Most church planters I know start a church plant with a deep desire to do evangelism. In one sense, what else would you do? Hardly any new pastor sets out to start a church by “sheep stealing.” They want a vibrant, cross-focused, Jesus-centered church that hums with gospel witness and is filled with excited new believers.
And they’ll get right on it after they figure out how to set up a sound system in a high school gym, and puzzle out where the nursery is going to be held in the hotel, and deal with setting up the web page.
Though most pastors see evangelism as a key to spiritual health for the life of a believer and the life of the church, given the astonishing number of things that must be done for a new church plant—not to mention the internal sinful resistance to evangelism—it’s easy to lose our fervor in evangelism. Evangelism, it seems, is always pushing the ball uphill.
If evangelism is to be woven into the fabric of the life of a new church plant and its pastor, it takes some thought and planning.
Here are 10 things I’ve learned that may help.
1. The time to start evangelism in your church plant is before you ever start the church.
If you’ve been so immersed in seminary or a support ministry such that you’re separated from non-Christians, then you need to think how you can treat evangelism as any other spiritual discipline.
RELATED: A Survey of 10 Evangelism Articles
OK—let me tip my hand, if you’ve not been engaged in regular evangelism you probably shouldn’t be starting a church. Regardless, regularly make attempts to share your faith now before you ever start to plant a church. If you wait until you get around to it, you won’t ever get to it at all.
2. Teach, teach, teach.
Define the gospel: “The Message from God that leads us to salvation.”
Define that message: “God, Man, Christ, Response,” or “Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation.”
Define evangelism: “Teaching (or preaching) the gospel with the aim to persuade.”
Define biblical conversion, well, biblically. Check out Michael Lawrence’s excellent new book on the topic.
And when evangelism is demonstrated or commanded in the text of Scripture you’re preaching through, make sure to highlight that for your congregation.
3. Go for low hanging fruit.
I once noticed a man who attended church occasionally with his wife. I bumped into him after the service and said, “Tim, I’m curious, where are you in your spiritual life?” “I’m not a believer,” he told me. “I really just come to make Gina happy.” We talked a bit more. I invited them over for lunch and we talked about spiritual life and the gospel.
Nothing much more happened, but Gina later told me that for all the years he was coming to church, nobody had ever asked him about his spiritual condition. Don’t let that happen. Many people who show up in church are surprised when people talk more about sports than spiritual truth, and over time it convinces them they’re doing OK. Instead, nail your fear of man to the cross and ask new people about their spiritual life.
The best place for pastors and timid evangelists to do evangelism is with the people who come to church. They’re in church, after all!
4. Don’t assume the gospel.
Assuming the gospel is the quickest route to kill a church in a couple of generations. Recently I was in Portland, Oregon, and I noticed the city was filled with empty church buildings.
But there was once a day when vibrant Christians sacrificed their money and time to build those buildings. What happened? They began assuming the gospel. An assumed gospel leads to a twisted gospel, which leads to a lost gospel. And when the gospel is lost, the life blood of the church is drained out.
Check every sermon with a question: “Could a non-Christian come to faith through what I preached today?”
Check the songs you sing. Are you communicating that people can be close to God regardless of the condition of their heart? We do that when we stir affections with a great tune but sing gospel-less words.
Make sure the truth of the gospel is in congregational prayers and Scripture readings; make sure it’s clarified in the sacraments (do you fence the Table?). Have people give testimonies to the church before they’re baptized, checking it over with them beforehand to make sure the gospel is clear.
When you do membership interviews, make sure when someone is fuzzy on the gospel that they’re really believers. Let people know you love talking about the gospel and will happily make time in your schedule to do that. This selects out those who have genuine interest.
Talk about the gospel often with those who love it; more people than you know are listening in, especially children.
