DOES "GO YE" MEAN "GO ME"?
Does the "Go ye" of the Great Commission demand that each disciple of Christ join in evangelizing the world? Our "personal evangelists," "soul winners," and campaigners make this an inescapable obligation for each of us. They make us feel so guilty about it that we are swept into their programs, whether we are capable or not.
The unsaved must be evangelized, but all disciples are not equipped for that task. Paul informs us in 1 Cor. 12 that there are various gifts and functions in the body and that all are not the same member, whether a hand, foot, eye, or ear. He assures that "God arranged the organs of the body, each one of them, as he chose." He did not choose all of us to be teachers. Paul emphasizes this point by his rhetorical questions: "Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?"
Notice that Paul did not write, "And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, everybody evangelists, some pastors and everybody teachers" (Eph. 4:11). Neither did Paul urge, "What you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to each disciple who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2).
While many well-meaning men have taught the truth about the differing gifts and functions in the context of these passages, they have conveniently twisted the scriptures and contradicted themselves in order to involve us all in their programs of evangelism. They tend to make anyone feel guilty who does not become active in evangelism. They also use "He that winneth souls is wise" (Prov. 11:30) as a text for "winning souls" without considering that the Mosaic system was not evangelistic, and that the passage teaches nothing kin to soul winning, except as it is misstated in the King James Version.
Am I making light of evangelism? My career has been spent in efforts to save my fellow sinners, and I am not repudiating that. There is a misdirection that I am trying to correct. This misdirection would identify the body as the local assembly with its members being the eyes, ears, hands, and feet. All of the expressions of these differing gifts are brought under a system planned and overseen by the elders. Any member who does not work in and through the system is made to feel disloyal and nonproductive and to be resisting the elders. If anyone uses his "contribution money" in private ministry, he is robbing God, for his money must be given to the church (elders) so it can be used "in the name of the church" so God will get the glory!
In line with this, we hear much about the work of the church, meaning, of course, the local organized work. Seminars are conducted on how to build a strong church, which is the local corporate group. Ministries are defined, departmentalized, and organized for corporate action headed up by one person who may be a professional minister. So, church letterheads and bulletins list the recognized, and often hired, ear, eye, hand, and foot of the local body.
This developed concept denies, or at least minimizes, that God gives us private ministries. We are members of the body at large. As members of that body, God has given each of us a gift, or gifts — a ministry, or ministries. Each person should recognize his or her own gift and use it to the fullest in individual ministry. This does not mean that one should be disloyal to the local group, work against its interests, or fail to bear some of the financial responsibility for its essential needs.
One person may accept evangelism for his ministry. He may serve by proclaiming the gospel, by writing, by "personal evangelism" - a term invented because of our mistaken concepts, or by use of media. He does not have to ask anyone for permission, report to anyone, ask for money from the church, or operate under a church program. It becomes his own ministry into which the Spirit has directed and enabled him. If others wish to help enlarge his opportunities by support, that is their privilege.
A person's talent may be in business, through which he can develop a life of private service. God can use us where we fit in our circumstance of life. A family, having a special love for children, may take homeless children as their own as their life's ministry. They involve their whole beings in providing the proper care and upbringing for these children. Their money is not put into the church treasury to be sent to an orphanage so the system can perform the ministry, but they fulfill their God-given ministry. Their "contribution money" is used directly, and no apology for doing it is due the local assembly, the elders, or anyone else.
God has given you a ministry which can be free of church-related tensions. Oh, that I had realized that 45 years ago! In this life of service we are accountable to God. We may use our time, money, and abilities in doing what we are most at ease in doing. It may be serving the poor, correcting social ills, teaching, evangelizing, writing and distributing literature, caring for an invalid (whether kin or not), serving the mentally ill and handicapped, helping children, reaching those in prison, rescuing those addicted to drugs, or serving the aged.
Although I have enlisted many children for bus routes and Vacation Bible School by door-knocking, I never converted one adult in my countless efforts. I no longer feel guilty because I do not go out door-knocking since I now see that God did not give me that gift.
While my career ministry in the system has not been dismally ineffective, it has been filled with the frustration due to working in areas where I had no gift. Since retiring from church programmed ministry, the Lord has given me a ministry through writing. Through my first book alone in a two-year period I have taught an average of 450 person-lessons per day, which would not have been accepted from the pulpit. I did this without asking anyone, without answering to any but God, and free from the tensions of the professional ministry. I did not realize that life could be without tensions. This is the joy of service that the Spirit intended for us to have through use of his gifts.
Yes, "Go ye" means "Go me," but only in the ministry into which God called me. Through it, hopefully, others may see my good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. And that is evangelism also. —1350 Huisache, New Braunfels, Texas 78130