Common [and not so common] Sense Evangelism

How do you get new people into church?

In the late twentieth century the temptation was to look at the booming congregations in the suburbs, adopt their mission and vision statements, shell out money for one of their motivational speakers, and expect their success to become yours. The trouble, as many envious, small congregations discovered, was that the demographic contexts and the personal dynamics of those situations were so unique that they didn’t translate very well into other places and with other people. As much as you want your pastor to be a charming, magnetic presence in the room, there’s only so much self-improvement seminars will change him. And suppose you get an exciting new pastor. If your rural community is in decline, if your own kids have moved away without plans to come back, then it seems unreasonable to expect three to four new families coming through the doors every Sunday.

The great success stories from the turn of the century have fallen on hard times. Church attendance and affiliation with the Christian religion have been in steady decline.[i] It’s easy to see why. Though our culture might have shared basic values with the Christian religion in times past, this is no longer the case. The reality of man and woman, of marriage as the basic building block of worldly life, of transcendent truth and standards of right and wrong belong to a bygone era. The church, instead of speaking enticing words that appeal to men’s minds and souls, is increasingly in the position of speaking hard, uncomfortable truths which are just as likely to arouse angry rejection as it is to arouse joyful acceptance.

Whether or not the culture is friendly toward truth, Christ’s command to the church remains in full force, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). The great irony is that when people feel attacked by God’s truth of creation, redemption, and sanctification, it is exactly what they need. The closest example to our hearers’ behavior I can imagine is a captive brought up from infancy in chains and in the dark. When the first rays of light from the rescuers flashlights hit the captives face, he or she shies back in fear and revulsion. Should the captive’s frightened screams make the rescuers turn back and give up? Of course not. No matter how our neighbors receive the truth, with rejection or joy, it remains God’s love for them in Christ Jesus that saves from eternal death.

I want to suggest instead of holding to old assumptions about how to engage in conversations that lead people into Christian faith, we should examine ourselves. Are our hearts in the right place?

Jesus never promised numerical superiority in the world. He promised the church, as few or as numerous as she may be, will withstand the gates of hell (Matt. 16:18). When we invite people to church, we’re not trying to make Christianity successful by any worldly standard. We’re welcoming poor sinners into the spiritual combat against temptations, death, and the devil, the same enemies we struggle with until we enter in the Lord’s victory and rest on the day of resurrection.

Instead of selling the church as something it’s not, we should gladly tell our neighbors who we are, the poor, afflicted flock held together by nothing but Jesus’ Word and his Sacraments. We should tell them to look past what their eyes tell them and learn to hear the promises and believe. Though she looks ragged and broken down, the church is, by God’s grace and faith, the pure spotless bride who waits for the day of consummation when faith and sight are reconciled at the coming of the Lord. Instead of looking at the success stories of numerical and monetary growth, let’s reform our minds around the Scriptures. Let’s seek out the biblical examples of unbelievers being incorporated into God’s holy people by faith. Often in contexts that were much harder or more hostile than our own.

The first and most obvious place to start is with people who are already sympathetic toward you, who know your kindness, generosity, and love… your family. As a Christian, you should already be a shining example of righteousness among your cousins, aunts, uncles, and children. If not, repent. St. Paul says, “Seek to do good to one another and to everyone” (1 Thess. 5:15). And Christ our Lord says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). It’s a hard admonition, but we can hardly consider ourselves Christians, let alone expect other people to want to come to our church, if we cannot love our neighbors, especially the members of our own family.

Being outwardly compassionate is necessary, but never enough. Remember the good works of the first table of the law. You must speak openly and plainly about Christ the Lord and how he’s saved us all from death through his cross and resurrection. Confessing the faith exists beyond the four walls of the church building on Sunday morning. What we find in the Bible is Christians speaking boldly and openly about Jesus among friends, family, and neighbors in their homes, on the road, in palaces, and in prison. Jesus reminds us, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). What does acknowledging Jesus mean? St. Paul explains, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:10). Faithful hearts and confessing mouths are always bound together in the Bible. There are no such things as silent Christians. Acknowledging Jesus means speaking and living in such a way that your friends and neighbors both know your a Christian and the specifics of the Creed because you speak about it often.

Consider these familial examples. Ruth was blessed through marrying into Naomi’s house and following her as her daughter into the promised land. As she memorably told her mother-in-law, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). How would she know anything about Naomi’s God unless she had already heard faithful words spoken in prayer and thanksgiving by the family she had married into?

