Church-Based Evangelism: The Need for a New Approach to Evangelism

Every church wants to be missional and evangelistic. At least that's how history would portray churches. The founding of the major denominations in the United States, almost every single one established a mission board of some kind within 20 years of its founding. For some denominations, the mission board preceded and was instrumental in the denomination's founding. The same year the Southern Baptist Convention was formed (1845), the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board) was formed. The Triennial Convention, from which the Southern Baptist Convention split, was formed through Luther Rice's efforts to raise funds for Adoniram Judson after the two became Baptists during the boat ride to the mission field in South Asia. American history is permeated with stories of Christians rediscovering their evangelistic zeal and churches ignited with passion for missions. Even the most decrepit denominations reminisce about the days when they were evangelistic and missions-minded. Every church wants to be missional and evangelistic.

History has also shown what happens to churches that do not want to be missional and evangelistic. Two-Seed-In-The-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists and Daniel Parker are practically unheard of for a reason.[1] After John Taylor wrote Thoughts on Missions, he soon regretted writing against the mission movement.[2] Baptists have had multiple instances of debate over the method of missions, yet very few have actively spoken against missions and evangelism. Practically no one today would even suggest anything that would remotely appear to be anti-missions and anti-evangelism, unless they wanted to be laughed out of the room. Therefore, every church wants to be missional and evangelistic.

Yet, throughout this incredible history of Christians and churches being passionate theologically about missions and evangelism, Christians and churches seem to practically be more anti-missions and anti-evangelism than Daniel Parker himself! J. R. Graves identified this as a problem in the 1800s, writing, “We cannot see the great difference between an Omissionary and an Antimissionary Baptist, except that the latter is the more consistent, and yet more than one-half of the nominal Missionary Baptists of the South are Omissionary.”[3] This problem persists today. Barna research determined that most Christians agree on the basic definition of missions as proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ wherever they are.[4] Yet, a sizable gap exists between pastors and laypeople regarding who is responsible for missions. Pastors view missions and evangelism as the responsibility of every Christian, whereas most laypeople see them as a calling for only some Christians.[5] Adding to this divide between the theological and the practical, Barna found that 51% of churchgoers have never heard of the Great Commission, with another 25% having heard of it but unsure what it is, and another 6% unsure whether they’ve heard of it before. A whopping 82% of churchgoers cannot articulate what the Great Commission is.[6] Yet, every church wants to be missional and evangelistic.

Further complicating this problem is the lack of an agreed-upon definition of a missional and evangelistic church. Some churches may define this as giving a substantial percentage of their budget to missions. Other churches may define this as having numerous “soul-winners” in their congregation. A church may define being evangelistic as having a weekly invitation. Some churches may even define this as just having a soul-winning pastor. Every church wants to be missional and evangelistic.

Yet it appears American Christianity is largely unaware of what it even means to be missional and evangelistic, preventing the thing every church desires. This problem does not need to exist. Churches restoring clarity of purpose and vision with the word of God can clear the proverbial debris and bring about a golden age of missional and evangelistic churches. This starts with understanding what evangelism is and who is responsible for it.

C. E. Autrey defines evangelism as such: “Evangelism is the outreach of the church into the world by confrontation with the Gospel of Christ in an attempt to lead people to a personal commitment in Christ by faith and repentance in Christ as Savior and Lord.”[7] Autrey’s definition can be divided into four parts, each equally necessary for true, biblical evangelism. First, evangelism requires the outreach of the church into the world. Evangelism has its origin with the local church and goes to the world. Second, evangelism requires confrontation with the Gospel of Christ. Evangelism clearly distinguishes the local church from the world. The presentation that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, confronts everything the world is. The gospel confronts, not coddles, the world. Third, evangelism is the attempt to lead people to a personal commitment to Christ. Evangelism is not attempting to get people to identify as Christian, to live morally, or anything else. Evangelism is not mere speaking of words without any desired outcome. Evangelism seeks to lead a lost person to submit his life to Christ. Last, Evangelism instructs that this commitment is by faith and repentance in Christ as Savior and Lord. Evangelism declares to the lost that their works will not work and that one can only be saved through faith. Anything but this is not evangelism.

