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
Should the word “don’t ” be in 15? Good perspective with the article and comments. Thanks
You are right. It’s corrected now. Thank you.
Finally taking to heart Paul’s counsel to “do the work of an evangelist” as a means to overcome timidity and feed courage saved me from burn out. For many years, I preached it but didn’t practice it. Service outside of the local church setting as a prison chaplain and in a rescue mission has deepened my heart for the Gospel. In other words, the remedy is to “just do it.” That’s as true for us pastoral types as it is for our church family.
To my fellow pastors, the best thing you can do for your congregation’s health is to step out of your comfort zone and “do the work of an evangelist.” The joy you find will surprise you!
And for any in the Southwest Chicago Suburbs who want to get started in either Prison or Rescue Mission work–here I am, come with me! 🙂
Great testimony, Scott. Thank you.
I agree with Scott about pastors setting the example. I have challenged pastors to follow the example of D L Moody, who was an aggressive personal evangelist. Church members look at the pastor, and think, “If he is not doing it, why should I?” Read this paragraph about Moody, and his successful work at personal evangelism:
“Acclaimed by many as the leading platform evangelist of the century, famed as the founder of Christian institutions, prominent as a Sunday school and YMCA worker, D. L. Moody also held highest rating as a personal worker. He wrote no books on personal evangelism, but numerous references in the D. L. Moody literature prove that he was a practical and persistent personal evangelist and that he inspired many others to engage in this work. That he gave top priority to personal soul-winning as a Christian responsibility there can be no doubt.”
http://www.krowtracts.com/articles/moody.html
Hey Thom,
Thanks for the heads up and sharing the findings you gathered. I’ve always appreciated that about your ministry.
So, for your first point, I really think that there are going to be a huge number of reasons depending on your context and community. I can’t speak for others, or even others in our church, but if I could submit my opinion, I would say that on of the main reasons is that we (as leaders) are not equipping our people to start and continue costly, intentional, and messy relationships with those who need to know Jesus.
In Orange County, we as a culture have a lot of money flowing in and out and a lot of success. But particularly in our younger generation (my own, 18-25), I’ve seen, even in christian circles, a deep sense of loneliness and lack of purpose at the center of many people’s lives. There is a hopelessness that is contagious because of the media hype, you could say, over what it means to “live”.
I DO NOT think the way we go about mending the situation is to JUST preach and continually teach the message, “don’t waste your life” (no shots taken at Piper, he is a distant mentor of mine through his writing and preaching). I THINK THAT what we must do as church leaders is to embody what it means to live in intentional relationships with those who need Jesus and we need to invite our people to participate with us. All of this is done in addition to teaching and equipping specific skills (such as evangelism training).
MY FEAR with this problem and solution, is that it takes more than just our leaders to fulfill. Every pastor and leader who reads this can agree that we are too busy between work, marriage, kids, and all the functions that come with that, to even do something like a neighborhood BBQ or rooter float night or neighborhood movie night for the kids while parents hang out.
THE LONG TERM SOLUTION is to begin teaching this on Sundays. It is to remind our people of our mission on a regular basis (make it simple! Make it memorable! Make it stick!). It is to hold special classes or trainings on topics like evangelism and community or quick event planning. We must then, as leaders, live intentionally in our community and neighborhoods and invite our people into those moments such as BBQs, beach days, neighborhood movie nights, beer or wine tastings (depending on your denominational guidelines), Men’s neighborhood workout times, etc. Finally, I think we need to coach and mentor our people as they go out and do this. This could be through a community group type structure, or missional community structure, or even a ministry team that meets as a large group and gets large group training and then splits up to talk in smaller groups. The structure and specifics of living intentionally are all based on your community’s context.
Thanks for your time, I hope this was thought provoking and not a waste of your valuable time 🙂
-Matt
Matt –
This is information is very helpful. I love how you readers add so much value. Thank you.
This is exactly what I was trying to say above, but this says it much, MUCH better.
#5 and #11 go hand in hand… All are good reasons but the church – at least a vast majority – do not teach theology to members. They do not make disciples. They do a lot of christian living or they do a lot of feel good sermons that tickle the ears, but solid theological teaching is lacking. A great number of church members have no idea what most doctrine their church holds not can they explain it. They have nothing to stand on when evangelizing.
