I love sharing the gospel with people. And I love seeing people start following Jesus and be baptized into his name.
This past Sunday, Vololona (2nd from the left in picture above) and her nephew, Earnest (2nd from the right in picture above), were baptized into Christ! They are originally from Madagascar, and we came to know them through our ESL/FriendSpeak ministry. It brought such joy to our church to see them make this decision! We stood and clapped and praised God, and they cried tears of joy.
One of our church members said after this baptism, "Thank you for your (nice words here) . . . It has been a long time since we have seen this baptistery used like this." Of course, we had had a baptism the previous week of a young man from Liberia. But I got her point.
The church where I recently moved to is a wonderful church--it is loving and grace-oriented. There is good soil here! But it has not by and large been a church that has had many adult converts over the years, despite it being a rich mission field.
Throughout my various church tenures and through various outreach seminars and church consulting, I have always sought to help churches reach people for Christ. From out of this experience, I want to share five reasons why many churches may be ineffective in sharing the gospel and reaching people for Christ.
- Lack of Effective Evangelistic Preaching.
By this I do not mean preaching that is exclusively aimed at bringing people down the aisle to be baptized. Most unchurched seekers are simply too far away from this point to make a life changing decision in the course of a 25-30 minute sermon. We are not by and large speaking to people who know the basic gospel story, and simply need to be taught a little bit better about baptism.
By "effective evangelistic preaching" I mean three things. First, preaching that impacts people's lives, is biblical, relevant, practical, and makes people want to come back and tell others of their experience. People will not invite their friends if they do not believe that they will have a good experience.
Second, preaching that moves and motivates people to reach out to those around them, through Scripture, story, inspiration, etc. One of the most effective way to do this is to retell conversion stories or stories of those whom God used to reach others for Christ (video is a good format for this).
Third, a preacher who models a life of mission and upholds others who do as well, changing the heroes of the congregation from mere Bible students to Jesus followers who "fish for people." Unless a church regularly sees and hears this modeled and upheld as being at the core of what the church is called to do, a church will not become evangelistic.
- Lack of Training of Members in How to Reach Out.
Are there members who care little about the lost? Sure. That is a heart problem--one to be tackled with #1 above and much prayer.
But most members (and churches) simply do not know how to reach lost people. They may live in a church bubble and do not know many lost people. They may think that they have to be eloquent presenters or teachers (they do not) to reach people. They may be scared (this can be overcome).
I have found giving people simple strategies, such as regularly blessing lost people/seekers in simple ways, sharing meals with them, and praying for them create all kinds of opportunities for God to help them reach their unchurched family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Telling people who do not know how to reach out to do so simply creates guilt or apathy. Show & tell!
- Lack of Non-Threatening, Socially Appropriate Outreach Gatherings/Events.
As Americans, we think far too individualistically in our reaching out. We fail to realize that people are drawn to community, and that we have a far greater witness in community. Many Christians just try to share their faith individually.
While we do have an individual witness--and this is where we often must start--we should seek to do outreach communally and invite people to experience Christian community as soon as possible. That means inviting a Christian friend to go with you to meet up with a seeker, having dinners and social events where Christians and seekers can meet, and yes, inviting them to experience Christian community in worship.
Here is an example. For years our church has had a great ESL/FriendSpeak ministry which helps the many internationals here improve their English and "overhear" the gospel. However, one key element of this ministry that has been missing in order to be effective evangelistically has been the social aspect of reaching out.
One of the first things that I did upon moving here is to have a party for the students and English teachers in this group over at our house. And I started encouraging the Christian teachers to start doing things socially with their readers--sharing meals, doing fun things together, etc. These relationships that develop from this--and the witness of the Christian community--was key in helping Vololona and Earnest coming to faith. Without the love and friendship of Don and Jerri Harrington, pictured above, that they showed Vololona and Earnest, this conversion would not have happened. They have truly become friends with these wonderful seekers!
We will have another party this 4th of July weekend for this ESL/FriendSpeak group, as well as some of our international neighbors. Vololona and Earnest are inviting five of their relatives to come--two of whom came to witness their baptisms. And some of these relatives have already indicated interest in going through the Story of Redemption. Vololona and Earnest are what is referred to in Scripture as "people of peace"--those who are receptive to the gospel, and who have a large social network and influence through which the gospel spreads.
