By almost any metric, the churches in our nation are much less evangelistic today than they were in the recent past. In my own denomination, we are reaching non-Christians only half as effectively as we were 50 years ago (we measure membership to annual baptisms). The trend is disturbing.
We certainly see the pattern in the early church where “every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). In too many of our churches today, the congregations are reaching no one for Christ in the course of an entire year.
The Poll
I conducted an unscientific Twitter poll recently to see what church leaders and church members thought of this trend, My specific question was: “Why do you think many churches aren’t as evangelistic as they once were?”
The responses arrived quickly and in great numbers, both in public tweets and in direct messages to me. Indeed, I was still receiving responses four days after I sent my Twitter question.
The Results
The response was highly informative for me. Here are the top fifteen responses listed in order of frequency:
- Christians have no sense of urgency to reach lost people.
- Many Christians and church members do not befriend and spend time with lost persons.
- Many Christians and church members are lazy and apathetic.
- We are more known for what we are against than what we are for.
- Our churches have an ineffective evangelistic strategy of “you come” rather than “we go.”
- Many church members think that evangelism is the role of the pastor and paid staff.
- Church membership today is more about getting my needs met rather than reaching the lost.
- Church members are in a retreat mode as culture becomes more worldly and unbiblical.
- Many church members don’t really believe that Christ is the only way of salvation.
- Our churches are no longer houses of prayer equipped to reach the lost.
- Churches have lost their focus on making disciples who will thus be equipped and motivated to reach the lost.
- Christians do not want to share the truth of the gospel for fear they will offend others. Political correctness is too commonplace even among Christians.
- Most churches have unregenerate members who have not received Christ themselves.
- Some churches have theological systems that do not encourage evangelism.
- Our churches have too many activities; they are too busy to do the things that really matter.
So What Is the Solution?
I received hundreds of responses to this poll. There is obviously widespread concern about the lack of evangelism in our churches and among Christians.
First, let me hear what you think of these responses. Second, and more importantly, offer some solutions to the challenges. Make certain those solutions include what you can do as much as what they should do. I look forward to hearing from you.
photo credit: people talking in paris via photopin (license)
Posted on February 23, 2015
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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325 Comments
What I have been told by people is and I noticed it myself is people judge you from the moment you walk in. To win someone to Christ you can’t be pushy or to judgmental from the beginning. You have to guide them,show them. But most of all Show them you care! Jesus showed compassion and love and a caring heart. To be a Christian we must be Christ like or we are not true Christian’s.
True, I have seen pushy Christian’s denomination centered cause those they witness to flee from Christianity.
Yes, all the aforementioned reasons impact the evangelistic command of reaching out in love to the lost. One classical reason for this shortcoming is many don’t feel they have “evangelistic gifts or inclinations” to fish for men like Jesus said. Many, maybe most, believers just aren’t going to get out there to interact with strangers.
But in 2016 in America today, only 3 out of 7 who are Christians are in church today(see https://www.barna.com/research/state-church-2016/). That means 4 of 7 who are believers in Christ are not in church any longer for a variety of reasons(see http://ministrytodaymag.com/leadership/pastoral-care/23720-why-some-christians-drop-out-of-your-church). These dropout believers are family members, friends, neighbors, and work associates of yours and mine. We know them. We don’t need to re-evangelize them! In fact, they won’t stand for it(see http://ministrytodaymag.com/outreach/evangelism/23734-6-frustrating-lies-backsliding-christians-adopt).
What is needed for the dropout believer is a strategy of unconditional love that is focused on restoration and re-connection to the church.
And here is the answer! It’s in the bible – a divine strategy to recover, restore and reconnect dropout believers to the body of Christ (see https://huntersoftheharvest.org/).
We encourage pastors, church leaders and active church members to learn how to engage and restore dropout believers in their own sphere of influence. You already know these and there’s no evangelism required! Any active believer can actively participate in this harvest with those you already know.
If all the dropout believers in America were restored to the church it would more than double in size!
The latter days harvest includes multiple millions of not only the lost, but also the prodigal, rebellious stragglers -the dropout believer. Together we can restore the church in America.
One thing that must be said is also this, the hard truths about what God has spoken of between right and wrong. If we choose to only hear what is easy to take in, soft pleasing messages and not the full message including the hard truths we are only choosing to hear the soft pleasing words cause we want to remain in comfort. Its not about us or our needs, we keep asking in prayer God give give give, when rarely do we put aside our need for selfish gain and just pray for the things of God’s heavenly kingdom, our riches are in Jesus Christ. Not in money and petty material possessions which does not profit us.
