Church Growth is Multiplying Through Evangelism

Vision is a hot topic today. However, a church cannot give direction for the future until they define who they are. John Maxwell has stated that the first job of a leader is to give purpose to the organization. Since we are the Bride of Christ, and Christ is the head, I want to be involved in His purpose.

In Luke 19:10 we read, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Our God is an evangelistic God. A burning compassion for the lost is rooted in the very nature of God (Matthew 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:49; John 20:21; Acts 1:8). I have read many church growth books that speak about space, staff, and vision, without addressing the fact that someone has to win the souls to Christ.

Church growth is really making the right pitches (see first article), to get out of God's way and let Him give the increase. Growth, however, must be more than "swapping fish". Church growth is the church multiplying through evangelism.

I see common threads running through strong evangelistic churches. First, there is evangelistic theology. Thom Rainer, in "Surprising Insights from the Unchurched", said 80% of the most evangelistic churches believe in the "inerrancy" of Scripture, and 99% believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. My only question is, "What in the world do the others believe?" Why should anyone be intentionally evangelistic (it's hard work!) when they believe Jesus is one of the ways to heaven, or that the Bible, our manual for living, cannot be trusted? Evangelistic theology also includes believing that our witness makes a difference in the choice people make for salvation.

Every generation attempts to form a theological framework to excuse themselves from personal soul winning. It was "the preacher's job" - in the 60's; "It's not my gift" - in the 70's and 80's; and hyper-Calvinism today. We must preach and believe that evangelism is our mandate, because our witness counts!

Secondly, the church must have evangelistic leadership. The Pastor and staff must be personal soul winners. Every minister on our staff has a goal of sharing Christ once per week and leading someone to Christ once per month - most of them go far beyond the minimum. This not only sets the example before the people, but the passion and fire for lost people will permeate every ministry in the church. Our recent Easter musical illustrated this. Each night, as I came to greet the choir before the performances, they had only one question... "How many people were saved last night?"

Third, an evangelistic church must have evangelistic training. Our church chooses to use F.A.I.T.H. as our primary training tool. It works for us. But whatever you do, use something! It's counter-productive to preach the great commission, then not train people how to share their faith.

Finally, worship services must be evangelistic. My messages are designed to feed the believer. However, I always include the plan of salvation somewhere in the message and conclude with an evangelistic invitation. If a lost person in my congregation hears only one message in his lifetime, I want him to know that Jesus saves!

In summary, our mission is, "To lead people to Jesus Christ and teach them to glorify God in their lives."

Therefore, we can give direction to where we are going in the future. One cannot separate church growth from evangelistic outreach, because church growth is the church multiplying through evangelism. Until next time...