How many of you attend churches that are primarily growing through evangelism?

[tellville]

I am just curious:

How many of you attend churches that are primarily growing through evangelism?

But first, what I am not looking for: I don't mean necessarily just getting people in the pews or baptisms. I also don't mean getting new members from other churches (sheep stealing) which in my experience is often how many churches grow. I also don't mean the children of people who attend your church becoming Christians.

What I am looking for is how many of you attend churches which are growing primarily through non-Christians who haven't always attended becoming strong disciples of Christ through your church?

And for followup: What means is God using to bring these people to Christ? And please, don't just say "we preach the Gospel" because I won't know what you mean. Do you mean your pastor just gets up and preaches? Do you mean several people actively disciple someone preaching the gospel always? Do you mean you preach the gospel through music? Do you mean you preach the gospel through all those things? Do you just study the Bible and the gospel flows out of that? Etc.

It's obvious that a church is preaching the Gospel if it is creating strong devout followers of Christ. I'm interested in what means God is using to do that.

P.S.
(I realize a church may be preaching the Gospel and not growing).

 

[ServantsHeart]

I wish I could say we are busting at the seams because people are coming to Christ under faithful Gospel preaching,but thats not so. We have faithful preaching,sound teaching and a praying church. We are Discipled well and active in Evangelism in many different ministries both local and around the world.
I know my Brethren like me labor hard to see souls come to Christ by one on one Evangelism but it is not our main source of growth. I confess It concerns my Elders and a good portion of our Church as to what to do but we have no magic formula to get them in the fold. We are about 140 members or so with some 60 to 70 children maybe more who attend each week,so we have a good group and it seems a future at this time.
May God bless in this generation and fill the gaps with those new to the Faith in all the Churces is my prayer.

 

[goodnews]

We aren't in a location where people just walk in the door on Sunday. Since we are far from town and located back off the highway we aren't seen easily. So, we've gotten the majority of our growth (and I don't mean we've exploded by any means) by our members and regular visitors inviting their non-churched family members, friends, co-workers, etc. Lately, we've dome especially well in getting our children to invite their friends to church. Often, we've found, the parents will come after a while as well. God has blessed us with a few gifted and committed children's workers.

 

[Jack K]

Both my current church an my last one have significant growth through evangelism. By that I mean people who were unchurched or who were nominally churched but visited us and started becoming regulars. Many would say they were converted around that time. I'm not sure the numbers would make this the #1 sort of growth at either church, but it might be close. And both churches do some things I think are helpful:

- Preach the gospel of grace. I know, you said that's not enough of an answer. But it is the main thing we do. We pointedly resist preaching or even acting like what people need most of all is to have a feel-good encounter with God, or to try hard to obey, or to have their theology in order, or to take up good causes, or to get all their daily problems solved. Rather, we preach the grace of God in the atoning ministry of Jesus as the answer to every need. We make much of Jesus at every opportunity. And we preach the gospel as the answer to both the needs of unbelievers and the ongoing growth of believers. That's the foundation.

- Make the unchurched feel as if we expect them to be visiting. This is not the same as what's commonly called seeker-sensitive, where the whole service is dumbed down and desensitized for the unchurched. That wouldn't actually be sensitive to people who need real answers. But when we speak, we act like unchurched people are probably visiting. We try to help them out and make them feel like being a visitor is nothing to feel uncomfortable about, nor is it uncommon in our church. So we explain things. We give page numbers for Bible passages. We explain why there's an offering. We give some context to the hymns. And when we preach we often make a point of directly speaking first to believers and then to those who aren't or who aren't sure, telling each how they ought to apply the message. In short, without altering the heart of our services, on the fringes we conduct them as if we expect unbelievers to be visiting. As if it happens all the time, and isn't weird. And what do you know, they show up.

- Give people chances to get accustomed to the church without having to attend a worship service right away. Most people don't start by walking into a service. Even if they're invited by someone they know, they may be invited first to a small group, a family night or a Sunday school class. My current church has an excellent Sunday school class on marriage that's brought in maybe a dozen new couples. I don't think any of these folks attended the service the first Sunday they came. But many are attending weekly now. They needed to dip their toes before diving in.

- Create a culture among members in which evangelism and inviting friends is encouraged and supported. Nothing encourages members to invite friends to church quite like knowing the church will be friendly and inclusive, neither judgmental nor "pouncing," and unphased by even the most non-churchy visitor. Pretty soon it becomes normal to bring your friends. Everyone does it. Many have good experiences.

In short, evangelism "training" and "projects" tend to be unnatural, pressure-filled and stilted. Ongoing attitudes are much more important.

 

[tellville]

Thank you Jack for that informative answer! I really like your point about making the unchurched feel as you expect them to be coming.

- Preach the gospel of grace. I know, you said that's not enough of an answer. But it is the main thing we do.

What I meant by this statement is that I want people to explain how they preach the Gospel. Just saying you do it doesn't tell anyone anything. Is it mainly done through the service? Bible studies? Fellowship? All those things? Through action? Etc.

 

[Jack K]

What I meant by this statement is that I want people to explain how they preach the Gospel. Just saying you do it doesn't tell anyone anything. Is it mainly done through the service? Bible studies? Fellowship? All those things? Through action? Etc.

It's best if all those aspects of the church are gospel-aware, including counseling—both formal pastoral counseling and the sort of informal encouragement people get from chats around the coffee pot. But it starts with the preaching. The preaching is the main way it seeps into the whole mindset of the church. And that's where people find God drawing them to himself—in a church where the whole vibe is different from anything they've seen before; where it's centered around life lived in gratitude for God's grace.