The Only Two Kinds of Evangelism

A Philosophy of Personal Evangelism 4

In the last post we briefly sketched for you a history of evangelism from the time of Early Church to the birth (or re-birth) of mass evangelism in the eighteenth century. This is a series that attempts to teach you the reasons that underlie our emphasis on personal evangelism. To do so, it helps us to understand how evangelism has flowed through history. In that light, let us pick up the thread of the story again in the eighteenth century where we last left it.

Following the birth of mass evangelism, or perhaps I should say along with it, came the birth of enlistment evangelism. Robert Raikes (1736-1811), out of a desire to see the street children of his day receive both a religious and a secular education, revolutionized England via the Sunday School. He was so successful that by 1831, within twenty years of his death, one out of every four children in the country were receiving a religious education in Sunday School.

This successful idea naturally came to America, and then spread around the world as the re-birthed modern missions movement pioneered by Carey sent British and American preachers into every continent.

The original premise of the Sunday School system was an attempt to enroll unchurched people in a small class. This brought them under the influence of the Word of God and the sound of the Gospel. At the same time, it explained to them doctrinal concepts about God and man in a non-threatening manner. In his own inimitable style Mark Twain humorously shows us this in his classic Tom Sawyer. With Sunday Schools being started by the thousands all across the world the result in the nineteenth century was a wide scriptural literacy and huge numbers of people being evangelized.

As the nineteenth century rolled into the twentieth the pace of technological change began to accelerate. The century that would begin with horseless carriages still being relatively rare would end with the dawn of the information superhighway. In the early decades of the century this technology was aimed squarely at enabling humanity to communicate faster and wider. Evangelistic minded Christians immediately seized upon radio, television, and then the internet to communicate the gospel. We broadly label this approach as media evangelism.

Historically, in Western society, pastors did not attempt to build churches. By "build" here I mean to grow them. They did not need to for the vast majority of the European and American population attended church, period. They preached the Gospel and pastored the people but they did not put much emphasis on church growth methods. I am not aware of any church growth book written in the nineteenth century, let alone centuries prior. But in the twentieth century that changed as church attendance began to wane. The result was an increasing emphasis on adding programs that would appeal to, attract, or reach various subsets of the population.

I call this concept niche evangelism. Modern churches have programs centered on divorce recovery, addicts, prisoners, senior citizens in nursing homes, young mothers, teenagers, college students, athletes, etc. About once a month I get a call from a random Christian comedian who wants to come to Maplewood. What is that (besides ridiculous)? It is an attempt to reach people who like comedy. CCM artists do the same thing with music. Examples of niche evangelism are numerous.

Some of this is done inside the local church structure and some of it is not. But they are all

aimed at getting some subset of people to show up at a club, group, meeting, concert, etc. In a sense then this is another example of enlistment evangelism. Perhaps the most widely used example of this synthesis in our circles of niche and enlistment evangelism is the bus ministry.

I would be remiss if I did not include before I am done with this sketch the rise of personal evangelism that began in American society with the post WWII generation. Motivated in part at least by a desire for church growth but also a sincere burden for the lost, influential and large churches in the 1950s increasingly emphasized organized personal soul winning. Every person reading this blog understands that because we grew up in that kind of a church culture, were nourished in that culture, and if we did not we have certainly encountered it. It is found most often but not exclusively in Baptist circles, and though it has waxed and waned through the decades it is certainly still incorporated on a wide scale.

If the purpose of this brief sketch is to learn from history what do we learn? I think we could answer that several ways but in the context of this series we see this: in reality, there are only two kinds of evangelism – personal and impersonal.

Mass evangelism has reached millions, and I am glad for that. But did the evangelist individually talk with each of those people? Did they respond in a back and forth conversation? No. It is impersonal evangelism. Media evangelism has reached countless numbers of people, and I am glad for that. It too is impersonal evangelism. Much of the time enlistment or niche evangelism is likewise impersonal, although its structure allows for much more personal interaction than mass or media evangelism.

Personal evangelism – one person talking to another person about his need for Christ with a view of bringing him to a decision – is different than all of these. It is individually tailored. It is almost certainly the method that guarantees the highest rate of clarity. And it is also the only one that has a real possibility to reach every person.

In the weeks to come we will explore this last paragraph in more depth. As always, you are more than welcome to add your own perspective here. It is always welcome.

Evangelism’s First Two Thousand Years

A Philosophy of Personal Evangelism 3

I love history. It has long been my favorite subject of study. I have read thousands of history books, including many on church history. I am reading two right now on the Roman Empire. I love history for many reasons but primarily because a better knowledge of the past almost always directs us toward better choices in the present. To that end I am going to briefly sketch for you the progress and regress of evangelism in the past two thousand years of church history. It isn't fair to attempt such a thing in a blog post or two. I apologize for the brevity but such is the limitation of this medium.

Ephesian amphitheater 

We see, first, the extent of evangelism in the Early Church through the prism of one church, Ephesus.