Holiday parties, movie outreaches, the joining of social clubs and groups, attending and inviting to birthday parties, invitations to worship, baptisms, etc. all play a major role in people coming to faith. If people are reaching out in their daily lives, then they need that "next step"--which is culturally appropriate social outings/events to invite their friends to.
- Lack of Visitor Welcoming, Follow-up, and Prayer
Once a person takes the step to come to worship, there needs to be good and effective visitor welcoming and follow-up. This includes having not only "greeters" (who usually just hand out bulletins), but naturally friendly people who "float" in the lobby and have good social awareness to meet and greet people. Good sign-age is important. First impressions are important. The music, the message, the people, all determine whether or not someone wants to come back.
Then there must be well designed visitor/guest cards, with good strategies for encouraging visitors to fill these out (like having both members and visitors fill out cards) and helpful and relevant information collected on the cards (like ages, any former church, why they came).
The preacher and staff should take the lead in making initial follow-up visits, along with a team of members, and of course, the person who invited them (if there was one). Follow-up should be by email, phone, text, Facebook message, etc., depending upon the generation of the visitor and the cultural context.
Follow-up includes taking people out to lunch, meeting them for coffee, inviting them to serve, inviting to a small group, praying with and for them, invitation to a New Members class, etc. People must make connections and friends quickly or they will stop coming. It is amazing how many churches fail to promptly and effectively follow-up with their visitors. These are incredible missed opportunities.
- Lack of An Effective Evangelistic Bible Study/Seekers Group.
I am also continually amazed at how many churches have no plan for how to actively share the gospel with people. I often find that there are people who have been attending for years, and no one has invited them into an evangelistic Bible study.
As noted above, most seekers are too far away to make a decision to follow Christ and be baptized in one sermon/lesson. They need to understand the basic gospel story--and it is a story that needs to be told! Telling people the "steps to salvation" without people knowing the gospel story is not helpful.
The Bible is primarily narrative, and yet we tend to skip the narrative, which robs the gospel of its powerful story. Christine Dillon writes, "If God chose to pack his divine book full of stories, and trusted the power of those stories to change people's worldview, then why do we insist on reducing the gospel and Christian teaching to sets of propositional truth statements?"'
Christine Dillon. Telling the Gospel Through Story: Evangelism That Keeps Hearers Wanting More (Kindle Locations 410-411). Kindle Edition.
When I first started encountering unchurched seekers years ago, I looked around for a good evangelistic Bible study that could lead people who knew very little to nothing about the Bible to faith in Jesus Christ. What I found was outdated, skipped all over the place (which is confusing and breeds distrust in seekers), stripped out the gospel story, and did not deal with current seeker questions and themes.
So in response, I wrote the Story of Redemption (you can download FREE .pdfs of this study and learn more about it at www.StoryofRedemption.com). This can be studied with people individually, but over the years, I have learned that studying this in seeker small groups, with at least 25-50% of the group seekers and 50% Christians who journey with them, helps people experience Christian community (which is part of the gospel) and gives them new seeker and Christian friends.
If you do not have an evangelistic Bible study that is effective in sharing the gospel for today's postmodern culture, this study might save you some time. This is the study that Vololona and Earnest went through, as have so many others. It is God's story, and when properly told for today, it is powerful and effective.
But in order for people to come to faith, they must be invited into this type of study that intentionally shares the gospel and calls people to follow Jesus, be baptized, and take up his mission. No study will bring people to faith if no one is intentionally invited to be a part of it! And no "outreach ministry" will bring people to faith if the people that are being served--whether through marriage enrichment, benevolence, helping people's English, etc.--are not connected relationally and invited into Christian community and evangelistic study.
I could write all day on each of these five points. These are the major gaps that I see time and time again in churches that have a heart for reaching out, but have been ineffective in reaching people for Christ. If I can be of help to you or your church, please let me know. People can be reached for Christ! I have seen it time and time again, and there are few things that bring more joy to a church than seeing this happen. I pray that more and more churches will decide to prioritize Christ's mission and be effective in reaching the lost!
What do you think prevents churches from being effective in reaching people for Christ today?
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