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Effective Evangelism

Throughout North America and the world, we have found a hunger among church leaders to make an impact in their communities for the gospel. Church leaders want to be effective. They want to be kingdom outposts. They have a deep-seated desire to be the church God wants them to be. They want to be Holy Spirit–empowered, faith-filled, dynamic places of worship. They want to be the presence of Jesus in their part of God’s kingdom. They want to be engaged in a positive way with those who are disconnected from Jesus.

Evangelism is one of the primary characteristics that help churches become fit. Evangelism provides oxygen to the body of Christ. New birth, growing believers, and an inflow of newly connected followers of Christ breathe life into faith communities.

Churches must be involved in evangelistic endeavors. Churches that do not make the effort to intentionally determine methods to share the gospel will erode in their fitness levels. Churches that do not involve themselves in an evangelical emphasis will find themselves aging with no kids or grandkids to carry on their legacy.

You might be a fit church if . . .

  • You train and mobilize members to share their faith.
  • Your primary source of numerical growth is conversions.
  • You offer specialized opportunities for members to invite their friends.
  • You intentionally dedicate money and people to start new churches.
  • You regularly celebrate baptisms.
  • You identify and target unreached people in your community.
  • You give guests an opportunity to accept Christ in worship services.

A Biblical Framework for Evangelism

Acts 1:8 contains the last recorded words of Jesus before his ascension. He said to his followers, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NLT). In this verse, Jesus lays out four spheres of evangelistic ministry: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth (world).

These four spheres provide a strategic methodology for local church evangelism. Each sphere represents a specific aspect of evangelism.

Jerusalem implies a relational distinction. It is our personal sphere of influence. A sphere of influence is the circle of people an individual knows who are disconnected from Christ. Equipping people to share their faith stories is the best way to reach Jerusalem.

Judea is a geographical designation. Using the church’s location as the center, draw a circle of one-fourth of a mile up to a five-mile radius. The radius is dictated by the population; the greater the population surrounding the church, the smaller the radius. Contextualized community engagement is the best way to reach Judea.

Samaria is both a geographical and a demographical designation. Samaria is the area that lies outside the geography of a church’s particular Judea or a demographic either inside or outside your Judea that you are ill-equipped to reach. This ill-equipped status could be the result of language or cultural differences or a variety of challenges. Starting new faith communities is the best way to reach Samaria.

Ends of the earth speaks to the need to reach the entire world. Most often this points to the responsibility of churches to spread the gospel internationally. Doing so requires crossing borders. Sometimes the borders are actual geographical boundaries, but other times they are language, cultural, and worldview borders. The ends of the earth are best reached through the development of global partnerships.

Churches that are building the body have evangelistic processes and programs in each of these spheres. In this strategic model, evangelism begins in Jerusalem and flows outward to impact the world.

Effective Evangelism

Evangelism alone isn’t all that matters—it must be effective. Churches cannot simply do evangelism; they must determine what form of evangelism is the most effective in each context. Effective evangelism is a means of presenting the gospel that connects with those you are attempting to reach. For example, a church on the north side of a community decided to do a complimentary hot dog and hamburger cookout in a local park. They did an excellent job promoting the event and hundreds of people showed up. As the people ate together, the church folks shared their personal faith stories. This evangelistic strategy proved to be very effective for this church.

When a sister church on the south side of town heard about the cookout, they liked the idea so much they decided to do the same thing. Organizers too set up in a park. They made sure they had plenty of hot dogs and hamburgers. They promoted well. The day came and very few people showed up. In fact, to their surprise, they received calls and posts on the church’s Facebook page criticizing the event.

What happened? The south-side church neglected to get a feel for their community. You see, the community in which they were located was highly vegan. Therefore, the hot dog and hamburger cookout was not only unattractive but also downright offensive. Effective evangelism takes effort—and research.

Feather Flapping

Four guidelines can help to develop effective evangelism. These are guidelines, not programs. Regardless of your church’s level of fitness, you can use these to craft effective evangelistic processes.

First, find your lift. For most of recorded history, people longed to be able to fly like birds. Over the years, as creative people considered how to get people off the ground and into flight, the natural bent was to imitate birds. People spent many hours observing birds in flight. Since birds use their wings to fly, a parade of people designed birdlike wings for people to wear, with unsuccessful results. Today we laugh at some of the early film of these attempts to fly. Trying to flap man-made wings just did not work.

