Updated Friday, April 04, 2008

Evangelism, prayer break pastors from huddle

By Melissa Lilley

BSC Communications

Restaurants with ordering screens eliminate the need for waitresses and waiters. Employers offer wellness programs and computers on treadmills. These examples of self-serve technology and mandatory health are two of 10 ideas changing the world, according to Time magazine.

Must churches that want to change their world work as hard to be creative?

Not necessarily. Change, or innovation, may just mean coming home to some basic fundamentals.

Dick Church, spiritual awakening and resource coordinator for the North American Mission Board, spoke about innovative evangelism strategies during the March 27-29 Small Church Conference at Lewisville Baptist Church.

"Innovation simply means doing something you're not doing now," Church said. Innovation means a new idea, or change, and the most innovative evangelism strategy is really quite simple - somebody telling somebody about Jesus.

Evangelism is not a sales pitch or a program, Church said. Like the apostle Paul, who said in 1 Cor. 9:22, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some," the goal of evangelism is getting the gospel to the people.

Developing an evangelism strategy begins with pastors having a vision and asking questions - Where are we as a church? Why are we here as a church? Where are we going? "If God has put us somewhere He wants to take us somewhere," Church said.

The first element of any evangelism strategy is prayer. Pastors cannot possibly know the vision God has for the church if they are not serious about prayer.

Personal evangelism training is the next element to encourage believers to know their neighbors instead of just waving to them as they drive to church on Sunday.

Small church pastors will find innovative events and ministry/servant activities when they seek to be relevant to their culture and consider the needs of others. Evangelism events, such as block parties, Vacation Bible School, sports clinics, movie nights and door-to-door witnessing, get people in a position to share the gospel.

Church told of a small church pastor who went through town asking people what they needed and how he could help. That pastor built relationships and shared the gospel as he coached a girl's basketball team and served as chaplain to the town's two police officers.

Church encouraged pastors to:

- follow up with church visitors;

- follow up with people they meet at events;

- commit to train leaders;

- take a church member on visitation;

- disciple new believers.

Start with prayer

Chris Schofield, who directs the Office of Prayer and Spiritual Awakening for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, spoke about prayer as a "vital component of the evangelistic mission moving forward" to believers in Acts. To the earliest Christians prayer was a way of life and not just a ministry of the church.

"They knew the power came when they came together to meet with the Lord," Schofield said.

Prayer paved the way for evangelism in the earliest church because it provided an environment for the Holy Spirit to inspire and fill believers with power to be witnesses.

Prayer also has a lot to say about how believers in the book of Acts handled persecution. "They didn't go and set up committee meetings or figure out strategy. The first thing they did was they had a prayer meeting," Schofield said.

The disciples prayed with confidence because they believed the scriptures, Schofield said. "We spend so much time praying counterfeit prayers in the life of the church," he said. "A lot of it is that we don't have our Bible prayer theology right. We've got to get back to the scriptures in our praying. Let the text drive your praying."