Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron have teamed up to equip pew-warming Christians for personal evangelism.

Ray Comfort is a contradiction of sorts. His diminutive 5-foot-5-inch frame disguises his uncanny boldness when confronting unbelievers with their need for Christ. And his whimsical demeanor conceals his dead-earnest seriousness as he tracks down sinners and confronts them with the claims of Christ.

It’s 7:30 a.m. when I meet Ray. He’s perched on a chair in his simple office, clad in jeans and short sleeves. A large print of the Titanic sinking is on one wall–reminding him of the plight of the lost. A cat is curled up under a chair. Ray kicks it across the room. I flinch. The cat is stuffed.

In the hallway, a small sign invites passers-by to look more closely. I do, and a rubber spider drops from the ceiling onto my shoulder. Elsewhere, a photo of Ray is tacked conspicuously close to the floorboards. A caption below the photo reads: “Stand up. I’m only human.”

Ray looks at his watch. It’s 7:45 a.m. and time to head across the street to the Bellflower branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Fifty people quietly wait in line outside the building. At 8 a.m., they will enter to face the judge, protesting traffic tickets and other offenses, both major and minor.

But for the next 15 minutes, they are a captive audience, so Ray gives each person a pamphlet with tips on what to do (and not do) when in the courtroom and launches into a simple presentation of the gospel.

“I don’t get paid for this. I don’t like doing this. I don’t want your money, nor am I going to ask you to join a church,” he says in a Kiwi accent still thick after 20 years in the United States. “I’m here today because I care about you and where you spend eternity, so please bear this in mind as you consider this issue.”

Ray explains the Law–God’s Law–and how everyone has broken it. “You need someone who can pay your fine,” he says. “That’s what Jesus did for you 2,000 years ago.”

Some ignore him. Some talk on cell phones. Most listen and take the CD he offers them as he leaves, and they file into the courthouse. The recording is What Hollywood Believes, an exploration of the faith of celebrities–or lack thereof.

Back in his office I ask him why he takes the time every morning to preach outside the courthouse.

“I have a moral obligation,” he replies. “Like a doctor with a cure for cancer. Every day I can think of 100 excuses for not going. But there’s one good reason why I should go: People are going to hell.”

A SOUL PURPOSE

Ray has trained himself well for the task. For years he’s had a standing offer: $1,000 for anyone who catches him without a tract. Someone once apprehended him coming out of a pool and demanded payment. Ray pulled a sodden tract out of his swimming trunks.

A few blocks from Living Waters Publications is Way of the Master (WOTM), a ministry Ray founded two years ago with actor Kirk Cameron, star of the long-running sitcom Growing Pains. On the way over to WOTM, Ray stops to chat with two women at a bus stop. They thank him for the tracts, and we’re on our way again.

While Living Waters publishes Ray’s tracts, books and evangelistic resources, WOTM produces a TV series and training course that won the National Religious Broadcasters’ People’s Choice Award in 2004. In its second season of production, the show is broadcast several times a week on Trinity Broadcasting Network, and its satellite and cable affiliates.

We sit down to watch a few clips from the show. It’s anything but typical of Christian TV programming. For one episode they rent the island of Alcatraz and film on location in the abandoned prison. In another, they take a chimpanzee to dine at an L.A. restaurant. In another, Ray and his team are repeatedly spat upon while street preaching in Jerusalem.

The goal of the program? “We want to equip Christians for personal evangelism,” Ray says. A statistic he repeatedly cites from The Coming Revival by Bill Bright, the late Campus Crusade for Christ founder, is that only 2 percent of believers share their faith.

Recalling his early efforts at soul-winning in his native New Zealand, Ray admits that he was motivated to share the gospel, but his results were less than stellar.

“I delivered ‘stillborn babies’ [spiritually speaking] when I was younger,” he says. “I ran around to my surfing buddies and said: ‘Christianity’s better than surfing. Just give your heart to Jesus. Please say this prayer. It worked for me.’” Looking back, he points out that 27 of his 28 friends backslid.

It puts a damper on evangelistic enthusiasm when 95 percent of those who make professions of faith are never integrated into the church, Ray adds, noting a statistic cited by the Assemblies of God home-missions director, Charles Hackett.

