Evangelism Handbook

It was a small group of eleven men whom Jesus commissioned to carry on his work, and bring the gospel to the whole world. They were not distinguished; they were not well educated; they had no influential backers. . . . If they had stopped to weigh up the probabilities of succeeding in their mission, even granted their conviction that Jesus was alive, and that his Spirit went with them to equip them for their task, their hearts must surely have sunk, so heavily were the odds weighed against them. How could they possibly succeed? And yet they did.¹

The early believers faced big obstacles. They had no New Testament canon, no established organization, and few clearly defined leaders. They faced hazardous persecution, and they were greatly misunderstood. Still, the spread of the gospel had its allies as well. As Paul aptly put it, Jesus came in the fullness of time—or at just the right time (Gal 4:4). The sovereign God of the universe had ordered events to prepare the way for the Great Commission. What helped the gospel to spread?

For one, there was the universal peace provided by Rome, or the Pax Romana. Michael Green said it well, “The spread of Christianity would have been inconceivable had Jesus been born half a century earlier.”² Rome controlled the entire known world at the dawn of the first millennium AD. Beyond the peace enforced by Caesar Augustus through his mighty army, the continuous expansion of roads aided the spread of the good news. I have seen the remains of Roman roads as far north as England, and they can still be traversed after many centuries.

Before Rome’s political peace, Greek culture paved the way as well. Alexander the Great’s conquests and concomitant process of hellenization produced a common language—Greek—across the Mediterranean region that the various cultures could speak. One can hardly underestimate the impact of a common tongue on the preaching of Christ by early missionaries.

The Jewish faith gave the early believers a heritage upon which to build. The first Christians knew the Old Testament Scriptures as their Bible. Further, the Jewish diaspora in the centuries before the birth of Jesus resulted in the establishment of synagogues across the Roman Empire. The synagogue not only provided a place for Paul and others to begin presenting Christ on missionary excursions but also provided a model for corporate worship in the early church.

A spiritual vacuum and political unity helped to set the stage for evangelization as well. “Politically and religiously,” states F. F. Bruce about the first century, “the world was ready for the gospel at that time as it had not been before.”³ The world today is ready for the gospel as well! Bruce commented further on the significance of that period:

The greater part of the civilized world was politically united, but the old classical religions were bankrupt. Many people had recourse to the popular mystery cults in their search for liberation from evil powers and assurance of well-being in the after-life. Others . . . were attracted to the Jewish religion, but it labored under the disadvantage of being too closely tied to one nation. When the Christian message began to be proclaimed among the peoples of the Roman Empire, it showed a capacity to satisfy both the craving for salvation which the mystery cults professed to meet and the ethical ideas which, as many Gentiles believed, were realized in the Jewish way of life even more than in Stoicism.⁴

In the grand drama of redemption (creation, fall, redemption, consummation), the coming of Jesus was central to the plan of God in history. To this day, we date our calendars based on His incarnation.

The church spread both spontaneously and strategically. The spontaneous growth came as the early believers, consumed with the Holy Spirit and conviction, went everywhere speaking of Christ. But a strategy developed on several levels as well. Later I will describe in more detail the concept of a missional witness, but for now observe the simple, twofold strategy of the early church. The New Testament plan for evangelism was and is one of total evangelism. The faith of the early Christ-followers could be described as missional from its beginnings. Evangelism never found its way into a program or committee assignment or became compartmentalized to a day of the week or a particular group; rather, it formed part of the warp and woof of the fabric of the early church. The strategy has been summarized under two headings, which when taken together give us a template for evangelistic focus both then and now.⁵

Total penetration means the goal of the church is to reach everyone for Christ. Jesus made this clear:

Three important groups during the first century were open to the gospel: (1) Jews, (2) Proselytes (non-Jews who kept the laws of Judaism), and (3) God-fearers (non-Jews attracted to the monotheism of Judaism but who did not obey all its laws and were not circumcised).

Of the more than 6 billion people in the world today, approximately one-third have not heard of Jesus Christ. A popular soft drink made a commitment a few years ago that all the world would have a drink of their cola. Their goal was the total penetration of the world with their product. Starbucks Coffee in less than 20 years has crisscrossed the globe. I have personally seen Starbucks in London, Paris, ChiangMai, and Bangkok. Worldwide, people recognize the golden arches of McDonald’s restaurants more than the cross of Christianity. Penetrating the world, the whole world, must remain our passion. Penetrating the culture with the gospel must take precedent over getting people into our buildings.