This all changed when Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli discovered “that as the velocity of a fluid increases, its pressure decreases.”1 Bernoulli’s principle applies to any fluid, and since air is a fluid, it applies to air. In essence, his theory, when applied to flight, declared that “if the air speeds up the pressure is lowered. Thus the wing generates lift because the air goes faster over the top creating a region of low pressure, and thus lift.”2 His theory changed the conversation from feather flapping to lift—and lift is the force that holds an airplane in the air.

Each church must determine its evangelistic lift. Too often a church employs feather flapping. Two types of feather flapping are quite common. One occurs when a church adopts what another church is doing without adapting it to its own context. The second happens when a church looks for the plan-in-a-box. Both these approaches mimic the ministry of others. Unfortunately, most churches find that ministry by mimicry is mockery.

You need to do the difficult work of finding lift. You need to discover what will work in your community and be willing to understand the community in which God has placed your church. When you do this, when you find your lift, you will soar in evangelistic effectiveness.

Second, resist the drill bit. Early in Phil’s ministry, he discovered a useful principle called the “bit market.” It was a principle birthed out of a parable. The story recounts a man who secures a job as a drill bit salesperson. The first day on the job the sales manager gives him some critical advice. The sales manager says, “When you go out to make your sales calls, remember this one thing—the market is for holes, not drill bits.”

She goes on to explain that people and companies purchase drill bits to make holes. Their company sells holes. A market for holes will always exist but not necessarily a market for drill bits. If a better way comes along to make holes, then the company will sell that. The market is for holes.

Evangelism is a hole. Evangelistic drill bits are the methods used to drill the holes (evangelism). Door-to-door surveying, evangelistic crusades, the Four Spiritual Laws, confrontational evangelism, apologetic argumentation, lifestyle evangelism, bus ministry, and event-oriented outreach are examples of drill bits. You must resist the drill bit. Resist getting so locked into a certain type of method that you protect the drill bit at the expense of the hole. Effective evangelism focuses on the hole, not the drill bit.

Third, define the win. You will never know if you have won unless you know what it means to win. Golf is an excellent example. In most competitions, the team or individual with the highest point total wins. If you played a golf game with this perspective, you would seldom win. Why? A winner in golf has the lowest point total, not the highest. Not knowing this would place you at a huge disadvantage. Defining the win dictates the outcome.

When I (Phil) play golf, I have three criteria for a win: First, have a good time. Second, break one hundred in the number of strokes. Third, find more golf balls than I lose. Playing golf with this idea of a win determines my approach. My clearly defined outcomes allow me to enjoy the game much more than if I was to focus on making par.

As a church leader, you need to do the same to have effective evangelism. You need to define the win. The ultimate win is for people to come into a transformational relationship with Jesus Christ. Salvation, forgiveness of sin, and being restored in a relationship with God is what evangelism is about. Yet you have little control over this outcome. Jesus said in John 6:44, “For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up” (NLT). God draws people to him. Since it is “the Father” who draws people to himself, is counting decisions for Christ a win we have control over?

It is our contention that it is not. You need to define a win based on what you have control over. Here are two potential criteria for a win in effective evangelism: (1) Did you share the gospel in a clear, understandable manner? (2) Did you provide people an opportunity to respond to the gospel? If you are able to answer yes to these two questions, then you have effective evangelism. And the Father will draw them to him.

I (Phil) meet regularly with clusters of pastors for peer learning, encouragement, prayer, relationship building, and challenging one another to grow. Often I ask the pastors how many people came to Christ in the past month in their church. This question always encounters resistance as the pastors, rightly so, feel this is God’s work, not theirs. When I hear this response, I retool my question and ask: How many times did you give people the opportunity to respond to the gospel?

A young pastor in one of the clusters was convicted by the Spirit. He realized he seldom gave people the opportunity to respond to the gospel. Without any public declaration to the group, he committed himself to giving people opportunities to respond. The next time we were together, he shared that as a result of presenting the opportunity for people to respond, four people had come to Christ.

The Father does indeed do the drawing, but usually you need to be the one to provide the opportunity for people to respond to the draw. Clarifying your win can make a huge difference in your approach and increase your evangelistic effectiveness.

