FAILING FORWARD IN EVANGELISM

The first month of “Who’s Your One?” is behind us. It’s a good time to stop and ask: how can I fail forward at evangelism? We’re going to make mistakes. Perhaps, you made some in 2022 already. We’ll speak when we should listen and listen when we should speak. We’ll forget to pray. We’ll get too busy and never meet with the person we intended to share the gospel with. We’ll lose courage and decide not to share the gospel because we’re afraid of their response. We’ll offer Christ to people who say, “No thanks.”

Charles Spurgeon, who described himself as “addicted” to leading people to Christ, had this to say about responding to evangelism failures:

“I may be speaking to a few who have not succeeded; if so, I would recommend them to look steadily over their motive, their spirit, their work, and their prayer, and then begin again. Perhaps they may get to work more wisely, more believingly, more humbly, and more in the power of the Holy Spirit. They must act as farmers do who, after a poor harvest, plow again in hope. They ought not to be dispirited, but they ought to be aroused. We should be anxious to find out the reason of failure, if there be any, and we should be ready to learn from all our fellow-laborers; but we must steadfastly set our faces, if by any means we may save some, resolving that whatever happens we will leave no stone unturned to effect the salvation of those around us.”

What should we do when we fail at evangelism? Consider how we could improve next time. Remember that God uses imperfect messengers to convey His perfect message. And try again expecting God to bring in His harvest.

NEXT STEPS

1. Decide who your “one” is for March and prepare to share about them with your Lifegroup. If you failed to share the gospel with your “one” from February, feel free to pick them and try again this month!

2. Think through ways you’ve failed in evangelism and what you can do to improve next time. Prepare to share your thoughts with your Lifegroup.

3. Review the ‘Two ways To Live’ booklet (Two Ways To Live) OR re-listen to the clip viewed during Lifegroups last week on ‘how can we make sure that we have a good idea of what to say when sharing the gospel?’ (apassionforlife.org.uk/fw4-view)

May God bless our efforts this month to share the gospel with those who are lost and need to be found!

-Richie-

Join us this Friday Night to pray.

Nothing fancy. Nothing professional.

Just humble, dependent, and hungry prayer.

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

Eph 6.18-20

Please take 5 minutes to read Jared Mellinger’s latest article in the SGC Journal, ‘Build Something Durable: The Value of Thinking Institutionally”. Although that title may not sound very intriguing, I would like us as a church here in Parramatta to know more of the family of churches we belong to and to understand how we operate as a denomination. Here in Australia, we are pioneering a new denomination, not just a network of a few churches and so we need to think how do we build well so that it will last!

Friends, Easter is less than 40 days away! Easter is such an incredibly important time in the church calendar as it is a whole weekend devoted to thinking through the most important event in human history, the betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

It is common for Aussies to take this as a weekend off. But as Christians, may I encourage you to decide to make this a weekend ON! A weekend, where the Government and our workplaces allows us to have Friday through Monday for worship! What a gift that is, so let us steward the gift wisely!

As a church we will have three key events over Easter:

1. Thursday: The Golgotha Experience (evening) - a live performance of an album by ‘Poor Bishop Hooper’ listen to it here: https://www.golgothamusic.com/welcome

2. Friday: Good Friday Service (evening)

3. Sunday: Resurrection Sunday Service w. Baptisms (morning)

Easter is my favourite time of the year. Let’s make best use of the time for the days are evil by preparing our hearts and our calendars to worship Jesus and invite others to worship him!

Today we got the keys to Iron St and already we’ve been busy cleaning it up and getting it ready for our Music Night tonight. There are going to be so many different jobs to help make this space ours. A short list already:

• gardening

• cleaning

• high pressure cleaning of the pavement/walls

• some fix-it jobs

• technical (projectors, internet etc)

• painting

• organising

• decorating

• creatives

If you have time, skills, a willing attitude, please contact Richard (richard@sgparra.org.au) to volunteer to help. Stay tuned for a working bee.

