A recent ad by the Canadian investment firm Nesbitt Simpson featured this line: “Anyone can ride a bull, but it takes discipline to dance with a bear.”
That’s true, as any recent investor knows. When a “bull market” is surging ahead, as it was through the early 1980s, everyone makes money. But when it’s a declining “bear market,” that’s not the case.
Pastoring has its equivalent. A friend, who’d never experienced significant growth of the churches he’d pastored, has suddenly enjoyed a spurt of numerical growth. “I’m not doing anything different,” he claims, “but all of a sudden our congregation is expanding rapidly.” That pastor is riding a bull market.
The fact is, several other churches in his community are experiencing similar growth. The demographics of his community, the subculture of his congregation, and an influx of transferees have all coalesced to nearly double his congregation in a couple of years. It has revitalized his church.
Many of us, however, are in a bear market. We work hard for every convert. We struggle to maintain our gains. It takes discipline to dance with a bear-the discipline of developing a long-range strategy and a balanced philosophy of ministry. The discipline of rejecting passing fads and apparent quick fixes. The discipline of developing personal character and integrity.
I began at my present church almost seven years ago. For the most part, I’ve danced with a bear. Growth has been neither automatic nor easy. In the process, I’ve had to come to grips with my approach to ministry and discover how to direct the church’s spiritual energy toward evangelism, when for years it’s been comfortable with the status quo.
One Sunday morning, shortly after arriving, I asked the congregation of about six hundred how many of them had been converted to Christ in the previous two years. I was trying to excite the people about what God was doing. Just six hands went up. Obviously, any growth had been transfer growth.
That brought my job into sharp focus: I had to move the congregation beyond its proud history to the point of making evangelism happen. Since then, I’ve discovered the frustrations and joys of seeing a well-established church embrace its mission.
There’s no three-step, money-back-guaranteed approach to positioning a church for evangelism. Rather, I’ve discovered, it’s an ongoing process of personal growth and evaluation, coupled with sensitivity to congregational history and needs.
Looking back, here’s what I’ve discovered is important for those wanting to create an environment in which evangelism flourishes.
Establish the Church’s Vision
A church, if it expects to rouse from lethargy, must know why it exists and what God expects it to accomplish. This means going beyond knowing that it’s God’s intention for all churches to evangelize. A church must discover God’s plan for its particular contribution to the kingdom. Some congregations are called to be spiritual hospitals, some hotbeds of social activism, some teaching centers. Still others are front-line attack forces.
The first thing I had to know was my own convictions. What specifically does God want to happen in my church, and how? Working with God is always a walk of faith, but I had to settle on a basic direction for the church and devise a plan to take the church in that direction. I’m convinced no pastor can lead a church into outreach ministry without prayer, deep personal convictions, and a God-given vision.
Further, it wasn’t enough to have a solo vision for the church; key leaders needed to share the conviction. I’ve learned to value the consensus of committed men and women who plan and pray together. I’ve also seen the dangers of pastors trying to sell their vision to the congregation over the heads of the church board. It won’t work. To lead on the strength of personal conviction alone is to invite strife.
So discovering God’s will for our church became a mutual quest. It all came together at a pastor-board retreat about a year after my arrival. There, following prior reading in evangelism and church growth, we sought the direction God wanted our church to head.
We asked two questions at the retreat: First, what should be the direction of the church? Second, how best can we reach our community with the gospel? I well remember the discussion. One man said, “We have to get off the church parking lot and out into the traffic.”
Another observed, “We’re growing through transfer growth, not conversion growth. We’ve got to do something about our apathy for the lost. And, Pastor, I need a new passion as much as anyone!”
After considerable discussion and prayer, the board was unanimous: We were committed to growth, which would involve constructing a larger sanctuary. In addition, we outlined twenty basic principles to follow in reaching these goals, such things as prayer, an emphasis on the Scriptures, an appeal to the unchurched, and strong pastoral leadership.
These principles were more than vague notions; we specifically described them. For example, we recognized that growing churches had one dominant preacher rather than a rotating team. Consequently, I was asked to commit myself to the bulk of the preaching. I didn’t enjoy cutting back the staff’s pulpit access, but it was an action we felt we had to make to achieve growth.
At the close of the discussion, I asked each person to write down how big our church could be in ten years if we did our part and God blessed as he has promised. To my chagrin, when the numbers were revealed, mine was the lowest.
To be honest, a great deal of optimism pervaded the gathering, almost to the point of being unrealistic. But in retrospect, the euphoria was necessary and God-given. It provided the impetus to get us moving and face what was ahead.