Fourth, change. Sport psychology coach Rob Bell shares the following in his Mental Toughness blog.

Dick Vermeil became head coach of the St. Louis Rams in 1997 after a fifteen year absence from all of coaching.

He was infamous for 3 to 4 hour practices in full pads every day of the week.

He worked his players so hard that before one game in 1998 against the Bears, the entire team had a meeting about whether they should even play!

They had 9 wins in 2 years.

So, he changed . . .

He cut down practices to 1.5 hours no matter the situation and made sure his players were fresh heading into Sunday.

They won the Super Bowl in 1999. 3

Those three words, so, he changed, are huge if you desire effective evangelism. What Coach Vermeil was doing was not working, so he changed. You need to regularly evaluate your evangelistic methods. How are you keeping the story fresh? How are you communicating the gospel? How do you determine if people understand the gospel? How are you equipping your church to be the gospel? If what you are doing is not working, then change!

Five Types of Churches

Beginner Churches

Beginner churches typically have no evangelistic processes in place. The people in these churches seldom invite others to church. These churches have an ingrown attitude. In many cases, even the pastor believes everyone who attends their church is already in a relationship with Christ. Gospel presentations are seldom, if ever, made. These churches are more concerned for those already in the body than those who remain outside the body.

These churches must begin with small initial steps toward effective evangelism. Too often an overzealous pastoral leader wants their church to be world-class in evangelism when the people have not shared the gospel in years. Such a church needs to get back to the basics.

Many people have stories about legendary National Football League coach Vince Lombardi. One story happened in the summer of 1961. At the beginning of training camp, Lombardi pulled together his Green Bay Packer squad. These were professional football players, many of whom had years of experience. But Lombardi did not want to take anything for granted. “He began with the most elemental statement of all. ‘Gentlemen,’ he said, holding a pigskin in his right hand, ‘this is a football.’”4 In beginner churches, you need to start with the basics.

PLAN OF ACTION IF YOU LEAD A BEGINNER CHURCH

Each element of this plan is low impact. The idea is to get those in beginner churches looking outward.

Phil was once working with a small church in Arizona that was averaging seventeen people in attendance. They had no one who had come to Christ in the past year. He asked the pastoral couple when was the last time they gave people the opportunity to respond to the gospel. They explained that it had been quite some time. They believed everyone in their church was already a Christian. “How do you know?” Phil asked.

He suggested the church follow a plan similar to the one suggested above. In the months following, they implemented the plan. Two people came to Christ as a result! It is better to help beginner churches take many small steps where they can succeed than attempt to get them to take a giant leap where they may fall.

Novice Church

Novice churches have begun to turn outward. Congregations are intentionally praying for friends and family disconnected from God. These churches are deeply aware that evangelism is the lifeblood for both their present and long-term health. They look for ways to express the gospel through relationships of integrity. They regularly present the gospel in worship services. People are given an opportunity to respond.

In novice churches, people are given tools to share their faith stories. Great Commission initiatives are consistently mentioned. But these churches are still a bit tentative. They have just begun their outward focus and, like a runner who is at the beginning stages of a fitness plan, novice churches can be a bit inconsistent in implementation.

PLAN OF ACTION IF YOU LEAD A NOVICE CHURCH

A pastor friend was determined to get his congregation more outward-focused and to encourage them to share their stories outside the walls of the church. He designed a simple process that encouraged his folks to share their faith stories with others.

First, he taped a piece of butcher paper on one of the walls of the sanctuary (pretty fancy, right?). Second, he made felt pens available to use by the butcher paper. Third, he told his congregation that every time they performed an act of kindness in Jesus’s name or prayed for someone’s need (this prayer was not one of silence but done with the permission of the one being prayed for) or simply shared with someone their faith story, they were to place a mark on the butcher paper the following Sunday. Fourth, if they had thirty marks in any given month, they would have cake (who does not like cake?).

They did this for a year. They had cake every month. This exercise provided a foundation to build on for further effective evangelism.

Intermediate Churches

Intermediate churches have gained an evangelistic consistency not seen in novice churches. These churches have plans and strategies in place to equip the congregation in regular personal evangelism. Their worship experiences keep guests in mind at all times. Intermediate churches do everything possible to be welcoming to those foreign to the church experience. They offer many opportunities for people to get involved. Small groups connect people into the life of the faith community.

