Get Your Pretense On!

146 • Get Your Pretense On!

the Gospel, in their circles, at their level, within their webs, all for the glory of Christ? We could transform our cities if we were to embrace this opportunity today. There are great reasons to recruit, equip, and release believers of every age, level, and place to share the Good News within their relationship circles. First, oikos evangelism is biblical. Jesus used household or oikos relationships to spread the Gospel regarding himself (e.g., Zaccheus, Luke 19.9; the Samaritan woman, John 4.53). Furthermore, the apostles ministered in this fashion (Peter with Cornelius, Acts 10-11; cf. Acts 10.24; Paul with Lydia and the Philippian jailer, Acts 16.12-15, 14-35). The oikos networks were not only the place for evangelism, but also where new Christians were discipled and gathered into congregations, cf. the households of Priscilla and Aquila, as well as Onesiphorus at Ephesus (1 Cor. 16.19; 2 Tim. 1.16; 2 Tim. 4.19). Second, evidence suggests that most people come to faith in Christ through a member of their own relational network, their oikos . In a survey by Church Growth, Inc. of Monrovia, California, some 40,000 laypersons were polled as to how they entered into faith in Jesus Christ. The folk were given a simple basic question to answer: “What or who was responsible for your coming to Jesus Christ and to your church?” The respondents were to select one of eight possible answers: (1) A “special need” brought them to Christ and the church. (2) “Just walked in” (3) “Pastor” (4) “Visitation” (5) “Sunday School”