What an awesome time we had with all those that could make it for our first SG Parra Retreat! It was a great time of bonding, worship, relaxing, and war (SG Cup!)! We were served so well by Dave Taylor as he preached through Colossians 1:15-29, spend some time this week looking through your notes and if you missed the sermons they will be uploaded soon! A massive thank you to all who helped pull Retreat off in all the various ways, you all served so well! Thank you!

We are back with Life Groups this week! Your LG leaders will send you all the information you need for your first week back in person!

Make sure you have listened to Richard’s helpful sermon, ‘Who’s Your One?’ in preparation: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/sovereign-grace-church-parramatta/id1479361917?i=1000550494539

On Wednesday 23rd March, we will have no Life Group’s so that all our church can attend this important seminar hosted by SG Wahroonga with guest speaker Andy Farmer from Covenant Fellowship Church (a SG Church in the US).

The topic is one that affects us all wether personally or with people we know and love: ‘Dealing with the Realities of Mental Illness’. Please put it in the calendar (it should already be there if you have the church cal!), get your baby sitter, and come ready to learn and ask questions.

Every Friday during the school term ‘Ladies Coffee Morning’ is on for all who are free and available at that time. They meet one week in a house and the next week in a park, so please contact Rebs if you’d like more information.

It’s been nearly three months since we sadly sent out Abi to the US for her yearlong internship at Covenant Fellowship Church in Philly and we all miss her so much! I asked Abi to give us a bit of an update on how it’s all going…so please read and enjoy!

“Hello from America!!

I just wanted to reach out and give a little update on life over here across the pond :)

Firstly - I miss being at Parra and doing life with you guys! But, in God's kindness, it has been so special to experience a Sovereign Grace Church family connection over here that I am extremely thankful for, that makes it feel like home. A lot of people have asked about SG Parra and it's been really encouraging to tell them about my home church. They think we are so cool because of our promo video at JBrewers - though the disappointment is real when I tell them that no we don't meet in a coffee/music shop anymore haha.

Secondly - I have been SO blessed and so loved by people here and I'm continually blown away by God's provision and kindness to me!!! There are so many stories already but a big answer to prayer that just happened recently is that someone has lent me their car for the whole year ... which is INSANELY generous and a huge answer to prayer! It's so cute and probably the nicest car I'll drive. I have gotten into the car on the wrong side plenty of times already and have gone around a-round-about the wrong way - haha oops - but other than that, no dramas praise God!

Thirdly: I have started serving in the Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry over here, which has been a lot of fun, a little scary at times, but I feel like I've already learnt a lot in how things are run and I look forward to continuing to grow in my knowledge and understanding of both ministry areas. I'm helping out with running a VBS in June - which ironically is based off Australia 😂 guess who gets to be the MC and the Australian character in the drama skits 🙋🙋haha! I'm honestly so excited, and I think it's going to be so much fun!! I'm also helping them with their youth camp that's in August which sounds crazy and epic, but that will also be an awesome time of serving, learning and growing.

My schedule at the moment is 2 days a week in the office but now that I have a car I'll be able to go in on extra days when needed, which will help open up other opportunities to serve and other ministries to get involved in that have come up in the past couple weeks. I'm also currently helping with things like: kids care for different seminars, youth instagram, photos, film editing, bookshop, and the extra little things you give to the Intern haha - which I actually love helping with!

God has already blessed me with some really sweet and solid friendships and peers, which has been a huge gift and encouragement to me already, so I'm thanking the Lord imminently for answering those prayers so quickly!

I have been praying for you guys and for the church! I hope your first SG Parra retreat is a blast, and just a real sweet and encouraging time together as a church! I can't wait to hear about it and hear about what the Lord!!

Oh! And lastly ... snow is beyond magical!!! My goodness, it's just spectacular and I love it!

God bless you Sovereign Grace Parramatta!

Much love and prayers”