How Your Church Can Evangelize
July 1, 1995
I asked one woman who was about to be baptized, "How long have you been coming here to church?"
"Two years," she said.
"When did you meet the Lord?"
"Two weeks ago."
I was intrigued. After the service I looked for her and asked, "You have to tell me: Were you here every week for two years, or once a year, or what?"
"I came almost every week."
"And you just received Christ two weeks ago?"
"Yes."
"I don't want to make you feel bad," I said, "but why did you wait so long?"
"My family started out Christian and then broke up. I've had three abortions and drug problems. I attended one of the church musicals with a friend, and she brought me to the worship services. I had heard this was a place where I would be loved for who I am. But it took me a while to believe it."
In 1990s America, unchurched people who come to Christ usually go through a long "preconversion phase." We find most visitors attend at least four outreach events before they come to one regular service. This preconversion phase may last a year to two and be marked by sporadic attendance.
Why?
When unchurched people walk into our building, they're at a different starting point than the unchurched of fifty years ago. The truly unchurched are thoroughgoing relativists, have taken pluralism to its absurd limit, and cannot perceive how Scripture could be authoritative in their life.
They need a safe and often long preconversion stage, in which they build confidence in us, establish the authority of Scripture, and cement relationships. We have to honor that phase. Unchurched people today distrust church, and they need to come and just watch us for a while.
The biggest difference between a church successful in outreach and one that is less so is this: "Where are you willing to begin ...
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