After the retreat, we summarized our convictions on paper. Each succeeding year, we’ve hauled out that document to check our progress. There’s little we’d change today. It still summarizes our basic convictions concerning where we should be going and how we feel God wants us to get there.
A vision for evangelism in the hearts of the church’s leadership comes after such a spiritual journey, not merely as the result of a secular process of analysis and goal setting. Getting in step with God’s will is foundational. It’s not enough simply to copy what another church is doing. God’s will, I’ve discovered, isn’t transferable. We need a deep spiritual conviction of God’s plan for our particular church.
Knowing we’re moving in the right direction enables the leaders to deal with criticism and opposition. It keeps us going in the face of inadequacy and personal guilt at not having accomplished more.
A young man and his family left our church recently, saying, “Spiritual change is impossible in this church. Apathy is too deeply entrenched. I don’t think anyone, including you, Pastor, can bring about the spiritual vitality that is necessary. I’m going elsewhere.”
His words stung. He shared my concern for the church, but he was bailing out. Had I not the burning conviction that we’re in step with God’s will and that vitality and evangelism are therefore possible, I might have agreed with him and quit, too. God-given convictions make it possible to hang in there long enough to see God work.
Excite the Congregation with the Vision
When a pastor blows the trumpet for evangelism, it can scare the congregation as much as excite it. The call to evangelism is first of all a call for change, and change can be threatening. So care is needed to woo the congregation toward evangelism.
Our pastor-board discussions brought unanimity, faith, and excitement. But we held the information to ourselves, proceeding slowly because we knew the importance of building confidence and trust. I was still new; sheep won’t follow the voice of a strange shepherd.
Given my choice, I would have loved to proceed as quickly as possible to build the new sanctuary. But in rousing the congregation to fulfill its mission, I didn’t want to divide the church. Spiritual growth had to precede numerical growth. Since we believed a healthy body would grow, we tried to go slowly.
Circumstances, however, forced us to go public with our vision more quickly than we had planned.
Within weeks after our retreat, property adjoining the present church suddenly became available. We would either buy the additional five acres immediately to provide for expansion or we would forfeit the opportunity. But to buy the land would signal to the unprepared congregation our intent to grow. The land acquisition became the test of whether the congregation had the will for evangelism.
Our problem was that many in the congregation had been conditioned previously to think the church would handle growth through starting another congregation. That notion came not so much because people had evangelistic vision but to handle transfer growth while maintaining our comfortable size. So our expansion plans wouldn’t naturally sit easily.
A new vision for a church can be both thrilling and traumatic for the congregation. For those who buy the vision, it’s exhilarating; for those who are threatened, it can mean fear and confusion. We experienced the gamut.
From the time we learned the land was available, we had just four weeks to complete the deal. We announced the plan, shared our vision, called a congregational vote, and managed to carry the motion. But we weren’t able to bring everyone on board. We unsettled some cherished values. We learned that spiritual renewal and revival don’t often happen in a business meeting.
Sometimes leaders get so far ahead of their people that they’re perceived as the enemy. That’s what started to happen to us. We discovered about half the congregation was highly supportive, a quarter vocally negative, and a quarter bewildered. So after purchasing the property, we backed off and gave the congregation time to catch up.
The people had to feel a personal conviction for evangelism. They had to want to grow and touch our community. We used a variety of means to encourage people to fulfill the vision God had given us:
The pulpit. The pulpit can elevate the vision from the secular to the spiritual. So I challenged our people with the needs of our community. I aimed to keep the issue not how many people we could get to join our church but how many in our community were lost without Jesus Christ.
I tried to avoid guilt, a poor motivator with only short-term benefits. Its long-term effect is usually cynicism and fear. I did my best to affirm the pioneers by acknowledging that the strength of the church today is a result of their vision and faithful service.
Conversations. Tom Peters, in his book Thriving on Chaos, suggests a leader should become the vision’s foremost itinerant preacher: “Do not let a single day pass without taking at least two or three opportunities to deliver a three-minute stump speech on the vision.” Wanting to be effective, I tried to develop ways to introduce our vision into most conversations and summarize our dreams.
A couple of questions helped turn conversations toward our vision for evangelism. I’d ask, “What’s God been telling you about our church lately?” and “Are you aware of some of the things God is doing in our church?” In the following discussions, it wasn’t hard to summarize what I believed God was saying to the church and how the collective leadership of the church was responding.
Encouraging ownership of the vision. One of the deacons tipped me off to a nascent problem: “Pastor, some people think this is just your project. We’ve got to correct that impression.” Apparently some people thought I wanted a larger church to feed my ego. One person called the new sanctuary “the pastor’s pet project.” Because of this mistaken notion, we devised a program to share the vision yet take the spotlight off me.