Acts 19. 1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples… Paul brought them into New Testament Christianity, split the synagogue over Jesus, and launched a brand new church.

7 And all the men were about twelve.
8 ¶ And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.
9 But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
10 And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Now, it certainly helped Paul get attention for the Gospel that he had the capacity to do miracles, and a rather sensational conflict with a demon, but nonetheless, the Ephesian church grew rapidly.

17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
…
20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
…
23 And the same time there arose no small stir about that way.
24 For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;
25 Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.
26 Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:

The term "Asia" in the KJV does not refer to the entire continent as we use it today but rather to a specific region around Ephesus so named by the Roman Senate. We see then that this early church at Ephesus had clearly evangelized their entire city, and had then taken the Gospel into the wider province around them. And they did this in only two and a half years.

At the risk of being melodramatic, next we sadly see the death of evangelism.

A Roman mosaic of a Christian
held by a gladiator being destroyed
by a wild beast

Initially, the devil's response to the Early Church was persecution.

I Thessalonians 2. 14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

But persecution could not stop the church; indeed, persecution actually produced more growth.

Acts 8. 3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
4 ¶ Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

How then did the devil manage to slow the explosive growth of the Early Church? First, he stirred up a veritable plethora of doctrinal controversies and heresies on the second century of our era to sidetrack it. The response to this was codified statements of doctrinal orthodoxy via Empire wide church councils. But at the same time ecclesiastical authority became centered more and more on the Roman see. Constantine, in an if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em moment, married the declining Western Empire to the Church, and thus co-opted the growing movement and birthed the Roman Catholic Church.

The resulting conglomeration of authority and doctrinal error would rule most of the Christian world and much of the secular as well for the next thousand years. The Roman Catholic Church calls this the Golden Age; history calls it the Dark Ages, with its almost complete collapse of inter-community commerce and communication. Isolated churches and regions burned bright with the genuine gospel of Christ but by and large that isolation prevented wider evangelization. For the most part, in this era, though men still came to Christ, they did so more often because of what they read than whom they heard.

The Protestant Reformation – begun via a Martin Luther converted by reading Scripture – did much to wrest the Europe from the grip of the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation was marked by a return to an emphasis on preaching and sound doctrine, but it largely ignored evangelism. For example, John Calvin, one of the most influential authors in the history of Christianity, birthed a detailed system that is today called Calvinism or Reformed Theology. It posits an orthodox view of justification by grace through faith but it boxes it into a harshly closed looped that practically kills most motivation for witnessing.

God in His grace broke through this doctrinal and practical logjam with the life of William Carey and the birth of modern missions. Carey was an English cobbler with a love of geography and an aptitude for languages. He constructed a map of the world, and hung it over his cobbler's bench so he could pray while he worked. This led – and, remember, prayer feeds evangelism – to a desire to go to that lost world with the gospel. He took the increasing burden of his heart for the lost to his Calvinistic denomination and was told, "Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen world, He will do it without your help or mine." Boldly ignoring such stifling pontificating he formed the first missionary society and in 1793 he sailed for India. Soon the Moravians, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists followed his example and the nineteenth century saw a virtual explosion of missionary driven world-wide evangelism.

Billy Graham

As this missionary minded Christianity advanced it was also marked by a rebirth of mass evangelism at home. John Wesley and George Whitefield in the eighteenth, Charles Finney then Dwight Moody in the nineteenth, and Billy Sunday then Billy Graham in the twentieth centuries brought millions into the Kingdom with enormous city-wide crusades.

This approach continues today though usually on a smaller scale. In fact, one could argue that the concept of event evangelism – using special days and promotions in the twentieth century such as Christmas dramas, Easter cantatas, and Big Days – is simply a local church expression of mass evangelism. In these the lost are gathered into crowds, the Gospel is preached, and men and women trust Christ.

This brief sketch shows us some of the swings in emphasis and application of evangelism through church history. I shall continue it next week and then chase it with some applied wisdom.

Good Reasons to Win Souls

A Philosophy of Personal Evangelism 2

 
One of my burdens is to explain why. In my opinion, the previous generation of independent Baptist preachers in America largely failed in this. I think that failure directly contributes to the (generally younger generation's) abandonment of doctrines and distinctives that we hold dear. The solution offered to this by some (generally older generation's) is to yell louder. I am all for preaching but shouting loudly on a weak point is not the answer. They need a why to hold them. I want to help to give them one.

In the context of personal evangelism this becomes, "Why do we personally confront strangers with the Gospel? Isn't that rude? Won't it run them off? Isn't it ineffective? Isn't it manipulative?" This blog series attempts to answer those questions, to lay out a scriptural philosophy for why we embrace personal evangelism.

Last week we examined a number of bad reasons to win souls. This week I want to flip the coin. There are good reasons to win souls. For your consideration, I offer you three.

The first reason we should win souls is to obey God's instructions that we do so. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. (Mark 16.15) This is commonly known as the Great Commission.

"Wait a minute there, Rev. Brennan. You know that was given to the Apostles, right? The church did not even exist then. It was a wonderful statement but it wasn't given to the Church."

