By Thom S. Rainer
God’s mission for the church is to make disciples and engage the world with the gospel. However, a look at recent studies gives a clear picture that evangelism and discipleship are waning.
A study by Lifeway Research found 80 percent of churchgoers say they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, but 61 percent hadn’t shared the gospel with anyone in the past six months. While a majority believes it’s their duty to share their faith, most never do.
The problem with decreasing evangelism isn’t a lack of opportunities. The problem is a lack of workers. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”
The opportunities are there, but the workers are few. Those missing workers are in our pews, but they aren’t engaging those on the outside. So how do you motivate them to go and share?
One way church leaders today can address the challenge of reaching the unchurched is by setting obedience goals for outreach.
These include goals for sharing the gospel; writing letters or emails to unchurched people; sharing a meal or having coffee with people without Christ or a church home; or leaving flyers about the church at people’s homes.
This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but rather a few examples of evangelistic and pre-evangelistic efforts.
The most evangelistically fruitful and effective churches are those that set obedience goals. Here are five reasons.
1. Goal setting helps churches become intentional about the Great Commission.
Churches by their institutional nature become inwardly focused. Regularly focusing on reaching out will help churches resist that natural inclination. The Great Commission commands us to go beyond ourselves.
2. Goal setting makes a statement about priorities.
For example, setting a goal to have one date night a week with your spouse makes a statement about the importance of your marriage relationship. Likewise, setting goals for evangelism says your church is serious about the Great Commission.
3. Goal setting is working in many churches.
I know of a church with 130 in attendance that had been plateaued for five years. That church set a faith goal of “1,000 in One Year.”
The church counted gospel presentations, visits with unchurched people, and the delivery of hanging invitation brochures (an invitation to the church that can be hung on the door handle or knob of a home) toward the total. The goal was the church’s way of using a metric to encourage behavior.
At the end of the year, the church had exceeded the goal of 1,000 with 1,700 contacts! Attendance increased by nearly 50 percent to 190, and the church saw 24 people become believers in Christ through these efforts—the highest number in two decades!
4. Goal setting is a constant reminder for church members.
The church noted above kept a running total of the evangelism contacts and reported the increasing number every week to the congregation. Each week, there was positive peer pressure to be involved in outreach.
5. Goal setting leads to church unity.
The greatest reason for church conflict is inwardly focused church members. When they don’t get their way, they become frustrated and even combative. Evangelism goal setting keeps the focus on the “other” instead of “me.”
Goal setting, when used in a gospel-centric effort, can truly be an evangelistic instrument for the church.
Setting obedience goals is a good practice not only for churches but also for individual believers. I know the more obedient I am, the more I have a prayerful commitment to share the gospel with others.
One obedience goal I set for myself years ago is to be intentional in developing relationships with unchurched individuals. One way I’ve done this is to find a barber or hairstylist who is not a Christian and focus on building a relationship with that person.
When I lived in Louisville, I began to see a barber named Roy. With each visit, our relationship grew. After a couple of years, he began going to church and asking me questions about my faith. I had the privilege of leading Roy to Christ.
Five years later, he died of cancer, and I was asked to preach his funeral. Roy became a dear friend and brother in Christ, and it began simply through conversations while he cut my hair.
Evangelism doesn’t just happen. Most of the time, it happens as a result of intentionality—people who know Christ intentionally connecting with people who don’t. As you lead your church to become more evangelistic, think about how you can model obedience goals for them.
THOM S. RAINER (@ThomRainer) is president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources. read more at ThomRainer.com.