Whenever we are motivated by anything but love, we will fail. If our motivation to serve God is out of obligation or guilt, we will fail. If our motivation to reach people is out of pride or fear, we will fail. We need to be planted (plugged in) by rivers of living water, growing healthy fruit and know our own testimony. You can argue all day with what you might believe, but you can’t argue with results (fruit) and someone’s personal experience (testimony, Rev 12:11). Yes, we need to teach people the Word, but the end result needs to be people motivated by love for humanity (1 Cor 13:2). How about we start teaching people how to apply the Word of God to their own lives, help them to become healthy and full of the fruit of the Spirit (Love, joy, peace…) from there we can give them some strategies to share their faith – once they are full of the love of Christ, it will be contagious and the motivation will be right! Stop trying to sell Jesus, people will always be able to see right through that – REFLECT HIM and the light will do the work (Matt 5:16).
I think these all hit home in varying degrees. We as the American church have become inward focused and look for things to meet our needs. Our congregation is starting a health assessment/vision process, and it’s amazing how even in this core group of church members much of the focus is “me.” Changing the paradigm back to taking the church out to people and stopping the “what’s in it for me?” will take courageous leadership. I’m already saved! How selfish of me to want the church to meet my needs when I need to sharing Jesus with the unsaved in whatever way I can.
In my church I would love to see passion, testimonies and a more casual atmosphere on Sunday mornings that make worship more authentic and welcoming to all. Acts has people who are on fire for the Lord. They are praying and living out their faith together and in the streets. The question is, how do I practically do this with family, home, work, church activities, etc.? Satan has trapped us into thinking of all these things are more important than truly saving lives.
I have spent a lifetime training sales people to function at a very high level in the corporate world. Some may be disturbed by this statement, but spreading the Gospel; evangelism is essentially a sales situation. All of the attributes of evangelism do not apply to temporal sales, but all of the attributes of sound professional selling skills do apply to evangelism.
I have believed over all of the years that there are only two reason a sales person will not make contact with prospective customers; the person either is not confident about what to say, or he or she doesn’t believe in the product.
I’m reminded of Doctor James Kennedy’s first question from his “Evangelism Explosion” process: “Spiritually speaking, if you had died last night, are you absolutely certain you would have gone to heaven, or is that something that you would say you are still working on?” The standard set by that question is “absolute certainty”.
I don’t think the first potential concern can be addressed until the majority of church members have that “absolutely certainty”.
Yes, Jay Gregory! A ‘sales situation’! Proverbs chapter 11 verses 24-26 and verse 30. “He or she that wins souls is wise.” <– Solomon references 'selling' in verse 26.
We must train people how to 'win souls'!
We're the 'presenter', and thankfully, God / the Holy Spirit is the 'closer'.
Appreciate your thought!
A bunch of pastors must have responded to this poll. This list makes it seem as though all the blame rests on the “church members”. I’ve heard it said that a church will look like a lot like their pastor after 5 years.
I think #1 on this list should be that pastors are not preaching evangelism and it’s importance from the pulpit and #2 pastors have not made training the church members to go out and do evangelism a priority.
In the 60s and 70s a lot of our churches specialized in evangelistic methods designed primarily to reach “low-hanging fruit.” Today, the cultural landscape had changed and there is not as much “low-hanging fruit” as there used to be. Many lost people have become hardened to over-simplified, canned evangelistic presentations. Many church people intuitively know this, and are thus reluctant to do what they feel is largely “tilting at windmills.” Without other evangelistic models to use an alternative strategy, they passively resign–and feel guilty about it.
Ralph Neighbour used to have some materials training folks how to reach Type A unbelievers (i.e. “low-hanging fruit”) and Type B (or “hard-core”) unbelievers. Many churches put al their eggs in the basket of reaching Type A unbelievers.
Interesting survey and summary, Thom! Thx for sharing. It seems 2-fold, Thom. At first, I may sound overly critical, not trying to be, just an open discussion. For several decades now the American church and Christian leaders have spent a lot of time and energy 1) heavily promoting Christian and Pastor ‘celebrities’ to reach the masses, and 2) heavily promoting ‘protecting kids’ from the culture (for example: Christian schools, home-schooling, church-only activities). At the same time, as individual Christians, we have lost our sense of the incredible importance of reaching the 1,2,3+ people we meet and interact with on a daily basis. Just wrote a blog thought on this as you are interested “How God works in the World!” http://www.globalmensgroup.com/how-god-works-bible-verses/. By far, God’s greatest work gets done by those followers of His who are willing to engage people every day, one person at a time. The Church and Church leaders must do a better job of training and equipping (discipling) their people to realize how important their daily effort is out in the Monday-Saturday world.
