How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Also, pray a ton.
What’s Hardest?
Picture all the difficult feats in local church life. Think long and hard. What comes to mind?
The ones I’ve heard mentioned the most—and in many cases personally faced—are the following:
-Revitalize a church in long-term decline.
-Reach new families with children when you have few or none.
-Reform your church’s polity.
-Lead a church through a relocation.
-Remain peaceably in a church when you have major disagreements with the Senior Pastor.
-Fire a beloved staff member.
-Follow a long-term, beloved pastor…and live to tell the tale.
I could name others, but I’m confident that these would be in my top ten, especially the first two. But there is still a greater one, whether one experiences it as a pastor or layman: see your un-evangelistic church become evangelistic.
Let’s start with the good news: it is possible for a church to become what it isn’t. The Bible tells me so. Jesus and the apostles (and the rest of the Bible for that matter) wouldn’t call God’s people to be a light to the nations if it were not possible for them to do so.
I cannot escape the conviction that biblical commands aren't designed solely to expose our inability to keep God’s law (though commands do function this way theologically). They are also intended to show those who know God and are indwelled by His Spirit how to walk in obedience. Ergo, your church and mine can stop being un-evangelistic.
Now, two bits of bad news. First, just because your church or mine could become evangelistic doesn’t mean they will. It remains to be seen whether we will repent in this area and start doing what God wants us to do. Second, the obstacles to us becoming evangelistic are many and fierce. Let me focus on these.
Why We Don’t Share
When evaluating potential reasons for evangelism's absence in a church body, I find it helpful to connect the individual with the corporate, the micro-level with the macro-level. That is to ask, what is happening from the perspective of individual members who cite specific reasons (excuses) for their lack of evangelism? Then trace those out to the congregational level. Here’s an example:
One Person’s Stated Reason for Non-Evangelism
“I’m too busy.”
A Congregational Level Manifestation
“We’ve already got too many irons in the fire as a ministry.” Or,
“Our people are very busy.”
If you think deeply about the congregational reasons, it could shed light on a leadership and organizational problem: if we have so many ministry programs happening such that people don’t feel like they have time or opportunity for evangelism, then we have a major problem. It could be mission-drift, misaligned priorities, and/or members simply making excuses. But those possibilities have to be investigated by anyone trying to be conscientious about the shape of the ministry.
A second level of evaluation is more important than the individual/corporate dynamic. What's behind these reasons or excuses? What do they really say, if we translate them carefully?
“I’m/We’re too busy.” - We have misplaced priorities.
See how important that is? Let’s flesh it out more fully using other examples. These are just a few excuses that perhaps you, me, or someone we know have used or are using right now. In no particular order…
“I don’t know any lost people.” -I’m probably being dishonest or naïve.
“I don’t have any opportunities.” -I lack effort and attentiveness.
“I fear not knowing what to say.” -I lack faith and the discipline to study.
“I fear how someone may respond.” -I fear man.
“I’m discouraged/frustrated.” -I lack the heart, mind, and perseverance of Christ.
“That’s not my spiritual gift.” -I’m misunderstanding gifts.
“That’s not my responsibility.” -I’m passing the buck.
“I’ll do it in the future.” -I’m being presumptuous.
“I don’t really care about others.”-I lack love and mercy.
By no means is this an exhaustive list. And the “translations” are my own, so take that for what it’s worth. However, if we intend to take the Great Commission and Great Commandment(s) seriously, there must be honesty, repentance, and action.
Becoming a catalyst for more evangelism through your own example and/or leadership is likely the most difficult thing you’ll ever do as a member in Christ’s body. Satan hates it and will do anything to discourage it or stop it.
Some Modest Guidance
I have no grand ideas for how to attempt this crucial yet elusive ministry feat. I know what I’ve done, what I’m doing, and what I’ve encouraged others to do. I think there is wisdom in some of these practices, but I don’t have a vast list of “success stories” to point to. (In case you haven’t guessed, getting discouraged or frustrated in my evangelism is my greatest challenge, and thus it becomes an excuse from time to time.)
Yet among the tools in my ministry toolbelt that I would recommend to individuals and churches is the Hope Initiative. I first became aware of this strategy or program from Dr. Eddie Moody. Church Answers, a parachurch ministry founded by Dr. Thom Rainer, desired a small number of churches in my denomination to be part of a beta group for a new evangelistic initiative called the Hope Initiative. I thought it might be the right fit for our people.
The design of this initiative was simple: the pastor and a small-ish group of members take 30 days to walk intentionally through various practices which include prayer and Bible study (as they concern outreach and evangelism), as well as prayer-walking, sending personal notes to people, and having intentional conversation. The steps are very doable, sensible, and relate clearly to becoming more focused on seeing others come to follow Jesus.
Interested? You can learn more at Church Answers, or go to the NAFWB website and view some of their promotional resources.
The purpose of the beta group in late 2022 and early 2023 was to share timely feedback with the Church Answers team. This process culminated in the publication of Pray & Go: Your Invitation to Become a Great Commission Christian.
