One of the most glaring reasons that most churches are
plateaued and declining is the lack of evangelism being practiced. Barna
research indicated “only half (52%) of born again Christians say they
actually did share the Gospel at least once this past year to someone with
different beliefs, in the hope that they might accept Jesus Christ as their
Savior.”* A Lifeway survey found “80 percent of those who attend church one or
more times a month, believe they have a personal responsibility to share their
faith, but 61 percent have not told another person about how to become a
Christian in the previous six months.”**
What can churches do to change this situation? Here are 5
suggestions:
1. Practice
FRANgelism – This is an Alistair Begg concept. He suggests we share our
faith with Friends, Relatives, Associates and Neighbors.
These are the people in our circle of influence with whom it is most natural to
share. https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/series/frangelism/
2. Calendar
evangelistic events – An evangelistic event is more than a fun day; it is a
fun day with an evangelistic purpose. Look at your church calendar. Does it
reflect that evangelism is a priority? What are some events to consider:
·
Vacation
Bible School – a lot of energy ought to go into VBS. A clear presentation
of the Gospel ought to be made during VBS. This can be such a fruitful time for
connecting with new families if VBS is properly promoted and creatively,
energetically practiced.
·
Evangelistic
revivals – not all revivals are evangelistic. Using a harvest evangelist
who preps the congregation can really help.
·
Friend
days – this isn’t “high attendance” day. This isn’t borrowing relatives
from surrounding churches to pump up the numbers. This is a prayed over,
well-planned connecting point for inviting your FRANs (see above) to hear a
clear Gospel message.
·
Block
parties – a Block Party is a low risk/high grace way to meet people and
connect them to the Gospel. Again, the key to making this evangelistic is doing
something attractive AND sharing the Gospel with purpose. The MBA has a fully
supplied Block Party trailer that any of our churches can borrow. Reserve it
here: http://www.middlebaptistassociation.org/EventTrailerRequestForm
3. Participate in
evangelism training – Here are some resources:
·
http://6estrategy.com/access/(big picture training)
·
Just give people some basic idea how to engage
people with the Gospel.
4. Create a
default setting of being intentionally evangelistic – Thom Rainer suggests:
·
Church Culture Shift
#1: Leadership Must Model a Passion for Evangelism.
·
Church Culture Shift
#2: Ask one Sunday school class or small group to become an evangelistic group
for one year.
·
Church Culture Shift
#3: Begin a small-scale evangelistic mentoring approach.
·
Church Culture Shift
#4: Make certain corporate prayers include praying for the lost.
5. Regularly invite people to church – We need to tell people to invite people to church until they are fully convinced and begin to practice it. We always hear that many people would attend church if someone would just ask them. We should be testing that all the time. A part of the weekly announcements each week ought to be the question, “Did you invite anyone to church this week?” The other part of that is, you have to be the kind of church that members are comfortable inviting others to attend.
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