Imagine that you live in a house with electricity in only one room. You call it “the electricity room.” You go there whenever you need to do something that requires electricity – dry your hair, blend a smoothie, drill a hole, send an email, or read a book by the light of anything brighter than a candle. In all the other rooms of your house, you get by without electricity.
Sounds absurd doesn’t it? Not only would this be inconvenient and inefficient, it fails to grasp the very nature and value of electricity. It would be treating something that should be central as something marginal. Far better to wire the whole house for electricity so it flows everywhere, empowers any task, and transforms every room into a more helpful and convenient place to live.
Sadly, many churches and ministries have a similarly absurd approach to evangelism. They treat it as something marginal rather than central. They have separate pastors, separate committees, separate events (usually poorly attended), and separate times of the year to emphasize outreach. Some church leaders say, “That’s not our calling. We leave that up to evangelistic groups.” Others say, “If we really build up the body, evangelism will inevitably flow.” The results of such thinking are less than encouraging.
It is worth considering a different approach. The purpose of this paper is offer insights about how churches and ministries can weave evangelism into all aspects of their work so that more evangelism occurs, more people hear the gospel, and more lives are delivered from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light.
Specifically, this paper asks how the church can better equip its people to do evangelism.
My suggestions come after several years of experimenting through work with The C.S. Lewis Institute’s Fellows’ Program of Springfield, Virginia and as an evangelism coach for Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Annandale, Virginia. I also build upon over thirty years of experience with Campus Crusade for Christ’s campus ministry, most recently at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
There are four premises behind this paper. First, it is part of the mission of the church to do evangelism. This includes that part of the church sometimes called the parachurch. Second, our world has changed dramatically in the past fifty years, since the time of formulation of many evangelistic tools and training programs (e.g. The Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion, etc.). Third, in light of these massive cultural shifts, the way we should present the gospel should probably change. Components of this change include the importance of pre-evangelism (1), the need to preach to both believers and non-believers2, and the allowance for people to take longer to come to salvation decisions. Fourth, the content of our message must not change. Contrary to some people’s insistence that “everything must change,” the integrity of the gospel must not be compromised.
The thesis of this paper is that, if the world has changed (and it has) and the way we present the gospel should change (and it should), then the way we train people to do evangelism should also change. Not only should we give people different words to say, different booklets to share, or different diagrams to draw, we should also craft our evangelism training systems in different ways.
I will suggest four aspects of this new training. Equipping Timothys to do the work of evangelists must change in setting, style, standard, and sequence. Just as Paul told Timothy, a timid man without the gift of evangelism3 to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5), so too, all non-evangelists need to do some evangelism.
(A case could be made that Paul’s exhortation to Timothy only applies to pastors, not all Christians. The argument of this paper rests on other texts that also imply that evangelism is for all in the body of Christ, not just evangelists. (e.g. Col. 4:2-6, 1 Pet. 3:15-16, etc.) In addition, the Great Commission texts (e.g. Matt. 28:18-20) could support the notion that all disciples should do evangelism. A defense of the universality of the practice of evangelism by all Christians is outside the scope of this paper. The relevant point is that people without the gift of evangelism still should still evangelize, albeit differently than those with the gift of evangelism or the calling to the office of evangelist).
I. Evangelism Equipping Must Adapt in its Setting
Recalling “the electricity room” illustration mentioned above, evangelism and evangelism training must occur in a setting of evangelistically oriented ministry. In other words the entire atmosphere and tone of a church or ministry’s raison d’être must be one of outreach. In all that we do, we must conduct ourselves with wisdom toward outsiders (Col. 4:5), not just when we’re “doing” evangelism.
The recent coining of and increased usage of the term “missional” is helpful here but only if it is employed thoughtfully. Just claiming to be a “missional” church does not mean that a church seriously considers how each and every aspect of a church connects to non-believers.
And our thinking about how to be “missional” must be far deeper, more nuanced, and further reaching than the model established by the so-called “seeker sensitive” model of Willow Creek and others. By their own admission4, the seeker-sensitive movement overcompensated and created its own kind of unbalanced ministry. The challenge for the contemporary church is to be equally dedicated to building up of the saints and reaching out to outsiders without sacrificing one goal for the sake of the other.
The aforementioned advice of Tim Keller to preach to both believers and non-believers offers just one way this principle can shape and color an entire church or ministry. Keller insists that both audiences need to eavesdrop in on the pastor’s interactions with the other side.
Believers need to hear the pastor offer apologetic insights about why Christians believe what they do in the midst of a sermon. They need to hear the preacher clarify for non-believers what the gospel message is and how it differs from common misconceptions about our message of salvation. Then, believers can say to themselves, “That was good. That is a good way to articulate the gospel. The next time I’m in a conversation with my unsaved friend, I’m going to say what my pastor just said.” Believers will be trained in evangelism while listening to a sermon relevant to both believers and outsiders.