Total participation means involving every believer in evangelism. Jesus expects all believers to be involved in spreading the gospel. Everyone who receives the Holy Spirit is to witness (see Acts 1:8). Increasingly on a large scale, evangelicals are taking this mandate seriously. Emphasis by various mission groups on reaching the 10/40 window—referring to the section on the globe representing the most unchurched people groups—has raised awareness of the challenge to take the gospel to all peoples.

While I affirm such lofty goals, the more critical issue on a practical level is to apply the same philosophy of reaching the world and getting every single church in the world committed to the strategy. It is much easier to put together a grandiose plan to communicate the gospel to the whole world than to get individual churches committed to win specific areas to Christ or to motivate individual believers to win their neighborhoods to Christ. The New Testament pattern of evangelism involves beginning with Jerusalem, where the believers were, and reaching out from there. We see this played out in the Acts of the Apostles. We must continually ask ourselves if the contemporary church has remained faithful to involving all believers who know Christ in sharing with all those who do not know Christ.

Over the years I have read hundreds of books in the field of evangelism. Many have been helpful, a few have been wonderful, and others have been disappointing. When asked to name the greatest book I have ever read on evangelism, I immediately reply, “the Bible.” More specifically, the book of Acts gives more insight into the evangelistic work of the early church than any other source. How did the early church accomplish its task?

Acts 1:8 lays the foundation for the entire book. Luke’s narrative describes how the early believers, through the Holy Spirit’s power, witnessed in expanding areas. You see the concept of total participation for total penetration in the very thesis of the book. The purpose for each believer: “You are my witnesses.” The disciples asked about the signs of the times, but Jesus responded by telling them to be soul winners, not stargazers.

The personnel involved in witnessing is noted in Acts 1:8 and demonstrated for the next 28 chapters—all believers. The apostles, laity, men, women—all kinds of people—took the good news to others. William Carey faced a belief among fellow churchmen of his day that the Acts 1:8 mandate was only for the early church. The High Calvinists of Carey’s day said that if God wanted to save the heathen, God would do so. Thankfully, Carey’s view won the day. Due to his influence, modern missions was born in the late eighteenth century. It grew into one of the greatest missions movements in church history.

The power needed to win the world is the Holy Spirit. Some modern believers live as though there is a form of spiritual entropy at work in which the power of God is waning in the face of cultural rot. Not so! God is still at work today as He was working in the lives of the early believers.

See what the Holy Spirit did in the early church. Take Peter, for example. What caused Peter to change from the cowardly, denying disciple we see in Luke 22 to the courageous preacher described in Acts 2? Peter got an old-fashioned dose of the Holy Spirit!

Features of the work of the Spirit in Acts:

1. Four times the Spirit speaks in a direct quote, and in every case He says “Go”: Acts 8:29–35; 10:19–20; 13:2 (where He set apart Saul and Barnabas for formal missionary work); and 28:25–26.

2. Consistently, when the Spirit filled believers, their immediate response was to share Christ: Acts 2:4,11; 4:8,31; 6:3,7; 9:17,20; 11:24; 13:9

If the book of Acts tells us anything about evangelism, it is that the Holy Spirit is central to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. The book of Acts could rightly be called the “Acts of the Holy Spirit” because the key person in the book is the Holy Spirit. Jesus ascended, another Comforter came, and He empowered believers to do the work of the early church.

Finally, this verse gives us the plan of the early church. They witnessed locally but had a vision that extended globally. The term “glocal” has been used in recent days, referring to the church being equally local and global in its witness. That epitomizes the vision of the early church. Note that the twenty-eighth chapter of Acts ends abruptly. Why? Because it’s still being lived. You are the twenty-ninth chapter of Acts. I’m the twenty-ninth chapter of Acts. All believers are the twenty-ninth chapter of Acts. Give this vision to your church. We are still part of what God began 2,000 years ago. The canon is closed, but the church still grows.

Several aspects of evangelism in the early church are worthy of close examination.

