Renewal through the proclamation of the gospel

"It would be incomplete at this conference to talk about revival and renewal without talking about the proclamation of the gospel," said Ezequiel Villar of Paraguay Wednesday morning.

"Our first responsibility is to be crucified with Christ," he said. God does not require our service. He requires our heart."

Villar said a Christian's second call is to be a witness: "There is no biblical support for the belief that evangelism is a special ministry to be engaged in by a special kind of person at a given special time and in a special manner. The church of Jesus Christ needs to rediscover that the biblical mandate to preach the message of the gospel is something that you do regularly, naturally, day after day as normal evidence of a church that is revived and authentic."

Saying that spiritual revival is related to the act of confessing Christ publicly, Villar challenged his listeners, "I believe there is a reason to doubt the genuineness of an identification with Christ if a person has never shared his faith with others."

Villar said that while the methods, strategies and other aspects of evangelism may vary according to the audience, "the content of our preaching must be the preaching of Christ who died and rose again."

Villar called the church to be intentional about discipleship and to recognize the ministry of the Holy Spirit in preaching the gospel.

Villar, a 1999 graduate of MB Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif., spoke of an important shift within his own ministry as an evangelist: "While I was doing my ministry and being perfected as an evangelist, the perfecting of the church was being neglected. For the remainder of my life and leadership, I want to dedicate myself to equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. I believe the worst deception of the devil is to make the leader believe that he/she must do all the work instead of involving the whole church." CF

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