Evangelism Handbook

“William Carey may have been the greatest missionary since the time of the apostles,” writes Danny Akin, adding, “He rightly deserves the honor of being known as the ‘father of the modern missions movement.’”² The publication of An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens sent a shot across the bow of the church in his day (and should ours as well). Through his influence the Baptist Missionary Society was founded in 1792. The London Missionary Society was founded in 1795. Soon many would follow Carey to the ends of the earth.

Higher criticism sought to apply to the Bible the same principles of science and historical method applied to secular works. It was largely dependent upon the study of internal evidence, although available data from linguistics and archaeology were also incorporated. The primary questions concerned the determination of the authenticity and likely chronological order of different sources of a text, as well as the identity and authorial intent of the writers. Higher criticism began most notably with the French scholar Jean Astruc’s work (mid-18th cent.) on the sources of the Pentateuch. It was continued by German scholars such as Johann Salomo Semler (1725–91), Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752–1827), Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792–1860), and Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918).³

The impact of this approach, which won the day among academics and in theological schools, was to diminish the roles of inspiration and revelation and elevate the ability of man to a place over Scripture. In that face of higher criticism, the West saw more seasons of refreshing through spiritual awakenings that spread the gospel and moved the church forward. Following the multiple movements in the great revival of the eighteenth century, the next great season of awakening came at the turn of the nineteenth century with the Second Great Awakening. This revival instilled a fresh passion for God in the emerging American nation.

This movement came soon after the Revolutionary War and is dated from the end of the eighteenth century well into the nineteenth. It was in the milieu of this movement that Carey began his work. Various ideologies affected the church (Deism, skepticism, etc.). In addition, moral deficiencies were rampant in society. Revival touched both the established states on the Atlantic coast and the western frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

Circular Letter of 23 New England Ministers Calling for Concerts of Prayer for Revival

To the ministers and churches of every Christian denomination in the United States, to unite in their endeavors to carry into execution the humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God’s people in extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion and the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on earth. In execution of this plan, it is proposed that the ministers and churches of every Christian denomination should be invited to maintain public prayer and praise, accompanied with such instruction from God’s Word, as might be judged proper, on every first Tuesday, of the four quarters of the year, beginning with the first Tuesday of January, 1795, at two o’clock in the afternoon, if the plan of concert should then be ripe for a beginning, and so continuing from quarter to quarter, and from year to year, until the good Providence of God prospering our endeavors, we shall obtain the blessing for which we pray.

The campus of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia became the first in a series of college revivals. The fertile field of young students played a pivotal role. Four young men—William Hill, Carey Allen, James Blythe, and Clement Read—were instrumental in the beginnings of revival at Hampden-Sydney in 1787 and the years following. Because they feared severe antagonism from the other students, the four young men began meeting secretly in the forest to pray and study. When they were discovered, they were greatly ridiculed by fellow students.

President John Blair Smith heard of the situation and was convicted by the infidelity on the campus. He invited the four students and others to pray with him in his parlor. Before long, “half of the students were deeply impressed and under conviction, and the revival spread rapidly through the college and to surrounding counties.”⁵ Hill later chronicled the revival’s impact:

Persons of all ranks in society, of all ages . . . became subjects of this work, so that there was scarcely a Magistrate on the bench, or a lawyer at the bar but became members of the church. . . . It was now as rare a thing to find one who was not religious, as it was formerly to find one that was. The frivolities and amusements once so prevalent were all abandoned, and gave place to singing, serious conversations, and prayer meetings.⁶

The Yale College revival began under the leadership of President Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards. Dwight came to the school when it was filled with infidelity. He began to preach against unbelief in the college chapel. By 1797 a group of students formed to improve moral conditions and pray for revival. A powerful spiritual movement swept through the school in the spring of 1802. A third of the student body was converted. C. A. Goodrich wrote of the change in attitude on campus:

The salvation of the soul was the great subject of thought, of conversation, of absorbing interest; the convictions of many were pungent and overwhelming; and “the peace of believing” which succeeded, was not less strongly marked.⁸

A group of students at Williams College in Massachusetts made a tremendous impact on missions. Samuel Mills entered the college during a time of awakening there between 1804 and 1806. He and four others began to pray regularly for missions. In 1806 at one particular meeting they had to seek refuge from the rain in a haystack. During this “haystack meeting,” Mills proposed a mission to Asia. This event was a precipitating factor leading to a major foreign missions enterprise. The first missionaries included Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. Beyond the colleges, revival began in Northington, Connecticut, with meetings initiated by young people.