The original Christian gospel as is very clear from John and Paul is about salvation from dying and ceasing to exist, i.e. only believers grt raised. There was no hell. The synoptic hell corrupted Christianity and made it absurd. And later tradition made it even more absurd by rrjecting Matthew’s snhihilationism (“fear him who can DESTROY both body and soul in hell”) with eternal conscious torment nonsense that blasphemes God.
Why do you think many churches aren’t as evangelistic as they once were?
I think today (as opposed to decades past) more and more people rely on ministries to support their “careers”. In the past, we didn’t have 20 different types of pastors, associates, paid worship leaders and such. What happens then? Well, of course, they must be more sensitive to the needs of their audience in order to keep the money flowing for the church. That leads to watered down messages preaching the gospel becoming more like Christian counseling sessions where the congregation leaves with a “group therapy” elation. Messages seems to have become more “life coaching” ….knowing yourself more than knowing God.
I wish there was a place I could go where people gather to hear the word of God, praise God in unison, and then go about their daily lives without being coerced into small groups, ball games, and the like.
Lets have church–visiting God—and then let that social stuff be a separate church community function. You know, a separation of church and club.
Then, once we begin to “feel” God again in His worship, we will be more apt to tell others about His amazing goodness and not about all the social events our church offers.
I have spent 2 and a half years in a professional program, reading book after book after book on my area of study. Unless you pass a certain exam, you are unable to practice this profession, it is actually a crime if you offer advice without having this certain qualification. In Christendom our qualification is the Spirit of God living inside to transform us daily, thank God I didn’t have to labor to receive grace or salvation, but Christ labored and died for me to be qualified or justified and for that I am grateful.
We are less evangelical today because we have forgotten that a price was paid for our sins, God from the foundation of the world was putting in place a master plan, a way of escape for us. We did nothing to deserve what Jesus did, all we are required to do is remind someone that a price was paid for their sins.
I have noticed in my last 3 churches (over quite a few years) that the pastor doesn’t preach the gospel straight out any more. I haven’t heard a clear complete explanation of the gospel with the basic theology included for years. I don’t know if they think they are beyond the need in their church or assume everyone would know that. Even when I was at the hip large youthful church where people might come for the social contact, without really knowing the basics of true Christianity, I don’t recall hearing it given plainly , but always couched in such language as, ” joining God’s story” . Sin and the need of forgiveness and the atonement and such were seldom ever spoken about. I say, there is great power in the Gospel that is going untapped.
Dear friend, there is a labor shortage, the fields are white even unto harvest but the laborers are few.
The solution is simple. Ephesians 4:11-12 clearly shows us how we are meant to do ministry. I don’t personally believe a Sunday morning service was ever meant to be for lost people. They are meant for equipping of the saints to send out one of the five, evangelists, to pray for people’s salvations. This would sanctify the body of believers and help salvation not be watered down to just being a hand raised in an audience. That is exactly why evangelism is not popular because we are not equipping the lay people. We are more concerned with a person going into ministry to be a pastor than an evangelist, apostle, teacher, or prophet.
Hi,
What can I do? Repent and begin small. My church just finished the Way of the Masters. Wow! I was ashamed of myself. I am following the suggestions in the book- talk to strangers when at the grocery store, gym, shopping, standing in line; purchase tracks, learn them and share with others; leave tracks in places such as the grocery stores, restrooms, on table at eatery; etc. The book had many suggestions.
Solutions for Christians in general
don’t be afraid to evangelize.
memorize God’s word
Read good books on evangelism
Pray for God to direct you
Engage in the community your church in located by hosting Vacation Bible School, After School Free Tutoring, Back to School fun night, Movie night, Free Neighborhood cleanup, etc.
the solutions are endless.
I believe that we are Christians must believe that Jesus will return and just as He saved us from hell’s fire we should desire to do the same for our fellowman. Rev.22:12, Matt. 28:18-20
I hear a lot of blame, but not a lot of people willing to take personal responsibility on themselves to read the Bible, to disciple, and be discipled and to evangelize. If people want this problem fixed any to point the finger at themselves and fix themselves then they can be an example to other people and if you’re living at yourself and you can go talk to your pastor and say hey I don’t hear a lot about evangelizing the lost this is something that the Bible is explicit about. However, if you do not do it yourself, you are a hypocrite if you go to the pastor and say that.
As someone who regularly evangelizes and regularly teaches other Christians to evangelize. I feel the biggest problem is a lack of personal responsibility as a Christian and a lack of biblical knowledge. I have found most Christians tend to want to parlay the responsibility to a few people and only Christians whom they believe were specifically called to evangelism or special ones whom were supposed to evangelize. Meaning they believe only some Christians are called to evangelism. Of course if we read the Bible and I won’t get into all the Bible verses you can Google Bible verses on evangelism it is easy to see that we are all called spread the gospel and that was always a burden on Christian and general and churches up until recently it seems.
