Related articles and links |  1 of 4

Much has been made in recent years of the fact that the church in the Third World has taken on the mantle of missions instead of simply being its recipient. I would like to issue a challenge to the North American church to regain the evangelistic fervor so evident among many Third World Christians. As the apostle Paul put it, let us follow them as they follow Christ.

My recent crusades at El Paso-Juarez (Texas/ Mexico) and Bristol, England, showed me the sharp contrast that exists in the level of evangelistic energy within the evangelical church. Great hope and a sense of thrill grip the church in Latin America (including the many Hispanics of El Paso-Juarez). Pastors are preaching the pure gospel without apology. Laypeople share their faith with authority.

In North America and Europe, however, I find that while there is much discussion about evangelism, real evangelism is hard to detect. "There simply isn't the same enthusiasm for evangelism there was ten years ago," Anthony Bush, the mission chairman for the crusades in Bristol, told me. Unlike the El Paso experience of revival, Britain greeted us with empty, frigid cathedrals that serve as little more than museums of long-ago revivals. For all but a small percentage of the people in Britain and Western Europe, Christianity is ancient history, not a living relationship.

As an evangelist, I measure the pulse of the church by its evangelistic fervor. Church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette writes that throughout its history, "the primary emphasis of the Church was upon the salvation of the individual for eternal life." Charles H. Spurgeon, the great nineteenth-century British preacher, believed that "the work of conversion is the first and great thing we must drive at; after this we must labor with all our might." And John Wesley reminded preachers, "You have nothing to do but to save souls."

The evangelical Christians of North America cheerfully pay any amount to go to a concert. They fill the civic center for worship sessions and even intercessory spiritual-warfare conventions. But when it comes to face-to-face warfare, which is talking to people kindly but directly about their need for Christ, suddenly the numbers diminish. In too many churches the response to the challenge to proclaim the gospel to their city is, "Why should we be doing this?" and "This is expensive."

I thank God for the continuing health and strength he is giving to Billy Graham. I thank God for the wonderful evangelistic work of Franklin Graham, Greg Laurie, and many other young evangelists, some of whom are partners with us in the Next Generation Alliancesm. The ministries of Alpha, March for Jesus, Prison Fellowship, Promise Keepers, and Willow Creek Association advance the kingdom of God around the world. Everywhere I go I meet Christians who gave their lives to Jesus Christ after hearing the gospel on radio or viewing Campus Crusade's Jesus film. The growing interest in revival, prayer, and fasting, spurred on in North America by Joe Aldrich, Bill and Vonette Bright, David Bryant, Evelyn Christenson, Ed Silveso, and others is truly a great thing.

But the church must match those efforts with a vision for evangelism that confronts millions upon millions of people with the gospel in every generation. In the West, only small fires of passion for evangelism are lit, not the conflagration that ensures fulfilling the Great Commission. If the church does not take seriously its responsibility to evangelize, to whom does the Lord entrust this priority? The world has experts for everything else of concern to our churches, but the church alone is an expert in evangelism.

next page... |  1 of 4

share this page

November 16 1998, Vol. 42, No. 13