I would start off by explaining to them that Jesus loved them and had a plan for their lives and that He had sent me there to share this with them and help them in that plan in whatever way I could. I would ask them what they were interested in. If they were interested in electronics I would go out and get a basic book on electronics and give it to them. The end result was they were so blown out by my love and consistent concern and follow through that they themselves, out of their own initiative, would come to me and ask, "What do I need to do to enter Jesus’ plan for my life?" I would then share with them the Gospel and they would willingly receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.

As I continued to use this approach as directed by Jesus’ initiative I eventually had so many boys coming to me wanting to know more about Jesus that through the Lord’s direction I began recruiting boys in the hall I could train in Evangelism and Discipleship so that they themselves could Evangelize and Disciple other boys in the hall. Finally, the change in the boys lives were so dramatic that the authorities who ran the Juvenile Hall at that time wanted to hire me on full time as a counselor.

At the end of my seven year ministry of reaching out to juvenile delinquents, the Lord decided to change my direction in ministry. He gave me a burden to reach out to the humanist ecologist, to show them how Jesus was the answer to his need. I was heavily involved in the ecological movement before I was a Christian.

The way I was saved was through Jesus showing me how He was the answer to the ecological problem. As Jesus began to give me this burden to reach out to them I began to seek Him as to how He wanted me to approach it. His answer to me was to show the ecologist that Jesus was concerned about what concerned him.

As I began to share with ecologists and humanists I found I could not even get them to even listen to the Gospel until I first showed them in the Bible that Jesus was concerned about their ecological concerns.³⁸ This resulted in three papers. A hundred and so page paper called, "The Heart of the Problem of Ecology," "Implications of the Literal-Historical Reliability of Genesis," and "The Answer to Woman’s Lib is Woman’s Call."

The first paper showed how though legislation and education is the place to start with the ecological problems of man, unless you change man’s heart, the volitional part of man, he will never submit to the legislation and education. I then explained how Jesus came to give us a new heart that is in harmony with God and His creation and that the way one receives this new heart is through receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

The second paper on Genesis showed why Jesus is the answer to man’s problems and why the Bible should be considered as much a scholastic answer as other proposed answers. The third paper dealt with the Biblical concept of relationship verses the Archie Bunker concept of relationship.

Jesus showed me that these were the three main areas which were blocking the humanist-ecologist from seeing that He was the answer to their needs. I might add that while I was involved in this ministry, I was constantly being criticized by Christians because they wanted to know why I did not believe in being led of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism. They were saying this because the Holy Spirit was leading me to reach out to them intellectually through writing. What they did not understand was that I was doing what I was doing by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The humanist-ecologists who read these papers came back with comments like, "It clarifies the issue." "It answers the questions that I had." In one case a person expressed a loss of faith in the macro evolutionary concept. I did not write these papers only to deal with what appeared to be surface issues, but rather because Jesus told me this was the best way to reach out to the humanist ecologist in helping him to see how Jesus is the answer to his need. The responses I got back from them as a result of their reading these papers assured me that what I wrote did just that: Made them realize their need of Jesus.

These are not formulas for reaching out to these two groups, but simply examples of how Jesus led me to reach out to them as a result of relationship with Him through worship and praise and in Spirit and truth. If you have a burden for any of these two areas, you would not want to use my methods unless Jesus told you to. You would want to go to Jesus yourself and ask Him how He would want you to approach it. His way for you may be different to fill another aspect of the gap in these areas and thus reach some that I cannot reach because of my limited time and finiteness. Paul said in 2 Corinthians,

"For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding." (2 Cor 10:12).

In Section 3, Chapter 2 titled, "Three Kinds of Evangelism," I go into great detail about how to apply these principles of Evangelism in the job situation.

Christianity is relationship with Jesus. It is not a religion. Religion is where everybody puts themselves into the same mold and their message is, "See how I live and act? Live and act the same and you will be happy and spiritual." The mold of Christianity is relationship with Jesus. The Christian message is, "I could not change my life until I entered into relationship with Jesus, and if you give your life to Him He can change you too."