After a series of gatherings in 1799, the first real camp meeting was held in June of 1800 at the Red River Church in Kentucky. Crowds gathered in a given community for several days of worship and the observance of communion. Then, in August 1801 at Cain Ridge, Kentucky, 25,000 came together. Leaders included James McGready and Barton Stone, who were Presbyterians. Unusual phenomena were associated with some of the camp meetings. Many leaders, including Methodist circuit rider Peter Cartwright, discouraged such practices.

Charles Finney has been called the “father of American revivalism.” A lawyer by training, Finney was powerfully converted in 1821 and embarked on a ministry of revival and evangelism. Finney is perhaps best known for his “new measures,” innovative approaches that he incorporated into his ministry. While Finney overemphasized the work of man in spiritual movements, he was yet used of God in the salvation of many. His new measures included protracted meetings and “anxious benches.” The “anxious seats” were a forerunner to the modern public invitation, as described by Finney:

It was at Rochester that I first introduced this measure. . . . I made a call for the first time for persons who were willing to renounce their sins and give themselves to God to come forward to certain seats which I requested to be vacated, and offer themselves up to God while we made them subjects of prayer. A much larger number came forward than I expected.⁹

The Second Great Awakening stirred a powerful evangelistic movement, with multitudes converted. Further, it introduced significant new methods: the camp meeting and Charles Finney’s “new measures,” among others. One of the greatest results of this revival came in missions. In 1810 Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice were two of the first missionaries sent overseas by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The missions movement followed a similar time of revival that touched the lives of men such as William Carey in Great Britain.

Many societies were birthed as well. The American Bible Society began in 1816 and the American Tract Society in 1825. Educational impact was seen in the formation of the first seminaries in the United States, including Andover in 1808, Princeton in 1812, and Yale Divinity in 1818. Further, the American Sunday School Union was founded in 1824. Finally, society was changed. The Second Great Awakening began what some have called the “golden age of Christianity.”

By the mid–nineteenth century the effects of the Second Great Awakening subsided, due in part to growing prosperity, political turmoil over slavery, and religious extremism (such as the Millerites, who wrongly predicted the return of Jesus in 1843–44). Several simultaneous events occurred at the beginning of this movement, known as the Layman’s Prayer Revival. Union prayer meetings, led by Jeremiah Lanphier, began in 1857; they spread quickly to involve over 50,000 within six months across the eastern part of the United States.

Multitudes were converted. Seventy-five people were converted in a Brooklyn church revival meeting. A Catskill church saw 115 professions of faith in a few days. In Newark 3,000 people were converted in two months. In Philadelphia a man began a prayer meeting like those in New York. Soon 6,000 people met daily, and a tent revival was held. It continued for more than four months, with 150,000 attending. Over 10,000 were converted in one year.

God was exalted in this revival. This was the only awakening without a single well-known leader. Also, it came unexpectedly. Further, there was great cooperation among believers. It was part of a worldwide movement, including the revival in Wales in 1859 and the revival in the ministry of Andrew Murray in South Africa. It strongly influenced D. L. Moody during his youth. The Layman’s Prayer Revival of 1857–59 was characterized by its wide appeal. Several colleges experienced revival during this time. J. Edwin Orr documented revival movements at Oberlin, Yale, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Williams, Amherst, Princeton, and Baylor.¹⁰

At the turn of the twentieth century, fresh winds of the Spirit again touched many people. The most visible example of the period was the revival of 1904–08. This included the Welsh Revival and other occurrences as well in the United States and abroad. Some features of the period were controversial, including the birth of modern-day Pentecostalism in 1901 and the subsequent Azusa Street Revival.¹¹

Also, during the last part of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, many prominent evangelists began to minister. Following in the line of D. L. Moody, these evangelists saw multitudes converted and many instances of genuine revival. These evangelists included R. A. Torrey, Billy Sunday, Sam Jones, Mordecai Ham, and Wilbur Chapman. This period witnessed as well the rise of music evangelists. Ira Sankey worked with D. L. Moody. Others included Homer Rhodeheaver and Charles Alexander.