I often go back to an instance in Bible College. The Bible College I went to was a Pentecostal Bible College (I only say that because of the dreams and visions, if you’re not Pentecostal please don’t use that as an excuse to write off what I say.), and we would have a women’s prayer group every week and share dreams or visions that we had in the last week and get guidance on them and help test them from the group leader who was one of the leaders in the school. One time I brought a vision and a burden about people going to hell and the lost, and she told me ‘Well that’s just for you’, but I didn’t think it was just for me then and I still don’t think it is just for me now. I believe that burden was to be shared and I tried to share it so that others could help me carry that burden of caring for the lost and leading them to Christ, it is a very heavy burden that I was never intended to carry myself. Too many Christians parlay that responsibility and too many Christians don’t even know they have that responsibility because they haven’t been disciple.
It is quite ridiculous to believe that only a handful of Christians not only are supposed to evangelize but could ever possibly reach all of the people in the world. Largely because everyone has different experiences and God needs everyone to use their unique experiences to reach people from all walks of life. For me I have personally always had a heart for those who’ve been abused because I have been abused and also for people who are destitute or homeless probably because I was also financially destitute for many years often having to go without eating so that I could pay my rent.
You see it’s not just evangelism that’s lost, it is also a heart for compassion for those in need. It is looking beyond your own nose and seeing that there are people out there who need what we have. Why? Because they don’t have hope beyond the weekend, vacation, drinking, partying,sex, etc which is all fleeting and ultimately depressing in the long run. Going around saying ‘Oh but everybody’s heard the gospel,’ is a complete load of bunk. As someone who regularly shares the gospel with people on the street or wherever I am, I can tell you right now especially when it comes to millennials, and I am a millennial, they do not know what the gospel actually is. I have found most times they do not know the message of the cross and if they do they still don’t understand why Christianity is different from other religions and this is probably because many Christians themselves, as already stated in one of those 15 reasons above, don’t believe that Jesus is the only way. The believe Jesus is the only way is Integral, if we lose that belief, we do not have the power and the conviction to go out and preach the gospel. We will never have a burden for the lostbif we believe there is another way to God such as, but not limited to, ‘Just believe oh well I guess the Gods in Hinduism or Buddhism which isn’t about God that’s about self-enlightenment or some other religions such as Islam will Enlighten them and bring them to Salvation and God somehow.’ However in the Bible it is easy to see that that is equivocally untrue. Also banking on that is not only lazy, but completely against the Great Commission and everything that Jesus and Paul and the rest of the Epistles talk about on a regular basis.
I always go back to a time when I was younger between the ages of 13 and 19 (I’m almost 32yrs). God put a burden in my life at that time, for a friend. Now she was raised going to church, her mother was a part of the worship team, and she believed in Jesus, but she didn’t really understand the Bible or the Gospels. At a certain point she began to reject God and Jesus all together. I knew her since I was 11 years old, and it was around the time that I turned 13 or 14 that she started to reject God she was only 10 or 11 at that time, which is pretty extreme for that age to already total reject jesus. What I later found out happened was she was sexually abused by her stepfather, this explained a lot of stuff that I didn’t think made sense at the time. Now, she already knew I was sexually abused previously by a friend over a long of time, much the same way she was accused by her stepfather. Yet, she never told me what was going on until it was over avid was taking her stepfather to court because her mom was making her. This ultimately destroyed our friendship as she completely pulled away from me, but over that six year period once she started to reject God I was able to share the gospel with her many many times. Unfortunately she rejected it every time. Yet I was probably the only person who really could give it to her and I was constantly burdened with the need to share ut with her, and I did share it with her. we had many long conversations about it. I still pray for her to this day and also we are no longer friends per say although I still see her on a fairly regular basis. While I don’t get to share the gospel with her anymore, because I don’t get to talk to her a whole lot, I pray that someone else will get to share it and that’s only going to happen if people open up their eyes and ears and start studying the Bible and get out there and do what we need to do and share the gospel with others. I don’t believe that you will have a burden for the Lost unless you really study the Bible.
I have studied the Bible from a very young age because my parents had me reading the Bible daily when I could sufficiently read at a reading level that was consistent with the Bible I was about eight years old. I can tell you that those in my family who were cheating and lying to my dad at our weekly checkins for reading and didn’t really read the Bible do not have a burden for the lost. They also have a very lukewarm faith I don’t think that is a coincidence as I have seen that happens consistently holds true with believers who do not read their Bible on a regular basis.
Very recently God hasvbrought several people in my life to share the gospel with or talk about the Bible with people that may have heard the gospel, but they never really saw Christians who lived out the Bible, and well I’m not perfect, I do the best I can to be loving towards all people and that means telling them the truth.
