hello to you I do hope you're well welcome to this GCSE religious studies lesson I'm Ben Wardle and today we are continuing our look at Christian practices with a look at Mission evangelism and church growth so we'll be taking a look at Jesus's Great Commission to go and make disciples of all Nations and we'll be looking at how this inspires and influences Christians today so we'll be looking at how Christianity over the past 2000 years has grown from its Origins with of course the life death and resurrection of Jesus to the position the church is in today with over 2 billion Christians worldwide so let's just have a look as we always do at our AQA specification which outlines everything we need to know about Christian practices so remember we will be asked five questions on Christian practices totaling 24 months and in this video we are going to cover everything you need to know about Mission evangelism and church growth so let's just take a look at those key terms shall we and the first one is Mission which literally means sent out and this is the duty of Christians to spread the gospel and the gospels are the good news about Jesus about obviously his life death and resurrection and then we have evangelism and this is the practice of preaching the gospel so whenever you hear that term evangelism think it's all about preaching it's all about spreading the good news and this of course is all about conversion so evangelism is preaching the gospel in order to convert people to the Christian faith and as I say we're going to look at why Christians would do that and how they actually do that so what are the methods used in terms of carrying out this activity so let's just start with a few key quotes shall we because we will be returning to these throughout the video and actually towards the end of the video we're going to spend some time explaining in some detail how each of these quotes influences Christians to evangelize but I just want to share them with you now at the start of the video because as I say they're going to be very important for our understanding of mission evangelism and church growth so the first quote is from Jesus and this is from Matthew 28 when he gave his Great Commission which was just before his Ascension and he told his disciples to make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father Son and Holy Spirit so as I say this is known as the Great Commission and it is the beginning of the mission because Jesus is telling his disciples this is what he wants them to do and the church today continues that work we then have a quote from Saint Paul who said I am not ashamed of the Gospel the good news of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes and this shows us why Christians evangelize because they believe that it is through hearing the gospel and following Christ that people can achieve salvation our next quote then builds upon that Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life nobody comes to the father except through me so this teaches Christians that Jesus is the exclusive source of Salvation so they want to tell people about Jesus they want to spread the good news of the Gospel so that people can become followers of Jesus they can become Christians and therefore be saved because this is teaching people that Jesus is the exclusive source of Salvation so of course they need to know about him and follow him in order to be saved and so our next quote continues to build on this because Jesus said go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation so Jesus is again commissioning his followers to if evangelize to go out into the world and spread the gospels to spread the good news of Jesus Christ Saint Paul said Christ died for our sins so of course Christians want to tell people about this they want to spread the good news about Good Friday and Easter Sunday they want to tell people that having faith in Jesus of Christ will mean they can be saved from their sins and they can have life after death and then finally from the book of Acts we are told salvation is bound in nobody else so again this idea that Jesus is the exclusive source of Salvation again showing us the importance of evangelism within Christianity you want to tell people about Christ so that they can be saved through him as well so we are going to go back 2 000 years to uh the gospel of Matthew and when Jesus gave what's called his Great Commission so let's read from the Bible shall we and Jesus of giving his disciples his Great Commission so we read then the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go when they saw him they worshiped him but some doubt it then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and that of course is the Trinity that trinitarian understanding of God um and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I Am With You Always to the very end of the age so this is known as the Great Commission and as I've put here just before he ascended to Heaven which happened 40 days after his resurrection Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples of all Nations and as they say this is called the Great Commission and the word commission means a task or calling in this case from God and of course that title commission or that word commission have the word mission in it and so for Christians this means the vocation or the calling of a Christian individual or organization to go out into the world and spread their faith many Christians feel they have an individual mission in life that they have been given a calling they have received a calling from God now that might be to become a priest for example it might be to become a teacher it might be to become a doctor for example so Christians feel that their life have purpose it has a god-given purpose and for some Christians they believe that that purpose is to evangelize to spread the good news about Jesus Christ and about the fact salvation is found through him and in him so since this Great Commission two thousand years