St. Timothy, the famous recipient of two of Paul’s pastoral letters and traveling companion, was originally brought into the faith through the biblical instruction from his mother and grandmother. “From childhood,” St. Paul writes, “you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). Earlier in the same letter St. Paul writes, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Tim. 1:5).

St. Peter was also brought to Jesus through his brother Andrew’s exclamation, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41).

After the familial connection, the next most compelling connection exists between friends. For his friend’s sake Philip found Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree and said, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45). When Nathaniel doubts whether anything good can come from the backwater town of Nazareth, Philip insists to his friend’s eternal blessing, “Come and see.”

After these examples, things get a bit stranger. Have you ever thought about evangelism through military conquest? That’s how Rahab the prostitute became a Christian. Because she heard the Lord was coming with his people, she hid the spies from the king of Jericho. Instead of saying loyal to her own people and their gods, she saved the spies sent out from Joshua and in return they spared her life. The author of Hebrews praises her saying, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies” (Hebrews 11:31).

Then there are all the well-side conversations we have in the Bible, which I assume is the cultural equivalent of speaking to someone while you’re waiting to board your airplane in the terminal, or chatting with someone you meet at the library. First are the well-side conversations that led to marriage. Rebekah met Abraham’s servant by a well who led her back to the Promised Land, away from her family and their false gods, to marry Isaac (Genesis 24). Then the same thing happened to Jacob who met Rachel, probably at the same well, and after many years and trickery on Laban’s part, finally married her. So zealous Rachel turned out to be for her husband’s Lord and God that she stole Laban’s household gods to keep him from sinful idolatry (Genesis 31:19). Of course not every well-side conversation entailed marriage. Remember how Jesus met the Samaritan woman by the well and preached the good news to her about the water that wells up to eternal life which he alone can give (John 4:14).

Other notable and unique contexts for evangelism include conversations in the back of a chariot (Acts 8), which would be like engaging the guy sitting next to you on the redeye from New York to LA in religious conversation, and singing hymns in jail (Acts 16).

There are three conclusions that suggest themselves to my mind. First, life leads you into situations where you’ll meet people who don’t know Christ, including people you call your friends and members of your own household. Life leads you into situations where you’re around enemies too, but they aren’t enemies of Christ who died for the sins of the whole world. Rahab, the Philippian jailor, and the Samaritan woman by the well were all considered enemies of God’s people, but that didn’t stop them from hearing God’s law and gospel and being saved by grace. It’s true the pastor has the command to preach the truth publicly. But that doesn’t mean you are off the hook when it comes to conversations with friends, neighbors, and enemies.

Second, you can only testify to what you know (John 3:11). If you spend your time in secular pleasures and pursuits and leave the religious stuff in the church building after you’ve attended only one or two services a month, then it’s unlikely you’ll have the wherewithal to speak plainly and comfortably about Christian truth. There’s a reason weekly church attendance is commanded by God. He wants to train your mind and memory to make the good confession in whatever circumstance demands it of you. It could be a low stress conversation between friends, or it may be speaking words of biblical truth to your persecutors and jailors. Either way, you must be prepared to say something and the only way to prepare is through hearing, meditating, and studying the Word. As St. Peter admonishes, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

Third, in the above-mentioned cases it’s remarkable how hearing the gospel leads straight to baptism and life in the church. The eunuch, through hearing about Christ’s atoning death, discovered how the benefits of that death are conveyed through the water combined with the Word. He saw the water and said, “What prevents me from being baptized” (Acts 8:36)? The same also happened to the Philippian Jailor whose whole family entered the Christian faith through baptism (Acts 16:33).

Hearing is the gospel and believing isn’t the end of the story, only the beginning. It’s necessary for all of us to gather around the Apostle’s words of the New Testament and the body and blood of Jesus in communion (Acts 2:42). It’s necessary for us to gather often to encourage one another to remain faithful to the promises of God’s love (Heb. 10:25). The devil wants to devour our spiritual lives by dragging us back into the slavery of sin. The Lord Jesus, with his Word and Sacrament, is our fortress and shield which alone can hold the old serpent back until the day our faith is finally fulfilled in the day of resurrection.

Pr. A. Brian Flamme

[i] In a recent story released by Gallup, the author describes how less than fifty percent of the population belongs to a home of worship and how more and more Americans are describing themselves as having no religious preference. https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx