Adding to the Church

By Dale M Sides

Years ago I was introduced to the most effective means of evangelism that the Christian church has ever known. It worked in the first century church; it worked when I first heard it, and it works now. The principle of adding to the church is simple—it is “each one win one.”

Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (emphasis added) Acts 2:47

The word “added” in Acts 2:47 is the Greek word prostithemi. Looking at the etymology of the root word and understanding the meaning of this word will unveil the most effective means of evangelism ever invented. The root word, tithemi, means to put something in place. When the prefix pros, which means near by, is put with tithemi, we get the meaning of the word that is translated “added.” It means to put something in place and then put another thing with it.

To add means to put something with something that is already in existence. Even in addition equations, when we say 1 + 1 = 2, we are saying, “Take one and put another one with it and you have a total of two.” This is the perfect word to convey the perfect method of evangelism. Put someone with someone else. This is what happened in the first century church. (See Acts 2:41, 5:14 and 11:24.) A person was added to the church by being put with another one.

This process, even though simple, conquers major problems which prevents people from being grafted into the church and growing into mature Christians. Lack of love, lack of relationship, being rejected, lost in the shuffle, forgotten on a church roster, or being overtaken in sin are all treated in this method of evangelism. The one person being grafted into the church is cared for, loved, educated, and overseen by the one who the Lord has put with him or her.

This means of adding to the church has been replaced by modern day methods and thereby we have been robbed of our God-given privilege of helping people grow into becoming mature Christians. Even now methods of evangelism diminishes the importance of each one of us operating the ministry and word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–20). Evangelism has come to mean bringing in a high profile personality to win the lost. Sharing the Word of God and the message of Jesus Christ on a one-to-one basis has become a thing of the past. Even if someone happens to stumble into the church building, the pastor has to offer an altar call to get the person to make a decision about Jesus Christ.

We rely on television programs and advertisements to inspire people; billboards to announce the message of Jesus Christ; Yellow Page ads to tell the location of the fellowship, and an answering machine to give directions and times of the meetings. Even in our well-meaning methods, we send a bus around to pick people up instead of having the one with whom the person has been placed to go get them.

The list goes on. We have a pastoral committee to visit the “new comers,” if one happens to walk in. We have membership classes to educate them, and in a very progressive system, we have cell groups where relationships can be cultivated. We have greeters to welcome the masses at the door and cards for them to fill out so that we can follow up with “them” (how impersonal) so that they can be visited by the membership committee.

Have enough sacred cows been crucified yet? In addition, we have whole ministries devoted to feeding the poor because each individual is not fulfilling his or her own Christian responsibility of loving one another. We have marriage ministries, counseling ministries, and teen ministries to handle strained and lacking relationships because we have basically violated the principle of “each one win one.”

According to Derek Prince’s ministry, only about ten percent of people saved at “crusades or conventions” ever walk into a church. We have commercialized the Great Commission—it does not say to evangelize the world but to make disciples of them. Hello Houston, we have a problem.

This scenario has recently been brought to my attention because new laws in the nation of India have been passed in several states making it illegal to hold public meetings to evangelize the lost. This has greatly upset the Christian leaders because the method most commonly employed is to bring in Reinhardt Bonke, Benny Hinn, or Lee Jae Rock to dazzle the crowds with miracles. (My hat is off to the these servants of God who would gladly decline the invitation if the people themselves would do the witnessing.) It appears that the devil has once again pressured and persecuted us into doing the will of God.

I have asked, and will do so again in the future, how China has managed to continue to add to the church when they could not do public meetings. The answer is that each one has won one.

Before being too quick to jump on the Indian church or to criticize the method evangelism in America, lets come back to the real problem—it is you and me. May I be so bold and confrontational as to assume this? We feel we are too busy to help someone and have them added to our lives. We work all day and therefore must play at night to accommodate our excessive desire for entertainment. We use the same excuse of not witnessing or helping that one person that we do for not paying attention to our children or other family members—we are too busy. I bet that blind Bartimaeus, or Lazarus, or the woman at the well, or the madman in the tombs of Gadara was glad that Jesus had time for them.

Perhaps another reason that this has come up in my mind is that the Lord added a young man to my life recently. I tried giving the Lord the same excuses as I just mentioned. (Maybe that is why I know the reasons so well.) Anyway, the Lord and His “encouragement” won over my opposition and I am now completely engulfed in his life and therefore his eternal destiny. Do you know what I found? I do have enough time to be involved with him. It may be just a phone call a day or a lunch visit per week, or in my case, a hunting excursion every now and then. Guess what? It has remade my perspectives of witnessing and the love of God for an individual.

God will put a special person in your life and give you the opportunity to work with that one. When you realize the Lord has done this for you and that person, it will make a bond that will add that person to your life and to the church of Jesus Christ—not to the church as an organization but as an organism.

Adding to the church is an individual joy, privilege, and responsibility. It not only helps the church of Jesus Christ to grow, but it helps you grow too when you take the responsibility. You become the teaching ministry and the counseling ministry. You may get to feed the poor through benevolence or clothe someone as offerings to the poor. In my case, the young man that the Lord has given me is in school to become a high school teacher and a football coach. I am being allowed to sow not only into his life but into all the kids he will teach and impact.

Adding to the church is best accomplished by each one win one. The Lord will give you the person He wants you to graft into the church and Body of Christ. If someone did it for you, then you know what it has meant to you. If no one did, then you now realize what it could do for someone else. The relationship with “your one” may be incredibly sensational or it may be low-profile with no one but you, the person, and God knowing what is happening. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. Hebrews 6:10

 ©2003 Liberating Ministries for Christ International, Inc.