We worked through the church committees, particularly our leadership council. At several council meetings, we dealt with the question, What will enable us to evangelize our community? We allowed time for free expression of ideas, fears, and concerns. Lay leaders chaired many of these sessions. I wanted others committed to the vision to answer questions to demonstrate that I wasn’t the only one with the vision for change.
Opinion leaders. We reached out through those we perceived to be congregational opinion leaders. These opinion leaders aren’t necessarily the elected officials. They’re simply the people who command attention when they speak. Their influence may be felt in a business meeting, but more likely it’s felt over coffee after church or in parking-lot conversations.
I lunched with many of these opinion leaders to challenge them individually. Most are on board; a few have remained aloof to the vision.
Testimonials. For about a year, once a month we had someone share what the church meant to him and how he was praying for the church to reach out to our community. God spoke to the congregation through these testimonials. People began to realize that concern for growth was widespread.
One particularly helpful testimonial came from a man who’d been in the church about three years and who was working in the Sunday school. People heard the passionate concern of someone who wasn’t part of the church establishment or even closely associated with me. He described how the Sunday school was growing, how we had several classes meeting in hallways, and how the youth department was meeting in a nearby school.
His words weren’t the most polished, but the congregation was moved. We turned a corner that morning.
An abundance of information. I asked another pastor what he’d learned going through a similar process. He said, “Give the people more information than you think they need.” That was valuable advice.
I learned the dangers of relying solely on verbal announcements for key information. The spoken word can be misunderstood and forgotten. In addition, at least 30 percent of most congregations is absent on a given Sunday, so the only sure way to inform all the people is through the mail. Though it’s expensive, it’s paid good dividends for us to communicate regularly with the congregation through the mail.
The board also circulated the “Facing the Future, Fulfilling Our Mission” document to the congregation. It detailed our goals and methods and outlined our ten-year plan, the projected growth for the community and church, the concepts of our expansion, and also the idea of planting another congregation.
While some folk will never take time to read such material, I learned that those who are slow in accepting a new plan do take time to read. The literature laid out the plan so there could be no easy misunderstanding.
Themes and emphases. A well-stated theme can mobilize people to a vision. When the theme is visible continually-posters, bulletins, signs, bookmarks-it constantly reminds people of the church’s passion.
Each year we’ve set a theme tied to our overall vision of evangelistic and spiritual growth. We’ve used phrases such as “Growing Together” and “Building for the Future.” We called one year simply “The Year of Evangelism,” and during the year taught personal evangelism and programmed several special events, culminating with a Billy Graham-style crusade.
Gradually the vision has spread.
Reshape the Ministries
As a vision for evangelism begins to grow, new challenges emerge. First, it becomes obvious that many of the church programs are introverted.
We’re probably typical; most of our programs were geared to meet the needs of our people rather than touch those in the community. Our research indicated 95 percent of our ministries had little or no evangelistic focus.
For example, our Crusader program, a midweek activity for boys and girls, had plenty of children but no evangelistic component. In fact the set-up made it next to impossible for an outsider to join. The program not only didn’t evangelize; it was a barrier to growth.
We’ve since infused leadership with a heart for those outside the church. We’ve worked to make the program more porous, allowing newcomers a gracious and welcome way in. Now we’re looking aggressively for ways to bring in unchurched children.
All churches face the same pressures. The need to provide support and encouragement to existing Christians is legitimate, but it’s not spiritual harvesting. Growing churches find ways to build an evangelistic component into all their programs; they also establish programs that have evangelism as a primary purpose.
Second, there’s a need to realign the personnel in the church’s programs. Those with both a heart and an aptitude for evangelism need to be shifted into positions where their gifts can reap the maximum benefits.
We discovered, for example, that the secretary for our music department, a woman who spent hours each week arranging choir music books and supplies, was gifted in sharing her faith. But she was buried in a church office, cut off from the people to whom she could witness. We’ve since redeployed her; she’s leading our neighborhood Bible studies and helping in our counseling ministries.
Not all department leaders live comfortably with the implications of the new emphasis on evangelism. Some find it threatening. Some of our solid workers felt good working among Christians but were intimidated by the thought of working with non-Christians. So we lost a few. But we tried to help them find less threatening but equally important ministries.
Third, as a vision for evangelism takes hold, it becomes clear that a church has to rethink its target audience. It has to look outside its four walls to identify the groups it is most capable of reaching.
