Get Your Pretense On!

148 • Get Your Pretense On!

friends, family members, associates, people you know and those who know you. It is natural, simple, and open. 28

Another benefit of this approach is that oikos evangelism greatly increases the number of possible contacts we can make with those who need to hear the Good News of Christ. In praying for, reaching out to, and witnessing with our oikos relationships, we are functioning in our own “built in,” resident mission field. Our prayers for them (the very ground of effective evangelism) can be built on our understanding of their lives specifically , not of their needs generically . All those with whom an individual is associated become possible contacts for sharing the Good News. These contacts and folk will be relationally stronger for us, and for them. Rather than seeking to overcome a runaway culture of suspicion and mistrust, we can begin with our actual contacts with whom we relate day to day. Oikos relationships constantly re-seed a new contact base. Sixth, oikos evangelism makes follow-up and connection with those who respond more likely and more natural. We are seeking to bring people into the Kingdom, to become active, fruitful members of the church, not mere abstract decision makers; we want them to become friends of God and of the church! Oikos evangelism makes connection and affiliation with other church members easier, and less strange or uncomfortable. Members of an oikos , those whom already have connection and acquaintance , can be established in the faith with people they already know and trust, turning from connections in the world to brothers and sisters in the faith (the entire book of Philemon is on this subject). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, oikos evangelism multiplies the number of laborers and workers in the harvest field. Jesus declared that the harvest field is great, but the laborers are few.