Why every church should use EE -Part 2 posted by Yuen Woh Voon on Jul 30, 2012

Last week I wrote Part 1 of this series highlighting three of the top 10 reasons every church should use Evangelism Explosion. This week we will continue our discovery of why EE can be so helpful to the local body of believers.

4. Experiencing the greatness of God’s love

How much does God love us? “Very much”, we reply.Is this question merely academic? How much is much? When we implement EE and train believers to share their faith, they will sooner or later come across some tough people; people who try our patience and people who are difficult to love. However, as we persevere on to connect with them, to love them and to share with them, we will need to draw on Christ’s unlimited reservoir of love. Touching the heart of Christ, and experiencing His love pouring down upon us, we soldier on – to love the unlovely. It is then that we learn that love is not an emotional feeling but an action centered in our will. We then come to understand that Christ’s love compels us (2 Cor 5:14) and we experience its vastness and depth.

5. Improving church quality: Loving one another in small groups

Jesus commanded believers to love one another. This command cannot be obeyed in a vacuum. Many folks can be friendly and loving when they are distant. There is no better pressure on relationships as when people work together. Working well together as a team requires understanding, humility and most of all, love.

Participating in an EE semester is challenging to any attempts at loving one another. EE teams go out on OJTs(On the Job Training) usually in teams of threes and they do this weekly for 4 months. On the flip side, the partnerships forged amongst team members often lasts for very long. Members of the team pray for each other, help each other to study and adjust for each other in order to do well on an OJT engagement. For many, these are the moments that give the best memories in an EE semester.

6. Empowering leadership

One of the goals in an EE ministry is to raise leaders who can multiply themselves. Guided by 2 Tim 2:2, EE participants graduate to become EE trainers who will then multiply others in the ministry. The objective to keep passing the baton to a new generation of EE trainees produces leadership of a very high caliber. Many ordinary believers who are trained in EE go on to become trainers and eventually to become church leaders.

7. Developing regular prayer

As part of the training, each EE trainee is required to recruit two prayer partners who will pray for him or her throughout the 13-week semester. EE teams also pray together before and after their OJT calls.
One can also expect the devil to be more active in the lives of those who share their faith and storm the gates of hell. Many difficult circumstances will arise which call on much prayer.
“A church cannot learn to pray in a vacuum where there is little or no service to the Lord. Certainly, when the church looks outward to the lost, it will focus itself to the reason that Jesus came to die. The Lord Himself says, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matt 9:38)