To be realistic, not only is our community unlikely to become fully evangelized, but also our church doesn’t have the capacity to reach everyone. So, without playing God, we’ve tried to identify those groups most apt to respond positively. This enables us to target their needs and maximize the use of our workers. We’ve identified four groups we’re most likely to reach:
The hurting. Naaman came to God at a time of crisis. Jesus attracted the diseased, the deluded, and the depressed. He appealed to the ostracized and the social misfits. It’s the same today; people in need are prime candidates for responding to the gospel.
The gospel has always appealed to those in the lower half of society. The trouble is, most of our people have been saved for several years. God has blessed them in the interval, and now they’re socially and economically removed from the most responsive segment of society. Yuppies and dinks (double income, no kids) don’t relate well with people on welfare.
We’ve tried to take this into consideration in planning for evangelism. Our youth, for example, run a monthly event called Sonshine Coffee House that is geared to the mentally and physically handicapped. It’s thrilling to watch our kids reading a story to a blind child or playing games with someone in a wheelchair.
Young adults. Several consultants have indicated that churches usually grow in the 18-35 age bracket, when people are making major choices and establishing family lifestyles. So we’ve set up three age-grouped programs with these people, to reach out, integrate them into the church, and provide teaching and pastoral care.
We’ve tried to make singles feel welcome, not by segregating them (though we do have a singles class) but by mainstreaming them into the life of the church. Each of our adult fellowship groups has a single adult on its committee.
Our monthly Ladies’ Night Out program looks to those outside the church. The evening provides instruction in such things as microwave cooking and Christmas wrapping but concludes with a brief explanation of the Christian faith. Currently about half those attending come from outside the church.
The over-55 crowd. We’re discovering seniors are responsive to the gospel. I’ve baptized several in their 80s.
Our city has twice the number of seniors as the national average, so we’re programming to meet their needs with a monthly luncheon and a Wednesday program of table games and carpet bowling. In addition, our seniors’ choir sings at least one Sunday a month, performs cantatas, and appears regularly at community events. We have a seniors’ handbell choir, a seniors’ orchestra, and a men’s octet. These people have time and talent to devote to the church. We just need to reach out to them.
Children. Children are still the segment of society most responsive to the gospel. We’ve divided this potential harvest into two groups: children of church families and those from non-Christian homes.
We’ve seriously investigated our success rate at keeping our own children. Biological evangelism doesn’t happen automatically. To meet the need, we hold children’s crusades, and we’re reemphasizing Sunday school and several midweek activities.
One of our pastors has established an informal group for parents of older teens and young adults who aren’t living for God. He meets with these parents, helps them deal with their sense of failure, and helps them find ways to reach their grown children.
Upgrade Platform Ministries
The larger a church, the more emphasis given its up-front-Sunday-morning ministries. What happens on the platform is critical because it touches newcomers and influences people on the fringe. Consequently, we’ve worked to upgrade our Sunday-worship effectiveness.
We don’t want to be so concerned about keeping the Christians happy that we make outsiders feel uncomfortable. Twenty-five years ago, 88 percent of Canadian university students said it was important to have a philosophy of life. A recent survey indicated that number has dropped to 39 today. People obviously have changed. The truth is, if we’re presenting the gospel the same way we did ten years ago, we’re probably missing the mark today. To hit the mark, we’ve worked out several affirmations.
We will make church a positive experience for outsiders. Ours is an experience-oriented generation, not a thinking generation, and our churches have felt the shift. Those entering a church sanctuary today are more interested in feeling good spiritually than in gaining biblical knowledge. Inspiration has replaced information as the hot button.
This presents us with a dilemma because religious experience without biblical knowledge fosters fanaticism and confusion. Fortunately, authentic biblical Christianity does provide an experience. In the New Testament, both the gathering of believers and the public proclamation of the gospel to outsiders were intense, heart-moving encounters. There was joy, anger, conviction, sorrow, and tension. Everyone who touched New Testament Christians experienced something.
Growing churches are exciting, and that’s our aim. We want people to have a legitimate experience that brings them closer to both God and their friends. We may offer this experience through warm interaction in the foyer, the tasteful use of humor, soaring music, or a well-developed illustration that touches the emotions. We want all our services to lead to an encounter with Almighty God-the most heart stopping, life-changing experience possible.
We will provide a warm, relaxed atmosphere. I can understand Bryant Gumbel’s frustration with Willard Scott, the weatherman on NBC’s “Today.” Even if there’s a new hostage story from Beirut or a plane crash in Scotland, Willard Scott rambles on about some Boy Scout in Kansas or wishes happy birthday to some 101-year-old lady in Idaho. My first reaction is What a waste of time! But it’s obvious his folksy style appeals to the audience.