Likewise, non-believers need to hear the pastor telling Christians how the gospel relates to their lives, struggles, and challenges. As the preacher urges believers to shun self- righteousness and other distortions of the gospel, (something Christians desperately and repeatedly need to hear), those considering their need for salvation will have the gospel clarified and pressed, albeit in an indirect way, and will feel a need for a decision. As outsiders hear how believers need to continually apply the gospel to their lives, they will understand, with greater Biblical depth, why Christians sometimes fail to live out the gospel as consistently and continually as they should. Thus, the objections that many non-Christians have used as defeater beliefs, (e.g. that Christians are hypocrites, the church is the source of much evil, etc.) can evaporate when sermons address both believers and non-believers.
An outreach atmosphere needs to permeate all that a church does, not just its preaching. Consider this example and see if it does not stimulate other ideas for ways a church can create a setting or atmosphere of outreach.
A church in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. recently designed and constructed a building with the hopes of using it for a wide range of purposes – Sunday morning worship, social events, a sports facility for the community, etc. Their hope is that the building will not only be seen as a “church” but also as a town hall, community center, exercise facility, art gallery, concert hall, and numerous other gathering places. Their prayer is that non-believers would be in their building often and for a wide variety of events, not just Sunday morning worship.
As you might guess, this requires a tremendous amount of manual labor to set up the facility in many ways. After a Saturday night community basketball round-robin tournament, chairs need to be set up for the following morning’s worship service, etc. A great amount of legwork and logistics goes into these efforts. In the church’s community, the Target department store requires its employees to be involved in a certain amount of hours of “community service.” Knowing this, the outreach-oriented church, contacted Target and requested some of their employees to come and help with set up of several community events. The church also recruits its members to be involved in these tasks as well. Thus, every Saturday night and at many other times, both believers and non-believers are moving basketball hoops, setting up chairs, and sweeping floors together – by design! The church trains these Christian volunteer laborers to steer conversations in spiritual directions. Outreach flavors physical arrangements.
II. Evangelism Equipping Must Adapt in Style
If indeed the entire setting or atmosphere of a church or ministry has an outward focus, this next suggestion can flow logically (although not inevitably or without a great deal of focused effort). The style of evangelism equipping must shift from training to coaching. Another way to think of this is that we need ongoing development instead of special-occasion training events or seminars.
Typically, churches or ministries hold special seminars to train people in evangelism. The assumption is that, once you’ve attended one of these seminars or classes, you are “trained” and have the skills you need for a lifetime of evangelism. At the risk of overstating, it is as if we graduate people from these seminars or classes with the benediction: “There. Now you’re trained. Go and evangelize and be fruitful.” This mindset might admit that, from time to time, people may need a refresher or reminder and could attend the seminar again. But they will not hear anything that was not presented the first time.
In contrast to this one-time seminar approach, consider what ongoing coaching could be like as an alternative. If indeed people are taking longer to come to a salvation decision, this style of coaching fits the need of the times better. Christians would receive ongoing input, suggestions, corrections, etc. as they seek to reach out to their unsaved friends and acquaintances. As times change, so do the kinds of objections people raise against belief in the gospel. Thirty years ago, few non-Christians raised the issue of homosexuality as a relevant topic to faith. Today, it may be the most frequently articulated defeater to receptivity to the gospel.
An illustration about coaching may help here. All NFL quarterbacks have a quarterback coach (or team of coaches) watching them from the sidelines and offering critique of the quarterback’s performance. The coach may suggest minor changes in technique, such as taking a longer stride before throwing the ball or using a faster forward motion of the forearm, etc. Even though the quarterback has years of experience and has been “trained,” he still needs coaching.
One way a church may implement this idea of evangelism coaching is to weave evangelism into the year-round, year-after-year small group structure. During the small group gatherings, the topic of evangelism, while rarely the central focus of the small group, would be included, in some way, in every meeting. For example, if the group discusses a book of the Bible, as they wrestle with a particular passage or doctrine, one of the application questions they could consider would focus on evangelism. In addition to the usual discussions of such questions as, “How does this teaching change the way we view ourselves?” or “If we remember this doctrine, how will it effect the way we pray?,” they might also discuss, “If we remember this doctrine, how will it change the conversations we have with outsiders?” or “Can you name one or two non-Christians you know who need to hear about this truth?”
As group members share prayer requests with each other about such things as challenges at work, medical needs, family pressures, etc., they will also share the names of non-Christians they are praying for and boldness to broach the topic of the gospel with them. When they ask for prayer and encouragement about resisting a temptation or obeying a command or similar spiritual challenge, they will also ask for prayer for compassion for a lost co-worker and the opportunity to witness to her. They will share about situations where the gospel could come up but, so far, has not.
