Every pastor knows that if you want to preach a convicting sermon, preach on prayer or evangelism. Nobody prays enough, and nobody would ever say they evangelize enough. This is one of the reasons why I love my job. As Grace Church’s “Local Outreach Pastor,” one of my joys is equipping people for evangelism. I have two principles that guide my task:
1. Evangelism is not about programs, but people.
There is a temptation to measure a church’s evangelistic zeal by the number of programs that they do. As I explained two weeks ago, there is perhaps no worse way of measuring a church’s passion for evangelism. A church can have a door-to-door ministry, and teams of people manning the food bank and passing out tracts, but if a only a handful of people attend, it is not at all indicative of a church’s evangelistic zeal.
A better gauge of a church’s evangelism is simply this: do the people love sharing the gospel to non-believers? Do they invite their neighbors to church, or witness to co-workers? That is where the real test is.
And of course an even better gauge is this: are the people excited about the Word? Do they love church? Are they growing in holiness? A church with mediocre Christians will have mediocre evangelism. If the congregation is not in love with God, then they are not going to excel and inviting others to taste and see the Lord is good.
It follows then that the best ways a pastor can motivate his people for evangelism is to teach them doctrine, to ensure a God-centered worship environment, and pour himself into the preparation of the sermons. In other words, if the elders focus on the preaching of the word (Acts 6:2), then the congregation will be more powerful evangelists (Acts 6:7).
2. Programs have their place
While the most effective evangelism is not going to be in a church’s evangelistic programs, those programs are still useful. There are areas in every community that present gospel opportunities. In Los Angeles, our church is able to preach to inmates in jails, drug addicts in rehab, homeless in shelters, and kids in VBS. We have evangelistic outreaches in foreign languages, door-to-door groups, and visitor follow-up. All of these programs are designed to take the gospel to those outside of our church.
A good pastor is like a coach. He identifies who is gifted for particular tasks, and he frees them to do the work of the ministry. If a pastor has the annoying people following up with visitors, he does not have the right person playing quarterback. A thoughtful pastor identifies who in the congregation is gifted in evangelism, and puts them in the ministries that maximize their opportunities to use their gift.
Not all Christians are equally gifted in evangelism. This will be the topic of a future post, but the NT makes it clear that some are more gifted in evangelism than others. This does not mean that not all Christians are expected to be active in evangelism, but it does mean that those with the gift should be identified, trained, and freed to do the work of the ministry. This is why Paul writes, “And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ…” (Eph 4:11-12). In the same way not all Christians are pastors, not all Christians are gifted as evangelists. But those that are should be used in the church’s programs to build up the church, and to train others in the work of the ministry.
These two principles—that evangelism is best seen in the daily lives of believers, and that those gifted in evangelism should have specific opportunities to use their skill—are the essence of a balanced and healthy approach to a church’s evangelism. If a pastor keeps this balance, he will avoid burning his people out with guilt for not evangelizing enough, and yet he will still be using those whom God has given his church to the fullness of their gifting