All Believers Witnessed Personally in the Culture

The idea of a course or seminar on personal witnessing would have been foreign to the first believers. Witnessing was one of the defining marks of authentic Christianity. Even on the day of Pentecost, known for Peter’s great sermon, personal witnessing permeated the city, as noted by Conant and Fish:

It is widely imagined that those three thousand converts (Acts 12) were brought to Christ by Peter’s sermon alone, but nothing could be farther from the truth. The private witnessing of all the disciples culminated in the public witnessing of one disciple and brought the results of that day. In other words, if the private witnessing had not preceded Peter’s sermon, there is not the least likelihood that any such results would have followed.⁶

On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 all the believers spoke about the mighty acts of God. So all 120 people were sharing the gospel (see Acts 2:11), and then the crowd got together, where Peter preached to them. In Acts 4:29–31 we read of the church at prayer following the threats of Jewish officials. They prayed not for persecution to cease but for God to give them all boldness. As a result, they all were filled with the Spirit and shared Christ (v. 31, not just the church leaders). Following the persecution that came after Stephen’s martyrdom we read that all the believers were scattered by persecution with one notable exception: “except the apostles” (see Acts 8:1–4). What did all these believers, who were obviously not apostles but regular rank- and-file Christ-followers, do? They went everywhere sharing Christ! This idea is picked up in Acts 11:19 and following. These same laypeople, including men of Cyrene and Cyprus, spread the gospel to Antioch, leading to a shift in the advancing Christian movement, for we will read in Acts 13 that the first formal missionaries would be sent not from Jerusalem but from Antioch.

The early deacon Stephen was a witness, and Philip was even called an evangelist. Virtually every time believers in Acts were involved in some kind of verbal activity, they were witnessing, praising God, and gaining favor among the people. Examples of personal evangelism in the book of Acts are numerous. Notice the witness of Philip to the eunuch (Acts 8), Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10), and Paul to the proconsul (Acts 13).

Part of the problem we face in understanding the witness of the early church comes from translation. For example, in Acts 8:35, when most English versions say Philip “preached Jesus” to the eunuch, the Greek word is actually the word meaning “share the good news,” not “preach.”

Acts 8:35:

KJV: Philip “preached unto him Jesus.”

NKJV: Philip “ preached Jesus to him.”

NASB: Philip “preached Jesus to him.”

More accurately:

NIV: Philip “told him the good news about Jesus.”

HCSB: Philip “proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus.”

Similarly in Acts 11:19–23, the men who went everywhere speaking about Jesus were not preaching formally in the modern sense but were sharing Christ personally. While we may see that both “preaching” and “sharing the good news” each refer to communicating the gospel, the average reader of Scripture can easily assume “preachers” are the ones who should be doing the witnessing. In fact, many assume just that.

Today, personal evangelism in the church is the exception, not the rule; in Acts, the opposite was true. The Great Commission has experienced a great reversal. We must recapture a commitment to aggressive, missional, unashamed personal evangelism! We have to recapture the vision that when the message of the Christian faith has spread most effectively, it has done so by informal missionaries, what we would call “laity,” simply talking to others about Jesus. This idea is being recovered today by the growing focus on missional Christianity. That is how they did it in Acts. That is how they did it in the early centuries. That is how the gospel spread in times of many spiritual movements and awakenings. And that is how it must spread today.

If preachers alone could reach the world, the world may have been reached! God has and will use preachers, but God’s plan then and now is living witnesses. Why do some big-budget movies bomb while some lesser-known movies surprise the critics? Word of mouth. The early church was captivated by their message because Jesus had captured their hearts. When this took place, they simply had to spread the word. They were so transformed by the gospel of grace that their response took on a missional fervor. Likewise, if and when we are freshly captivated by the gospel, we will talk about Jesus.

Harnack said, “We cannot hesitate to believe that the great mission of Christianity was in reality accomplished by means of informal missionaries.”⁷ None of the first disciples of Jesus came from the clergy of their day, so we should not be surprised that the gospel spread primarily through “amateur” witnesses. Michael Green assesses the first-century church and in so doing gives an indictment of the American church:

In contrast to the present day, when Christianity is highly intellectualized and dispensed by professional clergy to a constituency increasingly confined to the middle class, in the early days the faith was spontaneously spread by informal evangelists, and had its greatest appeal among the working classes.⁸

History gives the same witness. In times of great awakening, personal evangelism receives renewed fervor. One of the more overlooked features of the leaders during past revivals is their commitment to personal soul-winning.

Only Some of the Disciples Preached to Crowds

One can see that all believers practiced personal evangelism. But notice that public proclamation of the gospel was vital as well, and was practiced by far fewer believers. Peter, Stephen, Paul, and others preached—not all believers.

The public preaching of the gospel was undergirded by personal witnessing, as evidenced in Acts 2. Early Christian believers had no church buildings. Today we suffer from the “edifice complex,” an overemphasis on buildings and budgets with little attention to people and passion. In the early church, preaching in the open air was the norm, not the exception. When George Whitefield and John Wesley began preaching in the fields with great effect in eighteenth-century England, they were criticized for using such a lowly approach. But they were only following the example of the early church!