Au contraire. The church was founded in Matthew 16 in the mountains around Caeserea Philippi the summer before Jesus death. Thus, it started before this giving of the Great Commission rather than after it, at Pentecost, in Acts 2. Additionally, Jesus' instructions after His Resurrection were not confined to the Apostles. At one point, He appeared to a crowd of more than five hundred people. (I Corinthians 15) Immediately after the Ascension there were one hundred twenty gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. (Acts 1) It is clear from Acts that each member of that church took responsibility to witness. They did not believe that commission was only given to the Apostles. No, they believed each member had a responsibility to be after people with the gospel. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. (Acts 8.4)

The Great Commission was entrusted to the church. My church. Your church. Me. You. And I want both of us to obey God.

The second reason is that the world needs Christ, and that need is staggering. There are 2.7 million souls in my city, 5.2 million in my county, 314 million in my country, and 7.5 billion on my world. In the time it took me to write this post 15,000 people were born and another 10,000 died. It took the world 5,800 years to get to the first billion, and one hundred twenty three years to get to the next billion. For thirteen years I have labored in Chicago. During that time the world was birthing another Chicago every two weeks. That is an increase of a billion just since I moved here.

We must go to people with the gospel. Now. If there has ever been a time in the history of Christianity that this has been true – and it has always been true – it is true now. We cannot afford to sit on our blessed assurance and let the world go to hell.

Finally, we must lead our people to actively witness because they must if they are going to grow in grace. (II Peter 3.18)

Initially, as a baby Christian, if spiritual growth were projected onto a graph the line would be jagged at best. Young Christians grow in one area and completely neglect another. They like church but refuse to give up their old music. They read the Bible but only throw the occasional $20 in the offering plate. They want their parents to get saved but they still curse like a sailor on the job.

As we move on to Christian maturity we discover that in order to continue to grow that growth must be more even. In other words, to grow in one area requires growing in another. For example, if I want to grow in prayer I must also grow in holiness. If I want to grow in love, joy, and peace I must deal with long held resentments and bitterness. Increasingly, we find the areas of our spiritual growth are inter-related, intertwined if you will.

Mature Christians are not mature by definition if they are severely stunted in one area; the lack of progress in this negatively impacts that, and it can actually result in backsliding entire. When a Christian moves from salvation to being a babe in Christ he can have whole gaps in his knowledge and application and the Holy Spirit will continue to teach him. But when a Christian moves on to maturity the whole man must be elevated spiritually together.

God is in the business of growing you and me, beloved. He intends to develop us into complete, well rounded Christians, with strengths, certainly, but not with huge gaps such as baby Christians often have. But let patience have her perfect work; that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1.4)

Practically speaking as a pastor, I am not going to continue to develop the prayer life of our church if I do not also develop their giving, holiness, study, service, knowledge of God, pursuit of wisdom, praise, love, marriage, parenting, faith, and on and on and on. To develop my people into maturity I must develop them as soul winners who take an active part in fulfilling the Great Commission. Ergo, I emphasize soul winning in order to help the spiritually mature around me to continue to grow in grace.

For two weeks we have discussed both the bad and good motivations that underlie our soul winning emphasis. For the next two weeks I am going to briefly trace the course of evangelism in church history. This will give us, I think, an increased understanding of how we arrived at the methods and means the church uses today in its evangelism.

See you then, my friends.

Bad Reasons to Win Souls

A Philosophy of Personal Evangelism 1

One of the strengths of the independent Baptist movement is that we heavily promote personal evangelism. We certainly are not the only group to do this, but it is conspicuous both in our history and in our present. I think it is fair to say that we emphasize it more than any other orthodox religious group.

Why?

In this series I want to attempt to answer that question, or at least to offer some insight into an answer. Your own perspective or response is welcome, as always.
The word "philosophy" is used only one time in the King James Bible and that use is negative. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2.8) Yet we notice here that not all philosophy is condemned, only worldly philosophy.

Philosophy is defined as a set of ideas or beliefs relating to a particular field or activity. In the original language the word simply means a lover of wisdom. Surely, then, philosophy cannot be entirely unscriptural for we are repeatedly told in Scripture to love wisdom. What are to love is not the world's wisdom but God's wisdom. Philosophy, then, for the purposes of this blog series, means the why behind the what that we do and emphasize in relation to personal evangelism. More plainly, there are good reasons why we push confrontational soul winning, and I want to explain them to you in this series.

Let me begin negatively. In other words, the following are not philosophies that undergird our approach to personal evangelism – though they are often thought to be.

First, it is not because confrontational soul winning is a popular method in American Christianity. Now I freely admit it was embraced initially by many churches and pastors in the 1960s and 1970s who had a desire to copy the success of Lee Roberson, Jerry Falwell, and Jack Hyles. But such is no longer the case. In fact, soul winning is now routinely criticized, certainly in evangelical circles and even somewhat in fundamentalist circles. Statements such as "you're plucking green fruit," "you're giving people a false sense of security," "soul winning doesn't work in our day and age anymore," and "the message doesn't change but the methods do" are constantly heard. No, churches and pastors are not flocking to this. We are not following a trend by any means.