“False converts.” That’s what Ray calls those who accept Christ for all the wrong reasons. And according to him, the church is to blame.

With his penchant for colorful analogies, Ray explains, “If we thrust people into the heat of modern warfare armed with a feather-duster, it’s no wonder that they’re fearful.” The “feather-duster,” he contends, is any method of evangelism that fails to awaken sinners to their desperate moral bankruptcy before a holy God and His Law.

Telling sinners anything less is withholding the truth, Ray contends, comparing it to the danger of informing a group of people trapped in a building that’s about to be bombed that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. It’s just not true.

Before his conversion in 1972, Ray’s passions rarely stretched beyond catching a monster wave on the beaches of his native New Zealand. But surfing took a back seat when he became a believer, and within weeks of accepting Christ, Ray cranked out his first gospel tract on a primitive Gestetner–a treatise on the cause of racism (sin, not skin). Someone saw the tract, ordered 5,000 copies, and that was the beginning of a ministry that now prints 10 million tracts per year.

After his conversion, Ray assumed his passion for evangelism would be most welcome in the church, so he accepted a position as an associate pastor. But Ray admits that, during his 3-1/2 years of pastoral ministry he fit the role “like a round peg in a square hole.”

He found most church ministry mystifying. Why would people want to go to church for counseling, committee meetings and potlucks while all the sinners are outside the walls of the church?

“I abhor pastoring,” he says with a shudder. “It’s just not me. Some pastors will take a lamb in their arms and embrace it. I say: ‘Stand up. Reproduce. What’s your problem? Grow up, Lamb.’”

It was in 1982, after several years of relatively unsuccessful efforts at itinerant evangelism, that Ray found himself reading the sermons of Charles Spurgeon that describe in detail the Law’s purpose in bringing the sinner to a recognition of his or her need for salvation. He was even more convinced after reading Galatians 3:24: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (KJV).

After hearing Ray quote from memory an extended passage from one of Spurgeon’s messages, I have a sneaking suspicion that the mantle of the 19th-century British fireball has found a new home on the shoulders of this mustachioed street preacher.

I don’t think Spurgeon would be offended. In fact, in 1997, Ray got a call from someone who had just listened to his audio message Hell’s Best Kept Secret:

“I’m Charles Spurgeon’s great, great, great, great-grandson; and I got saved listening to your tape.”

Ray was skeptical–until Robert Alan Holm showed up in his office and displayed detailed genealogical papers identifying him as a direct descendant of Spurgeon.

“To me it was such an encouragement,” Ray says. “Obviously, Spurgeon prayed for his posterity.”

THE SECRET’S OUT

So, what is hell’s best-kept secret? For Ray, it’s the use of the Law in evangelism–a tool wielded by Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Charles Finney, John Newton, C.S. Lewis and John Bunyan.

But Ray believes that this tool has grown rusty with neglect, as more sinner-sensitive means of evangelism have become popular. The emotions and the intellect–instead of the conscience–are now the primary avenues of appealing to an unbeliever.

The results of this paradigm shift? Ray advocates a method of evangelism that rejects many of the popular accouterments of the sawdust trail: emotional altar music, sinners’ prayers, threats of hellfire and intellectual arguments.

His conversations with unbelievers begin something like this: “Michael, do you consider yourself a good person?” Usually the response is “yes,” and then Ray unfolds the Ten Commandments, describing God’s requirements of righteousness and humanity’s utter failure to meet those requirements:

“Have you ever looked at a woman with lust?” “Have you ever told a lie?” “Have you ever stolen something–even something very small?”

Most also answer “yes” to these questions.

Self-righteousness, Ray contends, is the greatest barrier to a person recognizing his or her need for forgiveness. And the Law offers the perfect antidote to awaken an unbeliever’s conscience and reveal that he or she is not, in fact, a good person.

Ray’s winsome manner and self-deprecating humor are enough to bring the sinner’s guard down, so that he doesn’t find himself with a blackened eye when he matter-of-factly breaks the bad news: “Michael, by your own admission, you’re a lying thief and an adulterer. Do you think that a just God should allow you into heaven?”

No debates about the existence of God. No wrangling over hypocrisy in the church. No arguments over starving children in Africa. The only question worth asking at this point is the most relevant one of all: What must I do to be saved?