Believers Lived Their Faith and Pursued Their Mission Daily

I am afraid that our version of Acts today, were we to tell the story of the contemporary church, would focus greatly on our Sunday services and the events at our buildings. On the contrary, the focus in the first century was not weekly in a building but daily in the culture:

• Acts 3:2—Here we read of a lame man over 40 years of age, who had been crippled his entire life. He was daily laid at the temple gate. When he saw Peter and John heading off to pray, he asked for their help. Now they could have said, “We’re busy. We’ll come back after our services are over.” But they refused to let their important spiritual activity keep them from touching a life in need. As a result he experienced physical healing and eternal salvation, and his witnessing led to multitudes hearing the gospel. Peter and John did not have to wait until Sunday to help this man. As missional worshippers, they did not let their corporate prayer service attendance hinder their witness and ministry in the culture. They did not need to check their iPhone to see if they had time to care.

They Reached People and Formed Churches

Today a strong focus on church planting has grown in the American church and globally. That is a good thing, and I have added a whole chapter on church planting later because of its importance. However, some obsess over church planting and have very little emphasis on reaching the lost. Read the book of Acts to see the early church’s strategy for church planting. They never lost sight of the Great Commission. Effective church planting never loses the focus on reaching the lost, even as “congregationalizing” takes place. Too often when church planting endeavors see some fruit in evangelism, the focus prematurely moves away from outreach to building a support structure. Of course the early church did not have disgruntled or other members from existing churches to deal with, so keeping the focus on the gospel may have been a little simpler. But today, church planters can become tempted to take anyone who wants to be part of the new church, including “mature” believers from other churches, and count them as part of a successful church plant. If one is not careful, however, the new church may end up reaching the very people who will keep the church from reaching the lost.

Mark Liederbach and I said the following in The Convergent Church:

Maybe that is why we are televising our weekly services in an effort to use the medium of television to reach tiny audiences of the convinced, while MTV has created an entire subculture via cable television that exerts expanding influence on American culture, especially among the younger population (that would be the group not sitting by the TV anticipating the next televised Sunday service). We are not intending to minimize the vital place of corporate worship. . . . But what we are saying is that we believe it is a tragedy that we evangelicals are far better at emphasizing Sunday morning services than we are at mobilizing missional worshipers to invade their world the rest of the week.⁹

They Declared an Unchanging, Timeless Message

One of the most debated aspects of the book of Acts centers on the question of whether there was a fixed pattern in the early church’s gospel preaching. C. H. Dodd’s work, The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments, claimed there was a noticeable pattern. This pattern included: (1) Jesus inaugurated the fulfillment of messianic prophecy, (2) He went about doing good and performing miracles, (3) He was crucified according to God’s plan, (4) He was raised and exalted to heaven, (5) He will return in judgment, and (6) therefore, people should repent, believe, and be baptized.¹⁰

Many scholars agreed with Dodd. These included Martin Dibelius, A. M. Hunter, and C. T. Craig. There is some disagreement among them on the basic points of early Christian preaching, but they concur that a core of content can be seen.

Scholars in recent years have increasingly disagreed with Dodd’s findings. It is fair to say that the message was clear to all in the early church, but the application of the message varied. Perhaps Green, in his survey of early church evangelism, said it well when he stated that the proclamation of the early Christians was “united in its witness to Jesus, varied in its presentation of his relevance to the varied needs of the listeners, urgent in the demand for decision.”¹¹ What is abundantly clear in Acts is that a consistent message is proclaimed throughout.

They Gave Testimony to the Gospel’s Impact on Their Lives

The objective message of the cross and Jesus’ resurrection permeated the witness of the early church. With this objective truth, they added the more subjective element of their personal testimonies. The message of the cross, when paired with a changed life, is still the most formidable weapon for storming the gates of hell.

One of the most moving verses on evangelism in the Bible is Acts 4:13. Peter and John had been arrested by the Sadducees for preaching the message of the cross and Jesus’ resurrection. The religious leaders described Peter and John as unlearned and ignorant. But they could not explain the apostles’ changed lives. “They marveled,” we are told, and “they took knowledge, that [Peter and John] had been with Jesus” (KJV). The testimony of these men gave evidence of the reality of their message. The question for us is, “How long does a person have to speak with us before he or she recognizes that we have been with Jesus?” When the authorities threatened Peter and John, Peter replied, “We are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

For these early believers, the objective message of the gospel was so dynamic in their lives that they would die for the Christ they preached. Their lives were so radically changed that they were willing to live for Him as well as tell others the story of their changed lives.

