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SPIRITUAL WARFARE
World evangelization will never be done without spiritual warfare. Many of our evangelistic efforts will continue to meet with little or no success without serious attention to spiritual warfare. That is why I consider it the first strategy to bring increase and life to the church especially in black Africa where magic, rituals, oblations, idol -worship and demonic incantations and invocations are very prevalent.
The gospel will only make minimal effect when we neglect spiritual warfare. The devil specializes in blindfolding the eye and minds of people to the light of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul stated that this is the main reason the gospel did not spread fast enough in 2 Cor.4:3, 4 "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them': Effective evangelism therefore includes getting Satan's hand off and breaking the seal he has placed on people's minds so that the light of the gospel might shine there.
Evangelism therefore is a spiritual battle. Spiritual warfare deals with satanic activities in blindfolding people and hindering the advancement of the gospel. It is destroying the stronghold of demons in our town's, cities and communities. It is resisting and overwhelming the gates of hell militating against the growth progress, advancement and expansion of the church. For effective evangelism and church growth there must be spiritual warfare in three levels:
(a) Ground Level Warfare - Acts.19:11-12
These are demons operating inside the church. They are the fifth column hindering the growth of the church from within. They weaken the church from within by bringing lukewarmness, coldness, bickering, sin, scandals, crisis and other numerous evils. They operate among the children. Women men and sometimes they have some special agents within each church. Sometimes they attach themselves to churches through one negative incident, crisis, poverty, death or problems. Without doing serious warfare to evict the host of darkness within, no church can truly be effective in soul winning efforts (Mark.1:23-28)
b. Occult level Warfare - Act.19:18-20
This is occult power operating through witchcraft, herbalists, mystic temples, Immams, pagan temples and mediums. They command much higher power than those operating inside the church. They serve as 'power boosters - to the enemy in their area of operation. They hinder the growth of the church in their area through sacrifices, festivals, oblations, invocations and casting spells and curses. Most times they move round the vicinity of a church in the dead of the night to cast spells. Effective evangelism and church growth demands that there must be strong warfare by the church on regular basis. Act.16:16-24 and Act.8:5-24 gives us clear examples of these levels of warfare. Also see Act.13:6-12. Unless we are spiritually prepared to deal with the enemy and release people from bondage, our evangelistic efforts might come to nothing.
c. Territorial level warfare
These are ominous demonic powers assigned to control cities, towns, nations, races, ethnics, groups of people and governments. They control areas, neighbourhoods, towns and will not allow the light of the gospel to shine through in their controlled area. There is the strongman in control. The demons will rule in absolute authority over these territories. These territories may have been covenanted out to demons by the founding fathers of such cities, nations and towns for one favour or the other from these evil forces. Unless territorial level warfare is applied, the gospel cannot prosper in such places. This is the answer to many years of barrenness.
The empty churches and indifference to the gospel reflect Satan's victories in this warfare. The spiritual strongholds that rule over our communities, the hardening and darkening of the heart of the people will only be overcome by serious spiritual warfare. It is then that the gospel can really be effective. God is calling us to fight spiritual battles for the gospel. Here is how to go about it practically.
1. Learn all you can about spiritual warfare- The more you know about your enemy the less his capacity to defeat you.
2. Share what you learn - Pass the truth of spiritual Warfare to your people, especially those who are praying or love to pray.
3. Have a thorough spiritual preparation - Set aside times for prayer, waiting upon the Lord and heart-searching. Repent of any known sin and settle any grievances. Holiness of heart and life is very vital to victory in spiritual warfare.
4. Ask the Lord for insight - Allow the Lord to show you the various activities of the enemy in hindering the gospel in your church, communities and localities. This is what is called spiritual mapping.
5. Ask the Lord for a battle plan - It is dangerous to move ahead of the Lord in this delicate battle Ask Him for a battle plan and when to move against the host of the enemy. Don't do it alone.
