“A Deliberate Evangelism Strategy”

Monday, February 19, 2018

Many churches do not have a deliberate evangelism strategy. Of course, there are notable exceptions. But most churches conduct services, including one or two gospel meetings per year, and just hope that members will bring guests (they often do not) or that prospects will just happen to show up on their own (this rarely happens either).

Nobody gets too overly concerned that the church isn’t growing, but will occasionally change preachers in the hopes that the new man will be just what the church needs to start saving the lost. That is rare also.

Do you know any other area of life where good results just accidentally happen? Where nobody has to plan and organize and promote but great things happen anyway?

If you want to raise a nice garden, you have to work at it. You have to prepare the soil, use good seeds, water the growing plants and pull some weeds along the way. You don’t just pick a plot of ground, throw out a bunch of seeds and then come back in a couple of months ready to eat. It doesn’t happen accidentally.

A sports team has to practice, exercise, discipline themselves and work on plays together in order to have a winning season. It doesn’t happen accidentally. And the examples could be multiplied.

But sometimes, when it comes to evangelism, we expect results without much effort and without a plan to work. We may occasionally convert someone without a strategy but we will not experience the kind of growth that we read about in the book of Acts.

One of the jobs of leadership is to give guidance and motivation to those in the group. This is being written primarily for elders, preachers and men and women of spiritual conviction who have the ability to influence others to do better in the Lord’s service. What is your strategy for evangelism? What kind of leadership are you providing in this vital area? What does your example teach?

A deliberate, intentional strategy will include two things: a plan for study and a plan for getting studies.

A plan for study must cover at least three basic truths – a standard for determining what God wants from us, an understanding of sin and how it separates man from God, and the Lord’s solution to this sin problem, including our response of obedience. There may be other important lessons that you will want to include or at least study as follow-up material with those who are converted, but those three principles are the essentials to know before obedience. There are many different study series available which teach these truths, or you can arrange your own. As long as the truth is taught, people will respond. (Not everyone, of course, but many will.)

And we must have a plan for making opportunities to study those principles with the lost. Some have held neighborhood Bible studies in their home and invited everyone who lives close to attend. It helps if you have established a relationship with your neighbors over a period of time. They are more likely to come to a study if you have been friendly and helpful to them in other ways.

Some have mailed out Bible correspondence courses to everyone living in a certain zip code. Follow up is required to visit them and try to set up future opportunities to study with them.

One of the best ways (it is also the most effective and profitable and inexpensive method) is for members to simply invite their friends, family and acquaintances to study. Many of them will, if we will just ask.

Others have set up booths at county fairs and even the state fair, if you have enough available funds. Give them something to study and something to send back in (like a correspondence course) that will give you their address and phone number to follow up with.

Newspaper articles that teach the truth can often result in Bible studies. Include some material that challenges people’s thinking religiously, even to the point of upsetting them because you have touched on some area especially important to them. They may call you or write you just to defend what they believe.

Special services with an important and vital theme lesson that is widely advertised and announced can sometimes draw people in.

Some disciples have used the website called Meetup.com to set up community Bible studies and Scripture readings in places like restaurants, libraries, and other public facilities. These sessions usually cover a chapter of the Bible per week, or something similar to that. It is a way to introduce interested people to New Testament Christians and the word of God.

Some of these ideas will work better in some areas than in others. In some places, newspaper articles are too expensive; in other areas, they are quite affordable. Do something that will be helpful in your particular part of the world.

If you develop a strategy and it doesn’t work, try something different. Maybe you will need to keep the parts that work and modify the parts that don’t. But do something. Do not quit trying.

What it all boils down to is this: Are we going to be intentional and deliberate and steadfast in our efforts to teach the lost or are we going to be satisfied with doing very little until the church we worship with eventually goes out of business?

Is this our evangelism strategy? “If somebody accidentally wanders into our services, we are ready to teach them.” Really? Do you think that is what God meant when He told us to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord?” Brothers and sisters, think on these things.

--Roger Hillis

Biblical Insights

November 2010

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