While there has been no revival that one could call a “great awakening” in America since at least the turn of the twentieth century and most would argue even longer, several localized or more specialized revivals have occurred since then. The late 1940s and the 1950s was a time of unparalleled church growth and evangelism. The Southern Baptist Convention’s greatest years of growth came during this period. J. Edwin Orr, in his final message delivered before his death, noted, “about 1949 there was a wave of revival in colleges throughout the United States.”¹²

In the middle of the youth protests surrounding the Vietnam War, the Jesus Movement served to call youths to a radical commitment to Jesus. This was the closest thing to spiritual awakening among youth of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This movement, which did not rival earlier awakenings in impact, generally paralleled the unrest among America’s youth during this era. Many people familiar with the Jesus Movement tend to emphasize the countercultural Jesus People (or Jesus “Freaks”), but the renewal among youth was actually much broader. It included powerful church revivals and campus awakenings as well as the more colorful phenomena such as underground newspapers, coffeehouses and communes, and the new music. It was expressed in youth choir tours, youth evangelism conferences, and music festivals. Contemporary Christian music and the rise of praise and worship songs flowed from the stream of this youth revival.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) reported records in baptisms in the early 1970s, propelled mainly by a remarkable increase in youth baptisms. For example, the SBC record for baptisms occurred in 1972 with 445,725. Of that number, 137,667 were youth—the largest number and the highest percentage of youth baptisms during any year in SBC history. The second highest number of youth baptisms was in 1971. Even more significant than the total baptism figure was the more substantial youth baptism figures. The Jesus Movement reached its peak in 1970–71.

1971	126,127	409,659	30.7	N/A	N/A
1972	137,667	445,725	30.8	24,997,000	0.550
1973	119,844	413,990	28.9	25,287,000	0.473
1974	115,345	410,482	28.1	25,454,000	0.453
1975	116,419	421,809	27.6	25,420,000	0.457
1976	103,981	384,496	27.0	25,305,000	0.410
1977	88,838	345,690	25.6	25,014,000	0.355
1978	97,118	336,050	28.9	24,549,000	0.395
1979	93,142	368,738	25.2	23,919,000	0.389
1980	108,633	429,742	25.2	23,409,576	0.464
1981	101,076	405,608	24.9	23,409,576	0.444
1982	102,259	411,554	24.8	22,358,000	0.457
1983	97,984	394,606	24.8	22,199,000	0.441
1984	91,431	372,028	24.6	21,958,000	0.416
1985	86,499	351,071	24.6	21,632,000	0.399
1986	86,387	363,124	23.8	21,300,000	0.405

In addition, record enrollments and continuous increases characterized all six Southern Baptist seminaries during the decade following the Jesus Movement. Campus Crusade for Christ, a college parachurch ministry, held Explo ’72 in Dallas. It resulted in “the most massive gathering of students and Christian laymen to ever descend on one city.”¹⁴ Its purpose was to equip and inspire young people in evangelism. Over 80,000 registered for the event, with some 150,000 attending a Saturday music festival concluding the meeting. Evangelist Billy Graham was very favorable toward what he called the “Jesus revolution.”¹⁵ Graham noted that during the period an unusually high number of youth attended and professed faith in Christ at his crusades.