The responsibility is then found in the first part of Autrey’s definition: the local church. While every Christian has a personal Great Commission responsibility, this responsibility is encompassed in the one given to every local church. The four recordings of the Great Commission make this evident.

In Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus instructs the disciples to make disciples of all the nations. The disciples, as the first church, are further instructed to baptize and to teach. These latter two responsibilities, as Baptists have largely argued, have been given to the local church. The first responsibility, logically, would also be given to the local church. In Mark 16:15, Jesus instructs the disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel, followed by a charge to baptize in 16:16. Again, the latter responsibility is one that belongs to the local church; therefore, the former belongs to it as well. Luke’s recounting of the Great Commission in Acts 1:8 also seems to assign responsibility to the local church, as the fulfillment of Christ’s statement was not seen during the lifetime and ministry of the apostles but rather in the mission of local churches. Christ gave local churches the responsibility to make disciples.

This does not negate the responsibility of individual Christians; rather, it enhances it. In the first century, the concept of a Christian unassociated with a local church was unheard of. Any concept of an individual Great Commission responsibility would be immediately understood as a responsibility as a member of the local body. Further, the biblical concept of a church is not the organization, but the members who make it up. Therefore, a responsibility given to a local church would be understood as incumbent on every individual Christian.

Therefore, if evangelism is Autrey’s definition, and if the responsibility for evangelism ultimately rests on the local church, then churches, not interchurches (convention, association, etc.), parachurch (evangelistic ministry partners, homeless ministries, etc.), or partial-church ministries, must be the primary locus of evangelistic efforts. For a new golden age of missional and evangelistic churches to arise, an ecclesiological shift to the New Testament purpose of a church must be made.

The method proposed to accomplish this is Church-based evangelism. Church-based evangelism, then, is when a local church points all its efforts toward evangelism. This does not mean evangelism is the only thing that a church does, but rather that everything a church does has the outcome of evangelism. Church-based evangelism ensures that every church member is not derelict in their Great Commission responsibility. The next installment of articles that will be coming out in the following months will flesh out this exact concept.

For the current matter at hand, Church-based evangelism is in contrast to individual-based evangelism and parachurch-based evangelism. Individual-based evangelism seeks to have individual Christians be the primary locus of evangelism and, therefore, must seek to engage in evangelism by oneself. Parachurch-based evangelism seeks to use partnerships with evangelistic parachurch ministries to do evangelism on behalf of the local church while being supported by the funds of a local church. Church-based evangelism seeks to have every church member, the ambassadors of God, working together as the embassy of the Kingdom of God, to evangelize the lost together. The desire of every pastor and every church member must be to see evangelism arise out of the life, programs, and emphases of the local church.

This article is written by Klayton Carson, pastor at Range Hills Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn.

Footnotes:

[1]“Primitive.Bapt.Parker.Html,” accessed January 23, 2026, https://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/primitive.bapt.parker.html.

[2]John Taylor, Thoughts on Missions (1820); “Taylor.John.Bio.Annals.Html,” accessed January 23, 2026, https://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/taylor.john.bio.annals.html.

[3]“Graves.Gleanings.Bbb.Html,” accessed January 23, 2026, https://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/graves.gleanings.bbb.html.

[4]“What Is Missions? Christians Share Their Perspectives,” Barna Group, accessed January 14, 2026, https://www.barna.com/research/define-missions/.

[5]“Pastors See Missions as a Mandate, But Christians Aren’t So Sure,” Barna Group, accessed January 14, 2026, https://www.barna.com/research/missions-mandate/.

[6]“51% of Churchgoers Don’t Know of the Great Commission,” Barna Group, accessed January 23, 2026, https://www.barna.com/research/half-churchgoers-not-heard-great-commission/.

[7]Gray Allison, Personal Evangelism, ed. Michael R. Spradlin (Collierville: Innovo Publishing LLC, 2021), 24; C. E. Autrey, You Can Win Souls (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1961), p. 2.