Daily Devotions
Team Evangelism
Title: Team Evangelism
Reading for May 14: 2 Chronicles 25-28
Weekly reading for May 6-12: Acts 11-15
Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.
Acts 14:1
Who came up with the idea of personal evangelism? As much as we talk about it, you would think it would be all over the place in the book of Acts, but alas, "personal" evangelism appears to be the exception and not the rule in the early church.
With notable exceptions (Stephen, Acts 7 & Philip, Acts 8), all of the evangelism in Acts is done by teams or groups (see Acts 2:1, 14; 3:1, 11-12; 4:13; 10:23, 45; 11:26; 13:2; etc.). Paul is held up as the greatest "personal worker," yet we almost never see Paul by himself in Acts.
It is safe to say that evangelism is the most daunting tasks for us. Why do we encourage people to do it solo? Jesus trained his disciples to work in teams (Mark 6:7). He recognized there is strength in numbers. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto, why do we try to do this by ourselves?
How can you begin to implement a team evangelism approach? You can start by finding a prayer partner. (Prayer is something else that is almost always done together with others in the book of Acts.)
- Pray for open doors (Colossians 4:2). Pray for each other's contacts by name.
- Pray for courage (Ephesians 6:19-20). Be open and honest about your fears and pray for each other.
- Pray for wisdom (James 1:5; Colossians 4:5-6). Ask God to help you both know what to say and when to say it.
Father, help us find strength, encouragement, and wisdom from our brothers and sisters in this work of reaching out to the lost.