If an unbeliever’s conscience is not pricked with the “bad news” of his or her sin, Ray sees no need to offer the “good news” of forgiveness or grace when a sinner doesn’t think he or she needs it.

Although Ray’s message is rooted in the Ten Commandments–a ubiquitous feature of his tracts, books and street messages–he contends that this emphasis is anything but legalistic.

“The Law is what makes grace make sense,” he says. “The more you realize your sin, the more you realize your need for grace.”

In 1989, a pastor in Southern California who heard his message on tape, called Ray and invited him to move to the United States and share Hell’s Best Kept Secret with a wider audience. Within days, Ray, his wife, daughter and two sons pulled up stakes and moved to Bellflower, California, where he began teaching his message in churches and preaching in Los Angeles’ notorious MacArthur Park.

News about Hell’s Best Kept Secret was primarily spread by word-of-mouth recommendations, until Institute in Basic Life Principles founder Bill Gothard heard the message and invited Ray to share it at a pastor’s conference. Soon after, Times Square Church pastor David Wilkerson was listening to the tape in his car and immediately called Ray and invited him to bring the message to his congregation in New York.

Since then, Ray has shared his Hell’s Best Kept Secret message 815 times in churches and conferences in 42 states and nine nations, as well as preaching outside the L.A. courthouse every morning he’s in town.

But it’s the uncomfortable three years in pastoral ministry that have given Ray a heart for awakening the church to evangelism–and the sensitivity to understand the challenges that pastors face.

“When I go into a local church, I realize that the pastor is virtually saying: ‘Here’s the keys to my car. You’re driving. I’m in the back with my family. Please stay on the right side of the road,’” he says. “It’s a great position of trust when the pastor lets me step up to his pulpit.”

Ray’s single-minded message has brought him a wide audience from nearly every denomination, and although he attends a Calvary Chapel church, he hesitates to focus on denominational distinctions or involve himself in doctrinal disputes.

“There are certain theological issues I don’t talk about because I know if I do, doors to certain churches will close for me,” he explains. “I have a nondenominational ministry, so I stay away from opinions on charismatic issues, Christian rock music, Calvinism, Arminianism, prophecy and so on.”

HITCHED TO A STAR

For several years, Living Waters Publications enjoyed a loyal following among street preachers and believers in the market for innovative tracts and evangelistic materials. But all that changed in 2001 when someone thrust a cassette recording of Hell’s Best Kept Secret into the hands of Growing Pains heartthrob Kirk Cameron while he was promoting Left Behind: The Movie.

After listening to the tape, Kirk was so intrigued that he called Ray to thank him for the message. The friendship that developed from that connection led to Ray advising Kirk and the producers of Left Behind’s sequel Tribulation Force to beef up the presentation of the gospel to include–you guessed it–the Ten Commandments. Sure enough, in sharp contrast to the more typical witnessing scenes in Left Behind, lines from the second film have an uncanny ring of Spurgeon to them.

In 2002, Kirk appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, mentioned Hell’s Best Kept Secret and Living Waters, and, within hours, Ray’s Web site had crashed with 71,000-plus hits. A short time later, the network agreed to let Kirk share the message again–and interview Ray. This time the Web server was ready for the 1 million hits that the program brought.

Today, Kirk admits that his first impressions of Ray were less than impressive when the two first met in an L.A. restaurant.

“He was this unassuming looking, little guy, cracking lots of corny jokes,” Kirk recalls. “I was thinking, ‘Yeah, just stick with theology, Pal.’” Ray handed tracts to every person in the restaurant, entertained the staff with a sleight of hand routine and flashed a fake ID with a photo of himself–complete with a forehead the size of a soccer ball. Ray’s message, however, Kirk found irresistible. “That day began a lot of conversations about ministry and the way to spread the gospel,” he says. “When I tried it for myself, I became convinced that what he was doing was absolutely effective–and I wanted to do everything I could to get this teaching to the church.”

Although Kirk was used to giving his testimony–both inside and outside the church–he had often found himself frustrated with the results.

“I would try to share my faith whenever the door would open,” he admits. “But it was easy to get discouraged, especially living in the culture that we do, which seems to be so antagonistic toward Christianity, absolute truth or the value of the Scriptures.”

