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BADGERVOL
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2004
Total Posts : 27

Posted 10/15/2004 2:33 AM (GMT -6)

I have been curious for so long about something. It seems that although many churches talk about evangelism only some of them do it effectively. This is what I want to know.

Has there ever been a study about pastors and elders in churches (leadership) and whether there is a correlation between the belief in Calvinism/predesination and the effectiveness of their congregations for reaching the lost? Do leaders of churches who believe God determines all things tend to have less effectiveness when it comes to evangelism? I'm curious.

spenlake
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1050

Posted 10/15/2004 2:54 AM (GMT -6)

If you research the evangelism work done by the church of John Piper I believe that you will find that they are extremely active in evangelism. I don't know if this qualifies as a study but it is one data point. I think that such a study would need to be very specific about the "content" of the message and whether it was actually the gospel. There are "revivals" such as the so-called "Toronto Blessing" that contained very little gospel message. There are "humanitarian efforts" to better the life of suffering people that contain very little of the actual message of the gospel as well. Humanitarian aid may enable the suffering to live better or longer (which is a good thing) but in itself it is not the message that God gave to us in Christ. The Dali Lama and the UN can also be kind and provide humanitarian aid.

Spen Lake

lock
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 701

Posted 10/15/2004 8:16 AM (GMT -6)

I agree with Spen. Can you truly judge the effectiveness of a message purely by the number of followers? If that is the case, then one might consider the apostle Paul a failure for he writes "all those in the province of Asia were turned from me" (2 Tim 1:15) and "Demas, loving the current era, forsook me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia." (2 Tim. 4:9-11) and "at my first defense no one came along with me, but all forsook me" (2 Tim. 4:16). One might also consider Jesus Christ Himself a failure being that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and only a small remnant of faithful have come out of Israel (Rom.11:5).

His achievement are we, being created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God makes ready beforehand, that we should be walking in them.

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