I used to be all business on the platform, but now I’ve concluded every church needs a Willard Scott, a “people person” who creates a warm, caring atmosphere. No matter the size of the congregation, real people are important, and they’re interested in other real people.
Obviously the atmosphere of the service ought to usher people into the presence of God. But how does that happen? Today, more than ever, people respond to a relaxed atmosphere. People don’t want to come to church to be lectured, and they certainly won’t bring a guest to a setting that’s strained, heavy, or eccentric.
I’ve always striven for dignity in a service, but sometimes in achieving dignity, I’ve sacrificed the relaxed atmosphere people need. We’re working at closing the emotional distance between pulpit and pew. I often take time to chat with the people, although I try to keep it separate from the sermon. A friend of mine calls it “pastoring from the pulpit.” I want to be transparent, to let people see that those on the platform are essentially no different from those in the pew.
We will waste no time. It’s amazing how easily worship time is wasted. Radio and television preachers know the danger of dead spots. The fact is, dead time hurts any service by inviting thoughts to wander. Here are some things we’ve done to honor the time of member and visitor alike:
-Eliminated 95 percent of verbal announcements. They’re in the bulletin, and that’s it. Interestingly, it hasn’t affected attendance at activities. Verbal announcements impress department leaders, but few others.
-Eliminated introductions of musical groups. The information is listed in the bulletin. Musicians are trained to be in place at the appropriate moment, so time isn’t lost while they’re walking to the platform.
-Tripled the number of offering bags used by the ushers. That cut four minutes from the time it took to collect the offering.
-Rearranged the Communion-serving logistics, saving about ten minutes in the service.
Preaching will relate to life. I’ve heard preaching called “the fine art of talking in someone else’s sleep.” Regrettably, I must plead guilty to putting more than one person to sleep on Sunday morning, and when I have, it’s usually because I haven’t been touching people where they live. Every Sunday, I have to earn my credentials, my right to speak. Paul told Titus, “Make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10).
If a church is to be evangelistic, the people in the pew have to feel the preacher understands them and knows what’s going on in today’s world. Illustrations have to be current. Facts must be accurate, statements substantiated. We’re not called to be pop psychologists, but we are called to lift up Jesus Christ in such a way that people recognize him as the solution to their frustrations, hurts, and despair.
I’m working on both the style and content of my preaching now more than ever before. I’ve developed four checks for my sermons that help me stay on track. First, I plan my invitation prior to writing the final draft. Every sermon is designed to get a response. Second, I try to write my sermon concept in seventeen words or less. If I can’t, my sermon doesn’t have focus, and I probably don’t know what I’m talking about. Third, I write a description of one person I’m trying to reach and ask myself, Will this person relate to what I’m trying to say? Fourth, I ask myself, Will a non-Christian understand the language I’m using?
We will provide special events and services especially for outsiders. People want to know when it’s a good time to bring their friends to church. They don’t want to bring a neighbor the morning the pastor speaks on stewardship. So we try to provide special events and services, and tell the people that these services are designed with outsiders in mind.
Recently several of our Sunday evening services dealt with age groupings: for seniors, “When I’m Old and Gray;” for young adults, “The Generic Generation;” and for those in between, “Handling the Middle Ages.” Other evenings hit contemporary issues, family life, and practical ways of coping with life. Drama has proved an effective way to explain the gospel to non-Christians, so we do three or four productions a year.
When the conduct of our services doesn’t go smoothly, it tells visitors, “This group doesn’t have their act together. They don’t care enough to look after the details.” And, sadder yet, it’s a statement to outsiders that Jesus doesn’t relate to today’s world. That’s the message we don’t want to communicate; that’s the idea we fight through a concerted effort to upgrade our worship ministries.
People like Bill make the effort worthwhile. For a couple of years, Bill kept telling me about Dave, a man he worked with as a mechanic in a maintenance shop. Bill asked me to pray that God would help him as he witnessed to Dave. One day, Dave responded to Bill and to the Lord and accepted Christ. Bill continued to work with Dave and helped lead him to spiritual maturity. Today Dave is fully integrated into our church and is, in turn, reproducing his faith in the lives of others. That’s the kind of church I want us to be.
Positioning a church for ongoing evangelism goes far beyond implementing a program or hiring additional staff. Ultimately, it takes a corporate change of heart.
Pastors can engender that attitude, but only the Holy Spirit can bring about an intense passion for evangelism. Dancing with a bear can be terrifying, but if the Holy Spirit is orchestrating the music, it will be life-changing and fulfilling.
Calvin C. Ratz is pastor of Abbotsford (British Columbia) Pentecostal Assembly.
Copyright © 1989 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