To be clear, the entire set of resources associated with the Hope Initiative can be found at and purchased from Church Answers. However, the centerpiece of the program is Pray & Go. Our church has opted to purchase the books and allow me to facilitate the groups. While typically it’s not the best idea for pastors to lead or organize something else, Dr. Rainer stressed that the pastor’s personal involvement in this strategy was essential to its success. I definitely agree.
As I write this, we are in the final days of a fourth 30-day cycle. It’s still too soon to tell how impactful it will be, but my initial sense is that this one has been more meaningful than the prior ones.
Now, a few final observations and caveats.
First, as scary as it may be, these 30 days of relatively basic steps are the closest that many Christians have ever come to being outwardly focused. I’ve heard more than one person say as much, and I’ve heard similar things from other pastors whose churches have participated.
Second, churches or individuals engaged in this type of exercise face the same risk associated with any other initiative, event, program, or strategy. We complete it, feel excited about our accomplishment, and then revert to our usual activities, which includes being inwardly focused. If this 30-day journey is to become more than a catalyst, it has to be leveraged into a new mindset for individuals and congregations. We must start seeing the world differently and actively engaging it with Christ’s love and concern every day.
Ministry tools can assist with this new mindset, but ultimately it becomes a question of whether individuals are regularly challenged, encouraged, supported, and joined by fellow members and church leaders in entering the harvest.
In too many instances, Christians and churches are asleep at the wheel. We need to wake up. And once we’ve awakened, we need some practical help for the truths of Scripture to sink in and habits of interpersonal communication and service to become second nature.
Pray & Go/The Hope Initiative can help. But whatever you do, keep praying for traction, and find a few other people who care as much or more than you. Plead together with God to use you to cultivate an evangelistic heart and church family.
Follow-Up:
What’s freedom? In many previous newsletters (#s 56 and 101, just to name a few) I’ve touched on the theme of freedom. Perhaps there has never been such a commonly invoked word or concept that was simultaneously so misunderstood. (Save perhaps GOD.)
In reading recently about the moral philosopher Alasdair McIntyre, I’ve encountered some important insights on freedom. Here’s one great excerpt:
For liberalism’s founders, evil is constitutive of political life. Correlatively, freedom is in the last analysis the absence of evil; which is to say, on a political level, freedom is the absence of tyranny and the absence of coercion. It is a ‘negative’ liberty. Freedom is understood by reference to a balance of powers and has no specific relation to either the good or the true. However, for the neo-Aristotelian school, freedom is subordinated to the good and the true. Freedom is not only a matter of security, the absence of physical or legal obstacles, or autonomy. First and foremost, it involves grasping the good. Liberty includes a ‘positive’ dimension. It is not enough to have freedom: we still need to become free.
What I’m Reading or Rereading:
Murray Harris, Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New Testament: An Essential Reference Resource for Exegesis.
Nicholas Shakespeare, Ian Fleming: The Complete Man.
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead.
Quote of the Week:
We’re at a point where, in elite circles over-invested in American politics, where what appear to be cogent, dispassionate observations about democracy are really expressions of people losing faith in American democracy, whether because of short-term partisan outcomes or the long-term legacy of impediments it places on power seekers. Reforms motivated by these factors will erode democracy more in the long term than any one felon breaking into the federal capitol building. Advocates for reform who conflate dysfunction with the challenging work of pluralism, and whose impatient reform ideas represent a dissatisfaction with a self-correcting system, will undermine federated democracy. What we risk ending up with may not be democracy—or majority rule, for that matter.
Robert Showah, “Majority Rule and Democracy Aren’t Synonymous.”
Common Grace Wisdom (CGW): A Word about “Family Friendly.”
This one is much more anecdotal and open-ended, less empirical and objective.
Recently my wife and I took our two small children to the circus, sponsored by the area Shriners. We knew taking little kids to such an event could have mixed results, but it turns out that just getting in the doors was the hardest part. Besides the cost of tickets, parking was $15. No strollers were allowed. Diaper bags were searched meticulously for outside food and drink, besides other things. There were lots of steps, and few family restrooms.
Now, color me grumpy, but I wonder if such institutional ignorance about the dynamics of family needs is one of the contributing factors to the declining birthrates in America (and much of the modern world). Certainly, mixed priorities and other factors are involved and weightier, but are we actively trying to make it harder for families with more than one or two kids to just go out and do things?
If I were just me who felt this anxiety, I’d probably just keep my thought bubble to myself. But there were a lot of knowing looks exchanged among parents as we neared the metal detectors, worried about which helpful child accessory we were going to be told to take back to our vehicles.
Oh, and this was at the St. Charles Family Arena.
But to end on a brighter note, the parking attendant and other personnel we interacted with were quite friendly.
Parting Shot
I feel vindicated about my recent newsletter on fair-weather fandom and why we shouldn’t get too invested. After South Carolina’s exciting return to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, they lost in the first round.