The idea that the idea that truth is relative has also killed our witness in this country. Saying your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth seems like a great platitude. It is really just a convenient cop-out to not step outside of your comfort zone and share the gospel. Because if we believe truth is relative it goes back to the same thing, maybe we don’t believe that there’s multiple ways to Christ, but we believe that what’s true for one person isn’t true for another so how can we impose our truth on others.
Yet, it’s not our personal truth that we’re imposing, and actually we’re not imposing it at all we’re sharing, it’s God’s truth and if we don’t share the truth of the Gospel with people we’re denying them the opportunity of Salvation, and essentially condemning them to hell. You might say yeah, but somebody else can share the gospel, someone with more guts then me. Well sure they can, however, Moses didn’t have guts he was super timid and scared yet he still did what God told him to do obviously that wasn’t evangelism but my point is is that the principal is a safe if God asks us to do something which, again, as Christian’s all of us are called to evangelize. We need to do it even if we don’t think we are equipped and we might not be, but that means we need to not throw in the towel, but ask God to help us get equipped and get us connected with people who can mentor us and disciple us. If everybody has the attitude of relative truth. Or parlaying responsibility, then they won’t share the gospel. Well timing is important there will never be a perfect time which means we need to be in tune to the Holy Spirit and share things with people when we feel that prompting, but if we don’t get in tune with the Holy Spirit we won’t feel that prompting.
We need to fly in the face of relativism and say ‘No there is a universal truth, would you like to know what that truth is?’
When I talk to people about the gospel I often do not say anything without the expressly asking their permission. I will ask them ‘Do you really want to hear this, do really want to hear what I have to say?’ I have never had anyone say no of i built up good repoire 17th them, and when I tell them even if they don’t buy into it right then and there, I have never had anyone tell me I was full of crap. That is because I make sure that I know the Bible and what it says, so when I do talk to people about Jesus and the Bible I am well equipped with the truth and what the Bible actually says. This does not mean I have every answer for every question but it does mean that when I do answer a question I’m able to answer it intelligently, which is tantamount.
Again, sharing the truth is loving, but we must also make sure we’re saying things in a appropriate and compassionate manner with the love of Christ. I believe reading a book such as ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ would also really help Christians a lot when sharing the gospel. It will also help take away the fear because you will be better equipped to deal with people in a friendly and congenial manner even when you’re disagreeing, which is very important, friendliness which Christian shouldn’t let is often something there seriously in deficit of.
I shared with an atheist one time who rejected God, but definitely also searching for truth still. He one time made the statement that all religion was the same and I told him that’s not true I said Christianity is not the same. He argued with me and I just flat out told him no you’re wrong and he actually got really upset that I said ‘No you’re absolutely wrong because I am a Christian and I can tell you right now that’s wrong, good works do not give you salvation.’ He asked me then what is it about and I said ‘Do you really want to know because I don’t think you could understand?’ He got upset when I said that, but I said ‘If you really want to know I’ll tell you,’ and he said yes. I told him good works for a Christian comes out of their gratitude for what Jesus did on the cross and I told him you will go to hell if you do not accept Jesus as your savior and the only thing you really have to do is call on the name of Jesus and you will be saved. Out of that you will want to live a holy life and you will want to help people because you’re so grateful that Jesus saved you from Eternal damnation. He was grateful for me sharing that and he said I wish more Christians had that attitude and I said ‘You and me both some Christians miss the boat.’
God Bless ~Amy
These are large issues, and it’s a reflection of how we view corporate America and how we want the same construct within our local churches.
Christianity is never comfortable, if you are feeling comfortable please get on your hands and knees are pray for readiness. No where in scripture do you read that they feel a sense of comfortability in being In Christ. That should be a huge signal of the problem.
Segmentation is another issue. Slicing and dicing the demographic to reflect the audience is more reflection of addressing a business problem than outreach. We have replaced Community with segmentation.
Entertainment rather than biblical teaching are competing for the PC audience. This has been enhanced by our technology and its Future Shock, whereby GenX, Millennials and soon to be Gen Z will force their attitudinal wants in create church. Since these groups have grown with tech, this becomes the crutch for inclusiveness. Again, it follows compliance and success for what is learned from work.
Finally, the sheep mentality is alive and well. We create a world that is so small to feed our selfishness rather than a world that is outside ourselves. Churches would do well to have cellphones banned, announcements after the sermon, and prayer meetings part of the weekly mission.
The problem is each individual needs to repent of their sins. There is no fear of God. Once Saved Always Saved is part of the problem. Back to the basics. The Spirit cannot flow through clogged vessels. Repent.