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?”—Mark 12:35
- “What do you want Me to do for you?”—Luke 18:40
- “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”—Luke 24:17
- “Whom are you seeking?”—John 18:4,7
- “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”—John 20:15
- “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”—Matthew 16:13
- “But who do you say that I am?”—Matthew 16:15
- “Do you know what I have done to you?”—John 13:12
- “Do you now believe?”—John 16:31
- “Do you believe in the Son of God?”—John 9:35
The question that Jesus asked more than any other (according to what we have recorded in Scripture) was, “What do you want Me to do for you?” When we fully understand why Jesus asked this question, then we will begin to understand why Jesus’ ministry was so successful.
The focus of Jesus’ ministry encounters was *never *to make converts. The focus of His individual ministry encounters was to meet the needs of those individuals.
When He asked people, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He was trying to determine what they perceived to be their most pressing needs. When He discerned or discovered what they felt they needed most, that became the focus of His ministry. He customized each encounter to meet the most pressing needs of that individual.
- Andrew desired to share quality personal time with Jesus. Jesus gave him that in John 1:38.
- Peter needed a boost to his self-esteem. He needed a stronger sense of identity. Jesus gave him that in John 1:42.
- Nathanael needed supernatural proof to validate the Messiah. Jesus gave him that in John 1:47-49.
- Philip needed a sense of purpose to give his life meaning. Jesus gave him that in John 1:43.
- Nicodemus desired to understand deeper spiritual truths. Jesus gave him that in John chapter 3.
- The woman at the well was a worshiper at heart who had spent her entire adult life looking for a relationship to satisfy her deep longing for intimacy. She found it in a personal encounter with the Messiah in John chapter 4.
- The paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof desired forgiveness for his sins more than he desired to be healed. Jesus gave him both in Mark 2:5-12.
- A leprous man desired to be made clean. Jesus cleansed him of leprosy in Mark 1:40-41.
- Jairus desired for his daughter to be saved from death. Jesus raised her from the dead in Mark 5:41-42.
- Bartimaeus desired to see. Jesus gave him sight in Mark 10:51-52.
- The criminal on the cross desired to be with Jesus in His Kingdom. Jesus granted his request in Luke 23:43.
The list goes on and on.
As a result of this focus on meeting the needs of people He encountered, people responded by following Jesus in great numbers everywhere He went.
**This is the key to making disciples: Focusing our ministry on meeting the needs of the people that we encounter. **
Jesus had no advertising campaigns. He had no marketing agents. He had no electronic amplification systems. He did not use persuasive sales pitches to gather multitudes of followers. He simply met the needs of the people He encountered, one individual at a time, and multitudes of people followed Him wherever He went.
Jesus gave us His secret to making disciples in John 6:26:
“Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were completely satisfied.” (ISV)
In other words, people follow Jesus because their needs are met through demonstrations of His love.
*“*We love him, because he first loved us.”—1 John 4:19 (KJV)
Jesus did not gather His followers by preaching and teaching. Look closely at the Gospel accounts. He gathered followers by meeting people’s needs. It was only *after *groups of people gathered around Him that He began to teach them the truths of the Kingdom of God. Then real discipleship could begin, because … What is discipleship? Jesus defined it in His Great Commission. Discipleship is teaching people to keep the commandments of Jesus.
“Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you”—Matthew 28:18-20 (AMPC)
Look at the example of the Sermon on the Mount. People were already following him in great numbers because of His demonstrations of love that met their needs. It was only *after *the crowds gathered around Him that He began to teach and disciple them.
“When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then He began to teach them, saying …”—Matthew 5:1-2 (AMP)
Again in Luke chapter 5, It was only *after *a large crowd of people gathered around Jesus that He settled into a boat to teach them truths of the Kingdom of God.
“One day Jesus was standing beside Lake Gennesaret when the crowd pressed in around him to hear God’s word.** Jesus saw two boats sitting by the lake. The fishermen had gone ashore and were washing their nets. **Jesus boarded one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, then asked him to row out a little distance from the shore. Jesus sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.”—Luke 5:1-3 (CEB)
Jesus’ order of ministry is summarized clearly in Mark 2:13:
“Jesus went to the lake again, and many people followed him there. So Jesus taught them.” (ERV)
In order to be successful in ministry, we must follow Jesus’ example. In the ministry model that Jesus demonstrated, He *first *focused on meeting the needs of the individual. The presentation of the Gospel message came later, *after *they were following Him.
Traditional approaches sometimes put the cart before the horse. Often these evangelistic approaches emphasize an explanation of the Gospel message, but offer nothing in the way of practical help to meet a person’s needs. Some approaches even refuse to offer practical help to people unless they make a profession of faith in Jesus, or at least listen to a presentation of the Gospel message first.
These backwards approaches often create feelings of resentment and offense in unbelievers and tend to push people further away from God, scattering the harvest. Jesus warned us about this in Matthew 12:30.
People did not follow Jesus because they saw miracles. People did not follow Him just because they liked His teaching, although that impressed many. Jesus said people followed Him because He met their needs—from THEIR point of view. Jesus’ ministry efforts focused on meeting the immediate perceived needs of the people He encountered. Often, that didn’t mean salvation.
In our encounters, people may have no concept of a need for salvation, but they may be hungry. They may be in pain. They may need hope. They may need friendship. They may need healing. They may need a job. They may need deliverance from demonic oppression.
These are the kinds of things on which Jesus focused His ministry.
If we are going to be successful, we must do the same. Focus on meeting the needs of the people you are serving, and you will experience success in missions and outreach.
Those missionaries who focus on meeting the needs of people often experience success in ministry beyond anything they could have envisioned. Mother Teresa in India, Father Gregory Boyle in Los Angeles, and Heidi Baker in Mozambique have all experienced this. Will you be next?
Show kindness. Encourage people. Fix their bicycles. Give them a ride to the grocery store. Spend time with them. Become a genuine friend that they can count on.
“Little children (believers, dear ones), let us not love [merely in theory] with word or with tongue [giving lip service to compassion], but in action and in truth [in practice and in sincerity, because practical acts of love are more than words].”—1 John 3:18 (AMP)
Build relationships. The most effective and long-lasting ministry happens through relationships. That means we cannot treat people as projects or targets for salvation. We must not push to “seal the deal” with a profession of faith just to get one more notch in our belt. We must see individuals as people with needs who have tremendous untapped potential. Each individual is so valuable that, in Jesus’ eyes, they were worth dying for.