How is Crowd

Different?

8/4/10

Crowd Evangel is a way to plant seeds. It’s a way of clearly

explaining the washing of regeneration and the power of

following Christ.

We plant seeds. And we do that by imitating the Apostle

Paul and the Apostle John and borrowing their wording. The

wording we borrow is eternal life and regeneration.

Paul treated regeneration as the very beginning of salvation. He

treated regeneration as the leading edge of salvation. If salvation

were an exacto-knife, regeneration would be the little slanty

strip you cut with. And when he spoke of regeneration he was on

the same page that John was on.

Eternal life is very beautifully offered in John 3:16. But

sometimes we think of eternal life as a John thing, and salvation

and justification as a Paul thing. But here’s the connection

between the two apostles: when explaining how people become

saved, that initial experience that begins salvation, that

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leading edge, Paul preferred the John 3:16 concept of life: life or

regeneration!

In fact, even in Romans he uses an interesting phrase. He

writes of the “justification of life,” as if the Father saw the brand

new life of Christ in us and in response counted us righteous.

And in 2 Timothy he writes that [Jesus] has abolished death and

brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. In

Ephesians Paul said that God has made us alive together with

Christ. On their first missionary journey we know Barnabas and

Paul preached eternal life because they told those who rejected

their message that they had “judged themselves unworthy of

eternal life.” In 1 Timothy Paul says the way he himself was

saved by Jesus was a pattern for others, “for those who are going

to believe on Him for eternal life.” And in Titus Paul said we

are saved “by the washing of regeneration”. So it isn’t just John’s

Gospel that focuses on getting saved through regeneration, Paul

used the same wording. He treated eternal life as the leading

edge of salvation.

This is why this matters when we’re planting seeds.

It frees us up to rely on the Bible. The Apostle John and the

Apostle Paul weren’t just subtly on the same page, they actually

used the same words and expression. So we can quote John 3:16

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without feeling like we are being simplistic. We can plant seeds

and trust God for the increase.

But we can also do the opposite. Jesus didn’t always tell

people about eternal life. People are not always ready for that

component of the message. Like Jesus, we also can stress the

cost of disciple ship component of the Gospel and the

repentance component of the Gospel. Again, we can plant

seeds and trust God for the increase.

In addition:

Crowd defers apologetics. With Crowd we have the option of

deferring apologetics by sending an email after the fact.

 In Crowd Evangel we read from a handbook. While reading

the handbook, we don’t communicate with eye contact. It gives

the person some space to listen and tends to encourage some

very, very positive conversations with people from very diverse

points of view. So all we do is focus on reading in a way that

helps the person follow along.

Crowd also is about careful listening. If the person has any

sort of an objection or question, stop reading. Listen. Objections

are sometimes due to spiritual warfare. So, it is important to

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listen carefully and let God guide a gracious response that may

resolve that objection permanently.

If you are wondering how to do that, Crowd uses a technique

Greg Koukl has developed. It is a very effective tactic. He uses

two simple questions in dealing with objections. He calls them

the Columbo questions—after the TV detective who steered the

guilty party toward confession with his gentle but clever

questioning.

When the person has an objection we use the first Columbo

question, which is — Could you elaborate on that? Just get them

talking and committing themselves about the problem they see

with what you’re saying. And then — What are your biggest

reasons, or evidence, for believing that is a problem or issue? In

other words, as nicely as possible, get the unbeliever to flesh out

his or her ideas. Your gentle questioning will keep you in control

of the conversation and help unbelievers rethink how solid their

objections and assumptions are.

Also when using Crowd we don’t apply pressure at the close.

This is a way of doing what we learn intuitively when sharing

our faith in our personal lives. Applying pressure can be

counterproductive and disorienting.

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With Crowd, as is always the case, the engine of evangelism is

prayer. Pray for planting seeds and for harvesting fields.

Network with other people who are serious about prayer.

Crowd Evangel is a way to plant seeds. We don’t fully explain the

Gospel narrative but we do something equally biblical, we plant

seeds that if the Lord wills will germinate to eternal life.