Second, our emphasis on personal evangelism is not rooted in an attempt to build a bigger church. I do not know of any pastor that wants his church to be smaller; we are all trying to grow spiritually and numerically, but that is not why we go soul winning. If that was our primary motivation the obvious path to take is not confrontational soul winning; it would instead be the pragmatism of the contemporary church growth movement. We would speak much more of marketing and relevance. We would say much less about worldliness. Etc. etc.

Third, it is not because we are unwilling to change. I suppose there are some men and churches that still promote soul winning because that is all they have ever known, but I am sure they would be a small minority. Is the independent Baptist movement suspicious of change? Yes. Is it loathe to change? Again, yes. Are we cautious of change? Yes. But the hundreds of independent Baptist pastors I know are willing to change – if that change is in the right direction. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3.18) Change must be toward God, toward the precepts of Scripture; it dare not be toward the world. Fear of change is not holding us hostage to the methods of the last generation.

A group from our church evangelizing
in a different neighborhood in
Chicago to help plant a new church

Fourth, our emphasis on personal soul winning is not because it is an easy thing to do. I have been pastoring for twenty years. I can think of a thousand things that are easier to develop in a church's culture than soul winning. In fact, I can think of nothing more difficult. Soul winning is not easy. It takes practice and time and work to learn. It takes a dedicated amount of time. It involves overcoming a person's fear of rejection, and the accumulated weight of a church's inertia and excuses. Additionally, there is nothing the devil fights harder than a soul winning church unless it might be a praying church. It would be much easier to get a church wound up about world hunger or anti-violence marches or some other immediate, visible, and emotionally affecting cause than it is to motivate them to win souls.

Fifth, our soul winning emphasis is not embraced because we have a persecution complex. Is soul winning hard? Yes. Is it unpopular? Yes. Does it get criticized? Yes. Are there some who will perversely do it for exactly these reasons? Also, yes. They do not seem to feel spiritual unless they are being attacked for their faith. Ergo, they embrace behaviors that practically solicit a push back so they can claim they are one of the persecuted few who are actually righteous. But such people are few and far between; their numbers could in no wise account for such a widely embraced emphasis on personal evangelism.

Sixth, it is not because we can claim big numbers via these methods and thus impress "the brethren." Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound the trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (Matthew 6.2) Yes, we keep track of how many get saved. Yes, we want to win more people to Christ this year than last year. But the men and churches I know well in the independent Baptist movement have given up the numbers game. We have seen in our youth where such foolishness often leads. In fact, I cannot think of the last time a preacher friend of mine asked me how big our church was, how many we had baptized last year, or how many professions of faith we see.

Perhaps someone told you these were our reasons. Perhaps someone intimated that our motivations are petty, shallow, vain, lazy, and self-serving. Obviously I disagree. I do not disagree that some may have such unscriptural motivations; I completely disagree, however, that these drive our movement's emphasis on personal evangelism. We are better than that.

Next week we will flip the coin over and begin to examine the positive side. Stay tuned.

To My Unborn Son

 
The teenage years are often difficult. Our bodies are changing, we are contemplating what we will make of life, and we are constantly thinking about the other gender. We are in the process of maturing emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We begin to realize how important money is to life. We become at once both fearful and exhilarated at the thought of leaving home and striking out on our own. We make big decisions, and often make them badly. Temptation becomes more prevalent and more dangerous. Our cocoon is vanishing and the molting process is often painful.

the letter

As my own teenage years drew to a close I began to contemplate them. I held them up in my mind and turned them hither and yon. I examined my choices, and what the potential impact of those choices might yet be. I compared them with some friends of mine, and where I thought our differing choices would take us in life. Somewhere along during that period I made a decision to write a letter to my son. My intent was to guide him into making good choices as a teenager himself. So the day I turned twenty I sat down at a picnic table and wrote my yet unborn son a letter with some advice for navigating his own teen years well. I decided to give it to him the day he turned fifteen.

For twenty three years I carried that letter around through numerous moves and life changes. In time, the Lord in His grace did give me a son, Jack, fifteen years ago. I pulled the letter down from the book in which it had sat all these years and gave it to him last week.

Setting the emotion of the occasion aside for a moment the letter is interesting. In re-reading it and giving it to him last week I went both forward and backward in time. Most all of what I wrote I still agree with though if I were to write the same letter again it would be much longer. Experience teaches the best lessons and I've learned a few in the intervening years. Then, too, I know my son very well now; back then he was just an idea. As all parents understand, I am both excited and fearful for him. So much of what he does, decides, and becomes in the next five years will determine the course of the rest of his life.