The answer of Christianity is the same for all: JESUS! But the outcome of that relationship will be as different as night and day depending on Jesus’ individual plans for our lives in our individual circumstances.

Paul says when we compare our spirituality with other Christians we are not understanding what Christianity is all about. The message of Christianity is not what we are, but the Lord and source of what we are: JESUS! Spirituality is not measured by how well we can live up to the standards of a religious program. Spirituality in Christianity is measured by how greatly we recognize our need of Jesus in every area of our lives, if life is to flow from our lives.

Paul put it another way in another passage: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10). We were created to manifest and glorify Jesus with our lives. We do this when we look to Him and Him alone as to how He wants to manifest Himself through our lives in our Evangelism or whatever area it may be. Because we are finite, no one of us can manifest all of who infinite Jesus is. Paul is saying in this passage of Scripture that Jesus has prepared a work or works for us individually because through our lives individually Jesus wants to manifest a certain facet of who He is. If we want to help Jesus reach the world with His message of love and forgiveness, we can best do this by submitting to His plan for our lives individually, not by comparing ourselves with others.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light." (Matt 11:28-30).

A year ago (July, 1996) I became burdened for the body of Christ in Sudan. The Moslem government in Sudan is committing genocide against Christians. The government has ordered the army to go through its society and kill all Christian men and enslave the children. This incident really broke my heart. As I pondered on the matter the Lord spoke to me very clearly that my calling was to reach America with the Gospel and that He wanted me putting all my resources here. What I am doing instead is praying daily for the Lord to burden other Christians to pick up this burden with their available resources. This is what Jesus was talking about in Luke 10:2 when He said: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Jesus did not mean that He has called some Christians to do Evangelism and others not. He meant that no one of us can do it all. We individually need to find out what area of Evangelistic concern God wants us to focus on and then pray for Him to raise up laborers in areas we are concerned about but not called to.

When Jesus was here on earth with the limitations of a human being, the Father called Him to reach out primarily to the Jews. This was why in Matthew 15:22-28 when a Canaanite woman came to Jesus about a need that Jesus explained to her He was not able to go and respond to her need. He was not saying to her he was not concerned about her need, but that in his finite state as a man His Father had called Him to reach out only to the lost sheep of Israel. It was only because of her faith and response to these comments that her request was fulfilled. Jesus already had plans among His disciples to reach out to the Canaanites after His death and Resurrection.

We, individually, are not the body of Christ. Each of us individually are a part of the body of Christ. When we obey Jesus’ Lordship over our lives individually, we help the body as a whole have the greatest impact possible through out the whole earth. Actually, the first thing a person needs to do to be effective in Evangelism is to find out what area of burden Jesus wants him to carry, then find out from Jesus through worship and praise how best to approach the area of burden. This will be dealt with in greater detail in Section 3 titled, "The Salvation Work of Jesus," and in Section 9 titled, "The Importance of Knowledge."

Jesus wants us to minister Him in Evangelism. When we allow Him to lead us in our Evangelism, we can be sure of having the best results possible and that the people we minister to, whether they receive Jesus or not, will walk away knowing they had encountered Jesus. They will leave thinking about Jesus, not you, and with a seed that will do more to bring them to that place of commitment than any of our own devises of how to approach evangelism will ever do.

In his book titled, The Holy Spirit, Dr. Bill Bright states, "Success in witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God."^20/197 When in obedience to Jesus we take initiative to go out and share the love of Jesus Christ with men, we are witnessing in the power of the Holy Spirit when what we say or do in response to objections or questions about the Gospel is out of the initiative of the Holy Spirit through our spirits, not out of the reasoning of our own thoughts through our souls.

To be successful in Evangelism entails getting to the heart of the individual or group we are sharing with. Only Jesus knows what is in the individual’s heart or in the group’s heart. Only Jesus knows how His message of salvation can be communicated to the individual or group in such away that it will be ministered and received in love.