Date: January 17, 2018
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: John Sorensen
Listen: MP3 | Order
How is your witness? Are you equipped to evangelize or, is that just for preachers? Our guest today answers that question and more – hold on to your seat!
John Sorenson is the President and CEO of Evangelism Explosion International (EE), a ministry dedicated to equipping and training believers worldwide to be a witness for Jesus Christ. During this Crosstalk, you will hear how excited Sorenson is! Not just excited, but very hopeful that Jesus’ Great Commission is being fulfilled one day at a time. In fact, he said it’s always been the vision at EE since it’s founder (the late Dr. D. James Kennedy) started it. ‘Dr. Kennedy believed America is a special country and believed that if every Christian were able to lead just one person to Jesus, many of our problems would just go away, almost instantly.’ But first, Sorenson says ‘the church needs to wake up’ and it starts with prayer. He is ‘super dedicated to raising up an army of prayer warriors to do this.’
But wait a minute, isn’t there a problem? Statistically speaking, has it not been said that so few are truly witnessing to others anymore about their faith? Sorenson says ‘Satan has done a very good job of convincing the church that they should remain silent. But, at the end of the day, it really all comes down to what we believe. If we think it’s the Pastor’s job to evangelize, we will let him do it.’ When asked ‘why is that?’ Sorenson says very quickly ‘Fear. Fear of a lot of different things. Lots of what ifs.’ He also goes deeper and says ‘we have forgotten that lost people are on their way to hell….we’ve lost that passion these days.’
Sorenson also sadly admits that ‘There will be those who will live their whole lives and never lead someone else to Christ.’ Yet for those who are afraid to witness, he agrees with them when they say they can’t win someone to the Lord saying ‘you are absolutely right (you can’t) but, God can and He will, through you!’ It’s simply about teaching others how to start conversations without ‘shoving things down their necks.’ For instance, Sorenson gives a simple ‘hand presentation’ about how with just one’s own hand, one can explain the gospel to anyone! He said it’s ‘easy to learn and hard to forget.’
Sorenson reports that Equip America is well under way, estimating that something of 42,000 churches are now actively involved in equipping people to evangelize, through Evangelism Explosion. With a focus of ‘Spiritual multiplication’ the desire is to ‘train others to train others.’ He says ‘Now more than ever, people need hope.’ Crosstalk takes your calls.
More information:
www.equipamerica.org
www.evangelismexplosion.org