Several people asked me to share the contents of the letter. After asking his permission I have decided to do so. My intent is not to make you think I am an awesome father, nor am I trying to impress you with my thought process twenty three years ago. I simply want to help you, whether you are a teenager or a parent, whether you are a grandfather or a Sunday School teacher. I believe that Satan has built a world system more devilish in its temptations than at any other point in history. And he has placed our young people squarely in his sights. May God give them the courage to stand, the understanding to choose wisely, and the grace to lay the foundation for a wonderful life spent loving and serving Him.
______________________

Son,

the lake at Hyles Anderson College

This moment is sacred to me. I'm sitting on a picnic table by the lake at Hyles-Anderson College. Today is my twentieth birthday. A few months ago I decided I would sit down today and write to you some of the things I've learned in my first twenty years, with especial attention to what carried me through my teenage years.

My dear son, I do not yet know your name. I do not know where you will be when you read this. I do not know your mother's name. As you can tell by the mistakes this is not a re-copied letter. It is just me. A me that loves you although you are yet unborn. A me that has tried and will continue to try to prepare himself to be your father. Nobody special, just me, but I love you.

The most important thing I've learned in the last 20 years is that everything rises and falls on your walk with God. By the time you are old enough to get this, my life will either have risen or fallen and no matter which, it will be because I have either walked with God or I haven't. Today you are fifteen. By this time I trust you have learned to walk alone and weep w/ God. For six years now I've walked with God and what a blessed six years they've been. My life, when you read this, will have proved this statement, but you have yet to. Everything in life rises and falls on your walk with God.

Next son, I would tell you to seek counsel. As a young teenager of 14 I began to seek counsel, and in only 6 years it has saved my hide numerous times. I've gotten counsel on financial matters, spiritual matters, dating, college, friends, schedule, everything. I've talked to my parents many times, my sisters and brother, my preacher, and those who are successful in whatever area I need counsel in. Seek counsel.

Jack

Lastly son, base your decisions on the future and not the present. I've heard Bro. Hyles say, "Everything in life that's worth getting you pay for now and get later, and everything in life not worth having you get now and pay for later." Solomon said, "But afterwards." Son, when you decide to do something always remember those two words "But afterwards." Don't sacrifice the future on the altar of the immediate, rather sacrifice the immediate on the altar of the future.

If these three things "be both in you and abound, they shall make you neither barren nor unfruitful." I'm in the springtime of life. I'm twenty years old, the sun is shining and all of life is ahead of me. If you'll heed this letter, you'll be in the same position I am at twenty. Son, my teenage years are over. They ended yesterday, but the bulk of yours are ahead. May they be filled with precious memories as mine are. To that end I write.

I love you.

Dad

I Love You, God

Poetry 2 

I do not speak about this publicly very often but I went through a lengthy period of depression as a young person. In retrospect it was actually good for me for a number of different reasons. One of those reasons is that it developed in me an appreciation for poetry. Out of that appreciation grew a desire to write some of my own. From time to time in this blog I will bring you one or two of those. Today is one of those times. 

I Love You, God

I love You, God

There is no one that can compare

In faithfulness, You're always there

I love You, God

I love You, God

I know I always can depend

For strength, on You, my Loving Friend

I love You, God

I love You, God

Your wisdom shows me what to do

In guiding people 'round me to

Love You, God

I love You, God

For power that You always give

That I might help a few to live

And love You, God

I love You, God

For goodness that You pour on me

In such measureless quantity

I love You, God

I love You, God

For giving me a broken heart

And of what's tears, no tiny part

I love You, God

I love You, God

These pitiful four words cannot

Express just how I feel it, but

I want to say what I've often thought

I love You, God

-Tom Brennan, A Teenager's Heart

September 12, 1989

Transitioning Your Church Toward Ethnic Diversity

Urban Ministry 11

From time to time questions come my way as a result of something I have blogged about. Today's post was birthed that way. A couple of months ago I wrote about the importance of building a multi-ethnic church. I also gave some specific suggestions about how to do so. The following question showed up in my inbox soon after; (I have taken out anything identifying in the question):

"I have enjoyed your blog series on multi-ethnic ministry. Here's why: I pastor in the ____________ area, specifically we are in a suburb that is a few miles from ___________ proper. Our area is changing rapidly. There is a heavy influx of Indians, Arabs, and Hispanics. Of course, the inner city families are finding their way out into the suburbs also. I live 3 miles from _______________.
In your last post titled "Build a Multi-ethnic Church: Here's How" you stressed good ways to show your neighborhood how one's church is *already* multi-ethnic. But all of your suggestions (which were good) assumed that the reader already had a multi-ethnic church, i.e., you already had diverse children to greet others outside, minority-race congregants with which to portray in the graphics, and multi-ethnic members to use as ministry volunteers.
My question is: how does one go from a 99% white church to a more diverse membership that would match the surrounding neighborhood? Churches that fail to do this close (as you know) and this is what is happening to the IFB churches in __________________. Since I have come here in '97 I have seen 3 IFB churches close, and I know of 4 on "life support." My church is doing fine (slow, steady growth), but I see that we will need to address the issue of diversification in the near future. The next 10 years is crucial, I think. Any suggestions are welcomed."