Little Chad was a shy boy. One afternoon in late January, Chad told his mother he wanted to make a valentine for each one of his classmates. I wish he wouldn’t do that! she thought. She knew how the children ignored her son. Her Chad was always behind them when they walked home from school. Chad was never included. Nevertheless, she decided she would help. She bought construction paper, glue, and crayons. For three whole weeks, night after night, Chad made 35 valentines by hand.

When Valentine’s Day arrived, Chad was excited. His mom, fearing his disappointment if he received no valentines, told Chad she would have his favorite cookies baked and ready when he came home from school. Maybe that will ease the pain a little, she thought.

That afternoon the kids were later than usual. Chad’s mom had the cookies and milk on the table. Finally she heard them coming, laughing and talking with one another. And, as usual, Chad was in the rear. She feared he would burst into tears as soon as he got home. His arms were empty, she noticed, and when the door opened, she choked back the tears.

“Mommy has some warm cookies and milk for you.”

Chad just marched right on by, and all he said was, “Not a one . . . not a one.”

And then he added, “I didn’t forget a one, not a single one!”¹²

Chad was so focused on giving that he had given no thought to receiving. He had something to share, and so do we!

They Shared Christ in the Face of Tremendous Obstacles

The greatest outpouring of the Spirit in history came on the Day of Pentecost. When great revival comes, everything goes well, right? Well, if that is your view of revival, you had better stop asking God for it. No, when God works, Satan rears his ugly head. The early church faced an array of internal and external obstacles, but they turned these obstacles into opportunities for God to work. Nothing could stop their passion for soul-winning.

Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not a twentieth-century phenomenon. Ananias and Sapphira (see Acts 5) lied about the circumstances surrounding their material gifts. Peter confronted the obvious sin; an evangelistic church must be unafraid to confront known sin. The book of Acts is the story of the greatest evangelistic spiritual awakening in history. But consider the difficulty the early Christians faced. The problem with Ananias and Sapphira was hypocrisy. Have you ever had hypocrisy in your church?

A pastor friend faced a crisis in his church. He discovered a staff member was involved in immorality. While being sensitive to the man’s family and being as gentle as possible, he and the church confronted the sin, dealt with it, and the staff member was removed. The church later experienced a deep and powerful revival. If the church had failed to confront sin, it would have been robbed of some of the power of God.

Ministry Needs. Acts 6 tells us of the neglected Hellenistic widows. Notice the complaint of the widows was about a real need. Not everyone who brings up an issue is a complainer; a growing church must deal with legitimate needs. The apostles were hindered from doing their ministry, so the church dealt with the issue by enlarging the organization. However, it was not simply changing the structure by setting apart who we think were the first deacons that solved the problem. The selection of Spirit-filled leaders made the difference.

The widows were saying, “We’re being neglected.” Peter didn’t say, “Would you be quiet?” He said, “You know, there’s a problem here. Let’s appoint some deacons so we can serve the Lord in the ministry of the Word and prayer, and you can serve the tables and take care of these ministry needs.”

Theological Convictions. Theological matters also played a key role in the evangelism of the early church. The Jerusalem conference described in Acts 15 dealt with a theological issue directly tied to evangelism: Did Gentiles have to become Jews to be Christians? From that day onward, the evangelistic effectiveness of the church has often depended on how it deals with matters of theology. Evangelism is more than methodology. We must deal with theological concerns in order to be effective in evangelism.

Beyond the inward obstacles, the church also grappled with outward persecution. Note these three examples.

Threats. The Sadducees arrested Peter and John, ordering them not to preach anymore. How did the apostles respond? First, they courageously preached the gospel (Acts 4:8–12). Then they testified concerning their unwillingness to be silent (Acts 4:20). Finally, upon their release, they prayed with other believers (Acts 4:23–31).

In their prayers, they began by acknowledging God’s sovereignty (Acts 4:24). They also acknowledged God as Lord of creation and history. When the early believers prayed, they prayed for boldness (Acts 4:29). Notice the answer: “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (NKJV). Now that’s praying!

Physical Beating. Acts 5 tells us that persecution moved from threats to actual physical abuse. But notice the response: They rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer” (Acts 5:41). Joseph Tson, who was persecuted greatly in Romania before the collapse of Communism, said most American Christians have not faced enough persecution to be counted worthy of suffering.