A famous revival occurred at Asbury College in 1970, beginning spontaneously during a chapel service. The dean of the college was scheduled to speak, but he felt impressed to have a testimony service. Students began to flood toward the altar to pray. For 185 hours they continuously prayed, sang, and testified. Henry James of the college reported on what happened next:

Before long, appeals began coming from other campuses for Asbury students to come and tell the story. This intensified the burden of prayer even as it heightened anticipation of what God was going to do. . . . The revival began to take on the dimensions of a national movement. By the summer of 1970 at least 130 colleges, seminaries and Bible schools had been touched by the revival outreach.¹⁶

Many other recent instances of revival could be named. A stirring example in a local church is Houston’s First Baptist. John Bisagno came to First Baptist in 1970, when the church was a declining downtown church. Bisagno watched the Jesus Movement. Unlike many in Southern Baptist circles, Bisagno affirmed the youth of the day, arguing that he would rather see youth yelling for Jesus than sitting barefoot on a park slope taking drugs.

Bisagno led the church to get involved in an effort called SPIRENO (Spiritual Revolution Now), led by evangelist Richard Hogue. As a result the church baptized 1,669 during 1970–71, with the vast majority coming from young people. One reporter stated: “By taking the initiative, they gave their church and hundreds of others in Houston a chance to jump into the flow of this Jesus movement.”¹⁷

Coffeehouse ministries, ocean baptisms, new music, personal evangelism, and many other phenomena characterized the period. There were controversial elements, including the overemphasis on a simplistic approach to the gospel and emotional experiences, the Charismatic movement, and the physical appearance of many of the countercultural converts. The benefits certainly outweighed the liabilities, however. Beyond the evangelistic results cited above, the Jesus Movement helped many traditional churches to focus again on the work of the Holy Spirit. Many leaders in evangelism today were converted during the Jesus Movement or radically touched by its impact.¹⁸

During the 1920s, fundamentalists waged a war against modernism in three ways: by (unsuccessfully) attempting to regain control of Protestant denominations, mission boards, and seminaries; by supporting (with mixed success) Prohibition, Sunday “blue laws,” and other measures defending traditional Protestant morality and sensibilities; and (fairly successfully) by attempting to stop the teaching of evolution in the public schools, a doctrine which they saw as inextricably linked to the development of “German” higher criticism and the source of the Great War.¹⁹ The now infamous “Scopes Trial” of 1925, pitting Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan, served to show fundamentalism as an anti-intellectual movement and led to its disrepute in the eyes of cultural elites.

There are three senses in which the term “evangelical” is used today as we enter the 21st century. The first is to see as “evangelical” all Christians who affirm a few key doctrines and practical emphases. British historian David Bebbington approaches evangelicalism from this direction and notes four specific hallmarks of evangelical religion: conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible; and crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. A second sense is to look at evangelicalism as an organic group of movements and religious tradition. Within this context “evangelical” denotes a style as much as a set of beliefs. As a result, groups as disparate as black Baptists and Dutch Reformed Churches, Mennonites and Pentecostals, Catholic charismatics and Southern Baptists all come under the evangelical umbrella—demonstrating just how diverse the movement really is. A third sense of the term is as the self-ascribed label for a coalition that arose during the Second World War. This group came into being as a reaction against the perceived anti-intellectual, separatist, belligerent nature of the fundamentalist movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Importantly, its core personalities (like Harold John Ockenga and Billy Graham), institutions (for instance, Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College), and organizations (such as the National Association of Evangelicals and Youth for Christ) have played a pivotal role in giving the wider movement a sense of cohesion that extends beyond these “card-carrying” evangelicals.²⁰

I tend to think of the term primarily in the first and third uses above—there is broader evangelicalism, which refers to those who hold to historic evangelical doctrines, and there is the more recent movement noted above. Holding to the central idea that all truth is God’s truth, modern evangelicalism argued that instead of fearing the findings of modern science and reason, believers should see that truth discovered through scientific reason does not compete with truth gained via divine revelation.

Whereas liberal Christians gave up the supernatural elements of their faith in the face of modernity’s attacks and fundamentalists gave up the hope of finding anything good via rational and scientific method, conservative evangelicals emphasized rational explanations and defenses, or “a proof oriented Christianity” in which nonbelievers were asked to evaluate “evidence that demands a verdict.”²¹

While there is certainly a place for this approach (I would argue particularly in discipling believers in an increasingly post-Christian era), there is also a danger. If not careful we can “attempt to contextualize the gospel message in an overly confident, rationalistic culture that no longer recognizes the possibility of anchoring truth in a transcendent reality.”²² We can unintentionally overuse modernist approaches to turn theology into mathematics, emphasizing our formulas to the neglect of the God of the Bible. Further, it led to too close a relationship between modernism and evangelicalism.

