Many nonbelievers want to fit, to belong, to be accepted and to be helped into a vital relationship with God. God wants this too! And He has made full provision for every person. Gods provision is through the life of the believers in His churches.

Each church has been put together in such a way as to be complete in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10). No person outside the church should be neglected or passed by, because the unique personality of each member is used by God to touch somebody. At the same time, each members personality is used to complement the personality of others in their church. It is the total witness through a church that can, and will (if understood carefully), reach out to every lost person. This will happen in a community in which the church has been established by God.

No matter what the spiritual need, cultural background, language or social standing of a person, someone in the church can touch that life, and the entire church can work together to reach him or her for Christ. One person may be uniquely suited to reach out lovingly to a single-parent family. This relationship that God establishes can then draw that family into a common relationship with the rest of the church family. The individual who made the initial contact may not be suited to lead them to Christ, but the entire church family knows that they probably would not have been able to touch that family had it not been for this member. The whole body responds when the new family comes, and they all pray, work and love them into the kingdom of God. In this way, they are fulfilling the command for the entire church family to take the gospel to every nonbeliever: Each person is to function in the body in which God placed him or her (1 Corinthians 12:18,27). Then the entire body works with the unique witness of every individual member, to the salvation of every person.

In our church family, which I pastored, we had such a variety of people: college students, drug addicts, mentally challenged, intellectuals (we as a church led to Christ a Ph.D. student from mainland China), those who had been in jail, single parents on welfare, a law professor, construction workers, an architect, school teachers, counselors, medical students, nurses, native Indians, Hispanics and waitresses. Together, the body lacked nothing to be able to touch any person needing the gospel.

The apostle Paul assured the church at Corinth, I thank my God always for you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him . . . so that you came short in no gift (1 Corinthians 1:4-7).

For total witnessing this church lacked nothing! This is true with every church. God Himself puts together each church. Each member is unique. But all members function in evangelism, in the context of their church, collectively making their witness to the lost effective.

Unfortunately, today too many Christians are self-centered rather than Christ-centered, and therefore independent from other believers. Each member must make his or her unique personality a vital part of the church by complementing the others, so no one in their community is neglected or ignored. The command of our Lord is not for selective evangelism but total evangelism. This can be accomplished through a local church in which all members function where God put them, and the whole church grows up into the Head (Ephesians 4:15-16). The result is a total witness to every person, regardless of the uniqueness of the lost.

Every church would be wise to notice those God has placed among them and marshal themselves to touch every lost person He places in their path. Instead of being selective in evangelism (since God is not), every person should function uniquelybut togetheruntil the whole world knows Christ.

The author of Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby is president of Henry Blackaby Ministries. Visit www.henryblackaby.com for more information.