In other words, weaving evangelism into small group discipleship means making sure that outreach remains on the front burner not on the back one or completely off the stove or out of the kitchen altogether.
Integral to this approach is for each small group to have a designated “Evangelism Advocate.” This should not be the small group leader. Nor should it be someone with the gift of evangelism (see section III below). The Evangelism Advocate, like the quarterback coach, suggests ways all the other group members can keep pressing the evangelistic process forward. They keep the topic of evangelism front and center and make sure that everyone, not just those predisposed, gifted, or experienced in evangelism, moves forward in reaching out with the saving message of Christ.
III. Evangelism Equipping Must Adapt in Standard
For the most part, the role model or standard of evangelism we typically raise is that of the evangelist. When we tell people in churches how to do evangelism, we tell stories of how evangelists do it. Descriptions like “natural,” “simple,” “everyday,” and “free-flowing,” are supposed to motivate people to evangelize. I find that it does just the opposite.
To add to this problem, many, if not most, of the people who write about or teach about evangelism are evangelists. They tell how they do it and expect that anyone and everyone should be able to follow their example. Readers are told by bestselling authors on evangelism that it is “an adventure”(5) or that it is “as simple as a walk across the room”(6). For the evangelist, proclaiming the gospel is natural and simple and easy. But, what I have gathered from working with churches and student groups, is that most Christians are not evangelists. And for non- evangelists, evangelism is difficult…and it always will be.
Thus, when we tell non-evangelists that evangelism is easy, they try it and find their experience to be something less than an exciting adventure. It is not just walking across the room. For the vast majority of Christians, it is like walking across the Grand Canyon…barefoot…through a blizzard. And so they quit. They assume they “just don’t have that gift” and rarely, if ever, share their faith again.
However, if we tell them evangelism is difficult, they respond much better. They persevere in evangelism, never expecting it to become easy. The irony here is worth restating concisely: Tell them it’s easy and they will quit. Tell them it’s difficult and they will persevere.
It is especially encouraging (i.e. it gives support, bolsters courage, instills hope) for people to be told that Paul also found evangelism to be difficult, at least on one occasion. He told the Corinthians that his evangelistic efforts toward them came with “weakness and fear, and with much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3).
To be fair to Bill Hybels, his examples and stories in Just Walk Across the Room are very helpful and do indeed show how evangelism can look and sound in everyday life. My only qualm with his approach is that he does not admit these kinds of conversations are difficult for most people to formulate. He says that personal evangelism is as easy as “just walking across the room”(7) but then shows that it is far more than that.
When people get across that room, they have to talk. They must initiate conversations, listen carefully to both the content and tone of what people say, find transitions to spiritual topics, attempt connections to the specific topic of the gospel, remove obstacles, dispel misconceptions, weaken resistances people have to the Christian message, articulate the gospel message in a clear concise way, ask people to respond, and, when all things align rightly, lead people in a salvation-prayer-of-commitment. Each and every one of these components are difficult for most Christians and require step by step training and practice. Telling people this process will take work and preparation doesn’t usually discourage them. Telling them it should be easy does.
Telling people that evangelism may be difficult also fits with Peter’s injunction to “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). That preparation may take time, energy, instruction, role-playing, brainstorming, and ongoing coaching to help people put words to what typically never gets articulated.
This change in standard, from evangelist to non-evangelist, from easy to difficult, also fits with an aspect of our current postmodern culture. People value authenticity more than polished, slick presentations. Genuine, even if uncomfortable conversation may connect better than a smooth presentation by someone who sounds like a salesman or a televangelist. I have even encouraged people to admit (to the person they are attempting to evangelize!), when appropriate, that they are indeed nervous about talking about God to an outsider. I tell them I have on occasion said something like this: “I don’t know if I’m expressing this as clearly as I’d like. I will be honest that I’m not all that comfortable talking about God with you. I think that’s because I think this topic is so important. If it sounded like a slick sales presentation, I wouldn’t be representing it correctly. I really want you to understand this. And our society says I should just keep it to myself. But I can’t. I hope you’ll try to listen to me even if my voice is shaking a little.”
IV. Evangelism Equipping Must Adapt in Sequence
Typically, the way evangelism training proceeds is from talking to total strangers to talking to close acquaintances. We take people out door to door or on a beach or similar public place, approach someone we don’t know and ask if we can take a survey or ask a few questions or invite them to our church. We engage people we don’t know in conversations they don’t ordinarily have to point them to a Savior they don’t believe in.
In the past, this approach has had some success. And it still does. It may continue to have some success for quite some time. So we should probably keep doing these kinds of random (albeit superintended by a sovereign God) evangelistic efforts.
But I am finding these kinds of activities are having less and less effectiveness in training Christians to do evangelism. More to the point, we have assumed that, once Christians have cut their teeth with strangers, they will inevitably adapt what they’ve learned about evangelism to the more way-of-life relationships with people they know. The connection does not happen as often as we would like.