Those conversations with Ray led to the creation of The Way of the Master, a show that wraps practical teaching on evangelism in a reality-TV format.

“We try to make the teaching extremely easy to understand and apply,” says Kirk, who fills the role–with Ray–of co-host and co-producer of the program. “The thing that makes it unique is that every true Christian has a desire to go out and be a witness for Jesus Christ, but most people are very afraid to actually do that.”

The two hosts teach on the nuts and bolts of personal evangelism, incorporating Scripture, church-growth statistics and quotes from Spurgeon, Whitefield and Bunyan. Then, the cameras take viewers to the street, where Ray, Kirk and others on their team engage unbelievers in conversation–and, ultimately, the message of the Law, grace and forgiveness.

The episode titles are engaging (for example, “Alcatraz, Al Capone and Alcohol,” “How to Witness to Someone Who’s Gay” and “True and False Conversion”) and tools for application abound. But the theology behind the program is anything but user friendly.

In fact, neither Ray nor Kirk have much time for “consumer Christianity”–as they call the current church milieu.

“Tastes great. Less filling.” That’s how Kirk describes much of modern church life, borrowing the familiar beer slogan. “Christianity has been tailored to suit the tastes of the modern churchgoer: shorter sermons, cooler music, no confrontation.”

The results are pews filled with people who rarely muster the courage to witness. And when they do, it’s often for the wrong reasons, he contends.

“Most people think: ‘I should share my faith. It’s my right. I should be able to say what I want. Stand up for myself,’” Kirk explains. “Really, motivation for evangelism should be the fate of the lost and gratitude for what Christ has done for us.” Whether passing out tracts on the street or sharing his faith with Hollywood celebrities, Kirk admits that–like everyone–he faces the dragons of fear and intimidation. But there’s always another nagging image that he cannot erase from his mind.

“When I look at the cross and see that Christ was left in bleeding shreds to save me, I’m so grateful,” he says. “The desire of my heart is to obey His greatest command–The Great Commission.”

SIDEBAR: W.D.J.D.

Four crucial questions every soul-winner must ask and every sinner must answer.

In a spin on the popular ’90s bracelet slogan “What Would Jesus Do?” Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron have developed an easy-to-remember series of questions (based on the phrase “What did Jesus do?”) that can be used to lead a sinner to a realization of his or her need for forgiveness:

W – ­ Would you consider yourself to be a good person?

“Self-righteousness,” Ray says, “is the No. 1 problem we face in witnessing. People think God is their friend, when, in fact, the Bible says God is their enemy.”

D -­ Do you think that you have kept the Ten Commandments?

“Most people think that all they have to do is ask God for forgiveness and God freely forgives,” Ray explains. “That doesn’t work in our civil courts. No, you’re in debt to the Law. He must pronounce judgment on you–a judgment that only Christ can satisfy.”

J -­ Judgment. If God judged you according to those Commandments, would you be innocent or guilty?

“It’s true that, as Christians, we are under the new covenant,” Kirk admits. “But the standards of the Ten Commandments are still the standards by which non-Christians will be judged. Scripture says that liars, thieves, adulterers and blasphemers will be cast into the lake of fire–these are references to the Ten Commandments.”

D -­ Destiny. So, do you think you would go to heaven or hell?

“We all have a will to live,” Ray notes. “Tap into the unbeliever’s God-given survival instinct, and they will naturally seek to shun hell and its torment.”

SIDEBAR: Fear Factor

Ray and Kirk’s five tips for facing–and conquering–the terrors of personal evangelism.

The fate of the ungodly: In the United States, the worst that can happen to a believer for sharing his or her faith is rejection. The worst that can happen to a sinner is eternity in hell.

The fear of the Lord: We should fear God enough to obey Him and preach the gospel to every creature. Paul said, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men …” (2 Cor. 5:11, KJV).

Tracts: Perhaps the most difficult part of witnessing is bringing up the subject. Tracts make it easy to start conversation: “Did you get one of these?” For the faint of heart, a tract makes for an easy getaway.

Conscience: Appealing to the conscience, rather than the intellect or the emotions, will take the “argument” aspect out of witnessing by using the Ten Commandments to awaken a knowledge of sin.