ago many people known as missionaries have traveled around the world to complete their mission so they have gone out and they have evangelized and so evangelism is something that continues today evangelism means spreading the gospel and it is seen as an important part of the mission because it's all about spreading the Christian Gospel by public preaching or personal witness and of course the disciples who were commissioned by Jesus were the first people to evangelize Saint Paul is of course another very famous evangelist he wrote many letters which are now included in the New Testament and traveled to many areas of the Mediterranean telling communities about Jesus and that Jesus is the source of Salvation so they should put their faith in him and they should follow his teachings so evangelism is the practice of spreading the gospel it began with the first disciples who were commissioned by Jesus himself and it continues today two thousand years later which is the course why there are over 2 billion Christians in the world today because of evangelism because the Christian teaching and the Christian faith have been spread around the world so in the modern world what does evangelism look like well Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormon Church are two notable examples of evangelist Christian denominations so you might see them um certainly in cities handing out leaflets and booklets which are all about God all about Jesus and all about salvation so for example you can see there they're holding um signs and handing out flyers all about what does the bible really teach and they might also go door to door so they might knock on your door and ask if you've got a minute to talk about Jesus and talk about salvation through him so as I say Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormon Church are two notable examples probably the most well-known examples of evangelist Christian denominations and so you know evangelism can take place in many different formats in many different ways so we are going to have a look now at how um Christians evangelize and then why they actually do it so let's actually start on the right hand side if we can which is with the how they do it so the first reason they um or the first way excuse me they may evangelize is by giving out leaflets or free Bibles to members of the public so the Gideon for example are an organization who donate a lot of free New Testaments to schools to hotels to hospitals to prison so it might involve handing out leaflets or free Bible so Distributing written materials about Jesus about Christianity it might be um through what are called Alpha courses so these are 11 week courses hosted by many churches of all different denominations which help teach people about the basics of Christianity and of course as a result of learning about Christianity somebody might actually decide to convert to Christianity so it's about you know educating people about the key beliefs of the faith which then brings them into contact with the religion which gives them more information about the religion and so may result in their conversion to the religion and then also of course in the 21st century evangelism takes place through social media and even the mainstream media so you know it might be as I say on Twitter or ex as it's now called it might be on Instagram it might even be on Tick Tock you often see somebody maybe talking about the Bible talking about Jesus on Tick Tock and then there are TV channels as well such as TBN the Trinity Broadcasting Network who produce content which is all about God all about the Bible it have you know um that religious element to it so they will have preachers on for example talking about the key Christian belief and teaching then we call that televangelism so they idea of evangelizing via television and so why does this happen why do Christians do this well obviously we looked at some key quotes a little earlier but in terms of three main reasons they feel they've been commissioned to by Jesus Jesus have given them this commission that's why it's called the Great Commission and Jesus has literally said to make disciples of all Nations so Christians believe they should go out and do that for example by giving out Leaf Blitz or by posting on social media for example another reason is they want people to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ remember Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life so for Christian believes that you can only be saved through Jesus Christ they're going to want to convert people to Christianity aren't they because they want people to be saved they don't want people to be condemned to Hell after death and so they're going to try and convert as many people as they can to the religion or at least tell as many people as they can about their religion because they want them to be saved and if they believe that Jesus is the exclusive source of Salvation that he is the way the truth and the life then they're going to want people to know about Jesus and have the opportunity to believe in him and therefore be saved and then finally another important reason is to grow the church there are now 2.6 billion Christians worldwide and so Christians evangelize to continue growing the church um and you know bringing more people into the religion and you know bringing people into the services and allowing them to experience what it means to be a Christian and live a Christian life so that's just a little look we do love a good mind map at how Christians evangelize and of course why they do that and of course we're going to link that back to the fact Jesus himself commissioned it that Jesus is the source of Salvation so you want people to know about him and that you know it's important to keep growing the global church now it's important to note that there are some criticisms of evangelism so of course whilst it would be seen as in accordance with Jesus's teachings and it might be seen as a good thing because you