Church-Based Evangelism: Giving the Opportunity

During a Sunday evening service, I asked the members of Range Hills Baptist Church what made it difficult for them to evangelize. One young lady, who’s still in High School, said that her difficulty was having time to evangelize. She told a story of attempting to share the gospel in the hallway with a fellow student when they both had to go to different classes; the conversation ended there. The adults then spoke of a similar problem in their workplaces. In attempting to lead a church toward Church-Based Evangelism, the philosophy can be in place, the pastoral example can be at the forefront, the charge can be strong, and a church could have an easy, precise evangelism method, but that does not equal evangelistic conversations. Time constraints and other stressors often lead church members to believe they have no opportunities to evangelize. To change this mindset, opportunities must be revealed and created.

Before creating a single new evangelistic opportunity, a church needs to communicate better about its existing ones. The reality is that the majority of local churches already have evangelistic events, programs, and opportunities on the calendar. Churches across America hold a yearly Vacation Bible School, and it is one of the most beloved programs they offer. The philosophy of Church-Based Evangelism does not change anything about Vacation Bible School; rather, it speaks of Vacation Bible School as an evangelistic event and community outreach. When exhorting church members to volunteer or invite families to Vacation Bible School, you ought to tie that to evangelism. Volunteering at Vacation Bible School is an opportunity to evangelize. Inviting families to Vacation Bible School is an opportunity to evangelize someone. Vacation Bible School is practically a sure-fire evangelistic opportunity; speak of it as such.

Vacation Bible School is not the only evangelistic opportunity a church has that needs to be better communicated. Consider revivals, summer camps, a student DNOW, Easter, and literally every church service as evangelistic opportunities where church members can invite people and be there to share the gospel. Church members have a lot of weight on their shoulders because of life. From school or work to family obligations, and more, the weight of the charge and the steady cadence of talking about how evangelism is easy can be almost blinding. Reveal the opportunities that are already there to make them easily recognizable. Whatever your church does to evangelize the lost, clearly reveal the opportunity in front of its members so it is obvious. Clear communication is key to helping church members notice and take advantage of evangelistic opportunities.

Once pre-existing opportunities are identified, a church can begin creating new ones. Part of creating opportunities for a church to evangelize is understanding the difference between “hot” evangelism and “cold” evangelism. “Hot” evangelism refers to evangelistic opportunities where general conversation is normal and expected. “Hot” evangelism would be family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, as well as people coming to a church event. All of these people expect you to have a conversation with them and would not be taken aback by entering into a gospel conversation, making the hurdle of starting a conversation nonexistent. “Cold” evangelism is anyone who does not expect you to start a conversation with them, or whose expected conversation is limited (such as ordering coffee). In a “cold” evangelism encounter, people will often be taken off guard by your attempt to evangelize. A poor presupposition would be that “cold” evangelism is improper, unnecessary, or unfruitful. This could not be further from the truth. “Cold” evangelism often engages someone with the gospel who would otherwise never hear it, because the person has been prevented from access that would be considered “hot” evangelism. That person needs to hear the gospel as much as anyone. Another poor presupposition is that “hot” evangelism is easier. Sometimes, “hot” evangelism can be harder because it involves sharing the gospel with someone who may already know you or who already expects you to evangelize and can tactically avoid the conversation. Both “hot” and “cold” evangelisms have their own difficulties, but each also has strengths in how the gospel can penetrate more deeply. It is important that both kinds are planned as a church.

Creating evangelistic opportunities, whether “hot” or “cold,” can feel difficult because a church calendar may already be overcrowded. Start by considering turning some events that are already part of your church’s normal rhythm into evangelistic ones. A church may do a “homecoming” or church anniversary that can be adjusted into an evangelistic event. A church may do a Christmas program, a Fourth of July cookout, a Harvest festival, or other events that can be turned into evangelistic events. A church may already be visiting shut-ins and former members, which you may want to change to general door-to-door evangelism. If you’ve only been the pastor of a church for a short time, this may be a good way to start adjusting a church to Church-Based Evangelism. Any event that your church does can be made an evangelistic event with thought and preparation. A word of caution: any change to established events will be noticed and will require leadership. Changing a cookout that used to be a time of fellowship to a time of evangelism may make people uncomfortable.

