How People Used to Come to Christ
Believe Behave Belong Befriend
We used to “proclaim” the gospel once to someone and expect them to immediately believe as we do. Then we expected them to behave the way we thought they should behave and then we would allow them to belong to our fellowship. It was only then that we would befriend them.
How People Come to Christ Today
Befriend Belong Behave Believe
These days things are not just different they are opposite. First we must Befriend those who don’t know the Lord. This is the first act of evangelism when doing so with intentionality. Then we must find a way for them to belong to our fellowship. Remember they are not believers yet, but still the cell leader must find a way for them to belong to the group. This is by far the hardest part for a Christian Ministry or Church. We are not talking about “membership” here but how the person can actually belong to the group not just “attend.” The behaving has nothing to do with them, but with us. They must see our behavior and ask themselves, “What makes you behave that way? What is it that you believe that makes you behave that way? At this point we must be intentional and ask the 2 Questions and share the Gospel and what we believe and ask them to believe for themselves.
Notice that it is our obligation to find a way for them to “belong” to the group Before they believe. Organizationally this will be your toughest task.
What would be some ways we could involve pre-Christians in our groups so they would feel they belong?
A-Team: Within the cell group they could be an Activities Coordinator or an Administrator, but not the Apprentice. These are the two positions within the small group that a pre-Christian could function within. They would have an active role in the decisions and direction of the group and would begin to belong to the cell group.
If they are musicians, you could invite them to be on the Praise team.
If they are sports people, they could be the captains of an intramural team.
If they understand lighting or sound, they could be on the Tech crew.
They could function as web designers, graphic artist, T-shirt designers etc.
Everything depends on relationship. If you build a healthy relationship with them, then pre-Christian will not walk across your principles and may even stand up for them to others.