I have realised afresh just how important it is that we actually PREACH the gospel. The full gospel is the power of God to salvation, healing, holiness or whatever part of the message we preach to people. When we PREACH it, then Jesus will do His part and reveal Himself as the one who does according to what we have been truly preaching concerning Him.
The devil knows this, so he has worked a plan to disempower Christians everywhere. I can tell you now, I have to face this mindset myself and overcome it.
I am now living with my family in Australia, a western nation, probably one of the most universally prosperous and easy going nations on earth. There are few people actually PREACHING the gospel here. By preaching, I mean boldly, unapologetically declaring the facts concerning the identity of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, with expectation that God Himself will prove it to be so. What we do have is people inviting others to church meetings, to Alpha Courses, to special outreach events and so on. That is, if they aren't too discouraged at the failure they experienced already in this regard. Most of the time, lets face it, people just don't want to come to such things, so they either politely decline the invitation, or they say they'll come and don't follow through. In Australia you almost consider you've done a great job once you get people to THAT latter stage of promising to come but not doing it. There's a fair chance then that you might actually get them to church one day. And things go well, they might ACTUALLY be PREACHING THE GOSPEL that day in church, and something might happen for your friend or acquaintance. But most of the time, what is preached in church is for the church to gain some additional wisdom, improve their lifestyle or their sanctification, and then a call may be made at the end for those wishing to "give their lives to Christ" to engage in prayer and a counselling session.
So even if you get your friend to church they might not hear the gospel preached with conviction. They are actually more likely to hear tithing preached with conviction, but that is not one and the same with Preaching the Gospel. Tithing is not a central message of the New Testament, but it IS a central message for financing the local church these days, and pragmatic leaders know it helps to get the job done, so there we go.
But your pastor might preach the gospel sometimes in church. That's good. You probably don't have an EVANGELIST in your ministry team because evangelists are all about the Body of Christ working
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