Healing Evangelism: Ineffective Evangelism

Most churches take numerous roller‑­coaster rides on evangelistic programs. Some programs are ineffective, some are good, and a few get re­peated in the total church outreach. Through it all, however, both churches and pastors long for something that will penetrate deeply into basic attitudes about soulwin­ning. They lay aside most specialized programs after their novelty wears off. An old saw reminds us that “Anything will work if you will work it”. However true that may be, it seems difficult to picture Jesus as “working” at com­pas­sion, love, caring, win­ning souls and touching hearts. Yet, that is precisely where we often are as a church.

The healing model seeks to answer some of these fundamental problems that plague soulwin­ning. What person among us has not felt failure, frustra­tion, and even des­pair at attempts to witness? Many would­‑be soul­winners simply give up. They vow they have no ability, no motivation, and no power to do the job. The ones that have some success become dissatisfied with ineffective me­thods, incomplete results, and disap­pointments in people. All soulwinners battle the negative image that the world has of people who witness.

Frustration and Failure

Within two years of conversion, most Christians stop witnessing. Why? Do they grow carnal and indifferent? Do they run out of friends and family to talk to? Do they lose their zeal? Or do they finally tire of the con­stant rejections and retreat into their shells? Failure and frustration compound the problem. Evangelistic programs often seek to overcome these obstacles. Most of us have heard church members sharply rebuked for not witnessing in the following ways:

• “Failure to witness is a sin.”
• “If you don’t witness, you must be ashamed of Jesus.”
• “Don’t you care that millions are going to hell?”
• “If you’re not reproducing yourself spiritually, you’re not even saved!”
• “You’ve got to get over your shyness. After all, you have power to witness now. Have you lost the Holy Ghost?”

Can you imagine Jesus motivating people by guilt? Can you picture Him pres­suring people to succeed by appealing to their carnal instincts? Competition, material rewards, threats, ridicule, debasement, condemnation and caustic remarks have no place in evan­gelism. When we resort to such tactics, we may as well admit that we have a flaw­ed concept of the general mission of the church.

Incomplete Models

 
Many images of the soulwinners role have been projected to the church. We have been told the church is a sales force. A recently published book contends that we are in the business of marketing the church. Another one calls us warriors in the battle to save souls. Yet another por­trays the soulwinner as a fisherman that needs only to use the right lure. Seminars abound that instruct us how to scientifically define target areas, compile statistics, ana­lyze the demographics, and profile the kind of person we want and customize our appeal. Some of the models are listed below. Does long lasting motiva­tion come from these models?

Agent of Change

If we see ourselves as simply a prose­lytor or one who converts another to a different religion, we enter into a battle of wills. Winning is only a matter of sharper mental prowess, better argumentation, and a stronger will.

Conqueror

The appeal here is to pride, whether it is carnal or spiritual. Again, strength is the bottom line. It forces the soulwinner to continually ask himself if he is a spir­itual weakling.

Salesperson

Rejection is the nightmare of the sales­man. When we see soulwinning as selling, and the Gospel as the product, we set ourselves up for rejection. Success rises or falls on the fickleness of the “buy­er”. More­over, the sales model requires us to please, woo, trick, manip­ulate or trap the customer into buy­ing. For unscrup­ulous minds, pressure to “sell” the Gospel has even led to tampering with the message itself in order to make it more sale­able. Even if some elements of evan­gelism seem to fit this model, the premise is distasteful and false.

Pronouncer

“I’m right and you’re wrong.” This sums up the style of the pronouncer. When you tell people to shut up and listen to you, you eliminate ninety‑nine percent of the souls you want to win. It is neither soulwinning nor witnessing.

Inspector

For this person, the sinner’s sins are so offensive that he continual­ly reacts and points his finger at the flaws. He is like the quality control inspector who is trained to look for scrap. His tools of trade are mi­crometers and scales. Before he shows any care or mercy, he is alert to every dif­ference, every variant belief, every mis­sed step, and every questionable move. The Bible tea­ches, however, that “all have sinned.” It’s not necessary to inspect for flaws. The flaws were deeply ingrained in us through Adam’s sin. We should search for ways to care.

Sportfisherman

 
Yes, Jesus said we would be fishers of men. He said this, however, to career fishermen who could easily understand His reference. They didn’t fish for the sport of it. We must see souls as more than wily fish. Soulwinners must be more than rod and reel experts who enjoy a good challenge.

Hunter

Is a soulwinner someone with a rifle and binoculars out stalk­ing his prey? Should we think of souls as trophies that hang from our walls? Are we out for bragging rights, record racks and pric­ey pelts? Not much compassion exists in this mod­el.

Counselor

 
Our total mission as a soulwinner is not over when we help to relieve someone’s spiritual discomfort. While we must care about a person’s pain, we also recognize that the problem will never be solved until he or she deals with the sin question. Band-Aids are only a temporary answer until a com­plete treatment is pos­sible.