This is a great question, and comes from an angle I had entirely overlooked when I wrote the original posts. I have forwarded it to a number of other men who pastor in inner city environments. Today's post is a combination of their thoughts and my own.

First, preach about the importance of an ethnically neutral church. There is nothing wrong with a single ethnicity church if the entire community is that ethnicity. On the other hand there is everything wrong with a single ethnicity church when the community around it is diverse. God is clear in Scripture that there is only one race – the human race. And He expects His church to view it the way He does. Numerous times Jesus ministered to Gentiles. Paul is explicit in his epistles that ethnic prejudice has no place in the church.
Teaching God's position on ethnicity will not only help your church to be scriptural it will also help it practically. If the demographics of your community are undeniably moving in a diverse direction your church must reach out to stay alive. Show them this too. You don't have to go seed on it, but you should plan to mention it fairly often until it becomes natural to you.

Second, you can consciously choose to bring in ethnic minorities to minister. Find an African-American evangelist. Partner with a Hispanic missionary next. I do not merely mean someone going to Mexico; I mean someone who is himself Hispanic. You cannot do this often but every time you do it you will be acclimatizing your people to the realization that God's people are not white, or black, or brown; they are just human.

Third, as the pastor do your personal soul winning in ethnic neighborhoods. I've said a thousand times on this blog that you reap a harvest where you place an emphasis. Place your emphasis where you wish to harvest. If you can reach someone pour extra time into mentoring/discipling them. At first when they attend your church they will feel out of place, but if you build a close personal relationship with them they will come for you in spite of their feeling of discomfort. That then gives you something to build on.

Fourth, pray for ethnic laborers. The only prayer request Jesus ever mentioned was a plea for the Father to send laborers into His harvest. Many times in my twenty years in the pastorate I have gone to God with the need for a specific type of laborer. More often than not over time He has brought exactly that kind of person to our church.

Fifth, include ethnic minorities in your advertising even if you have to use stock images to start with. If your intention in so doing is to tell those minorities they are welcome it isn't hypocritical; it is applied wisdom. At the same time it will also help your church to get used to the idea as well.

Sixth, start some kind of a ministry that will probably involve ethnic minorities. You do not have to say, "We are starting this in order to bring in black people." Just pick a ministry that involves the problems of people in poverty and you will automatically reach ethnic minorities. Start supporting or staffing a local food pantry. Buy a 15 passenger van and pick up children in a government housing project near you. The children there won't care that the rest of the church is different then them. Bring their parents in for special days. Once you get a key family there have them host a neighborhood BBQ. Invite all the neighbors for free food and just get to know them. Start or adopt a ministry to unwed mothers. Begin a ministry in a public school near you. Start an addictions ministry. Any of these, or numbers of others will inevitably involve substantial interaction with minorities. You know what's coming next, right? Wait for it – you reap a harvest where you place an emphasis.

This interaction with ethnic minorities must spring from a heart that genuinely wants to get to know them, and to reach them. Being patronizing will turn them off. Being aggressively political from the right wing will turn them off. Telling ethnic jokes will turn them off. Just love them. Work at getting to know their culture. Work at feeling comfortable around people who don't look like you. Work at building relationships in which church is not the first thing you mention. And then just love them. In a normal size church all it takes is one or two to begin coming in order to get the ball rolling. Take the time and effort to reach that one or two and then build off of that.

...now the $64,000 question is will you lose some of your current people while you are doing this? Perhaps. And maybe I should say probably. But if you are a careful leader, if you don't jerk the wheel or jam it down people's throats, if you assure them that while you want to become multi-ethnic you are not going to change everything else, and if they trust you then you won't lose very many. Generally speaking, when you go to a new level as a church not everyone goes with you. I do not mean that harshly. I am not the kind of pastor that loses very many people, and I suspect if you read this blog you aren't either. But you may have to prepare yourself to lose some in this process.

One other thing bears mentioning, I think. Going from the ditch on one side of the road to the ditch on the other side of the road is common in American Christianity. I said much about that in my book, "Schizophrenic." As you lead your church into multi-ethnic ministry be careful not to replace an all-white church, for example, with an all-black church. You want all kinds of people to be welcome and to do that you need some of all kinds of people. Do not focus so heavily on one ethnicity that your church becomes predominantly that ethnicity. Aim in love for diversity, and then let God work.

Planting an Urban Church

Urban Ministry 10

NOTE: Today’s blog is a guest post from Pastor Courtney Lewis of the Cornerstone Baptist Church here in Chicago. In my 13 years in the city he is the only independent Baptist church planter to successfully plant a church in Chicago’s inner city. This is his second post in this series. This one is directly about planting a church in an urban environment.

Acts 18:10 "For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city."


God used this verse to solidify my call to the great city of Chicago.  We have been blessed to find some of his people in this city, and we are looking forward to winning more in years to come.  I believe God is preparing the heart of "much people in this city."  I continue to pastor the church we started almost nine years ago.  It is a privilege to Pastor Cornerstone Baptist Church.  I am not an expert, and have learned much by trial and much by error.  At times my zeal caused me to offend people that I'm convinced needed to remain under our ministry. My people deserve a better pastor, but I know I'm called to lead them.


