Let them come forward

January 3, 2025

This morning I was reading in First Timothy and came across the following passage:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing... (1 Tim 6:3-4 ESV)

I was actually reading this in my Greek New Testament and I translated it differently:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not come forward with the sound words...

The ESV and almost every other English version translates the Greek word προσέρχεται here as either "agree with" or "consent to" or something along those lines. But it doesn't mean that. The lexicons clearly state that the Greek verb προσερχομαι means to come or go to or towards someone or someplace. In particular, it can mean to come forward in order to speak and address a group of people.

This struck me, because it gives such a clear picture of what church meetings were like during those early days. When the disciples gathered together, different ones would stand up or step forward to share a short teaching or a word of encouragement or an exhortation or revelation or prophecy and so on (see 1 Cor 12:26). The elders leading these meetings encouraged and allowed such participation, making room for the Holy Spirit to do His work among the saints. The result was that the people were strengthened and encouraged, and some were probably even healed or delivered during each meeting (see 1 Cor 12:9-10).

While Paul here is warning Timothy that some who come forward like this may be conceited and argumentative, my point is that if the early church gave freedom to everyone to share during their meetings — and thus gave freedom to the Holy Spirit to do whatever He wanted to do at the meeting — then shouldn't we be "doing church" the same way today?

This isn't practical of course if your church gathering has hundreds of people. But it's easy to do if you only have a dozen or so attending your meeting, for example in a home fellowship. That's why Ingrid and I have always maintained that home fellowships are where church really happens. We explain this in detail in chapter 2 of our book Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships which you can read online or download as a free PDF. I encourage you to read it if you are in church leadership and have a heart for equipping the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph 4:12).

And I'm not suggesting that having a big church is bad, or that you should break your church up into a bunch of smaller churches (though that might not be such a bad idea.) What I'm saying is that church should be somewhere where everyone gets to play, as Wimber used to day. Otherwise, what's the point? Are you trying to build an army or an audience? Let them come forward!

Hear what I'm sayin'?

—Mitch

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More tips on doing personal evangelism

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In a previous post I outlined some tips on how to become more effective in personal evangelism. I learned these years ago from listening to John Wimber teaching on the subject. I've been finding these tips helpful lately as Ingrid and I try to tell the people we meet in the marketplace about Jesus. In this present post I'll list some more tips gleaned from John's teaching, and I've incorporated these additional tips into the PDF titled John Wimber on Personal Evangelism which can be found in the Resources section of our website . You're the bait! The way you live and act will open the door "You're different. Why?" (from Ingrid) Use the J-word in your response! Meet them where they are at spiritually Not everyone is hungry for God People are at many different levels in the process of coming to God Fill up their cup, but don't overfill Give them a Bible verse that relate to their present need This means you need to know the Scriptures! Remember that God is seeking them even if they aren't looking for Him Be sincere when answering their questions Admit that you don't know the answer "But this I do know..." Still more to come... —Mitch

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Shake off the dust

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