Many years ago I heard the comment that “going and sitting in a church service doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than walking into a barn makes you a cow!”
While the IAAR lessons are primarily to equip Christians to share the Gospel with unbelievers outside of the 4 walls of the congregation, they can also serve to help insure that those who are sitting in our services, classes and groups understand and are personally encouraged to come to Jesus.
Let me share THREE experiences of current students about this.
FIRST ONE.
A lady taking the online course right now that I teach shared the following experience. As part of an assignment, she was practicing sharing the 4 lessons with a man who attends her congregation. Read what she wrote.
* At the end of session 3 I used the questions from the “Marriage and Christianity” page to determine where he was in the process of accepting God’s friendship and love…. I discovered that He does believe that Jesus is the Son of God but he has not surrender his life to Him. I asked if he could identify the reason for that. He said that he feels an internal conflict with 2 voices speaking to him, one says “say yes”, and the other says “say no”. He feels that now he understands some things better and may be closer to a point of decision but he is not quite there yet. I talked about how we are in a spiritual battle where the flesh and the spirit are against each other and we cannot let our feelings decide out eternal destiny.
* Then at the end of session 4 , the last lesson, I asked him if he had reconsidered accepting Christ into his life and he said that he is still not ready for it but that he appreciates very much the clear explanation of what Christianity is about.
(Here are more INTERESTING details the lady shared about this man.)
* The odd thing about this man is that he has come to church consistently for over 6 years, he attends my small bible study group almost every week and he has invited more people to church that many of us: most of his brothers and sisters have come to church because of him as well as friends and neighbors, and some of them have made a commitment for Christ.
Here is part of my response to what she wrote:
That is quite a story about the man you are studying with. Our churches are filled with people who have never been worked with or taught individually, and they need help, direction, teaching and encouragment. Doing the IAAR with them can make a huge difference for them in many ways. You have helped clarify for him what Jesus wants him to do now: not just attend church (sit in the barn) but become a disciple in action.
SECOND ONE:
A preacher friend of mine who has used IAAR for decades recently told me of an experience he had. He offered to share the 4 lessons of IAAR with a man who had been attending his servcies for at least a year. The man accepted the offer. At the end of the lessons the man enthusiastically commented on how helpful the lessons were and how he understood Christianity so much better now. What blew my preacher friend away was that he told me he had been preaching strongly on the Gospel and what it all means for the past year that the man had been attending the services. It just showed him again and confirmed for him how sitting down with people, giving them the personal attention and sharing in depth about the Gospel can make all the difference in the world. It wasn’t that the preaching wasn’t good. But the time we spend and the information and style we use in sharing IAAR can make all the difference in the world EVEN for the people who are sitting in the pew every Sunday.
We are commanded to MAKE DISCIPLES. Most of that can’t happen ‘long distance’ from the pulpit.
THIRD ONE
The following is a comment from a person who is serving as a Mentor to a student taking the course. They meet once a week with them to pray with them and interact with them on what they are learning. This is what the MENTOR wrote about IAAR.
Even in Church everybody needs to hear these presentations. The fact that people go to church for years doesn’t mean they are Christians or know how to share their faith. Thank you Jesus for leading Mercedes (the student) to choose me to participate as her mentor. I repent of my passivity in evangelism and pray for a renewed desire to go out and talk to others about you.
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