The downside of intermediate churches is that much of the connecting done in the community is designed to get people onto the physical church property. These are healthy churches that often become obsessed with their health. They tend to believe all fitness and health-oriented activity happens at the gym (church). Leaders equip people to engage others in the community, but every activity must end with the people coming to church. Often connecting people to the church becomes more important than connecting them to Christ. When connecting people to the church is viewed as the primary evangelistic purpose, church attendance can be seen as the end-all. The end-all is not involvement in a church—allowing Christ to be involved in each person’s life is.

PLAN OF ACTION IF YOU LEAD AN INTERMEDIATE CHURCH

Christmas Eve is typically a wonderful opportunity for people to come together and celebrate the birth of Christ. Congregations focus on remembering, often through communion, the source of their existence. Most of these gatherings conclude with the lighting of candles to remind the people they are the light of the world. In reality, this is an inward-focused, family-oriented event.

One church decided to add an unusual element to their Christmas Eve service. They added an offering—but not for them. Instead, they gave all the funds collected that night to a small, struggling church. Their offering was an extension of Christ to another. This simple act became a key aspect of helping this church continually look outside itself.

Advanced Churches

Advanced churches have made great strides toward effective evangelism. They have systems in place to reach and disciple others. Members are motivated to reach out with the gospel. Leaders are on the lookout for better and more effective ways to present the gospel.

Advanced churches are training churches. Leaders recognize the value of training members to connect with lost people. In light of the running metaphor, leaders seek a variety of terrain on which to train in order to expand the church’s cardiovascular system.

PLAN OF ACTION IF YOU LEAD AN ADVANCED CHURCH

Shoreline Community Church in Monterey, California, has worked diligently to equip people in living out the gospel in daily life. They teach the One-Degree Rule. “The One-Degree Rule acknowledges the reality that we need to increase our outreach temperature consistently.”5 By using a scale of 1–10 to determine evangelistic passion, the church has increased the desire of its members to share their faith stories with others. On the scale, one represents little interest in outreach, while a ten indicates a heart and passion for those disconnected from Christ. At all levels of the church, people are asked to rate themselves on the 1–10 scale. No one knows a person’s outreach temperature but him or her. This makes it each person’s responsibility to honestly assess themselves. Then they are to share how they will increase their temperature one degree. Using this basic tool allows the church to keep outreach on the front burner.

This is what advanced churches do—they find tools, methods, and resources and establish accountability markers to keep outreach on the front burner.

Elite Churches

Elite churches do many things well. Evangelism is focused on equipping the people to be Jesus in their contexts. They recognize that as involved as people may be in the ministry of the church, they spend most of their time away from the church. These churches consistently remind people they are God’s investment where they are at any given time. They are missionaries in their neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, families, and communities. Elite churches celebrate salvations that happen outside the church building as much as, if not more than, those that happen inside the church.

Elite churches, like elite athletes, look to correct the small things. These churches consistently evaluate, review, and adjust what they are doing. They regularly engage others to look at how they can improve. Elite churches mobilize people to live like Jesus in their personal lives and as a corporate group together.

PLAN OF ACTION IF YOU LEAD AN ELITE CHURCH

Katie Ledecky is an American swimmer. She is the current world-record holder in the 400-, 800-, and 1200-meter freestyle and has dominated the world in these events. She is an elite athlete.

When she swam in the semifinal heat of the 400-meter freestyle during the 2016 Rio Olympics, she was many lengths ahead of the field. She was so far out in front that it seemed as if she was the only one in the pool. She swam a great pace. How did she accomplish such a feat? She was not swimming against the others; she was swimming against herself.

This is what elite churches do. They worry less about what other churches are doing for the kingdom and more about what they should be doing. Church leaders push ahead to reach many with the gospel. Not to look better compared to other churches but to please the King.

Churches that are building the body are attempting to be effective in evangelism. Churches need to find how they can be effective in reaching others with the gospel. It is not the numerical size of the church but the passion of the church that matters.

Main Points

  • Beginner church: low-impact evangelism.
  • Novice church: baby steps into high-impact evangelism.
  • Intermediate church: evangelism is getting people into the church.
  • Advanced church: systems to raise evangelistic passion.
  • Elite church: designs methods for effective evangelism.