Oliver O’Donovan observed four features of the twentieth century that have led to disillusionment with the promises of modernity and as a result brought a lack of confidence in modernism’s validity: (1) the first and second world wars, (2) the reversal of European colonization, (3) the threat of nuclear destruction of the human race, and (4) the evidence of long-term ecological crisis. “The master-narrative that was to have delivered us the crown of civilization has delivered us insuperable dangers,” he writes, adding that the result means Western culture “cannot tell where ‘straight ahead’ lies, let alone whether it ought to keep on going there. The master-narrative has failed.”²³

What does all this mean for the evangelical church and her ability to be effective evangelistically? As our world in the latter twentieth century in the West shifted from modernism to a postmodern posture, more and more people began to question Christianity not on its own merits but because of a perceived (often caused by evangelicals) linkage between Christian truth and modernist claims. In other words, while relying upon empirical methodologies and fact-finding in order to defend the faith worked in the modern era, reliance upon this methodology may have overreached in two critical ways:

First, while rightfully claiming we can have a high degree of certainty regarding the knowledge about God, there has been a tendency to believe we can have a rather exhaustive knowledge of God. In turn, this has led to a loss of respect and wonder at the mystery of God’s unsearchable wonder. Christians may like to quote C.S. Lewis’s famous line about Aslan (Lewis’s Christ figure) not being a “tame lion,” but when evangelicals take time to honestly evaluate the claims to certainty present in their analytically based systematic theologies, there appears to be very little space given to, or humility about, the mystery and awesome nature of God. It is almost as if we have come to believe that doing theology is the same as solving math equations.²⁴

To put it simply, too often discipleship models are relegated to classroom teachings in Sunday school settings . . . with knowledge-based curricula instead of life-on-life, obedience-based discipleship. Thus, while the emphasis on apologetics and systematic theology has been, and will continue to be, a vitally important element of discipleship, there is a growing sense among many that the modern evangelical church has placed so much emphasis on rationalistic defenses and teaching the facts of the faith that it has neglected whole-life ministry and embodiment of the faith. The emphasis on orthodoxy has led to the unfortunate neglect of orthopraxy.²⁵

Citywide, Interdenominational Crusades. These crusades began in the nineteenth century and blossomed in the twentieth. D. L. Moody (1837–99) began the march of an army of urban evangelists. Moody teamed with musician Ira Sankey to form the first successful evangelistic team. Their meetings drew thousands in cities from the United States to England. Evangelistic results always occurred; and, at times, deep revival also arose. Moody developed the practice of organizing a steering committee to guide preparations for his crusades. Many have followed his lead, including Billy Graham.

Of course, the best-known evangelist in history is William Franklin “Billy” Graham. Graham was converted in Charlotte, North Carolina, under the preaching of another prominent evangelist, Mordecai Ham. Graham has preached to more people than any other preacher in history. He has served as a model of a man of integrity and has remained single-minded in his call to be an evangelist.

Denominational Evangelism. This development rose to prominence during the 1900s. At the outset J. Wilbur Chapman, famous for his worldwide crusades, served as evangelism director briefly for Presbyterians in America. In the first decade the Southern Baptist Convention began a division of evangelism for the Board of Domestic Missions (now the evangelization group of the North American Mission Board). At first this consisted of a team of evangelists who preached meetings. The organization developed into a strategy and program-producing arm of the denomination. The Southern Baptist Program of Evangelism in the 1950s was one of its most successful campaigns. In more recent years, simultaneous mass evangelism efforts and evangelistic outreaches in conjunction with the annual Southern Baptist Convention (known as Crossover) serve as examples of the evangelistic leadership of the denomination.