want people to be saved and you want their life to be changed by the Christian message there are some criticisms of this practice and in particular there are criticisms of some methods of evangelism so let's have a look at those some groups have used pressuring tactics or discrimination to try to get others to convert so their tactics may actually put people off Christianity so you know if you feel that somebody's being quite forceful with you or is being maybe quite rude to you in their efforts to convert you that might put you off the religion that might give you a very negative impression of Christianity because you might think that they're quite pushy and that they're trying to pressurize you and that isn't something you want to be associated with that isn't something that you're interested in so you know it could actually have a counter effect in terms of putting people off Christianity because you know they're a bit put off by the tactics evangelists how have used another thing is that it could be seen as arrogant because of course it could suggest that other people's religions or worldviews are wrong if you're trying to convert them to yours you are suggesting aren't you that that isn't good enough or that yours is better and really just pluralists for example believe that all religions are equally valid so where is an exclusive exclusivist sorry a religious exclusivist would say that only their religion is correct a religious pluralist would say that every religion is valid so there are many different ways to achieve life after death there are many different routes to the truth for example so it could be seen as arrogant because you're telling people that their religion isn't good enough to save them or that being a good person isn't enough to save them that they need to actually become a follower of Jesus Christ some people may feel uncomfortable and that you are trying to impose your beliefs upon them so obviously again that might actually then put them off they might feel that religion or faith is A Private Matter so they might think well actually why am I talking to you about my religious beliefs that's the private matter to me I don't want to be stood here in Oxford Circus having this conversation about whether I believe in Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of the universe you know I just want to go to h m thanks very much um you could also say that Christians should focus on helping people rather than converting them so for example we looked last time at the role of um Christians in helping food banks and then streets pastors UK remember Street pastors UK do not preach they give out lollipops not Bibles you know so you could say that actually you know a Christian should focus on putting their faith into action by helping people rather than trying to convert people that God as we see in the parable of the sheep and the goats is more interested in whether you have helped people by performing good work rather than having converted them that God's interested in your good works rather than your conversion rates um and then that LinkedIn actually with the final point that you should actually evangelize through your actions and Agape rather than your words so you should actually preach the gospel through your actions so you shouldn't be telling people they need to convert you should be showing people what it means to be a good Christian by being loving compassionate kind uh humble for example and actually putting your faith into action through your actions rather than words which um as I say you know could be seen as um a uh I'm trying to think of the word no pun intended as something that puts people off shall we say so yes it's just important to be aware that there are some criticisms of evangelism which is why some Christians would say this is not the most important purpose of a Christian's life that their focus should actually be on Good Works rather than trying to convert people to the religion we just need to have a look now at church growth so of course the result of evangelism is church growth isn't it because evangelism is all about spreading the gospel and bringing people into the religion and so of course the result of that is church growth and as we know 2.6 billion people worldwide belong to the Christian Church obviously there are many different denominations but they identify as Christians so what we're going to have a look at now is a little timeline of how church growth has actually happened so what has actually happened and we're going to look at this in five stages spanning two thousand years in terms of the growth of the church so how did we get where we are today and the first thing is that Jesus Remember appointed Saint Peter and commissioned his disciples Saint Peter is the First bishop of Rome and then Pope Francis now is the 266th Bishop of Rome so let's have a look at that shall we so in the gospels Jesus told Peter that you are the rock on which I will build my church and Saint Peter became the first Bishop of Rome which as I say is the title now inherited by Catholic Popes so Jesus started the whole thing off didn't he and he appointed Saint Peter as his first um Bishop of Rome and I think Peter was actually executed by the Christian Emperor Nero and was crucified upside down now we're going to look in the next video at persecution of Christians throughout history but it is important to note that in the days of the early church Christianity was heavily persecuted now we also need to know of course that in his Great Commission before his Ascension Jesus told his disciples to go and make uh Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father Son and Holy Spirit so that is the origin of mission evangelism and church growth when Jesus appointed Peter up the rock on which he would build his church as the First bishop of Rome and then obviously when he gave his Great Commission before his Ascension number two then after that Ascension the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus's disciples at the Pentecost though the book of Acts records the activities of the early church the disciples were gathered together on Pentecost and suddenly there was a violent wind from heaven and tongues of fire and the book of Acts says that all of the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them and the disciples then began teaching Peter taught repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so here we see the disciples as the first evangelist don't we because they then go out and they start to spread the good news they tell people to be baptized and they tell people about Jesus Christ number three then Saint Paul's conversion is a very important moment in the history of Christianity because he was also not also he was originally excuse me known as thall and he was actually persecuting Christians so Saul was traveling on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christian Community there so he wanted to kill the Christians however he had a religious experience on the way as she do which left him blinded and ultimately led to a total transformation of his life he converted to Christianity and became a passionate evangelist for the religion he wrote letters and traveled widely converting people such as the Gentiles to the religion and of course that really famous line he wrote is that Christ died for your sins or Christ died for our sins excuse me so you know what we see here is Saint Paul's conversion is absolutely instrumental for the growth of the church because he went from being a persecutor of Christians to being the most passionate evangelist for Christianity arguably Christianity would be nowhere near as big of it is today if it had not been for Saint Paul and his conversion experience so he is really important in the history of the religion number four then the church developed over 2000 years with of course many denominator Nations emerging so over 2000 years the Christian church has grown many denominations have developed and so for example an example of how that's happened is the great schism of 1054 which led to the separation of Eastern Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism and then Martin Luther's 16th century Reformation gave rise to the Protestant churches including the Anglican church so the Church of England the Baptist Church the Quakers and the Methodist Church as well and of course a big part of the spread of Christianity was the spread of the British Empire because the British empire spread Christianity throughout its colonies so that's why Christianity is so widespread around the world because the spread of Christianity is very much Associated and linked with the spread of the British Empire and then finally number five today there are 2.6 billion Christians and thousands of denominations so as of 2023 there are 2.6 billion Christians worldwide and Roman Catholicism Remains the largest denomination remember Roman Catholics trace the origins of their Church all the way back to Jesus himself when he appointed Saint Peter as the First bishop of of Rome and that is why the Catholic Church believes in something called Apostolic succession that the church and its leaders inherit their Authority from Jesus himself who appointed the First bishop of Roman that is why Pope Francis who is the leader of the Catholic church today is known as the 266th bishop of Rome evangelism today of course takes place in different ways via new methods of communication such as TV and social media so you know although Saint Paul was writing his letters today you know you're not going to see those letters being mailed out are you you're going to see those tweets being fired off and those viral videos going across social media uh however despite all of this evangelism that continues Church attendance in the UK is declining yeah very few people now actually attend church on a weekly basis and and this is quite significant less than half of people now identify as Christian in the UK however interestingly if we look at the global picture Christianity does continue to grow in Latin America Africa and Asia and so Christianity Remains the world's largest religion but it is predicted that by 2050 it will be overtaken by Islam because of birth rates being higher in Islamic countries so of course it's interesting to think about the next 2000 years isn't it and what will happen to Christianity over the next 2000 years with this very steep decline that we're currently witnessing in Western Europe so yes that's just a little timeline of church growth which of course began with Jesus appointing Saint Peter and giving his Great Commission and then 2000 years after that we are where we are today with 2.6 billion Christians worldwide new methods of evangelism although there is as I say declining Church attendance so as promised let's just have a look at these key quotes shall we and what they teach Christians about the importance of mission evangelism and church growth so the first one is that really important line from Jesus when he says Make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father Son and Holy Spirit so in this quote we see Jesus commissioning his disciples and by uh you know consequence at the con sequence all his followers to go out and make disciples of all Nations which means to evangelize and convert people to the religion He commands them to baptize people into belief in the Trinity which is of course the unique Christian understanding of God it is that Doctrine which fundamentally distinguishes Christianity from every other religion thing Paul said I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes so this quote from Paul shows why Christians believe evangelism is important it is by hearing the good news of the gospel and through the power of God that people can achieve salvation and be saved slash go to heaven this is why Christians proclaim the gospel to others Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life nobody comes to the father except through