Actions for Evangelism
How to reach others with the Gospel message.
Who We Are
The School
“…and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8b
We are living in “the last days,” a time when the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is drawing nigh. These are the days when faithful Christian disciples must train to go forth and proclaim the necessity of everyone’s accepting Jesus Christ of Nazareth as Lord and Savior and go to live with God, or else go to God’s punishment for the devil and his followers in the lake of burning fire. Witnesses to Jesus Christ School of Evangelism seeks to empower believers to embody the evangelistic fervor and humble holiness of men and women like Harry Hosier, a black proclaimer of the good news called by his contemporaries “the greatest preacher of the gospel ever;” Lorenzo Dow, a white proclaimer of the good news said to have preached to more people than anyone else of his era; Jarenna Lee, a black proclaimer of the good news who had a calling from the Lord to preach and did so, despite the adversity of those who believed a woman could not; and the countless and longsuffering men and women of all races and ethnicities who sacrificed comfort and stability, position and plaudits, in order to do but one thing – preach the gospel, the salvation of God through Jesus Christ alone, to the farthest reaches of the American and international frontiers, wherever men, women, and children should be.
We are under no romantic illusions. Evangelism – the sharing of the good news of salvation – has never been a popular activity. True witnessing – going where people are, wherever they are, and sharing the gospel message with them, no matter what the reception – has never been an easy task. Although now heralded as heroes of the frontier, many American witnesses, circuit riders, and travelling preachers of the 19th century, including Hosier, Dow, and Lee, were unsupported financially, and often used and cast aside by the official leaders of the very church they were called to enlarge. Many were illiterate, and many died literally ‘in the saddle,’ but they all had a fervor, a divine calling, a special holy unction or blessing from God, to spread the Good News of salvation throughout all communities and areas of the United States and the world, and they were obedient to Him to the uttermost and to the end.
The comfort zone of mankind is to never stray too far from safety. The comfort zone of the historical church, in the same way, has been to stay inside the ‘safe walls’ of ‘civilization,’ whether of the ‘Holy City’ or of the local building or sanctuary, and minister only to those who are already saved. But the calling of Christ Jesus for Christian evangelists and, we suggest, all Christian disciples, is, just as He did, to humble ourselves, take on the form of a servant, and go to where the people – the stranger, the barbarians, the white collar workers and the gang members, the racists and the multicultural, the oppressed and the oppressors – are, and minister to them, through serving them by giving our lives for their salvation. Therefore, although this School is about the business of teaching attendees various principles and effective methods for sharing the gospel in the American and international cultures of the present and future, it will be incumbent upon each student, as the Lord opens up the world to travel, to take it upon him- or her-self to go out into this world and use any knowledge gained to actually share the gospel, grounded in love, with those as-yet-unmet persons who do not have it, so that those people might have a chance to choose to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for themselves. Towards that ultimate end is Witnesses to Jesus Christ School of Evangelism created, continued, and directed.
“The Witnesses to Jesus Christ School of Evangelism is owned and operated by the Reverend Geoffrey S. Whitcomb, who is its sole employee, and is registered in The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a non-school business.”