Parachurch Evangelism. This development also came into prominence during this century. The best-known example of this is Campus Crusade for Christ, International, now the largest parachurch organization in the world. Significant contributions include the “Four Spiritual Laws” witnessing booklet, the “Here’s Life” campaign and “Explo ’72” in the early 1970s, and the use of the Jesus video around the world.

Other parachurch organizations that give some focus to evangelism include Youth for Christ, Youth with a Mission, the Navigators, Young Life, and more recently, Promise Keepers. In the 1990s, parachurch groups and denominations joined hands as a part of AD 2000, a cooperative effort involving scores of evangelical denominations and parachurch ministries, with a goal of sharing Christ with every person on earth by the year 2000.

International Conferences/Congresses on Evangelism. Increased communication and increasing ease of travel globally led to the gathering of Christian leaders on several occasions for the purpose of global evangelization. The World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910 was the first widely recognized meeting, although it was preceded by five interdenominational meetings with a focus on foreign missions beginning in 1888 and a meeting of 50,000 in New York City in 1900. In 1966 a Congress on Evangelism was held in Berlin, sponsored by the Billy Graham Association and Christianity Today magazine. Graham desired to “unite all evangelicals in the common task of the total evangelization of the world.”²⁶ Over 100 nations were represented at this truly global event. Another Congress met in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974 with 150 nations represented. There the Lausanne Covenant was adopted in a desire to unite Christians in the common cause of global evangelism. Lausanne II was held in Manila, Philippines, in 1989. The third Lausanne Congress, being held in Capetown, South Africa, in 2010, marks the third continent for the three gatherings, a truly global movement.

International Missions Emphases. The global expansion of Christianity has caused more recent leaders to look at the world through the eyes of the gospel. In 1990 Luis Bush coined the phrase “the 10/40 window” to refer to the region of the world with the largest number of lost people. The term refers to the area in the Eastern Hemisphere between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, roughly including northern Africa across southern Asia, with countries such as India, China, Iran and Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, and Libya, to name a few. In this region 95 percent of the 3.2 billion who live there are unevangelized. This reality, and the growth of the concept of unreached people groups, has motivated missions agencies to focus on sending more missionaries to this region of such great need.

Methodological Evangelism. This catchphrase is used for other key emphases. D. James Kennedy launched his Evangelism Explosion approach to personal evangelism at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in 1970. Churches from various denominations have been trained by this approach. Southern Baptists championed the programmatic approach of training its members in simple methods of personal witness, while Campus Crusade for Christ and other parachurch organizations employed similar tools.

The Seeker Movement. Megachurch pastor Rick Warren popularized the “seeker-sensitive” movement, while fellow megachurch pastor Bill Hybels emphasized a “seeker-driven” approach. Both approaches grew out of a desire to be more “sensitive” to where lost people are and to become more effective at reaching them. They are not identical, as “seeker sensitive” refers to the goal of removing unnecessary obstacles to the gospel the church often has, and “seeker driven” refers to planning much (or all) of the church—Sunday services, and so on—from the posture of a “seeker.” I am personally not comfortable with the latter but believe the former, if not taken too far, can be helpful. Some criticize the tendency to refer to those outside of Christ as “seekers.” Willow Creek in fact recently released a book entitled Reveal: Where Are You?, in which its leaders admit their approach has not led automatically to spiritual maturity.²⁷

The Emerging Church Movement. At the turn of the twenty-first century this movement brought new discussion to the importance of engaging the culture with the gospel. A reaction to the programmatic approaches of the evangelical church and to a heavy emphasis on “attractional” evangelism, this movement has emphasized the importance of engaging the culture. Some in the movement, particularly those deemed “emergent,” have forsaken historic biblical convictions in the name of engaging the culture.²⁸ Those keeping a biblical focus, however, have given helpful insights into engaging the culture and becoming missional in evangelism.

Movements within the larger movement of Christianity come and go. Some are more helpful, some less. We should not fear movements, but neither should we fear holding them to the standard of Scripture. We can be so afraid of wild fire that we miss real fire, but we also must recognize wild fire. I pray that the true fire of God would fall again on the church in our time.