Before writing on the subject of Inner city church planting, I would like to commend Pastor Brennan for taking the time to address the subject of urban ministry in general. His posts on this delicate topic have been insightful and challenging.  I am privileged to pastor in the same city as my friend Pastor Tom Brennan.

In 2008, we were led of God to plant a church on the spiritually destitute south side of the city of Chicago.  Ours is not a large work, but our people love God and the church is slowing growing.  Yesterday was a normal Sunday and 124 people gathered to worship.  Most of these attenders were in the main adult service.  While we make no apology for having a small bus ministry, we are not a "bus church." In February 2017 our church will make a transition and become fully autonomous and financially independent.

Definition of Church Planting

What is church planting?  Simply stated, it is what the Apostle Paul did during his missionary journeys.  His basic blueprint consisted of going to a city, winning souls to Jesus, baptizing them, and organizing them into a New Testament church. 

Paul's works were built from scratch, mostly with new (baby) Christians.  From the start we were determined to follow this Biblical model.  I have no toleration for the cancer that I see spreading in Independent Baptist church plants.  In many a scenario, a man will begin his church planting endeavors by taking disgruntled members from other churches.  Then he solicits a bunch of Bible college graduates to come "join" him in the work as "unpaid staff."  The numbers look great for that church, but church planting is not about the membership of one church increasing at the expense of another church decreasing.  It is about increasing the family of God and decreasing the family of the Devil.  If another member of a church of like faith visits Cornerstone, their pastor will receive a phone call from me.  If they don't belong to this flock, why are they coming to this shepherd?  Ministerial ethics is poorly lacking in our ranks. 

New urban churches grow best with new converts.  Newly saved Christians will not be bothered by your less than ideal facilities.  We have met in three different locations from Sunday services over the past eight years.  The first location was the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club.  The smell of sweat from their much used gym would hit your nose upon entering the building.  The place was often very dirty and we had to do much of our own cleaning.  Homosexuals used our space the night before for parties and we had to pickup after them.  Now we have a beautiful, spacious, church building that the Lord blessed us with in 2015.  We even have our own gym!  One of  our men told me that he missed the first location.  I was in disbelief!  His reply was simply this, "Pastor, that old place is where I found Jesus."  The point is simple, newly saved people will sit in folding chairs, drink cheap coffee, search up and down a crowded city block for parking, and enjoy a new pastor's early sermons.  They are the best (and only) sermons they ever heard! Urban church planting is not about "member swapping" with another fundamental church, it is about going to an area and evangelizing that area with the good news of Jesus Christ.


(The first few to accept Christ in 2008. They were the only ones to attend these first services.)

They tell me that church planting in America is at a historic low. In Chicago, churches that have been started have grown old, changed doctrine and practice, and become lukewarm.  Many die, shutting their doors never to reopen them.   

Where To Begin?


Men of the past have used various methods to start new churches with great success.  I would not condemn those various methods unless there was a violation of Scripture.  While there is no exact science, here are some unifying principles that I feel should govern any church planting mission.  Especially in the inner city.  The Apostle Paul is our example in this.

First, there needs to be a strong sending (mother) church that is burdened to see the new church started.  Dr. Roger Voegtlin pastored Fairhaven Baptist Church in Chesterton, Indiana for 43 years.  For 12 of those years I had the privilege of being a member there and receiving a quality Bible college education that I would not trade my house for.  Fairhaven is a soulwinning church.  My wife and I are proud graduates of Fairhaven Baptist College.  Pastor Voegtlin had planted Fairhaven and consequently had the heart of a church planting pastor.  I learned much from him.  He stressed prayer, the power of God, and the family.  The church is now led by Pastor Steve Damron. Under the new leadership, the church continued it's unwavering commitment to our church plant.  Pastor Damron led the church to help us finance the purchase of a 15,000 square ft. facility. What I can tell you is that both of these men were greatly desirous of seeing an independent, fundamental, Baptist church planted in Barack Obama's Hyde Park neighborhood.  Cornerstone needed the oversight, resources, prayer, encouragement, and pattern of a strong, vibrant sending church.  While admittedly biased, no modern church planter on earth has had a better sending church than Fairhaven.  The Apostle Paul had this type of sending church in the church at Antioch. 



(Me and my wife at Fairhaven)

Secondly, Paul was sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I have read everything I can get my hands on pertaining to the subject of Baptist church planting and most of the material out there is light on the subject of the Holy Spirit.  He must lead, and He must empower.  I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.  I am not a charismatic, and I will not argue semantics. Good men argue about what term to use and die for lack of the experience! When Paul wanted to preach in Asia, the Spirit would not allow him.  Paul listened, and received the Macedonian Call into Greece.  He went to Europe empowered by the Holy Ghost. The innercity church planter must wait on God.  When things get rough in "the hood" you better know God the Holy Spirit put you there. 

