Perhaps too many church members have watched “Field of Dreams” but there seems
to be an adage within the church “if you build it, they will come.” The
church’s response to “go into all the world” is to construct a program or hold
an event. Understand that programs and events can be good but they should not
be the final solution to evangelism within the church. This article deals with
using programs for evangelism within the church. For ideas on
using events, see
here.
Every church has programs regardless of
its size whether it is just Sunday school, or multiple
counseling groups addressing different needs of Christians
and non Christians alike. There is nothing wrong with
programs. Some programs can be used in a more evangelistic
fashion than they are currently being used. Others are
thought of as evangelism when in fact they really aren’t.
Whether we like it or not, we live in a
consumer culture. People who are looking for a church want
to know what the church has to offer them and their
children. For some people, good teaching from the Bible is
enough but for most people they want more from their church.
For this reason, good programs are a
foundation for evangelism in most churches but aren’t
evangelism in and of themselves. Families with children
expect a church to have a quality program whether it is a
nursery, children’s program, or youth group. This is key to
drawing in these families and without these programs some
may not connect with your church.
For many churches, there are programs
outside of the core ones that many expect of a church.
These can be almost anything in nature from debt counseling
programs, addiction recovery, divorce support, to a
Christian hunting club. This is truly where we need to make
a distinction between evangelism and general care.
Just because a debt counseling program
takes place within a church, uses Christian principles, and
has non Christians enrolled, it doesn’t mean that this is
direct evangelism. Evangelism is sharing the gospel with
non Christians. This doesn’t mean that these programs are
not valuable and that they should be stopped, it just means
that the nature of these programs has to be acknowledged.
Where the value in evangelism lies in
these programs is in the connections that are made. Through
a ministry to single moms or victims of abuse, the church is
going to reach people that otherwise may never set foot in
church. These programs can then be used as a platform to
invite people to a regular church event where the gospel
will be preached.
Because relationships have already been
formed within whatever group a person was attending, they
already have some friends and connections within the
church. It makes it much easier for a new Christian to
assimilate into a church and it is much easier to keep a
person.
Programs can be a valuable building block in church
evangelism. They help establish relationships and
reach people that the church may otherwise never reach.
Many programs that are already established within the church
can easily to be tweaked to have more of an evangelistic
approach by just keeping relationships in mind. Then
they can springboard new evangelism efforts and
presentations of the gospel.
