Relational Evangelism

There are three prevalent forms of evangelism in the church today: crusade, telemarketing, bait and switch.

Crusade: asking a person to stand up in front of 100’s of people they don’t know, and take the hand of someone they have never met in order to believe in a God they cannot see.

Telemarketing: Christian telemarketers, without telephones, peddling the 4 spiritual laws to complete strangers. Who likes a telemarketer? We hang up on these people all the time.

Bait & Switch: Or let’s ask our members to invite their friends to an outreach event. We’ll bait them with entertainment—who doesn’t like a good comedian?—then we’ll switch it on them, tell them they are all sinners and they need to repent. Will we ever be able to look those friends in the face again?

These methods have their place, but we all know that the most effective form of evangelism happens in the context of relationships. What if the entire church strategy was organized around the principle of relational evangelism? What if we partnered with the members of our church to save their coworkers, friends and family?

This is what I think that kind of partnership would look like:

An Outreach/Discipleship Strategy

INVEST—people in the church (insiders) investing in relationships with people they are already connected with outside the church (outsiders) in order to . . .

INVITE them to a weekly environment designed to help outsiders begin to see the message of Christ as relevant to their lives in order to . . .

CONNECT them with God’s family in close personal relationships so they can learn to connect with God, His Word, and His people in order to . . .

BE the church—the Body of Christ; His hands and feet—SERVE in the community. People doing what Jesus did: building a bridge to God and turning on lights.

I am convinced that the Bible has the answer to every relational problem, societal problem and political problem. It speaks to the issues of single mothers, problem kids, lost jobs, broken marriages. Christianity is the answer to world hunger, pandemic disease and poverty. I believe Christianity can teach me how to raise my kids and be a great dad. I believe it has the answers to every question our culture is currently asking. Because of this I believe that the church ought to be the most compelling group of people on the earth. I believe that we should be as compelling as Jesus was when he walked the earth. You either loved Him or hated Him, but you couldn’t ignore Him. Likewise if we began to speak to these issues we would be as compelling as Jesus. Then we would be the body of Christ, doing what He did in His culture in ours.