Nicaragua, Evangelism, and Repentance

by; Drew Dixon
(Drew is Family Pastor at New Covenant Baptist Church Albertville. He is married to Jennifer.)

Nicaragua, Evangelism, and Repentance



There are many stories I could tell you about Nicaragua that would encourage you—stories that may even impress you—stories of how our team members got to share the gospel with hundreds of children in the local schools and stories of the many difficult questions that I was asked at the Pastor’s Conference or stories from our door-to-door evangelism and how the Lord was working to convict people of their sin. However, perhaps the most memorable experience I had while in Nicaragua happened at a small Baptist Church in the rural area of Los Cedros—it was an invaluable lesson learned from Pastor Adonis.



When we went out into the communities of the churches we were serving at in Nicaragua, the pastors of the churches went with us and even brought members of their churches along so that they might learn to do evangelism and so that he might be used of the Lord to disciple them. Pastor Adonis has a passion for evangelism and for discipleship. He understands that the only hope the lost people in his community have is Christ and he understands that the members of his church must be the ones that tell their lost neighbors about Jesus. There can be no evangelism without discipleship—if people are not trained to reap the harvest, they will not go out into it. There can be no discipleship without evangelism first preceding it. You cannot disciple the lost, you must share the gospel with them first, then the process of teaching them everything that Christ commanded can begin (Matt. 28:18-20). Pastor Adonis was doing both—teaching the members of his church to do evangelism and doing evangelism himself, going out into the community and delivering the good news to the lost.



While I was greatly encouraged to see a pastor leading by example and seeking to disciple men in his church, this is not what stuck out to me most about Pastor Adonis. What stuck out most was what Pastor Adonis said to the members of his church who were not doing evangelism. Thursday night was the last night that we would spend at Los Cedros Baptist Church and Eric Hixon preached a revival there that night. At the end of the service, Pastor Adonis opened up the altar for people to come and pray and he challenged those in his church who were not doing evangelism in the community to come to the altar and repent for their sin. About 15-20 adult members of the church came forward and knelt at the altar in prayer.



If evangelism is a command, then it follows that neglect of evangelism is sin. This really convicted me because far too often I fall to the temptation to think of evangelism as an optional practice. I felt like I should be at the altar praying—I wasn’t invited though, Pastor Adonis only invited the members of his church as they were the ones who had covenanted together as a body to hold each other accountable to seek the Lord. Perhaps Pastor Adonis’ encouragement to his people to repent for not evangelizing seems harsh and perhaps it was, but it was sweet moment for me. It did not feel bitter, it felt redemptive and loving—I got the feeling that Pastor Adonis was calling his flock to repentance because he loved them. I hope that is the case—I am praying that God would develop such relationships in our body at NCBC—ones were we can lovingly call each other to account and ones in which we take the gospel and evangelism seriously.

Despite the fact that I got to spend three days teaching Pastor Adonis and several other Nicaraguan pastors, it goes without saying that I feel I gained much more from Pastor Adonis’ example and care for his flock.