I believe this is true for at least two reasons. First, people are having less of a positive experience in the random evangelism task. Second, the similarities between talking to strangers and talking to acquaintances are diminishing. It would be better, although not without its initial difficulties, to begin by equipping people to reach out to those who are already in their lives through friendships, co-working, or lifestyle acquaintances, and then ask them to adapt what they’ve learned about evangelism to talking to strangers on the airplane or bus or elsewhere. In other words, we want to reverse the usual sequence from strangers-first and acquaintances- second to acquaintances-first to strangers-second.
Evangelize Today, a one-day evangelism training seminar, includes an exercise when people take out their cell phones and scroll through their address book or phone list and write down the names of all the non-Christians who are already in their phone. Allan Dayhoff, the lead facilitator of the sessions says, “I want people to see all the non-believers God has already placed in their lives. They don’t have to go knocking on doors or wandering into strange neighborhoods.”8
Part of the rationale for this reversal of sequence is that our culture (i.e. American, postmodern, post-Christendom) seems more skeptical of religion in general. The likelihood that people will want to engage in conversation about God with total strangers who knock on their door or invade their space on the beach is diminishing. Time magazine’s March 12, 2012’s cover story, Ten Ideas That Are Changing Your Life, reports a significant rise in the number of people who hold no religious views at all. They are “nones” and account for 28% of American society. Their number will probably increase. (9)
By contrast, people increasingly value friendship and community.10 Thus, they are more likely to engage in conversation about God or spiritual issues with people they already know and trust. Everts and Schaupp report from their interviewing of close to two thousand college students who had come to faith that the first threshold that most had to cross was from “distrust to trust.”(11)
Therefore, it is best to adapt our evangelism training methods to the cultural realities of our audience, as Paul described his practice as becoming “all things to all men” (1 Cor 9:22). Let us begin by encouraging people to reach out to those they already know, people more likely to trust them, and then help them think through ways to transpose these evangelism skills to conversations with strangers they may meet on the bus.
Another way to think of this reversal of sequence is to see it as a shift from what and how to who and why. We used to emphasize what Christians should say and how they should say it. Now we want to emphasize who they should talk to and why those people need to hear our message. Of course, we want to address all four questions: what do we say, how do we say it, to whom should we say it, and why do they need to hear it. But now, the latter two questions take priority over the former two questions.
Conclusion
In this year, the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Roland Allen’s Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?, we would do well to reexamine many of our current methods in missions. This certainly applies to our methods of evangelism and how we equip people to do evangelism. Allen’s boldness and willingness to question patterns that had evolved and settled over long periods of time should encourage us to follow his example.
As mentioned in the introduction above, our world has changed dramatically since the church formulated many evangelism strategies. Consequently, we need to change the way we communicate our message. Just as Paul adapted his communication differently to a gathering of religious Jews in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13) than he did to a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers at an Athenian hot spot for intellectual debate (Acts 17), so we too need to adapt our approaches to reach out.
If we are to be more effective in our evangelism, we should also alter the ways we help people to open their mouths, craft their arguments, begin conversations, deepen relationships, and find ways to point people to the cross. It may be, in our day when people value friendship and community over professionalism and success, that the best evangelism may be done not by apostolic evangelists like Paul but by timid friends like Timothy.
Notes
1 See Francis Schaeffer, “Pre-Evangelism is No Soft Option” in The Complete Works of Francis
A. Schaeffer, vol. 1 (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1982), 151-160.
2 See Timothy Keller, “Preaching to Believers and Unbelievers,” part of The J.R. Wilson Preaching Lectures at Covenant Seminary, 2004. http://www.resourcesforlifeonline.com/audio/5060, last accessed April 30, 2012.
3 Knight, George W., The Pastoral Epistles: The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 8. Knight surmises that Timothy was timid and needed encouragement because of all of Paul’s statements about courage and fear, etc. (2 Tim. 1:7, 1:8, 2:1, 2:3, 1 Tim. 4:12, 4:14, 4:16, 6:20).
4 Hawkins, Greg L. and Cally Parkinson, Reveal: Where Are You? (Barrington: Willow Creek Association, 2007).
5 Strobel, Lee and Mark Mittelberg, The Unexpected Adventure (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009).
6 Hybels, Bill, Just Walk Across the Room (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006).
7 Ibid., 23.
8 From a personal conversation with Allan Dayhoff. See: http://sites.google.com/site/evangelizetoday/
9 Amy Sullivan, “The Rise of the Nones,” Time, March 12, 2012, 68.
10 Murray Decker, “The Emerging College Generation and Missions: Issues, Attitudes, Postures, and Passions,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 42, no. 3 (2007): 317-319.
11 Everts, Don and Doug Schaupp, I Once Was Lost (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008).
