5 Reasons Many Churches Are Not Growing Evangelistically
This post is not about a new program or a new approach for a church to reach its community.
This post is about you.
It is about you pastors, church staff, and lay leaders. It's about any of you wondering when someone else will lead the church evangelistically.
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It's for you pastors who are frustrated that the church members are not evangelistic. It's for you church members who wonder why the pastor does not reach more people. After all, some may surmise, that is why we pay our pastor.
The Crux of the Matter
The primary reason most churches are not evangelistic is because most pastors, staff, and church members are not evangelistic. Our theology may be sound. Our motives may be sound. But we are not personally evangelistic.
Let me be clear before I start looking for specks in your eyes when I have a plank in my own eye. I fail evangelistically too often. And I fail evangelistically because I fail to be evangelistic.
Five Reasons
What, then, are the reasons we are not evangelistic, which in turn means our churches are not evangelistic? Allow me to suggest five reasons.
1. We fail to be biblically responsible for doing evangelism ourselves. Instead we think it's the responsibility of another person, a program, or a denomination.
2. We fail to put evangelistic opportunities on our calendars. Many of us are evangelistic in theory. But we will never be evangelistic unless we are intentional about it and set aside time each week. It may be as simple as taking a co-worker or neighbor to lunch.
3. We fail to be consistent in our evangelistic efforts. What if we committed to doing just one thing evangelistically each week? Think about the impact we could have with 52 evangelistic encounters. Think about the impact a church would have if 100 members had 52 evangelistic encounters.
4. We fail to pray for evangelistic opportunities. What if each of us, whether we are a pastor, church staff member, or church member, prayed each day for the opportunity to share the gospel in word or deed? Imagine what would happen if we combined the power of prayer with intentional evangelism.
5. We fail to do what is most important because we are busy doing the less important. Church life can keep us very busy, so busy that we neglect our families, and we neglect doing ministry outside the walls of the church. Many of our church members may not be evangelistic because church activities keep them too busy to engage the community around them.
There Is No Such Thing As a Non-evangelistic Church
Let's not speak about churches not being evangelistic. Let's be clearer and say that church members and church leaders are not evangelistic.
And before we point fingers at others who are not evangelistic, let's make certain that we've pointed the finger at ourselves first.
I know I can do more. In God's power, I know I can be more evangelistic.
A church weak in evangelism is a church with members weak in evangelism.