Martyrdom and a General Persecution. Stephen paid the ultimate sacrifice for his conviction about the gospel (see Acts 7 and 8). When John Wesley preached one time, his opponents ran an ox through the crowd. He wrote in his journals about having his mouth bloodied and still he kept on preaching. We must understand that the gospel is worth any cost.

Paul Brand and Philip Yancey wrote a stirring book entitled Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants. It’s about leprosy and pain in general. Brand describes a leper colony in India and the main leper colony in the United States, in Louisiana. The main problem with leprosy is that it causes you to lose your feeling. Some people in these leper colonies kept losing fingers and ears, and they didn’t know why. They put a camera in their dormitories. They discovered that while these people were sleeping, rats would chew on their fingers. The lepers didn’t even know it. They couldn’t feel.

The point of the book is that there is something worse than pain—the inability to feel pain. Those lepers would give anything to feel pain. The three most prescribed drugs in America today are classified as antidepressants or pain relievers. We try to blot out our pain, even in the church! We must understand that there is no service to God without pain. His desire is not to give us comfort but to build the character of Christ in us.

They Were Willing to Adapt Their Approach When Necessary

Too often in our day we confuse methods with the message. While their message never changed nor should we change it, the application of the message changes with different audiences. Most of the time in Acts we read of the gospel’s spread to Jews. Therefore, the early Christians did what makes sense—they pointed to Jesus as the Messiah for whom the Jews sought. But sometimes they encountered Gentile audiences and thus changed their approach. Our much more varied world requires such contextualization as well. Here are two clear examples:

• Acts 17—Paul at Mars Hill. When speaking to a Jewish audience, Paul and others focused on Jesus as the Messiah. But when he spoke to pagans in Athens, he made no mention of any Messiah, for whom none of them were seeking. Instead, he began with their idolatry and interest in creation to move from general revelation to special revelation. So, when dealing with those who understood the (Old Testament) Scriptures, Paul went from Scripture to their cultural situation. When dealing with those ignorant or unconvinced by the Scriptures, he began with creation, which fit their culture, and moved to Scripture.

• Acts 19—Paul changed his strategy when the Jews to whom he preached in the synagogue became hardened to the gospel. He moved from the religious institution, the synagogue, to the culture, a school of Tyrannus. He specifically taught daily, and as a result he stayed longer and influenced more than anywhere else (see 19:8–10).

My colleague George Robinson has spent extensive time working with church planters globally and in the U.S. He developed a simple matrix based on Acts 1:8 for a church to use in evangelizing its community.¹³ This simple approach at penetrating a culture with the gospel can assist churches to build an evangelistic DNA like that of the church in the Acts.

Remember, one of the obstacles to successful church is a step-by-step approach. One way you could implement the Acts Matrix is to identify key leaders within your church who will lead a target group. To do so you would have a “Jerusalem Team,” a “Judea Team,” a “Samaria Team,” and an “Ends of the Earth Team.” The responsibility of each team would be to identify ways in which your church is already involved in their target area and move the church toward multiplication in that area.

Make sure you do not focus only on your “Jerusalem”—keep in mind what God did to the first church when they made that mistake! Start where you are and move outward, and soon you will find a church-planting vision permeating your local church body. Where are the weaknesses of your church according to the matrix? Where are your strengths?

Take a few minutes to consider how the New Testament strategy for evangelism applies to your church field. If churches could just get this concept—total penetration and total participation—what an impact we could make across America. What if every believer in your community—youth in the public schools, moms in neighborhoods, businessmen in the workplace—sought to touch their sphere of influence for the sake of the gospel?

	Matrix Terms Defined
Jerusalem	Any location within the daily sphere of influence of your community of faith.
Judea	Any location outside of the daily sphere of influence of your community of faith, but shares a common worldview.
Samaria	Any location outside of the daily sphere of influence of your community of faith that has a slightly differing worldview, but shares some commonalities.
Ends of the Earth	Any location outside of the daily sphere of influence of your community of faith that has a radically differing worldview with few, if any, commonalities.
Prayer & Advocacy	Any activity of promotion through education, prayer or financial commitment.
Project	Any on-site activity with pre-determined goals that are completed in a single visit.
Partnership	Any on-going activities (both on and off-site) for the achievement of a specified set of goals shared between your community of faith and other Great Commission Christians in the area. Upon completion of shared goals the partnership may be dissolved or redefined.
Adoption	A lifelong commitment to a specific location or people. This commitment involves a relationship that involves, but is not limited to any predetermined set of goals.