Churches use events for several
different reasons and have many different approaches. Some
hold big “church” events with well known Christian speakers
but make an attempt to market it to the non-churched crowd.
They’re called tent meetings, revival meetings, camp
meetings, renewal meetings, and probably several other
names. See here for more about
The Difference Between
Revival and Evangelism.
Other churches pull the “bait and
switch” technique to get people to hear the gospel. In other
words, they advertise an event that is supposed to be fun
and non threatening to the community and when people arrive
they get a little bit of fun but they also have to sit
through a gospel presentation or sermon. This has a way of
backfiring because people feel tricked. Not only do they
close themselves off from the message, they are far less
likely to attend another event at that church or any other
church.
There are times that church evangelism
can be done through events but what is going to take place
must be clearly communicated. A guest not feel as if they
have been lied to when they show up at an event. A speaker
may be a part of the program but it should be communicated
up front. Don’t expect non Christians to show up to hear a
speaker by virtue of the fact that they are well known
within the Christian community.
Events can and should be used as a non
threatening way to expose people to church and Christianity.
Instead of taking the attitude of “get them in and get them
saved” evangelistic events should be thought of as an
introduction to the church. People from outside of the
church can feel free to come in and get to meet members of
the church as well as the pastor. They can see that the
church cares about them and their needs. And perhaps most
importantly they can see that Christians are normal people
like them and not just a bunch of religious nuts.
Certainly there has been success with
more aggressive evangelism techniques and people have been
saved through their first exposure to church at a church
event. But this is the exception and not the rule. As
society moves further and further away from Christian roots,
we can expect this to happen less often.
Church evangelism is best done as a
process. Events are one step in opening the door to non
Christians. There relationships are formed and barriers are
broken down. Further invitations can then be made to a more
regular church service where the gospel will be spoken
plainly and boldly. Remember, this is the goal, to
evangelize. We don’t hold events just to meet non
Christians. But it may take more than one meeting to
accomplish our goal of evangelism.
