THE VOICE OF CHRIST IN THE GOSPEL

 By Paul Christensen

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:  if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20)

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

 I first became a Christian in an Assembly Of God church in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, in 1966, under the ministry of Trevor Chandler.  This was the first time I realised that I needed to make a definite, personal commitment to Jesus Christ as my Saviour.  I guess I heard the voice of Christ in my heart then, but did not have the maturity to recognise it as such, but I obeyed it and that is the main thing.

About two years later, I felt the need to have a closer relationship with God as a person and set out to seek him more earnestly.  One night, in the middle of a golf course, in desperation, I told Him that people had been able to introduce me to church, Bible Study, prayer, appropriate Christian living, etc., but no one had been able to introduce me directly to God.  So, I said “I am Paul, and you are God, and I am very pleased to meet you.”  Immediately, I felt as though I were lit up inside, and I heard Him say, “Paul, we have be waiting for this for a long time.”  It was a comforting, assuring voice that spoke deep in the back of my mind.  This has continued from that time until this.

Although I have been involved with Anglican and Baptist churches during the last 20 years, I am now an Elder of St Aidan’s Presbyterian Church in Conifer Grove in Auckland.  I am also involved in the Gospel Faith Messenger ministry with its Prophetic Equipping Days and other outreaches, seeking to empower Christians to hear and recognise the Voice of God making His will clear to them.  It is with this in mind that I trust that this booklet will be of assistance to you.

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOKLET

After a number of years of being involved with Teen Challenge (NZ), an interdenominational evangelistic ministry, I became quite frustrated at the number of people who appeared to accept Christ, and who signed “decision cards”, but did not go on to become regular, committed church members.   When I went to a camp for new converts after an evangelistic outreach in Napier, I found that out of over one hundred “converts”, only two or three turned up.  The rest who signed the decision cards disappeared unto the unknown.  This showed me that the long-term result of all our efforts that year was a 2-3% success in achieving new Christians who went on to be stable church members.

I found this very disillusioning, and it led me to believe that the style of evangelism that we were involved in was unproductive.   It seemed that all the prayer and effort that the members of the Teen Challenge team put in to bring the Gospel to sinners went to waste.

On the home front, we discovered that the growth in the churches connected with Teen Challenge came from the sharing of the Gospel by members of those churches rather than from any contribution from our efforts.   We were puzzled about this, because we were sure at the time that we were obeying the commission that Christ gave us to share the Gospel.

This is not a criticism of Teen Challenge.  The organization was at the cutting edge of evangelism during its heyday in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, and many Christians owe their salvation and subsequent discipleship training through it.  I believe that the frustration over the lack of results commensurate with efforts and commitment have been and still are experienced  by leaders and members of all evangelistic organizations.  And it is not that they are doing anything wrong in the way they are sharing the Gospel with others.  It is just that sharing the Gospel and seeing sinners converted to Christ don’t seem to occur together each time.  There seems to be a lot of “seed sowing” and limited “reaping”.

Then suddenly in a particular church, town, or region, there is an awakening, and scores of people are converted; and yet there is no difference in the message or the method.   It seems as though the Holy Spirit falls on the people and Christian workers can do no wrong in bringing them genuinely to Christ.

This booklet seems to me to be an important answer to the question of why evangelism works sometimes, and doesn’t work the same way at other times.   I trust that when you read it, you will receive a new hope and encouragement to keep sharing the Gospel, even though you don’t see the results right away.