Church Encouraged to "Share the Gospel Fearlessly" at the 2014 Gospelization Conference

At the 2014 Gospelization Conference, Pastor In Hwa Park from New Song Church in Dallas was invited to speak at one of the seminars, during which he decided to focus on the idea of what one would find if an autopsy was performed on the deceased church.

Pastor Park mentioned in his seminar that in the Southern Baptist Convention, of which New Song Church is a part, 800 churches will be closing down, and emphasized the seriousness of the issue.

Basing his seminar on the book, "Autopsy of a Deceased Church,' written by Thom S. Rainer, he said the following characteristics could be found in a dying church: the number of congregation members start to decrease; there is an indifference that has lasted for a long time within the church; the community around the church does not know of the church's existence; pastors keep changing within 2-3 years in frequency; the church dwells on the glories of its past; the church does not spend its finances on missions but only on internal affairs; it is not active in fulfilling the Great Commission; it does not welcome or try to change; it has a tendency to try to please the congregation; there is a lack of corporate prayer; it focuses too much on maintaining the building of the church; and there is a lack of a specific purpose.

"When I was a seminary student, I remember I had such a passion for the gospel that I would go out and share the gospel every single day. But now that I've been a pastor for about 20 to 25 years, sadly, I've gotten stuck in a certain way of life, and now I don't feel the need to share the gospel," said Pastor Park. "I would give the excuse that pastoring at an immigrant church is just too challenging, but challenge my congregation to go out and share the gospel. I was living a hypocritical lifestyle."

"With God's grace, New Song Church has been growing in number and we've recently moved to a new building, but my heart was actually uneasy and at unrest," he continued. "I was even wondering if He was calling me to stop pastoring at the church, until I realized at a seminar called "T4T' that it was because I had stopped sharing the gospel."

Pastor Ying Kai, an influential pastor who had baptized 1.7 million people and planted over 150,000 churches during his 10 years of ministry, founded Training for Trainer (T4T), a training for those who desire to plant churches in overseas mission fields. The program simply focuses on training those who had been led to Christ to further lead others to Christ. Though it sounds simple, T4T has witnessed many churches being effectively planted in Asia and Africa for the past ten years.

After being trained through T4T, Pastor Park said that his heart for evangelism was stirred once again, and that he initially faced opposition from his congregation when he tried to apply what he learned to his own church. He also said that it wasn't easy to apply these methods, which were meant for church plants in mission fields, to the immigrant church.

"Ultimately, I was willing to compromise anything but I couldn't compromise the Great Commission that the Lord Jesus had left us. But I also knew that it wasn't right to fight with my congregation, so I was even willing to leave my church if their opposition continued," he said. "Thankfully, eventually they realized my sincerity and the importance of the Great Commission, and for two and a half years now, our church has been participating in the "Spiritual Nomad Strategy,' which has been challenging them to share the gospel to whoever and wherever. Evangelism is often brought up not only during my Sunday sermons, but also within small groups. And whenever we have new members, we welcome them with all our heart, but we also make sure that the gospel is preached to them and that they personally meet Jesus. Now, our church has transformed to considering evangelism as a very obvious part of our ministry."

Pastor Park emphasized that the church should not be an enjoyable cruise that believers come and relax in, but actually that it should be a battleship prepared for war.

"If we share the gospel fearlessly, God will move," he said. "These days, Christians know a lot, but the problem is that we don't necessarily apply what we know in our own lives. If we just obey the Great Commission that Christ has given us, and plant seeds of the gospel in obedience, God will enable us to bear fruit."