Didn’t make your list:
Lack of leadership in making disciples. That starts with caring about people.
1. It starts with the pastor. Too many are so concerned with their preaching and programs instead of people. And they’d rather be comfortable in their comfortable offices and climate controlled campuses.
2. “Making disciples”, to them, means making church members. How about building The Kingdom, regardless of whether they go to your church or somewhere else?
Re:15 Reasons;
#1 Pastors have always felt that way. I’m a 41 year full time minister. Nothing new.
#2 and #8 are closely related. America’s demographic has drastically changed since the easing of immigration in the mid 90s. Southern Baptists were good at reaching people who looked like themselves and shared a common ancestry and culture. While immigration reform has added much diversity, talent, and variety into our culture it also brings foreign religions and cultures that Anglo Christians have never been taught to engage. What we don’t understand, we fear. What we fear, we avoid. It will require Gen Xers and Millenials who grew up with multi-culturalism to engage them and win them.
#3 I strongly disagree. Yes there are members who have little spiritual vitality. But again this has always been a complaint and I thought the purpose of this survey was to uncover new trends affecting evangelism. Pastors are reticent to admit that often “lazy members” might be a fruit of reduced calorie preaching and preaching that is not creative in our attempt to understand the changing culture and to find ways to engage it. I have met very few members who were not eager to share their faith but were either never taught how or were taught methods that worked decades ago but are not as effective today.
#5 Maybe. If what we have to offer when people come is legalistic, fire breathing judgement, or passionless thoughts about a passage of scripture that was not well exegeted or appropriately applied then come and see is like hollering sooey when the trough’s not full.
#7 Growing trend appears to be combination of pastors not teaching about the mission of the church as well as Millenial mindset.
#10 Not sure we’ve ever been taught deeply in this area. How do we keep prayers hot for the lost without it becoming vain repetition?
#11 Easier to preach on than to actually execute. Many pastors flame on in the pulpit without ever following that passion with a thoughtful plan of execution with member buy-in.
#12 Again goes back to training. We were successful at this for most of the 20th Century. But the landscape has changed and we are in flux. Since we haven’t found reproducible and effective methods to engage the most unchurched and diverse mission field American has ever seen, we continue to retreat back to the things we know that used to work but now are no longer effective.
The church today reminds me of a 1950 American military that can no longer win a war against an enemy with laster guided missiles, drones and smart bombs. So what do they do? Let’s reload the tanks with bigger shells and fire harder! Hardly a recipe for victory.
#13 Been around forever. And who is allowing this? invitaion counseling and new Christians classes should be at least a 2-step remedy.
#15 Maybe. Many of those activities are still used by God to forge strong relationships within the body. Again this one is old.
If I may, let me add one more that we are trying to address here with some success. Sunday School used to be the most evangelsitic tool we had. We knew how to use it and how to recruit and train for it. There are still a great majority of our churches who have very traditional Sunday Schools. However SS needs a makeover like our evangelism efforts do. Ministers of Education are a dying breed because they are no longer seen as relevant. Sunday School Week at our Confrenece Centers used to be a crown jewel in our trianing strategy.
We kicked off an entire new strategy in a conference called “New Wineskins” in Feb. 2014 It’s not perfect yet but we had one of the greatest years in Sunday School we’ve ever had my many metrics.
Are we just going to let thousands of Sunday Schools with enormous armies of workers just atrophy into obselescence? God hates waste and so do I. I really beleive we need a new strategy for small groups that focus on outreach, evangelism and discipleship. Therein lies community where assimilation and organic growth find their best chances of success.
We are in exciting and disturbing days. Dickens said, “The best of time and the worst of times”. For churches that work at engagement and understanding, that keep issuing the call to go with efforts that sometime stumble and sometimes work, that keep believing the Word of God is applicable to all generations and all cutlures, it is the best of time with great opportunities.
Great input! Thanks, Rick.
Could you also say that the rise of small-groups has put Sunday School as we know it on its death-bed?
Enjoyed reading your thoughts, Rick Ray! Thank you.