Evangelism of the Modern Era
Reprinted with permission
Bright lights. Microphones. Song service. Special music. Seminars. Buses. Mail-in cards. Is this evangelism – of the modern era?
I once visited this local Adventist church. The youth director had 40 or so young people gathered together in a circle, and the topic was with regards to ways that they as a group of young people could evangelize in the surrounding community. Ideas were thrown back and forth, questions were raised, and overall it seemed to be a rather productive discourse that not enough churches have on a typical Sabbath afternoon.
Three months later, I visited that church again. The youth director had 40 or so young people gathered together in a circle, and the topic? Uh, same thing. Ways that they as a group of young people could evangelize in the surrounding community. Wait. Hadn’t they discussed that three months earlier? They are still talking about how they can evangelize? When are they going to actually do the evangelism?
This case perhaps illustrates what evangelism of the modern era has become: 1) talking about evangelism but not doing it, or 2) not really knowing how to do evangelism in the first place.
Soulwinning is is no longer about winning souls, instead it’s been relegated to an after-potluck activity. The same applies to both churches and conventions. The default afternoon Sabbath schedule is to do outreach (I speak only to a conservative, Sabbath-keeping audience here). But on a large scale, soulwinning is not a lifestyle. Let’s not protest here, by pointing out those one or two exceptions to the majority in the rural pockets of this country. If we are serious about growing as a global church, we need to be humble and admit issues such as these, and work on improving them. Let’s not confuse optimism as a facade for idealism.
Why has evangelism become simply the talking of it but not doing, or the not knowing how? Because the ones who know how to win souls are too busy to teach. This isn’t bitterness, or complaint. It’s just simply the way things are. Our evangelists in the church have made a huge impact that we can only praise God for. But simply put, evangelists who know how to win souls don’t have enough time to teach others to do the same. Why? They are travelling all over the world to preach and teach almost every weekend–anywhere but where they are themselves. They fire up the young people, but cannot follow-up with them.
Imagine the impact of each major evangelist devoting their time to one region, and teaching them how to win souls. How much more could be done if evangelists focused on one small, specific region of the world discipling, teaching, essentially showing “the how” to 40, 50, 100 young people? And not just showing them how to win souls, but showing them how to show others...how to win souls.
I realize there are soulwinning training schools run by well-known evangelists, where the students come from all over the world. But four months, one-year programs fall hopelessly short of Christ’s three and a half year discipleship and soul-winning program. The program where He didn’t travel to other countries to preach on the weekends, conference to conference, church to church. The program where everything He said or did was intentionally designed to teach a life lesson to the twelve. Seriously, what can you really learn in 4-12 months? Even an associates degree at a community college takes two years.
Quick-fire training programs, lead to quick-fire evangelism. Ministry these days for the average, committed, young person means to sit on a board, and plan a two-day “revival” event once a year, of which about 2-3 hours in those two days is dedicated to door-knocking. Maybe giving the Bible study once a blue moon at your secular campus. People just don’t have the time for anything else. Invest years in one person? Are you kidding me?
Are the soulwinners that young people are becoming today, the kinds that, when the grandeur of 5000 people marching out to buses goes away, when all the lights are dim, when there are no more powerful messages to lift up the emotions, when they are alone with nobody else to take up the burden, continuing to win souls?
I’m not sure if I know how to win souls. I know how to argue souls. I know how to battle souls. I know how to share with souls. I know how to spend time with souls. Sure I can give Bible studies to a non-believer. Sure I can bring them to church, or convince them of a doctrinal misunderstanding. But it’s altogether a different thing to win the soul. And what good is all of the above if you can’t win them? Winning a soul takes time. And it would be so nice if someone who knew how and was good at it, could just show me as a young person who wishes to learn, but – not just in four months. I suppose in the meantime, I’ll just keep on trying, but perhaps not succeeding as well as I could.
Our different ministries within the church are operating in a vacuum. Each evangelist has their own ministry, their own niche. Very rarely are different ministries coordinated, there is no oversight over them. But if somehow all these ministries can be in sync with one another, if our leaders and our major organizations could buy into the larger picture at hand, then perhaps a great awakening could finally take place with young people standing ready for the return of Christ.
Then again, we shouldn’t just talk about it, we should get down to doing it. How? Well, we can talk about it.