A “hot” evangelism opportunity that would be both biblical and prudent is to engage cultural moments and use them for evangelism. A cultural moment is something the culture around a church already participates in, such as trick-or-treating on Halloween, Easter Egg hunts, back-to-school events, etc. These cultural moments have, at times, rightly been criticized for engaging in cultural sin or for taking the focus off the main thing. Yet, that does not mean a church cannot use these cultural moments for evangelism. Rather, I would contend that engagement with these cultural moments is acceptable only if they are used for evangelism. In Acts 17:16-34, Paul engages with a cultural practice on Mars Hill, where he debated with the philosophers. Debate, interaction, and the art of persuasion were respected practices by the Athens community, and Paul engaged this cultural moment with the gospel. Paul did not partake to the degree that the Athenians would have, but he did engage them in that cultural moment with the gospel. This example provides a Text-Driven reason to plan events around these cultural moments solely for the purpose of evangelizing at them. Having a trunk-or-treat at Halloween or an Easter Egg hunt can be great ways to create opportunities to evangelize families. When you engage with these cultural moments, you have an opportunity to boldly share the gospel where someone is more open to listening.

A great “cold” evangelism opportunity is to go to a local park and share the gospel there. If your church has adopted Birthday Verse Evangelism as its church-wide evangelistic method, this works great there. If you have a high-trust community, where people are interested in engaging in conversation in a park (or other public locations), have church members approach people or find an interesting “hook” to get people’s attention. Whenever Range Hills goes to a park for evangelism, we have a sign that asks, “When Is Your Birthday?” to engage people in Birthday Verse Evangelism. I would note that “cold” evangelism opportunities can be harder to plan and, frankly, can be depressing at times. Range Hills went to a park with the intention of evangelizing, and absolutely no one wanted to speak with us. Do not let that discourage you, but keep it in mind when planning “cold” evangelism outreaches.

A church’s creation of evangelistic opportunities will depend on the surrounding culture, its resources, and its capabilities. These suggestions may be completely unhelpful to a church. Yet discovering which “hot” and “cold” evangelistic opportunities the church can pursue is vital to seeing Church-Based Evangelism take root.

A final note on creating opportunities: don’t provide a non-evangelistic alternative event. Your evangelistic events should be planned so that they communicate that if you’re here, you’re evangelizing. The good intention of not wanting anyone to feel left out will lead to an excuse to avoid evangelism. Whether the opportunity you create is “hot” or “cold,” make sure the expectation is clear that the task at hand is evangelism, nothing else.

Now, think about your church calendar for a moment. A church’s calendar, both the official written calendar and the unofficial unwritten calendar, describes the priorities of a church. A monthly “church cleaning and maintenance Saturday” communicates that a local church values the upkeep, cleanliness, and presentability of its building. Multiple potlucks and cookouts in a year communicate that a church values fellowship (and food). These values are not wrong; actually, they are healthy. But if a church values evangelism above everything else, which is the basis of Church-Based Evangelism, then the events and programs of a church ought to be evangelistic. By creating and promoting evangelistic opportunities and events, a church communicates a high priority.

Further, consistency and regularity communicate that priority as well. Aiming for at least one church-planned evangelistic opportunity communicates that evangelism is not something a church does just around certain holidays, but year-round. A monthly church-planned evangelistic opportunity also communicates a sense of regularity, so that if someone is sick or out of town, they can just join next month’s opportunity.

Admittedly, this is probably the most difficult aspect of Church-Based evangelism. Pastor, you know this to be true already: you can’t make anyone do anything. It is entirely possible to plan a monthly evangelistic opportunity, do so with great wisdom and care, and still have church members not show up. This is why evangelistic programming needs to be built into the rhythm. Eventually, people will recognize the importance and join the natural rhythm of evangelism. This rhythm will then naturally teach people to engage in unplanned, unprogrammed evangelism. The reality of evangelism is that the more you evangelize, the easier it becomes to notice the opportunities you have to evangelize. Church members may think they have no time or opportunities to evangelize, but if a church plans opportunities, both seemingly easy ones and seemingly difficult ones, the opportunities at work, school, and in normal life will become more apparent.

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