6. Employ the best Prayer strategy- There are various prayer strategies that could be employed by you to effectively deal with the enemy. Consider the following:
a. Vicinity Warfare - Praying inside your church, either at night or early in the morning before service; binding and casting out all the uninvited guests that hinder growth; praying round your building location, praying at the entrance, windows, pews, altar and at the four corners of your building.
b. street Warfare - Taking prayer to your streets, praying at street corners, junctions and intersections, dealing with those demonic powers that operate from the streets. Christians from the same church can pick each other two by two and pray in these streets, either in the morning, afternoon or at evening or night. It does not have to be loud prayers that attract the attention of people.
c. House to house Warfare -Praying, not only in the streets but also targeting houses; taking prayer to every house in the street or area. It could be a prayer project of say one or two, three or four years. Through house to house prayer, offensive warfare is taking place and the enemy will have no place to hide in the community.
d. Praise marches - Marching for Jesus. This involves going out to the streets or city centres for praise and worship. Christians from various churches in a locality can organize this. Agreement increases power. The more we praise March, the more spiritual opposition will fall down. It is agreeing that our communities and cities are for Jesus and lifting high His banners through praise and worship.
In these powerful prayer strategies, our prayer focus will be on asking for the forgiveness of sins that have opened the door for the enemy and the breaking of all demonic covenants that hold such communities, towns and cities in bondage. There is something about going out there and actually touching those places (Jos.1:3); the spiritual atmosphere will change and after each prayer session, the power of Satan will be broken and more people will come to Jesus (Ezek. 48:35)
Of course, the weapons of our warfare are the name of Jesus, the word of God, the blood of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. After we have done this warfare consistently and continuously, we can then begin to implement other strategies of soul winning and they will become effective.
FRANGELISM
Over and over again and in almost every people group. this strategy has proven to be most effective. In the truest sense of the word, no church can truly grow without a frangelism strategy. A survey of how people came to the faith has revealed that 87% of believers were won by frangelism. While some churches practice it consciously, others do it unconsciously. It is more cost-effective than so many other strategies, such as morning cry, town crier, bell-ringing, beating drums at street corners, distribution of tracts at bus-stops and open air preaching that addressed no one in particular.
Frangelism is a term meaning - Friends, Relations, Associates and Neighbours evangelism. It is the art of encouraging each member of a church to deliberately bring their friends to the church to know the Lord. Jesus Christ used this principle very well. A good example is the woman at the well. She went and brought a whole city to Jesus after having an encounter with Him. Jn.4.27-42). The lunatic of the Gaderenes is another example. (Mk.5:18-20) Jesus specifically told him to go back to his friends and he went and published it in Decapolis - ten cities - and many people came to the Lord.
It has been discovered that each person has at least nine persons around them that are evangelistic prospects. Working on these nine people around each person has the capacity to bring growth to the church. Churches that teach 2 Cor.6:14-18 to the extreme of not wanting to relate or have anything to do with sinner friends, relations, associates and neighbours have done incalculable damage to their evangelistic effectiveness. True, we must be separate from sinners in our lifestyle, conduct and manners, yet we must befriend them with the sole aim of bringing them to the Lord.
New converts who have experienced a radical transformation in their lives must be taught to live a godly life style. They should not go into sin with their friends, but stay and befriend them so that their new testimony will convince and convict their sinning friends until they can offer to follow them to the Lord and church. Christians that have been long in the faith must make conscious efforts to befriend sinners and be a good example to them. What is the modus operandi for this strategy?
* Godly and exemplary lifestyle by Christians
* Strong emphasis on frangelism from the pulpit
* Evangelism training on how to win friends and neighbours.
* Sharing testimonies of those who have won friends
* Prayer for effectiveness
Frangelism has the capacity to increase church attendance in no time, if our members are willing and obedient. All things being equal, frangelism is one of the most effective methods today because people will believe a friend more than anybody else. People are willing to follow a friend anywhere.
SEEKER SERVICE
Seeker service is a strategy being used by churches that profess to be seeker -sensitive. It came about because of the realization that the normal church service is cumbersome to so many sinners. Most times, they are at a loss on what is being said and done during the normal or regular church service. The language or Christian terminologies are Greek in their ears. They don't really benefit from these services and many times, it leaves them more confused and bewildered. A seeker service is a special service that is geared towards ministering to those seeking the saviour in a non-threatening way. It can be on Saturday morning or evening and sometimes it is held on Sunday evenings. It is largely populated by sinners. It is mainly a service for sinners not saints. It has some peculiar features or that of the regular service of the church. Here are some of them.