The cross: Would you share your faith more often if you were given $1,000 every time you did it? Most people would. If you could deal with your fear problem for the love of money, could you deal with it for the love of God?

The suffering Savior should be enough to motivate anyone to overcome his or her fears and reach out to the lost.

SIDEBAR: The Comfort Zone

Ray Comfort puts some sacred cows of modern evangelism out of their misery.

Altar-Call Music: “I’ve noticed the power of music. I find myself weeping while I’m watching Little House on the Prairie. I push the mute button and suddenly I’m back to being a man. You can move mountains with music–and you can also manipulate. Imagine if I said to my son after he broke an expensive vase: ‘I told you not to touch that vase. Are you sorry for what you’ve done? Hold on a minute. Before you say anything, let me put on some music to help you make your decision.’ I don’t want to stir his emotions. I want to speak to his will and his conscience.”

The ‘Sinner’s Prayer’: “Instead of saying, ‘Say this prayer after me,’ I say, ‘You might want to say this prayer.’ If a man has committed adultery, do I have to give him a card to read to his wife, ‘Dear wife, I’m sorry I committed adultery’? She’s not interested in his words; she’s interested in his heart. It’s not a rote prayer; it’s a prayer of contrition.”

Follow-up: “If someone is truly converted, they won’t need me to nurse them into the church. Your methodology will be directed by your theology. If you believe that people come to Jesus because of something you say, you’ll feel that their whole salvation is dependent on you. If you say that conviction is of the Holy Spirit, salvation is of the Lord and no one can come unless the Father draws him–then it releases you to let go.”

Friendship Evangelism: “I’m not a big fan of relationship evangelism. Obviously, we have to relate to sinners, but who are the hardest people to witness to? Isn’t it your relations? So why would we make strangers into relations? It’s easier to witness to a stranger. Besides, the person I build a relationship with over a period of months or years could drop dead–then he’s gone for eternity. I can build a relationship with someone in two minutes. I buy them a meal or give them a couple bucks.”

by Matt Green
from Ministry Today magazine
Jan/Feb 2005

Reinhard Bonnke has the fiery passion and fatherly compassion that make up the ingredients of a biblical evangelist.

When he is trying to get a point across, Reinhard Bonnke is known for his colorful metaphors: comparing evangelism to arson (in a good way), the church to a pleasure boat (in a bad way) and his style of ministry to sugar mixed with sand. But the descriptive word that most who know him would use to describe Bonnke is “fiery.”

The same inner flame that burns as this stocky evangelist persuades crowds of more than a million in open-air crusades, smolders as he shares his calling, seated at his desk at his Orlando, Florida-based ministry, Christ for All Nations (CfaN).

“I may come across as being a person of passion,” he admits. “But my passion is tempered with divine compassion. This compassion is what makes an evangelist.”

No, Bonnke is not an evangelist enamored with visions of hellfire and brimstone, whose very presence in the room makes people doubt their salvation. Rather, he possesses the single-minded, white-hot burden for the lost that tends to spread to whoever hears him speak—not by using guilt, but inspiring others with his longing to see souls brought into the kingdom.

Just since 2000, Bonnke has preached to 50 million people and CfaN has documented 34 million decisions for Christ through followup cards. But after nearly 45 years of ministry, the German-born evangelist has no plans to take a “holiday” any time soon.

While crusade attendees report healings–from the disappearance of tumors to the restoration of sight–some have experienced miracles without even attending Bonnke’s crusades.

In November of 2001, Daniel Ekechukwu, a pastor in Onitsha, Nigeria, was pronounced dead at a local hospital after a disastrous accident. Hearing that Bonnke was preaching at a nearby church, Ekechukwu’s wife had his body brought to the church two days after the accident.

While several pastors were guarding the body and waiting for Bonnke to finish preaching and praying in the auditorium upstairs, they noticed Ekechukwu’s stomach begin to twitch. Within minutes, he had regained consciousness and was sitting up and breathing. By this time, Bonnke had left the church and gotten on a plane–unaware of the events happening in the same building.

Some have criticized Bonnke’s ministry, suggesting that those who attend his crusades come only to see the miracles, but he remains undeterred by such comments. “It’s wrong to go after signs and sensations, as some do,” Bonnke admits. “But God has always used signs to confirm His Word.”

