By SUNITTA CHILAKA –

THE word of God is being evangelised everywhere; in buses, on television, radio and in communities where we live.
Jesus gave us the great commission Mark 16:15 NIV. He said to them: “Go into the entire world and preach the Good News to all creation.”
Many Christians give excuses that they are busy at their work places so they cannot evangelise.
The world or nations, as some versions put it, is not limited to homes, rather every contact within your sphere. If you are a marketeer, do so to your fellow marketeers and customers.
Those you work with are your world. As Christians we are lacking evangelism strategy.
When I studied marketing,  strategies and targets were highly emphasised. When l took a personal evangelism course at the theological college, I was taught that strategies and targets are so important when it comes to effective evangelism.
Strategies and target audience are to be used if we are to reach out effectively. A lot of churches shoot arrows of good news into the community and if they happen to hit anyone, they say wow!
“We never missed, that was our target all along.”
We have ended up shooting each other in the Christian family. Our target has been to have an overflow every Sunday, those from other churches to come to our church instead of bringing the lost souls to Christ and not fighting each other about which denomination is better. There are many lost souls who need Jesus.
There is little planning or strategising behind our efforts. We don’t aim at any specific target. Shooting arrows anyhow and whomever we reach and settle for that is an incredibly callous approach to evangelism.
Bringing people to Christ is too important a task for us to have such a casual attitude towards it. This is the question you should ask yourself before you go for evangelism; who is your target?
Jesus’ target audience, Matthew 15: 24: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”. Jesus targeted his ministry in order to be effective, not to be exclusive. Paul said “I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews”
Galatians 2:7: Both ministries were needed. Both were important. Both were effective.
Have you ever considered why God used four writers and four books to communicate the one life of Christ?
Almost all the stories and teachings in the gospel of Mark are covered in the gospel of Matthew. The question is why do we need both books?
The answer is they were written with specific target audiences in mind. Matthew’s gospel was targeted at the Hebrew reader and Mark was targeted for the Gentile reader.
You need to understand your target demographically, but do not waste too much time trying to collect facts.
Know the community you are targeting very well because these factors will influence how you minister to people and how you will communicate the Good News. Young adults have different interests from retirees, while married couples have interests different from the singles.
Start with what is so close to their hearts.
Develop a strategy which will make evangelism effective and not a burden. A wise fisherman goes where the fish are biting. It is a waste of time and energy to fish in a pond.  Go where people will listen. Use the strategy of a fisherman.
In Acts 8:26-40, when Philip was preaching to the Ethiopian Eunuch he began with the very scripture that he found the Eunuch reading and then spoke about the Good News about Jesus.
The Eunuch got baptised right there.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. In order to succeed you must plan. Those first century evangelists evidently knew the meaning of planning in order to have successful evangelism which leads to church growth.
As a church, plan ahead in order to make a strategy of what you are going to do.
The Bible determines our message but our target determines how, where, and when we communicate it.
We have a responsibility to make our strategies, targets and plans. We have a responsibility to initiate those strategies, targets and plans. If they fail to work, then we can only blame our own inadequacies.
Plan your work, and then work your plan. Make plans for God to work in your plans.