* Start with soft music in the background
* Start with short prayers and a few praise songs
* Start and end at advertised time
* Speak simply and clearly
* Welcome then heartily
* Ushers must bring them to their seats
* Put disclaimer on the offering
* Print your bulletin
* Positive preaching not condemnation
* Lead them to a definite decision
* There must be interaction and greetings
* Powerful prayers for the people
A seeker service can never be successful if there is no prior plan on how the sinners are going to be invited. Frangelism can come in here. In an other way, the seeker service can be done as Friends Day or Guests day. These are days that have been earmarked for friends of the church. Each member goes out with an invitation card to bring their friends on the appointed day or Sunday. Then a seeker service can be held for them.
The results have always been wonderful and tremendous where it has been prayerfully and carefully planned. Sometimes, churches record up to 100 new converts on a single Friends Day. Give it a try and you will glorify the lord.
EVERY MEMBER A MINISTER
Church attendance will increase when it is a church policy that no member is allowed to remain redundant. Churches that desire to grow must determine from inception not just to have members but ministers. In a healthy church, at least 50% of the people must be doing the work of the ministry. There is no useless member in the body.' Every member must be taught to discover and use their spiritual gifts in a godly and edifying way thereby bringing increase to the church. Lay ministers - not paid, full time ministers - will bring health and growth to the church.
Churches that fail to use this strategy will have members who have nothing doing than to cause trouble and chaos. Churches where members don't minister will always be enmeshed in bickering, backbiting, character assassination and quarrels because the devil always finds work for idle hands.
Church growth research has revealed that whenever a Christian is seven years old in the Lord without doing anything tangible in the house of the Lord, such a one is no longer going up but coming down. And evangelistically speaking, such a person will not be effective anymore. Members that contribute almost nothing to the growth of the church will always be critical of the church.
God has gifted every member of His body with gifts that can help them to contribute to the growth and well -being of the church. For every member of the church, there must be commitment on three levels.
(a) Commitment to Christ - He must be Lord and Saviour. Every member must get to know Him intimately.
(b) Commitment to the body of Christ - commitment to Christ demands commitment to His local body - the church. Members must be partakers and contribute their own quota to her growth.
(c) Commitment to the work of Christ in the world Christians must discover and utilize the gifts of God in their life to expand His Kingdom.
How do you go about the process of turning every member to a minister?
* Make it clear that the church expects every member to minister.
* The people are to do the ministry, not the pastor Institute teachings' and trainings for gift discovery Create avenues or them to minister and use their gifts.
PRAYER EVANGELISM
Prayer has been discovered to be a very powerful tool in evangelism. No church can record real and outstanding success in evangelism without much recourse to prayer. It has been stated that church growth is 60% prayer and 40% principles and methods. To become effective in evangelism, the strategy of prayer must be mightily utilized. The church that determines to grow must take prayer seriously. Prayer creates the right atmosphere and binds the power of darkness so that the gospel of Jesus can go forward and the church can prosper.
Sadly, this is the area that majority of the church talk about the most but practice ,the least. Prayer evangelism is the strategy of asking every member of the church to bring the name of those they would like to get saved. The names are placed in a special foyer beside the pulpit on the altar. They are prayed upon fervently until they get converted and join the church.
One pastor used this strategy in his church; he asked each member to submit four names, and fervent prayers were made publicly and privately for and on behalf of those names for three consecutive months. The people were asked not to preach to those sinners in those three months' that prayer was being made for them. At the end of three months intensive prayers for these souls, the people were asked to go and preach to them. In the space of two weeks, each of those souls were gloriously converted! Prayer evangelism can work in every church and in any situation. To make it effective in your church, take note of the following:
1. Create a prayer culture in the church - the place, importance, necessity and relevance of prayer must be continuously stressed.
2. The worth of a soul - show your people the worth of a soul to God. Let your people be conscious of their evangelistic mandate.
3. Time for practical prayer - Let there be times and seasons of prayer in the church. Teach and train your people to pray. Practical prayer session must take place during the service, in homes and for every programme.
4. Prayer Teams - There must be" prayer teams for every service and programme of the church. Prayer rooms must be built, prayer chains formed and a special week of prayer in the church organised.
5. Testimonies "- Frequent testimonies of answered prayers must be allowed in the church. This will encourage your people to pray more and show that God indeed answers prayers.
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