Recently, Bonnke sat down with Ministries Today to answer some of these questions, and to comment on the relationship of the evangelist and the local church, the future of mass crusades, and the benefits and limitations of signs and wonders in reaching the lost.

Questions and Answers

Ministries Today: When did you know that you were called to be an evangelist?

Reinhard Bonnke: Although I was called to ministry at the age of 10, it was not until 1959, when I went to Bible college, that it became clear to me that Jesus had specifically directed me to become an evangelist. I knew that it was now my task for the rest of my days.

Ministries Today: How do you see your relationship to the local church and your role in partnership with it?

Bonnke: I am a church-based evangelist, because I believe that biblical evangelism makes no sense if it doesn’t lead new converts into churches. I bend over backwards to ensure that after my crusades new converts will find spiritual homes.

My relationship with the churches is first-class, because I say to them: “I come with my nets, and I want to borrow your boats. Together we will go out into the deep to cast the nets, catch the fish and bring it to the shore. I will shake out every fish on the banks, and I won’t take a single fish with me.”

Ministries Today: How do you see the role of an evangelist complementing the other fivefold gifts?

Bonnke: I see the ministry of the evangelist as very important, but always in harmony with the rest of the fivefold ministries.

When Jesus spoke about the good Samaritan, He painted a picture of Himself—the chief evangelist and the one who seeks and saves those who are lost. The parable should be an example for all evangelists to follow. We pick up those people who have fallen among thieves and are lying half-dead along the road, and we bring these people to the inn.

The inn is a picture of the church. It symbolizes the pastoral ministry. Thank God that the evangelist finds an open door so that he can bring those whom he has rescued and ensure that they will be nursed back to health, that they can become strong, and also go out to seek and save the lost.

Ministries Today: What is God looking for in an evangelist?

Bonnke: People come to me and say, “We like your passion.” Passion can easily turn into fanaticism, but evangelists are not fanatical at all.

I believe that an evangelist stands out when he has the compassion stirring his heart that stirred the father when the prodigal son returned. He threw his arms about his good-for-nothing, smelly son and he kissed him. We can have the ministry of Jesus only to the degree that we have His compassion.

Ministries Today: You are a crusade evangelist. What do you believe the future is for crusade evangelism, such as yours, Billy Graham’s and that of others?

Bonnke: After World War II, some said that the days of mass evangelism were over, but with Billy Graham, they really started.

There’s an African proverb that says, “When sugar is mixed with sand, the elephant doesn’t get it, but the ants do.” Maybe my evangelism is the “elephant type,” and there may be places where it will not work. Thank God for the army of witnesses, the ants, who can still extract the souls from between the sand.

Ministries Today: You’ve seen many dramatic miracles in your crusades. What is the role of signs and wonders in evangelism, and what are the limitations?

Bonnke: Signs and wonders are biblical, and in our crusades, they authenticate the gospel. People see it as such—especially people of other religions. At first, they may not come to listen to my preaching, but once they see how Jesus heals the sick, they open up, and they receive salvation.

Sometimes I’m referred to as a “healing evangelist.” I would call myself a salvation evangelist, who also prays for the sick. Because sickness is not the ultimate evil, healings are not the ultimate good.

Sin is the ultimate evil. Therefore, salvation is the ultimate good. It is the greatest of all miracles. It cost God the most–His only begotten Son. Part of that is healing for the body, but this is temporal. Salvation is eternal, because our souls are immortal.

Ministries Today: When ministering in superstitious cultures, how do you keep the focus on Christ, when some would come just to see signs and wonders?

Bonnke: I’ve seen many witch doctors get saved in our crusades. They bring their fetishes, and we burn them in front of everybody with great rejoicing. This is a hallmark of my ministry in many places, and when you listen to those testimonies, it’s absolutely fantastic. We see animists, idolaters and people of other religions receive Christ.

Ministries Today: How do you deal with the challenge of discipling people who come to salvation in your crusades?

Bonnke: We cooperate with churches, because it is of paramount importance that converts find a spiritual home. Before we decide to go to a city, we recruit and train counselors from local churches.

Sometimes we have thousands of churches cooperating. In a recent crusade we had 200,000 counselors on the field and 3.4 million people who received Jesus as their Savior. We assign new convert cards to churches based on how many counselors each church has.

