Week after week for the past 25 years, I have stood before the church, opened up the Bible, explained the meaning of the text, and then, have attempted to press home the message to my hearers. Often, I extend an invitation to receive the benefits of Christ’s saving work in their lives. When I invite people to come to Christ, I do so knowing some basic things about people.

I know that many people are in crisis.

Some years ago, our evangelism pastor, Stephen VanDop, did a study of why people came to Christ at our church for his seminary dissertation. He spent hundreds of hours meeting with focus groups which were made up of people who had come to Christ over the previous couple of years. He carefully recorded people’s stories, and, after listening to the tapes, one major theme emerged: many people at Vineyard Columbus came to our church because of life crises. Because of a crisis, people become aware of the fact that life was threatening to overwhelm them which created a desperation factor. Individuals became aware of their own limitations and their need to seek “something more.”

Stephen divided people’s stories into three groups: intra-personal crises, interpersonal crises, and situational crises. Intra-personal crises had to do with issues within an individual such as addictions, depression, thoughts of suicide, troubling memories, etc. This was the most reported category of crises of the three.

Interpersonal crises were those dealing with broken or severely strained relationships with spouses, children, friends, or parents. Separation and divorce stands out as the most reported interpersonal crisis.

Situational crises, such as the loss of a job or loved one, a pregnancy out-of-wedlock, or a legal problem formed the final category of life crises.

I know that when I speak, many people have reached the end of their rope and that they desperately need divine help.

I know that some people are seekers.

There are many people who are born with a passionate interest in pursuing truth, especially spiritual truth. These folks are naturally idealistic. They may have looked into various religions, or were involved in New Age spirituality. I have talked with seekers, who have made pilgrimages to the Andes, or to India, seeking spiritual enlightenment. Some of these seekers were philosophy majors.

I know that when I speak there are some folks who are desperately searching and who are looking for God. God makes a promise in Jeremiah 29:13 to these people: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. So I offer people the goal of their search when I offer Christ.

I know that some people are prodigals.

There are many people in every congregation, who have wandered away from a sincere faith that they had as children, as teenagers, or as young adults. There are many, who have been away from God for a long time. And like the Prodigal, they have experienced pain as a result of their distance from their Father in heaven. They long to return to their Father’s house. That’s why whenever I call people to Christ, I also call prodigals to come home.

I know that some people are empty.

Whenever I speak, I know that people’s spiritual needs will not be met by material affluence. Jesus said in Luke 12:15: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” I have watched God use deep emotional or spiritual emptiness – a feeling of dissatisfaction concerning the emptiness of success to draw many people to Christ.

I have sometimes said during my invitation, “Unless you have been there, you cannot explain to someone else how empty success can feel. It is like an incredible ache in your soul. And the ache of emptiness is worse than any toothache or backache. It gnaws away at you. You know something is missing; you know something is wrong; you’re not happy even though you should be happy. You may have a decent marriage; you may have a great job; you can go anywhere that you want on vacation; but, you are not happy. Internally, you have asked the question over and over, ‘Is this all there is? Is this all that life’s about?’”

I know many people who have come to Christ only by first experiencing the emptiness of success.

I know that some people are terribly lonely.

Billy Graham once asked a psychiatrist, “What is the greatest problem of the patients who come to you for help?” The psychiatrist thought for a moment and said, “Loneliness.” He went on, “When you get right down to it, it is loneliness for God.”

All of us experience the loneliness that theologians have labeled “cosmic loneliness.” You can be in a crowd of people, even at a party, and without warning, even though everyone around you is laughing, a sudden wave of loneliness will sweep over you. “Cosmic loneliness” will never be extinguished by finding a new romance, or making another friend. As the psychiatrist said, “Ultimately, we are lonely for God.”

More important than what I know about people is what I know about God. I know that there is no hope that my gospel preaching will be successful apart from God. Evangelism is not simply a human activity. Rather, evangelism is something that we human beings do in partnership with God. Part of the overwhelming burden that Christians have regarding evangelism is that we wrongly think that we are responsible to bring God to a godless person. That’s a pretty daunting task: to bring Almighty God to another human being.

When I preach, I am operating out of an entirely different paradigm. I believe my job is not to bring God to places and people where God is not. My job is to partner together with God concerning what God is already doing inside of another person. The great founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, used the term Prevenient Grace in asserting the wonderfully liberating doctrine that “the Holy Spirit goes before” the preaching of the gospel, readying individual hearts to hear and to respond.

So, when I preach, I know certain things about people and I know certain things about God. I know that God has gone before me to prepare and move people so that they may decide for Christ. When I assume that God is the ultimate Savior (which He is) and I also assume that God is up to something in every person’s life (which He also is), then I have the exciting job of trying to trace over the lines that God is already drawing in bringing someone to Himself through my preaching of the gospel.

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