So what about our churches?
But how do we mobilize our churches to actually engage others in gospel conversations and be intentional in prioritizing outreach?
If time and intentionality are the commonality between the revivals and the time of regular meetings in earlier decades, is there a time and intentionality tool today that we can utilize to increase our churches’ evangelistic temperatures? The short answer is yes, there are many. The problem is, too few churches are using them.
At Moody Church, where I’ve been serving as Interim Teaching Pastor, we’ve been using Organic Outreach with Kevin Harney. This has been helping us improve our intentionality. Kevin talks about turning up the evangelistic temperature a few notches in our churches. Here at the Billy Graham Center, we also recently created a tool for churches called Our Gospel Story. This is a six-week online curriculum that can be used in small groups, one-on-one, or in larger group contexts.
Another tool that most of us are familiar with are home-based evangelistic small groups or Bible studies, the Alpha Course being the most famous. Millions of people have taken the Alpha Course. Why?
Because just as revivals met the need of the day in the 1930s and 40s, and the Tuesday night evangelistic visitation met the needs of the 1960s, 70s, and even into the 80s, conversational evangelism has become a trademark of today.
Similar strategies use home meetings and relationships, like Christianity Explored (which is more theologically in the stream of John Stott), or B.L.E.S.S., and many others.
These evangelism tools are those that help us engage conversationally with others, sometimes with a high emphasis on hospitality, like hosting people in our homes.
The point is, they are intentional. They prioritize evangelism. If you don’t prioritize evangelism and outreach, you won’t have evangelism and outreach!
What does the future hold?
As depressing as the stats may be, the future of evangelism does not have to be like the past.
It’s as bright as we, empowered with the Holy Spirit, are willing to make it. We must commit ourselves and our churches to being prioritize evangelism, always seeking to hold the banner of evangelism high, and always encouraging our congregations and leadership to utilize tools that will make our gospel witness intentional and doable.
I invite you to check out the Our Gospel Story curriculum and take your churches through it, then let me know what God does.
As leaders, may one of our highest goals always be that men and women might hear and respond to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
