An APPEAL to Pastors!

Picture the scene. You’ve prepared a brand new message. Then you stand up to preach it. Everything is going fantastically well. You’re feeling confident in your delivery. It's anointed. You really sense you’re hitting the mark. So far so good. BUT... as you finish your brilliant preach...suddenly......there’s a moment of crisis. Reality dawns...and the question comes to your mind 'what next?'. How are you going to facilitate a response? Have you thought about it? Then at that moment, it all becomes too much and you just want to cry out to God ‘I’M A PASTOR, GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!’ (Ever been there?)

Truth is, the downfall of many a great message is an ill-prepared appeal. It’s like a pilot who has taken off beautifully, cruised along wonderfully and crashed landed horribly! For an appeal to be effective, it takes prayerful consideration and proper preparation. So often, this isn’t the case – and the result is an embarrassing disaster that totally undermines the effectiveness of everything that’s happened before.

There are various kinds of appeals (healing, re-commitments, responding to specific challenges etc etc). But let’s think about your evangelistic appeal. Here are 5 thoughts for you to mull over:

1) Be intentional about it

Whatever you are preaching about, be intentional about making it evangelistically effective. Yes...on Sunday mornings too. Always assume there will be people who are not yet Christians listening to your message. Therefore, EVERY message you preach should include something that will help them find faith in Jesus. Recently, a pastor told me that 5 people became Christians after he’d preached a message on tithing! TITHING!! So be sure to make an appeal for salvation at every Sunday service. Yes....I said EVERY Sunday service. That in itself is a statement of evangelistic expectation to the people in your church. So pray about it and plan to do it. Take time to consider how it will be done most effectively.

2) Preach to a point

The whole point of an evangelistic message is the build-up to a moment of response. So as you’re preaching, put it in people’s minds that there will be an opportunity to respond at the end. That will be the time when everything you’ve preached about culminates in a challenge to the listener. So build it up well. Make it inspiring. Excite people about it. And do it with real conviction. This, after all, will be a life changing moment for some people...something that will last forever!

3) Avoid pathetic appeals

Here’s an example of a pathetic appeal: ‘If you’re here today (WHAT???? WELL OF COURSE THEY ARE!) and you feel you’d like to respond, there is no pressure but you might like to consider some kind of response’. NOOOO!!! Never put the word ‘IF’ in an evangelistic appeal. It implies ‘doubt’. It’s not a word that instils confidence. You must EXPECT a response. ‘Those of you who are going to respond’ is a far better way of introducing your appeal. Do it with confidence and authority. Make it compelling. Make it more difficult to say ‘no’ than ‘yes’!

4) LEAD the appeal

Don’t faff around. Make it direct and to the point. (By the way, you don’t NEED musicians in the background – silence IS actually great music too.) Let people know exactly what is going to happen in those moments. If you really know what you’re doing, then people will sense it and that will help them feel more confident to respond. The main thing is for people to put their trust in Jesus. But in another sense, they also need to feel comfortable enough to trust you to lead them in that moment too.

When people have the courage to respond to the message you have preached, then it is YOUR responsibility to lead them. So what are you going to do? Bring them to the front? Do they stay where they are? Do you have something to give them afterwards (e.g. a book). All these things must be carefully thought through beforehand. Respect people. Be sharp. Be decisive. Do what you’ve been called to do – LEAD!!!

5) Quit begging and pro-longing

A good evangelistic appeal avoids the appearance of desperation that almost begs for new converts. A REALLY good appeal actually does the very opposite and helps people see that God’s salvation is brilliant – and that it would be stupid to miss out! So an effective appeal only needs to happen in one moment – NOT over a prolonged period of time.

When I give an appeal for salvation, I always count from 1 to 3 – and when I get to 3, that’s the moment when people know to respond. After that, the appeal is finished. From there, I go straight to leading those who have responded in a prayer. The prayer itself is simple, short and profound – helping people to acknowledge their need of Jesus forgiveness, accepting him into their lives and asking Him to help them live in his forgiveness.


Conclusion
Above all, pray. Then expect a response. Just let the Gospel do its work. Ok...I’m off now.