Politician

Do you ever get the feeling that modern evangelism has come down to popularity contests between preachers, churches or denomina­tions? Does it seem that whoever puts on the biggest show, builds the finest facil­ity, offers the widest range of services, or handles public relations in the most profes­sional way gets deemed most likely to grow? These techni­ques are not inherently wro­ng, but they often become the main thrust of the church. They do not mean that smaller chur­ches will never win souls.

Charismatic Personality

 
Madison Avenue idolizes glamour and glitz. Far too many of us assume that plain looks and average personalities cannot win souls. Smiles and handshakes and re­membering names may be pre­scribed by the world in the quest for suc­cess, but winning souls moves quickly beyond such super­ficial tactics.

This does not exhaust the list of evangelism models, but it repre­sents a genre of ideas that appeal to the wrong instincts and emotions within us. Pride, com­petition, fleshly glory, philanthropy or worldly ac­claim cannot provide an en­during reason for the church to reach out to the world. The less noble the cause, the more badgering and pressure must be applied to keep it going.

Dissatisfaction with Results

In assessing the results of an evan­gelism program, we must look at the impact on both the soulwinner and the soul. First, many who patter­n after incomplete models may become deeply dis­couraged by failure and rejection. After long periods of rejection, they back away from initiating a witness. Occasionally, a stirring message about winning the lost provokes them to repent about their failure to wit­ness. They try again, fail, and repeat the process over and over. Eventually, they just repent about not witnes­sing, but never do anything else about it. Others become radical about witnessing and pride themsel­ves in “telling” people about Jesus. For all their talk, however, they win few, if any, souls. Still others perceive witnessing as setting people straigh­t, winning ar­guments, scoring points, and parading their know­ledge about the Bible. Those who fail at soulwinning often say things like:

• “I’ve tried and I just can’t do it.”
• “I’m not the type to win souls.”
• “I need more training.” (And more, and more.­..)
• “I don’t know enough about the Bible.”
• “People just don’t want the Lord anymore.”
• “I’m not comfortable with sinners.”
• “I always manage to stick my foot in my mouth­.”

Such expressions are based on mistaken models of soulwin­ning. Efforts that contradict scriptural patterns will produce more failures than successes. In the end, people who once desired to win souls be­lieve that it is either not possible or ex­tremely dif­ficult. They talk of a “burnt-over” field. They believe that revival has moved el­sewhere, that no one wants what they’ve got, that there must be sin in the church, or that God is displeased with the spiritual program of the church.

Second, people who are won by wrong methods and for wrong reasons often suffer from incomplete conversions and short-lived changes. They make a profes­sion, get “religion”, pray, have a religious experience, attend church, buy a Bible, sign cards and do lots of other things associated with conversion. Deep-rooted sin, however, remains large­ly un­touched in their lives. Souls “won” by a prideful or com­petitive motive often become statistics on a chart rather than true instances of salvation.

Genuine con­version, however, purges the soul from all sin. We cannot conscientiously preach a gospel that sees anything less than this as its goal. One wise, old preacher put it this way. “We may not be perfect, but our standard is not imperfection!” Sal­vation may be instantaneous, but it must not be super­ficial.

Easy-believism, a new word coined in the past few years, defines a trendy c­heap­ening of the grace of God. Those who practice it desire crowds and outward results at any cost. Easy-believism springs from false models and methods of evangelism. It may happen because pressure to “succeed” leads people to sanction what­ever results occur and pass it off as a genuine conversion. It may happen because someone’s ambition to be seen as a soulwinner takes prece­dence over anything else. In truth, one’s reputation is unimportant. The important thing is that souls do have to be saved. Most of us today are tired of ineffective evan­gelism.

Negative Image of Witnessing and Evan­gelism

Finally, all of us who yearn for more effective evangelism face an uphill battle against the negative image of witnessing. People are turned off by pushy, dogmatic zealots who are often long on words and short on action. Everyone has heard jokes about certain religious organizations and cults. People make jokes about them because few care to sit through a mechanized perfor­mance flow-charted right down to the last raised eye­brow or slammed door. It insults and de-humanizes.

Have you noticed that conversations that turn to religion and politics often end in futile arguments? Sometimes people notify others that they refuse to discuss either one. Why? Because they recognize that not much good is ever done by it, even if they can hold their own in a debate. Witnessing sessions that degener­ate into haggling over scriptures, or that go off on the tangent of hypotheti­cal questions actually become counter-productive. Those who insist on this kind of witness make it harder on all of us.

People who talk too loudly about their faith get branded as “Jesus freaks”. In many cases, the criticism is well deserved. Any witness given outside the context of caring and sensitivity is almost sure to spark re­sentment. Unfortunately, the potential for getting stig­matized is so real that many Christians clam up altogether.

Other practices also give witnessing a bad name. Awkward confrontations, cars plastered with bumper stickers, proselytizing on company time, guilt mongering, judgmentalism and condemnation turn off the average person. In Christian circles, those who reduce their witness to statistics or numbers cause all kinds of havoc. Some inflate their numbers or use questionable means to arrive at an impressive number. The actual conversions become secondary to the number each one repre­sents. All of these indicate ineffective evan­gelism.