Recently I suggested to longtime evangelist Don Gray that the church needs to find more effect-ive ways to do evangelism. 

 

Think about it.  You can accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord in a few moments or at a meeting.  But typically you have to slug through at least a month or more of meetings–or many months of Bible studies–before you can join the Seventh-day Adventist church. 

In the 21^st Century where everything is speeded up, does this make sense?   And if you say Yes, let me ask, What would you think of the idea of  the church’s colleges and universities offering CE credits for those who attend an evangelistic meeting or complete a Bible course and pass an examination?  Perhaps, too, attendance would be enhanced at a long series of meetings if college credits could be earned.

 

Don responded to my complaint with a smile and suggested that if I had a better way to do evangelism I should implement it (demonstrate that it works, in other words) and get back to him.

 

In this column, I’ll throw out a few thoughts to stimulate your thinking.  But if you already have your own ideas about evangelism, I’d like to hear from you.

 

One thing I noticed during the years when I pastored was that most prospects at evangelistic meetings had some kind of crisis in their lives.  Whether it was an illness, financial problems, a relationship issue, an addiction, or something else, they hadn’t solved that crisis and were now willing to look outside themselves for answers.

 

Therefore, I believe the church would do well to create many more potential points of entry built around common crises people have. And while we’re at it, I don’t see why we can’t speed things up when it comes to the presentation of church doctrines.  I’m all for Bible studies, but does every belief call for a full-fledged Bible study?   Why not a well-publicized weekend series on just one topic sometime  (the Second Coming perhaps) when that’s in the news!   Not a bad way to attract prospects, don’t you think?

 

Back in the day when I was starting out, I was instructed to do two Bible studies per week with folks, forever.  Okay, I jest!  But with vacation stops, illnesses, and other interruptions, it fre-quently took from four to six months to get through a full series of studies with a prospect.

 

In addition to expediting the process, I believe we would do well to help our prospects not just say Yes to Jesus, but to really learn how to have an ongoing experience with Jesus.  He tells us to eat His flesh and drink His blood if we want eternal life.  Do we have studies explaining how to follow those instructions?  How to pray?  How to take up our cross daily? How to really ingest the Word?

 

Right now in a typical set of 25 Bible studies, Jesus is central in only one of them.  I once asked a young woman what impacted her most after she had attended an entire evangelistic series.  What she remembered most vividly were the Mark of the Beast and the change from Saturday to Sunday worship.  Jesus didn’t make her list.  And she never got baptized as far as I know.

 

Would it be heretical to suggest baptizing people into Jesus once they’ve accepted Him and then voting them into membership later after they’d studied the beliefs of the church?  Did you ever notice in the New Testament that folks who accepted Jesus seemed to get baptized pretty quickly most of the time. 

 

I’ll conclude this column with one point-of-entry idea.  A telephone-based community service to help frustrated people who need to vent.  At the moment, I’m calling it The Frustration Line.  Here’s an anecdote of how it could work.

 

Susan, a 38-year-old nurse and mother of four, was about to explode.  Her life seemed out of control.  Married to Brian, a 39-year-old diesel mechanic with a drinking problem, Susan was in her second marriage and had a blended family.  Susan and Brian had a pre-teenage boy and girl from their own marriage plus two teenage girls from Susan’s previous marriage.  She and Brian were often at odds over disciplinary issues with the children and they struggled financially.

 

The last straw came yesterday when Susan learned that Brian was a sex addict.  He had been arrested and booked by the local police on charges of attempting to solicit sex from an under-cover police person.  She had to post bail to get Brian out of jail.  Not sure whether to leave Brian or kill him, she was referred by a friend to The Frustration Line sponsored by the ____________ Seventh-day Adventist church.

 

A soft-spoken Adventist lay person named Nan returned Susan’s call to The Frustration Line call center.  Nan, a 53-year-old bookkeeper, introduced herself and invited Susan to share what had precipitated her call.  For the next 35 minutes, Nan listened and Susan vented.

 

Over the next few months, Nan and Susan established a telephone friendship with Nan doing a lot of listening.  About four months after their first conversation, the two met personally for the first time at the ___________church.  Several weeks later, Susan joined the Bible study class that Nan attended.  A few weeks later, Brian and the four children also visited.  The older children event-ually became involved in the church’s youth group, the younger ones in Pathfinders, and Brian began attending a men’s group.

 

The church’s Exchanged Life Class enabled the entire family to stabilize and learn how to handle their issues with better communication skills and with God’s grace and forgiveness[1].  Also they’ve become regulars at the ____________ church.

 

Might this kind of story be emanating from The Frustration Line if your church had one going?  The Frustration Line requires only an answering service or call center and, perhaps 6 to 10 each, Christian men and women trained in the art of therapeutic listening.  Men would deal exclusively with men and women with women.  All calls would initially be handled on a first-name-only basis.

 

Want to know how I’d launch a frustration line if I were doing one in my church?  I’d start it by publicizing it initially to my church’s list of inactive and former members.  I mean where could you find a finer list of folks who might find some healing if they were  listened to?  Also, many churches, if not most, would probably have a list two to three times its typical attendance.

 

Perhaps you have a completely different idea for more effective evangelism.  Even if it’s a stretch and involves Facebook, Twitter, texting, concerts or something else nontraditional, tell me about it!  I might even share it with Don Gray.  Of course, Don would probably smile and tell you to try it, then let him know how well it worked.

Share your comments below–and allow a day or so for them to show up.

 

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Mike Jones is the author of two new books, HELP, LORD, I BLEW IT AGAIN & SOMETIMES I DON’T FEEL LIKE PRAYING.  Both books deal with the challenges of Christian living.  Mike was out of the church for 16 years and had been back for 12 years.  He is a former pastor and presents seminars on recon-necting with former members.  His books are available at the ABC or at www.reconnectnow.com.

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