A recent study conducted online by Lifeway Research provides some interesting insights into what Southern Baptist pastors believe about evangelism and how it plays out in their churches. If you aren’t interested in visiting the article, allow me to summarize what I think are some of the main points:
- Most common evangelistic outreach methods: VBS, feeding ministries, visitor follow-up, and prayer for non-believers
- Almost all of the pastors (96%) strongly agree evangelism is the responsibility of every Christian
- Nearly half of the pastors (43%) strongly agree that evangelism gets overshadowed by other priorities
- Only a third say evangelism is an ongoing activity in their churches
- Only a quarter of the pastors say it is easy to share the Gospel one-on-one
- But almost all (96%) have shared the Gospel with someone in the last six months
While those results aren’t all bad, they do represent a misunderstanding of the nature of evangelism. In fact, most Christians misunderstand it. And that has caused all sorts of problems. So I want to try to sort out what I believe to be one of the most common misconceptions about evangelism.
Misconception: Evangelism Only Happens When We Intentionally Speak About the Gospel
Truth: Evangelism Is Always Happening…For Better or Worse
In the past several years, it seems there has been a big redefining of what worship is. Church leaders kept running into a problem: their congregation members only understood worship to be the time spent singing Chris Tomlin songs either directly before or after the sermon. They weren’t to blame though, church leaders spoke of worship almost exclusively in those terms.
To change that, they began to think through what worship really is: life. If worship is the act of ascribing worth to something or someone, it is always happening. It is not a Christian or even a religious thing, it is a human thing because the way we live our lives indicates what we think is worthy: success, family, work, money, possessions, love, sex, whatever. Worship is always happening. What makes it Christian or not is not whether Christians are doing it (since we all are, all the time), it is whether we are ascribing worth to Jesus the Christ.
I want us to think of evangelism in the same way. If we think of evangelism as only being the words that we speak, we will spend an inordinate amount of time only worrying about whether our words are right. But this necessarily allows our actions to remain completely unChristian. And, in case you haven’t noticed, this is exactly what has happened in the Church: we talk a good talk and walk a terrible walk. The result is what we call hypocrisy and it results in the exact opposite of the goal of evangelism: it pushes people away from God.
But what if we began to understand evangelism not just as the words we say, but the life we live as well – like worship? Isn’t it true that even when we don’t speak, we are sending a message? Whether we are cleaning up after kids, shopping for groceries, standing in line at the DMV or participating in a book club, we are always sending a message. Sometimes, that message will be Christian and sometimes it will not, it all just depends on whether we are living like Christ or not.
Now, I want to make sure I note something here. You’ve heard the St. Francis of Assisi quote:
Preach the Gospel always and, when necessary, use words.
Unfortunately, many have used this as justification to never talk about Jesus at all, but that is not what I’m trying to say. What I’m saying is that Christian evangelism is the process of an integrated walk and talk, both to the glory of God. If we are living our lives to the glory of God, not only will our actions reflect that reality, but so will our speech.
If we get this, and endeavor to live it out, it will make evangelism simultaneously easier and more difficult. Easier because we won’t have to go into awkward conversation modes and more difficult because we will have to let our whole lives, and not just our speech, reflect Christ to others.
Participate: Over the next week, resist the temptation to go into awkward conversation mode, but embrace the opportunity to talk and live for the glory of God at all times.
Engage: Do a Google search for “Evangelism”. Read articles and blogs that talk about it. Reflect on whether they treat evangelism as something that is always happening. Look for ways to incorporate what you learn into a true 24/7 lifestyle of evangelism.
Own: In your next small group or Sunday school meeting, bring this subject up and explore as a group the ways you can practice Christian Evangelism.
What do you think? Are there other common misconceptions about evangelism?
Thanks, Ken. You’ve really articulated a point that is somewhat a “not seeing the forest for the trees moment” for many Christians. We’re so close and yet so far from experiencing this faith journey we’re all on.
I feel an example of what you’re talking about can be found in my latest post here: http://richardtgarner.blogspot.com/2009/12/renewing-stars-faith.html
By: Rick Garner on December 15, 2009
at 10:14 AM
Thanks, Rick. Great blog post, by the way. The only caveat I would include (as I did in this post) is that Christian evangelism is about the whole of our lives lived to God’s glory…and that includes both practicing and preaching.
By: Ken Eastburn on December 15, 2009
at 10:22 AM
Agreed. Someone can easily do “good works” but without a foundation of the Word…there’s no eternal value to those efforts.
By: Rick Garner on December 15, 2009
at 12:23 PM
I realize that this is a tangent, but Mark Galli at Christianity Today dealt with the Francis of Assisi quote back in May:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/mayweb-only/120-42.0.html
His article got play that seemed to my amateur eyes to vary according to whether people liked the quote or not, pretty much along deeds/creeds lines.
By: MDSF on December 16, 2009
at 2:08 PM
Hi – I came to this blog through the post on CT about house churches. I have been back and forth on that one for years. Liked this thread better.
Another way to look at evangelism that I have come to understand more in recent months, is in conjunction with spirituall gifts (charisma). When based soley on our human understanding, evangelism tends to end up lookng a lot like the stuff mentioned in that poll of SB pastors: programs that are well intentioned but often devolving into works-based substitutes for real movements of God.
However, when God’s grace flows through us as spiritual gifts, things really start to happen: preachers preach the word and people are born again; prophecy is spoken and folks heart’s just melt and great healing takes place; teachers teach and the Holy Spirit convicts people of sin and there is great repentance; their is a healing or mirical and God’s Kingdom breaks through to this world in a way that draws people to Christ.
I am not saying that we should sit back and wait for God to act. we should plan and strategize and use whatever brains God gave us to do things in the best way possible. But God has given us some fantastic tools with which to do this stuff and for the most part I don’t see the western church taking advatage of it.
By: Jeff J on December 18, 2009
at 8:42 PM
Thanks for your response, Jeff!
By: Ken Eastburn on December 21, 2009
at 8:20 AM
Ken –
How did the word “worship” take on the Chris-Tomlin-related meaning you mention above?
I spent about ten years completely out of church between 1990 and 2000 or thereabouts; when I left congregational singing was still “singing” and when I got back it had become “worship.”
Was this originally a California thing? A non-denominational thing? A megachurch thing?
By: MDSF on December 20, 2009
at 12:25 PM
Hmmm…not sure how it took on this meaning, I just know that it did. I’m fairly confident, however, that it was not limited to California, non-denominational churches, or megachurches.
Regardless, I’m grateful for the shift in thinking and think that it has been helpful for a lot of people to be able to identify singing at church is just one small part of their worship to God…and perhaps, even, one of the least significant parts.
By: Ken Eastburn on December 21, 2009
at 8:25 AM
Finally, on to your major point here:
I believe this is an end product of the very idea that there is such a thing as a professional pastorate; I’ve repeatedly heard the complaint from the pulpit in the post-church-growth era that just because pastors are paid it doesn’t mean that they’re exclusively responsible for the growth of the church.
I’m tempted to unwind the problem in a different way: the problem isn’t that the people in the pews aren’t doing what the professional in the pulpit is telling them to do; the problem is that the pastor is seen as a professional, like a doctor or a lawyer, hired to perform a particular service, including in this case worrying about keeping the church organization functioning and growing, rather than being just one of the sinners, serving as part of the Body.
I don’t know if it is fair to pick on the Southern Baptists in particular, but they’re the ones facing the demographic crisis, which is why they’re doing all this self-study. I’d be interested to see how much overlap there is between the experiences described in the last two bullets above: how much “sharing the Gospel” (whatever that means) was actually done one-on-one, with someone they consider a peer or a friend, and how much of it was “declaring” from a position of authority and from a safe distance.
By: MDSF on December 20, 2009
at 12:34 PM
I may be wrong, but it seemed that the “sharing the Gospel” question was an indicator of their personal evangelism, not what they had said from the pulpit. BTW, I wasn’t meaning to pick on Southern Baptists, I just happened to the see the study and found it interesting….I actually think the results would be typical for pastors in quite a few denominations and even non-denominational churches.
I do think you’re right, not about the pastor being seen as the professional, per se, but about the worrying of the growth of the church. We are a people completely and utterly fascinated with numbers and this is certainly not limited to the pastors. In fact, a lot of times, it seems this comes from the elders and laity as well.
Will we ever be free of the grip of numbers?
By: Ken Eastburn on December 21, 2009
at 8:33 AM