History
After Christ’s resurrection and Pentecost, churches that were planted by the apostles were initially made up of Jews who had come to believe in Jesus. As news about Christ spread by the apostles and the new Jewish believers, scores of pagans throughout the Mediterranean world found the new life in Christ. These newly transformed believers were overwhelmed by the power of the gospel to change their lives give them a new hope, and so they spread the news about Christ wherever they went, and they were passionate to do it – Jesus had changed their lives!
But only a few centuries later something strange began to happen. The passion, excitement and joy of sharing the news about Jesus with everyone they met slowly disappeared and for the next several hundred years the church became institutionalized and religionized. And those changes had a profound affect on what we know as the ‘church’ today. And over time an invisible barrier gradually grew between believers and unbelievers that, eventually led to the privatization of the Christian faith, inhibiting Christians communicating the gospel with their neighbor.
By the late 20th century, instead of churches growing through the new birth, as had happened in the 1st and 2nd centuries, churches didn’t grow and, if they did, grew only by attracting other Christians from other churches, which resulted in the radical decline of what had once been a rapid spread of the gospel. What took the place of the explosive growth ended up being simply a reshuffling of the Christian community from one church to another. And the lost people? Sadly, they were lost in the shuffle.
The New Testament is replete with passages that show that the 1st century Christians were frequently telling others about Christ and understood that it was critical if the gospel was to spread throughout the world. Here are just a few:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28.19 – 20
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1.8
Now those who were scattered went about speaking the Word to others. Acts 4.8
“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, for which I am an ambassador in chains.” Ephesians 6.19 – 20
And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 1 Peter 3
And this is what Jesus intended to happen all along. That’s why He said in John 4 that now, “the fields are ripe or white for harvest.” And then Jesus showed it when the entire town of Sychar believed in Him!
So we should have been seeing in every generation after Jesus’ resurrection and Pentecost, 1,000’s and then 10’s and 100’s of 1,000s of people, become genuine followers of Christ! Imagine what kind of world it would be today, if every Christian in every generation for just the last 200 years had talked to all the people they knew about Christ!
Jesus’ resurrection had set the stage for that to be the norm – a time when the gospel would be communicated and believed to such an extent that it could eventually be said:
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest. Hebrews 8.11
This led me to ask: Why, over the generations, were so few coming to Christ, why were so few telling others about Him? Clearly there was a correlation. But what was it? What caused this phenomenon? Why were so many Christians in churches, who wanted lost people to come to Christ, having such a hard time talking about Him? They talk about church: its ministries, programs, praise band, youth groups, Sunday School classes, moral issues, and doctrines; they talk about the plight of the world, the loss of morality, suffering, but not about Jesus – the main Person Christians talked about for the first two centuries!
These questions are the most crucial questions of our time, the answers to which have power to transform the church as we now know it and bring whole nations to Christ.
While there are several inhibitors, there are 2 major barriers today undermining the rapid spread of the gospel:
There are longstanding spiritual, cultural, and intellectual habits or traditions among most Christians that have become barriers, keeping them from talking freely about Christ. And…
There is an overlapping, but different set of spiritual, cultural, and intellectual barriers in the minds of non-Christians, that keep them from hearing, understanding, and trusting Christ.
So, what if what Jesus said in John 4 is true: that the fields of lost souls really are ripe for harvest? What if countless people would come to Christ if they heard the gospel in their own cultural language, at their own intellectual level, and in a way that touched the core of their heart and soul, and the Spirit opened their eyes? What if we just had to ‘start’ the conversation and relay the gospel in its simplicity?
I was on a flight from Seatle and began talking with the lady next to me. I asked her a few questions about her life; she asked me about mine. Over the next while we began talking about Jesus. The people in the row in front and behind us became quiet – they had started to listen to our conversation.
Sometime after that flight I came across John 4 – that the fields really are ready to be harvested, and began to wonder: If those 4 – 6 people around us wanted to listen in on our conversation, how many others in the world want to hear the story about Christ in a way that would answer their deepest longings and questions and make sense of their lives – Who am I? Why am I here? What is my meaning and purpose in life?
In an effort to restore the rapid spread of the gospel by God’s children, Breaking the Barriers has committed the next 5 years to:
1. Pinpoint what barriers inhibit un-believers today, by engaging in conversations with numerous lost people, to understand why they think the way do, and find the spiritual pathways into their lives that will free them to joyfully come to Christ.
At the same time, I want to…
2. Break through barriers inhibiting Christians and train them how to naturally and winsomely dialogue with people about who Jesus really is, point them to Christ, and By God’s grace disciple and train them in their new faith.
For decades I’ve been compelled to converse with lost people. I’ve built relationships with unbelievers in several cities. As of today, there are 75 lost young people whose parents are heartbroken that their adult child/children left the faith. In addition, a church plant in Lihue, Kuai, Hawaii, has asked me to train their body on how to reach the lost people on the island, many of whom live in poverty.
I’ve shared the gospel on planes, in coffee shops and restaurants, at state parks, in pubs in the panhandle and on beaches on Okaloosa Island.
Our ultimate goal is for every Christian in the country and around the world to learn how to communicate the gospel fearlessly and lovingly to their neighbors, acquaintances, and the random people God brings across their path, disciple them, and prepare these new believers to bring the gospel to others and disciple 1 person per year for the rest of their lives. If 60,000 people did this for 15 years, every person in the world would hear the gospel!
For the rapid spread of His gospel,
Mart Novak
Executive Director