WHERE HAS EVANGELISM GONE?
by Gary Becker, Director of BBM
A recent article from Outreach Magazine was entitled “Warning: Churches talk about everything but Evangelism.” The opening quote was by Thom Rainer: “Many church leaders and church members, as well as denominational leaders, do not talk about the anemic evangelism in their churches. Some have evangelistic amnesia.” So, my question is “Where has evangelism gone?”
If you go back a few decades (1970s and 80s) many of our churches were having workshops and training programs for believers to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5). There were the “four Spiritual Laws” training, “Evangelism Explosion,” “Romans Road,” and several other training programs in our churches. Church services most often closed with an invitation for salvation. Churches often held an Evangelistic Series with gifted evangelists periodically. We are seldom seeing these kinds ministries today in our churches.
Doing the “work of an evangelist” is not limited to those gifted in evangelism. Every believer has responsibility to share his faith and testimony.
Most churches today are not only not training people for in evangelism but it is a missing in the message. A result is many believers today are unprepared and/or hesitant to share the gospel. Others, simply feel inadequate or uncomfortable to have salvation conversation with neighbors, friends, and even less with a stranger they meet. Often believers feel intimidated to share the gospel or even their own testimony.
Sharing the Gospel is a biblical responsibility of every believer. We need to balance our sensitivity to our culture with our biblical responsibility. This has been a key balance point in the ministry of BBM since its beginning.
I have become convicted to that our ministry with BBM should be doing more to equip churches and believers to “do the work of an evangelist.” Therefore, we are going to be offering some basic training in evangelism through:
A series of posts on Facebook and on our website on personal evangelism,
Offering several church evangelism training workshops to equip believers,
Personal coaching in evangelism either online, zoom, or in-person.
I am always available to meet with a pastor and/or ministry leaders to consider ways we can build a partnership with them in leading their ministry and/or evaluating their ministry in evangelism.
Contact us at www.balancedministries.org or through Facebook messenger for more information or to schedule a personal contact. Remember a breakfast or lunch with a pastor or leader is always on me.