Thirdly, Paul chose a region and then narrowed down the location for the new works.  Paul went to specific regions or provinces, and then chose the largest and most dynamic cities in those regions for his works.  His focus was on the big cities of the Roman world.  Paul was sort of a "city slicker", as one who grew up in the city of Tarsus ("no mean city"-Acts 21:39).  He studied in Jerusalem, and served Christ in Antioch.  He was as "urban" a church planter as could be found at that time in church history.  Keep starting churches in the small towns and suburbs, but don't overlook Chicago!!!


Fourthly, Paul was active in seeking out potential areas for evangelism.  This will take time and effort from your current place of ministry.  If an area is on your heart, take a drive to that area.  Buy a neighborhood news paper to get a feel for the people there.  While you are in the store buying the paper, study the people. What does Wikipedia say about that neighborhood?  In other words, do your homework.

Fifthly, Paul was flexible as he took steps towards finalizing the location. One man said it best: "Paul wrote his plans in pencil. He was willing to change them to stay in the will of God."  Pastor Voegtlin and I drove around the different neighborhoods, but he made it clear that I had to find God's will on where to start the church.

Sixth, Paul focused his church planting efforts in areas destitute of churches. In Romans 15:20, Paul made it clear that he didn't want to "build upon another man's foundation."  Because of the sheer number of people in Chicago, I could never build on Pastor Brennan's foundation on the north side, even if I tried! While our city can handle lots of churches, I would not have started next door to him.


Seventh, Paul had to begin all of his works in someone else's property.We refused to let the fact we did not own a building intimidate us.  Paul did't have a building, but he had church! 


(Grand opening Sunday in 2008)

Starting the church


We were not sent out as a team with another couple.  I took no members with me from my sending church.  When we arrived in Chicago from Indiana, we knew we had to hit the ground running if we were going to have people to preach the gospel to.  Me and my wife spent one full year raising support as missionaries to Chicago.  Most works fail because of lack of finances.  We raised enough support to be full time from then until now.  It takes all the time a man can find to start and pastor a new church in an urban area with a high cost of living so take the support from other good churches and run with it! Let them know that your goal is to transition the church to an autonomous and self-supporting church.

Door to door soulwinning still works.  Don't let the devil and backslidden pastors tell you different.  Some of the most dedicated Christians in our church were reached from door to door soulwinning.  Where would they be if we didn't knock on their door?  Door knocking is necessary to meet a lot of people.  You will average 45-55 doors per hour when you are door knocking.  Keep good records of the doors you knock.  Get names and phone numbers of those interested.  Have a first class church flyer and good gospel tracts.  Look for opportunities to share the gospel.  43 visiting adults came to our first service.  Most came from the door to door efforts.  I personally knocked on doors at least 30 hours a week that first year.

Understand that you must build a strong base before you branch out with ministries.  You must build your base with middle class to upper-middle class people.  Please capture what I am about the write:  While we planted in Chicago, and while I am black, we did not go to the ghetto to start a church.  Now, eight years later we are able to send the middle class people we have won to Christ to the ghetto.  The results are slower, but the church must be established or it will stay a mission church with no chance of true survival as an independent work.  The following thoughts have helped me over the years in Chicago:

-Bus crowd responds to a flashy bus flyer
-Middle income crowd responds to a well-done brochure
-Bus crowd responds to an exciting program on the bus
-Middle income crowd responds to a well-ordered church service
-Bus crowds like cotton candy and a hot dog
-Middle income crowd needs a clean, comfortable place to meet
-Bus crowds may provide the bulk of salvation decisions and baptisms
-Middle income crowd will fund the ministries that provide the bulk of the salvation decisions and baptisms.



Personal Finances

I would recommend not starting a church in an urban area while in debt.  Because the big cities are money traps, you will need to be free from payments.  Chicago wants to put a meter on our windpipe so they can charge us for the air we breathe (Just kidding, but I wouldn't put it past Rahm Emmanuel and Toni Preckwinkle).  Read Dave Ramsey's books, but don't let him teach you to be a hoarder.  Save several thousand dollars to start with.  You will need to pay deposits on your apartment or house and church meeting place.  Printing to advertise the new church will need to be done.  Lots of printing.  If you raise support, save money from love offerings for these start up expenses. 

Don't Forget Your Family

Your family needs to be "all in" and committed to it as much as you are.  Many men have given their lives to a ministry and destroyed their families in the process.  Have as nice a home as you can for your family to live in.  You will be out of the house a ton that first year and your family needs to feel good about where they live.  Spend special time with your wife without the kids.  Take getaways at hotels, go for lunch, coffee, dessert.  Try your best to find a fundamental Christian school for them.  Even if you have to drive an hour one way (like us), it will be worth it.  Friday nights are family nights at our home.  I turn my cell phone off and we do many of the things that Pastor Brennan mentioned in his post on Parenting in the city. 


Closing tidbit

Church planting is about soulwinning through a new church.  Many well established churches are doing their part.  However, we need a new group of church planters that will establish new embassies for Jesus in a neighborhood.