Arkansas Baptists filled The Venue at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church in Little Rock on Monday as they gathered for a pre-con workshop held prior to the annual Arkansas Baptist State Evangelism Conference (ECON).
The event, which was standing room only, featured Lee Strobel – a former atheist and award-winning legal editor, who is a New York Times best-selling author with over 14 million books sold, including The Case for Christ.
Strobel discussed what he considers to be a key issue in American Christianity – reaching the lost.
“Many of you came into the ministry because you have a heart to see people transformed by God and the doors of heaven opened for them and families restored,” he said.
Strobel shared six steps to help increase evangelism and effectiveness in ministry.
- Leaders must own and model evangelistic values.
“One of the biggest reasons churches are less evangelistic is because its leaders are less evangelistic and values are not taught, they’re caught,” Strobel said. “People observe how are you living, what are you talking about, what’s important to you, and because you are a leader, they want to implement those things in their own life as well.”
Strobel shared statistics which found more than 50 percent of pastors had made no evangelism effort in a six-month period. They did not share the gospel or attempt to engage lost people.
“Your church is probably not going to be any more evangelistic than you as a leader are individually,” Strobel said.
To boost individual evangelism, Strobel encouraged attendees to ask God to renew their heart for the lost, focus personal devotion time on scriptures that emphasize God’s heart for lost people, hang around contagious Christians, and build interactions with non-Christians into their calendar.
“An evangelistic lifestyle is normal for a Christian,” Strobel said. “Having a heart for lost people is normal for a follower of Jesus Christ.”
- Leaders must instill evangelistic value into the congregation.
“If you have people in your church who have been sitting in the pews for over 20 years and their hearts have just gotten colder toward lost people over 20 years, that’s a problem. That’s not normal. Our heart for lost people should be growing larger and more loving over time not shrinking and becoming less loving,” Strobel said.
“We need to help people understand that having a heart for lost people is normal for a follower of Jesus Christ.”
Strobel said instilling evangelism in the churches starts with the small things, tying it back to the first step. Leaders should model the value of evangelism.
“The small things we do as leaders make a huge impact,” he said.
Strobel said most people fear evangelism. They are not trained, and they do not feel ready or equipped.
“Instill that value in our congregation and then comes the revolution,” he said.
- Leaders must empower a point person to lead the evangelistic charge.
“I think this is the key to churches breaking out in evangelism … Leaders must empower a point person to lead the evangelistic charge,” Strobel said.
That person will take the responsibility and opportunity to lead the evangelism charge and should be a leader with a passion and ability in evangelism.
- Leaders must make sure 100 percent of the congregation is trained to naturally and effectively share Jesus with lost people.
“When you say the word ‘evangelist’ think of you,” he said. “There are different styles of evangelism. There are different ways that people share their faith. One isn’t better than the other.”
Everyone has a unique style of evangelism. Strobel shared six different styles of evangelism: direct, intellectual, testimonial, relational, service, and invitation.
“When we say the word evangelist … Think of you and your style and your personality,” Strobel said.
- Leaders must unleash those who are gifted or passionate about evangelism.
Churches typically have a person gifted with evangelism in each of their ministries.
Strobel encouraged the point leader to organize an event four times a year, where all the gifted evangelists from around the church gather for a meal, fellowship, special training, encouragement, and vision.
“Then unleash them to go back into those ministries … because you want them in those ministries,” he said.
- Leaders must create catalytic ministries and events to lead people to faith/reach their community for God.
Strobel said they did a survey a few years ago that looked at the most successful Baptist churches based on the number of baptisms. He said they found the most successful churches are not only putting on attractional events, but they did several annually, did them exceptionally well and got exceptional results.
One potential ministry Strobel suggested was spiritual discovery groups – small groups for non-Christians. Two Christians lead a group of eight or so non-believers.
“They go on a journey together, they learn together, they ask questions together and they find answers together,” Strobel said. “God is using this ministry incredibly well all over the country, all over the world.”