How to teach God’s good news
in EasyEnglish
A guide for church leaders
In a very severe manner, James warns church leaders and all who teach in churches. Their words will have a powerful effect on people’s lives. So they must be careful about the things that they say. They must teach God’s word, the Bible, clearly. They must show other people how to begin and to continue a right relationship with God. When people meet to learn about God, God himself is also present. And he is the judge of the things that the teacher says. (See James 3:1.)
Many church leaders care much about their words, but for different reasons. Perhaps they desire to show how carefully they have studied their subject. Perhaps they want to tell a story well, or perhaps they are trying to amuse people. Jesus spoke severe words about leaders who cared only to impress other people (Matthew 6:1; Mark 12:38-40).
It is wrong for a church leader to imagine that he can speak about any subject whatever. God has given that church leader responsibility for the people who listen to him (Hebrews 13:17). That is, the leader is responsible for their relationship with God. The leader is not responsible for the decisions that people may make. But, like Ezekiel, he is responsible to warn them about the things that God orders them to do (Ezekiel 33:1-11).
Clearly, therefore, church leaders have a responsibility to tell people how they can receive a right relationship with God. But some church leaders are not sure about that. Such a leader may say, ‘I cannot save anyone. Only God can save people. So I do what I am able to do. I have the skill to bring people into my church. I know how to encourage people so that they continue to come to church. I provide meetings that interest them. I arrange events that they enjoy. I do not often explain that people need a personal relationship with God. My members do not like to hear about such things. I worry that they may leave my church as a result.’
Some of this church leader’s ideas are right, but some are wrong. He is right that only God can save a person. But a leader must not imagine that he brings people into his church by his own skill. It is God who sends a person into a particular church. God does it because he is working in that person’s life. He wants to use that church leader to teach that person. So it is a terrible thing if a church leader refuses to speak God’s message.
We can see that this church leader has another wrong attitude also. He is afraid of people’s reactions to God’s message. But nobody should be so afraid of people that he cannot carry out his duties to God. See Proverbs 29:25.
There are many church leaders, however, who understand their responsibility in front of God. They recognise that people really do need a right relationship with God. And those church leaders want very much to show people how they can receive that right relationship. But often those church leaders have a different problem. They do not clearly understand what they should be explaining. Many Christians imagine that every church leader already knows about all such matters. But, of course, that is not true. And that is the reason for this book. It will show you what people need to know in order to receive a right relationship with God. It will explain how you can teach these things clearly. And it will give you the confidence to declare these things publicly.
2000 years ago, Paul wrote that there is only one gospel. And he insisted that the gospel will never change (Galatians 1:6-12). Here, the gospel means the message of good news that God uses to save people. It is by this gospel that God can save people from every nation (Romans 1:16-17).
2000 years later, there are many Christian churches and they disagree about many things. But when Christians study their Bible in order to understand the gospel message, something astonishing happens. They agree about almost everything in the gospel message. They agree that all people are, by nature, enemies of God. They agree that only God can save people. They agree that this can only happen because of the death of Christ.
That is powerful evidence that the gospel really is a message from God (Galatians 1:11). People from different churches, with different traditions, agree that the gospel is the reason why Jesus came to this earth. They agree that it is essential for people to believe the gospel. They agree that it is the most important message ever.
So, let us study the gospel message carefully.
|
Next part: Why do so many evil things happen in our world? |
This article comes from the book: ‘How to teach God’s good news in EasyEnglish’ by Keith Simons, available as a free download below:
© 2013, Keith Simons.