“I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes”. Romans 1 v16

I made a “discovery” recently which I’m happy to share with you all…….. the Gospel still works!

The Good News of Jesus Christ is still the “power of God for everyone who believes”…….. even in those “difficult” places, such as a northern industrial town like Huddersfield, the Gospel still works! 

It’s not that I ever stopped believing that the Gospel still worked…… I’m sure you haven’t stopped believing that either. It’s just that there wasn’t much “fruit” around, no real “harvest”, to use a couple of biblical words.

Just before the Covid pandemic a friend and I conducted a short survey which revealed that, on average, over the previous 2 years, the typical local CCC in the UK had seen 2 or 3 conversions……… some had seen no conversions at all…… over 2 years, probably more. In that scenario, I suppose It’s easy to start wondering whether the Gospel still works…….

During the pandemic I read many books about “doing church”differently, about why “things weren’t working”, and how we needed to change our approach to reflect the cultural realities of the 21st century post-pandemic world. I recognised myself in these books as a “traditionalist”…… I learnt that I was part of a “legacy church”, doing things the “old way”……… apparently not a good thing!

I’m sure that there is much to be learned from those who are pioneering new approaches to building local churches in other nations and in our nation, and much “fruit” will result, even if it will be years before we see it.
The thing is, in the meantime, millions of people are going to hell, and the Bible tells us that it is only the Gospel that can save people.

What if we have lost sight of this amazing truth of the power of God revealed in the Gospel?

What if we have become so busy with our leadership training, discipleship programmes, teams, initiatives and mercy ministries, that evangelism has been relegated to something we used to do or that only the keenies do?

I often have conversations remembering outreach events in the past…….(remember Front Edge, which saw over 4000 public responses to Jesus among Newfrontiers churches over an 8 year period?!).

What are we training our leaders to lead and who are we going to disciple if we are not seeing people saved? 

What if we have accepted the lie that people will not accept our invitations anymore, or respond to the Gospel anymore?

What if the real reason why we are not seeing conversions is because we are not letting loose the power of the Gospel?

What if my friend J John is absolutely right when he says that the problem is not that the Gospel doesn’t work, but that most Christians in the UK are “like Arctic rivers….frozen at the mouth!”

So, back to my “discovery”!

For 2 years now during Lent (a bit of a “tradition", I know!), Christians from a number of local churches have prayer-walked down the streets of our town using a PrayHD app on our phones which lit up the map of Huddersfield as each street was walked and prayed for. This year, while walking and praying, we looked for opportunities to speak to people and to invite them to hear the Gospel. We took a giant step of faith, booked the biggest building in town (Huddersfield Town Hall) for Palm Sunday and invited J John to come and preach the Gospel. Almost 1,000 people were at our Easter celebration and over 50 stood to make a very public response to Jesus...many other not-yet believers were invited to Easter Day services across the town the following week.

At our Easter Day service in The Ark Church we baptised 5 people, including 3 people who we first met through Arks of Kindness (our mercy ministry programme – it helps that the person leading that programme is an evangelist!). Another guy we baptised is a young Iranian asylum seeker who has breakfasted with me weekly over the last few months…what a privilege it has been to see the power of the Gospel slowly reveal itself in that young man’s life, despite the language and cultural divide.

So, I am greatly encouraged to see this latest evidence – still small, as it may be – that what I always believed is true IS really true…the Gospel still works! When the Gospel is preached or simply shared the power of God is let loose. I’m praying for revival (weekly with a bunch of people from churches across the town), but until God sends revival I will not despise 50 responses, 5 baptisms, or even 1’s or 2’s.

I’m sure we all know this truth…….. I’m sure we all believe this truth….. I’m not sure how we quite “lost” it……. but we have an enemy who is glad we did and who shudders at the thought of us reclaiming it!
As for me, my renewed priority is to “do all things for the sake of the Gospel” (1 Corinthians  9 v23)

Can I encourage you, as individuals and churches, to revise your priorities in the same way? Yes, let’s be “culturally-sensitive”, but let’s be Gospel proclaimers!  It’s the only way to go!
 
Steve Hurd is an Elder and Evangelist at The Ark Church Huddersfieldand would love to hear your stories of how the Gospel is working now in your context/local church. Please send him your stories/responses at steve.hurd@arkchurch.org.uk 

All articles on this website are the speakers own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the position of ChristCentral or Newfrontiers