New Lynn Community Church is partnering with OAC to equip and encourage people to share the good news about Jesus.
Each month, the church hosts evangelism seminars for people from across Auckland who want to grow in their ability to share the gospel, while also strengthening their own faith and understanding.
OAC (Outreach and Church Ministries) is the New Zealand division of Open Air Campaigners, an organisation committed to preaching the gospel and equipping God’s people for evangelism.
For Lew Meyer, an elder and evangelist at New Lynn Community Church who has worked with OAC for more than 30 years, evangelism is something the whole church is called to participate in.
“Interestingly, there's no ‘gift’ of evangelism in the Bible. The evangelist is a person with certain abilities and passions, and they are a gift to the church—evangelism itself is for everybody to engage in.”
That engagement can take many forms: conversations with friends over coffee, talking with family members who don’t believe, building relationships in the community, giving camp talks, preaching, or teaching.
But knowing that evangelism is everyone’s responsibility doesn’t necessarily mean everyone feels equipped to do it.
Many Christians struggle to find the right words or are working through their own questions and uncertainties. The seminars aim to give people greater confidence and understanding as they seek to share Jesus with others.
Lew has also developed a series of printed books and other resources to help Christians communicate the gospel in different contexts. He has seen churches make use of the material, including younger Christians learning to engage with questions and ideas they encounter today.
“It’s encouraging to me now, as an older guy, that I still have material that’s relevant and can help younger people in their evangelism in the modern world.”
For Lew, that modern world brings both challenges and opportunities. With people from many nations and cultures now living in our communities, and a vast range of ideas and beliefs available at our fingertips, Christians are regularly engaging with different worldviews, religions, and ideologies.
He sees four particular roles for an evangelist.
“First, it is to preach and share the gospel, whether one-to-one, in groups, or to crowds. Second, it is to equip believers to be more effective in sharing the gospel in their context. Third, it is to guard and protect the gospel. Think of the Apostle Paul writing Colossians and Galatians; in today’s world, we’re getting so much material from different cults, ideologies, and religions. Lastly, it is to resource the church to be evangelistically effective.”
But Lew is quick to emphasise that evangelism is not the responsibility of a few specialists.
“From the person who gives terrific hospitality to the excellent greeter, everyone has a role to play in the evangelism and outreach of the church. We’ve got to see ourselves as all part of this big process of making disciples.”
That conviction is behind the Auckland seminars, which Lew runs with fellow OAC evangelist Philip Williamson from Rossgrove Bible Church in Mt Albert. The sessions bring together Christians from different churches who want to grow in their understanding and practice of evangelism.
Their most recent seminar explored “What Killed Evolution: Evidence for Design in Nature”. Two further sessions are planned for 2026, with the team hoping to continue the seminars into 2027.
On Tuesday 27 October, the topic will be How to Share the Gospel Using Your Testimony, with a particular focus on conversations with relativists and those engaging with contemporary critical theory. On Tuesday 24 November, the seminar will look at Answering Agnostics.
Lew and Philip are also available to teach at local churches.
The monthly Tuesday evening seminars are held at New Lynn Community Church, 3123 Great North Road, from 7pm. Christians from across Auckland are welcome.
For more information or to RSVP, email OAC.Auckland@oac.org.nz. Contacts for OAC workers in other parts of New Zealand are available through the OAC website.
