If you read this blog regularly, you know I’ve never seen a strongly evangelistic church without a pastor who leads them in that direction. With that finding in mind, here are some “evangelistic questions” pastors ought to be asking of themselves:
- “Do I genuinely grieve the spiritual condition of nonbelievers?” In my opinion, the only way to answer this question honestly is by looking at our evangelistic efforts.
- “Am I so amazed at Jesus that I can’t help but speak about Him?” Too often, our heights of fascination over Jesus are past-tense—much closer to our conversion than to today.
- “If my church members duplicated my evangelistic efforts, would I be pleased with that?” I fear too many not-very-evangelistic pastors would be forced to say, “No—do as I say, not as I do (or don’t do).”
- “How much time do I intentionally spend with nonbelievers?” It’s tough to be evangelistic when you don’t know many nonbelievers in the first place.
- “What are the names of the nonbelievers for whom I’m praying?” A generic “I’m praying for all lost people in my community” doesn’t typically reflect a real burden.
- “Who’s that person with whom I need to share Jesus, but I haven’t done it yet?” Most of us can quickly determine who that person is.
- “If my church doubles in size, but almost entirely by transfer growth, would I be pleased?” I think it might be easier to answer “no” to that question than it is to genuinely feel that way.
- “When’s the last time I shared the gospel outside my church office?” Intentional evangelism doesn’t wait for people to come to our office; it goes to them.
- “Who am I equipping to do evangelism?” The best evangelistic pastors are not only telling the story themselves, but they’re also training others to do the same—and they can usually name their trainees.
Even if you’re not a pastor, how would you answer these questions?
This article originally appeared here.