me so this teaches Christians that faith in Jesus Christ is the exclusive it is the only source of Salvation And of course as Christians want people to be saved they are influenced to therefore tell them about Jesus Christ so that they can encounter God through him and attain salvation after death our next quote then is again from Jesus he said go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole of creation so Jesus here commanding his followers to go out into the world and proclaim the gospel which is the good news to the whole of creation this inspires Christians to spread the teachings of Christianity and evangelize and of course that Proclamation could be through both words and also their Good Deeds for example you know performing those good works commanded in the parable of the sheep and the goats Saint Paul fed Christ died rothins and this key teaching from Saint Paul's letters shows the importance of evangelism and proclaiming the gospel yeah because that is the core message of the Gospel isn't it that Christ has died for the sake of human salvation as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world so you want to have faith in him in order to benefit from the Salvation he offers you and then finally the book of Acts said that salvation is bound in nobody else and this teaches Christians that Jesus Christ is the exclusive source of Salvation which influences Christians to evangelize and spread the teachings of the religion because this is the way that people can be saved and go to heaven after death and of course therefore saving others and so attempting to evangelize to others is a loving thing to do because you want them to be saved and you believe that it is only through faith in Jesus Christ that they can be saved so let's have a look at a 12-month question shall we and the question is this evangelism is the most important task for Christians today so we're going to be evaluating this statement and remember when we do an evaluation question we need to give our arguments to agree with the statement which are fully explained and supported by evidence and we also need to give our disagree arguments which again need to be fully explained and supported by evidence so we're going to need two reasons to agree with this statement which are fully explained and supported by evidence two reasons to disagree with the statement which are fully explained and supported by evidence and then of course we're going to conclude with our Justified conclusion so let's start shall we with our agree argument so the first reason I could agree that it is the most important task is because Jesus commissions his disciples to make disciples of all Nations and this Great Commission shows Christians that their most important task is to share the good news of salvation free chief of Christ Jesus also teaches them to proclaim the gospel to all creation which further emphasizes the importance of evangelism this is what Jesus wants his followers to do and people need to know that Christ died for our sins and know about his teachings I could also say that Jesus taught that I am the way the truth and the life nobody comes to the father except through me this teaches that Jesus Christ is the exclusive source of Salvation as Christians want people to be saved they need to evangelize because if people do not know about Jesus Christ they cannot be saved this shows the urgency and importance of evangelism it is their most important task as they want people to be saved however why might I disagree so why might I say that something else is more important or that something else is just as important as evangelism so I could of course refer to the parable of the sheep and the goats which says that the righteous will have eternal life in this Parable Jesus teaches that you will be judged based on your performance of good works for example feeding the hungry and caring for the sick and Jesus teaches that whatever you did for the least of these you did for me this teaches that performing good works and helping those in need is more important than evangelism good works are more important and then finally you could say that actually good works are just as important as evangelism the Book of James teaches that faith without works is dead this shows that Christians should not just preach the gospel but they should also put it into practice Jesus says the two most important Commandments are to love your God and love your neighbor it is just as important to be loving and perform good works simply evangelizing without good work isn't enough love is key so you need to perform the good works as well so they are some example answers you could give example paragraphs even that you could include within your 12 marker remember though you must then have a Justified conclusions you must then say that in conclusion I personally agree or disagree with the statement because and then tell me why that is so yes hopefully that's helpful in terms of giving you an idea of how you might answer this style of question do also remember that with these questions they are very uh comparison based aren't they so with your agree you're going to give all the benefits of evangelism but then with your disagree your comparing evangelism to other tasks that Christians have and you're saying why for example performing good works is either more important or just as important so all that's left is a look at our consolidation questions so number one what is evangelism can you define our key term from today question two what did Jesus commission his disciples to do can you remember question three can you give one reason Christians might evangelize so what are the reasons Christians would evangelize number four give one way that Christians might evangelize so how do they actually do it and number five can you give a criticism of evangelism for example you know you could link it to the fact that good work is just as important I do hope that's been helpful thank you for watching have a good day