Ministries Today: What will it take to evangelize the Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu world in the 21st century?

Bonnke: I had a crusade last year on Easter in Khartoum, Sudan. I didn’t expect too much. It was my first visit, and I knew about the situation in Sudan.

The first meeting, we only had 30,000 people. When I began to pray for the sick, the power of Jesus struck that place. A deaf mute was completely healed, and blind people received their sight.

The next night, we had 70,000, then 150,000, then 180,000, then 200,000—in the green square in the heart of Khartoum, Sudan, a Muslim country! That has given me faith for North Africa and for the hardest nations on earth.

Ministries Today: Has the American church become content financing evangelism without being involved in it?

Bonnke: Anyone who is financing evangelism is also involved in it. I preach the gospel to the poor. How could I do it if people will not financially enable me to do it? I believe that people who support my ministry participate in the eternal fruit of the ministry–those souls saved in Africa.

Sometimes, I think that, with so many involved with prayer and financial support, I hope that some part of the reward will be left for the preacher!

Ministries Today: What advice would you have for pastors who want to reach their communities, but are encountering a seeming lack of interest in the gospel?

Bonnke: In the parable of the sower, Jesus was the sower, and the seed was the Word. You couldn’t get a better sower, and you couldn’t get a better seed, but the yield depended upon the soil, and soils are different.

The results are not always the same, but if we stay close to Jesus and change our methods a little bit, we will find better results. A pastor who preaches the gospel and sees some negative results shouldn’t be criticized. He should be encouraged.

Ministries Today: You are a very single-minded person. How do you maintain your passion for souls?

Bonnke: It’s the Holy Spirit. It grips me when I see people come to salvation. I’m a tough German, but I could cry tears when I hear the testimony of how someone gets saved. The fire I got when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit at the age of 11 keeps renewing me.

We’ll go on holiday when the last soul is saved. There’s no way to retire now. Would you retire if you were in a rescue boat and you saw 100 more souls battling in the water? It’s not possible, because evangelism is not a profession, it’s a divine calling.

How two highly-motivated cultists revived my interest in personal evangelism.

It was somewhere in the midst of our discussion of blood transfusions, the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the war in Iraq that my heart broke for the two neatly-dressed gentlemen at my front door.

My budding friendship with several members of the Watchtower Society (aka Jehovah’s Witnesses) has drawn me away from my chores many a Saturday into the convoluted world of their cult. I’m beginning to wonder why they keep coming back to my door–I’m showing no signs of softening my position, and neither are they.

But these guys are making me ask myself some interesting questions. Mostly about why I’m home doing laundry and mowing my lawn while they’re pounding the pavement spreading their version of “the good news.”

It’s easy for me to chalk their misguided zeal up to some form of demonic deception or rabid legalism. But what if they’re telling the truth when they say they care about my soul? Their heretical theology and intrusive evangelistic tactics aside, JWs have an uncanny way of reminding the church why we’re here: for the sake of the lost.

I find it easy to slip into the “virtual Christianity” that Reinhard Bonnke describes–sending a check, saying a prayer and leaving the rest to the experts. But ultimately the responsibility for taking the gospel to the ends of the earth rests in the hands of each of us.

As you will read in this issue of Ministries Today, this task remains unaccomplished, but the tools and opportunities we’ve been given for completing it have never been more diverse and exciting. It’s as though God is saying to us: “Here you are. It’s not going to be any easier. But I want to make sure every saint has an opportunity to speak, and every sinner has a chance to hear.”

Not too many of us find this a particularly enjoyable task, and we’re amazed by soul-winners for whom evangelism comes so naturally. But my weekend visitors have reawakened me to the exhilaration of sharing my own experience of knowing and loving the Creator of the universe. It’s just too bad it took two highly-motivated cultists to revive my interest in personal evangelism.

Perhaps, that’s why our gracious God is bringing the “ends of the earth” to our doorstep, in the form of immigrants, refugees, international students, the secular marketplace and, yes, even the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

He’s hoping we will rediscover the joy of making His mission our mission: to seek and to save that which was lost.

Opportunity is knocking. Will we answer the door?

by Matt Green
from Ministry Today magazine
July/Aug 2004