By Jerry Harris
The word evangelism seems to have fallen out of favor with many in church circles these days and been replaced with the word discipleship. I believe this change to be a relatively new phenomenon in our movement.
Recently, we scanned and archived issues of Christian Standard going back to 1966. During that process, something that jumped out to me was the frequent use of the word evangelism—or something synonymous with it—in most of those issues. I read much about “personal evangelism,” “soul-winning,” “witnessing,” and “sharing your faith.” These words frequently highlighted news of spring and fall revivals, church crusades (another word that has fallen out of favor), canvassing neighborhoods or-door-to door evangelism, evangelism explosion, gospel tracts, Vacation Bible School, etc. References to discipleship seemed to be nearly entirely missing. Why?
Churches of the evangelism era dedicated a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money to a deeper understanding of God’s Word and Christian lifestyle through such activities as Sunday school. Adult relationships formed around Sunday school class identity. Classes named themselves to honor that desire; some examples include Noble Bereans, Faithful Followers, and Truth Seekers. These classes typically became involved in missions and community-based ministry. Time was carved out every Sunday to meet. Many had their own budgets and purchased their own study materials. Much of the cost of church buildings was dedicated to classroom spaces for education in God’s Word.
Children and teens had their own classes, their own curriculum, Sunday or Wednesday evening Bible clubs, Bible Bowl, Youth Sundays, and much more. They “did life” together this way. Every service ended with an invitation to come to Christ, be baptized, join the church, or to rededicate oneself to their faith. My point is this: even though the word discipleship wasn’t often used, it was exactly what was happening . . . and it was comprehensive.
Most in our churches today have no understanding or recollection of those days.
The church growth movement ushered in much larger congregations and a greater focus on the worship and preaching experience. As the concept of small groups that meet in homes was adopted, church architecture changed, and Sunday school classes and classrooms were largely consigned to history.
Many have criticized these changes by saying such things as, “Many churchgoers are consumers rather than committed,” “Churches are making converts but not disciples,” “Churches are a mile wide but an inch deep,” “Small groups are just group therapy,” and “We are more biblically ignorant than we’ve ever been.”
Those criticisms aren’t completely off-base, so it makes some sense to emphasize discipleship.
Evangelism First
However, I don’t believe that discipleship should be emphasized at the expense of evangelism. In fact, I would contend that evangelism comes first. You can evangelize someone but fail to build them into a disciple, but you can’t make a disciple unless you evangelize them first!
I have seen some react to evangelism as if it’s only a part of discipleship, and I’ve seen evangelism de-emphasized to the point that we don’t even ask people to come to Christ during our church services anymore.
Church leaders who separate evangelism and discipleship can cause a church to become inwardly focused instead of fully embracing the Great Commission. “Going” and “baptizing” precede “teaching” in Jesus’ command, and it pains me to see churches with healthy worship attendance numbers in our movement but scarcely any baptisms.
A Worthy Goal
Do we set goals today for how many our church should be evangelizing in a given year? As I look at our church reports, I see that many churches achieve a 10 percent ratio of baptisms to regular attendance . . . some even more! What a great goal to aim for!
Do we train people to share their faith personally? Personal evangelism was a required class at Ozark Christian College when I attended, and part of the homework was to actually share one’s faith and then write a report on it. Do we model sharing our faith during invitation times at church? Do we witness and celebrate it in public confession and baptism? Many churches today have done away with the invitation; some say it might be too confrontational or that it uses up too much time. I will paraphrase the words of James, the Lord’s brother: “Maybe we do not have because we do not ask” (James 4:2). We are what we celebrate!
Evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel, either public or private, and that gospel is the foundation of disciple-making. Our Lord said a house should be built on a solid foundation. If a church’s foundation is Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the gospel, its construction will survive the circumstances of life. A foundation serves little purpose if we do not build upon it. It is like Jesus’ illustration of an unfinished tower in Luke 14:28. Foundations are laid so that structures can be built on them, and in the church setting, discipleship is that structure. As the gospel is freely given and received, a foundation in the gospel is provided without cost. Discipleship, however, comes with great personal cost. The result for those who fail to count that cost is only ridicule.
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