The Failure of Our System

by Raymond Fox
Preacher's Study Notes 1993

The topic of this section is “Local Evangelism: Reaching Out.”

The questions assigned for this topic include the following:

What is our real purpose as Christians? · Are we just “holding church” or are we reaching out to our communities? · Why are we afraid to reach out to others? · Why are we afraid to try something new and different in our appeals to a community? · Why are we so hesitant to spend money for evangelizing when we are willing to spend money for buildings and gospel meetings? · Why are we not accomplishing more?

These questions have made me personally examine myself and consider why I am not as effective as I could be as an evangelist. What follows is a critique, but it is humbly offered in the spirit of my own personal examination.

Introduction
Jesus stated His mission in simple and clear language, "The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost." Everything that Jesus did, everywhere that he went was somehow directly related to this purpose. Whether feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish or stopping to ask a lone woman for a drink of water, Jesus actively pursued the salvation of souls. Every conversation that he shared with someone, whether they were rich and powerful or poor and miserable, led to the subject of forgiveness, the common need of every human being.

The first followers of Jesus, who lived for the same purpose of proclaiming the message of salvation, formed the Church. The Church in the first century grew as an incredibly powerful group of messengers empowered by the authenticity of their message.

They were so convinced that God had given them new life through Jesus, they could not help but announce this good news everywhere. They were truly imitators of Jesus, because His driving purpose had become their singular purpose, and they pursued it with His same energy and enthusiasm. The message of Jesus filled them with so much joy that it burst forth from their lips even in the midst of their most dangerous critics.

The church is certainly different today. Christians can go to work day after day, and though they live a good life, many of their companions will never suspect that they are devout Christians. And though their friends may discover that they are Christians, their friends need not worry about having to listen to persuasive talk about sin and salvation. The Christian will not speak unless he is spoken to.

One modern critic of Christianity once compared Christians to non-Christians. He said that the Christian arrives at work on time, does his work without complaining, speaks in a friendly manner with his companions, tells the truth, does not cheat the boss, finishes his work and goes home to spend time with his family. Whereas, he said, the non-Christian arrives at work on time, does his work without complaining, speaks in a friendly manner with his companions, tells the truth, does not cheat the boss, finishes his work and goes home to spend time with his family. The point of this comparison is devastating — there is no difference in the life of a Christian and a non-Christian. One could be mistaken for the other. The message about salvation which is the distinct possession of the Christian and which could make the difference, is not spoken.

For some reason, the message that burned on the lips of the first Christians is now hidden so deep in the hearts of modern Christians, it rarely surfaces unless it is provoked by some challenging confrontation. Perhaps the boss at work tells the Christian that he must work on Sunday. Now the Christian protests saying, “No, you see I cannot work because I have to go to church on Sunday.” Oh no, the word is out now! Yet Christians do not suddenly become evangelistic when they are forced to explain their actions by stating that they follow Jesus.

What is Evangelism?
What is evangelism? Evangelism is declaring the good news that Jesus came to save sinners. If Christians explain why they cannot work on Sunday, they have not automatically compelled others to follow Jesus. They have only explained the motive of their actions. They may say, “Yes, I am evangelistic, I talk a lot about the church with the people I work with.” But defending one’s own actions with reference to the teachings of Jesus is not necessarily evangelism. Evangelism will have something to say not only about the life of the speaker, but also about the life of the listener. Evangelism is not just saying, “This is how I live.” Evangelism says, “This is how you should live.”

Evangelism today will have to be person to person. The world is flooded with religions, churches, books, leaflets, flyers, and invitations. The common person files one invitation he receives in the mail with all the other invitations. The gospel of Jesus will need a sincere face, and behind that face a life that is devoted to Jesus. The gospel of Jesus today will need a person to communicate it directly to another person. Members of one religious group mistakenly believe that evangelism is standing on the sidewalk, holding a stack of magazines, looking straight ahead, waiting for someone to stop and ask them for one of their magazines. But evangelism is a message spoken person to person. Jesus and His followers made personal contact with people and spoke directly and persuasively to the need people have for new life.

Why is the church so different today? Why are Christians so hesitant to speak personally with sinners about salvation? The frequent answer has been that society today is different and people are less responsive to the gospel. But an honest look at the New Testament record reveals that Christians were different. They had quite a different spirit. They really did live to proclaim the gospel. Why do Christians today find living without preaching to be so easy?

The future of the church depends on answering this question. The present truth is that in too many congregations local evangelism is either not successful or not existent. Congregations are dying. But one cannot say that congregations are dying because “society” is closed to the gospel. Only after society has been evangelized can one conclude that society is closed to the gospel. At the present time much evangelistic energy is being spent on foreign soil. However foreign evangelism is funded by congregations in the United States. If local evangelism in the United States is not revitalized soon, foreign evangelism will lose what momentum it presently has because of the lack of resources.

Why are Christians generally not evangelistic? The answer does not simply lie with an attitude but with an entire mentality. The problem is not the lack of a sufficient method but the failure of a whole system of evangelism.

A Non-Evangelistic Mentality
By dropping money in the contribution basket every Sunday and then sending offerings to missionaries in some other part of the country or the world, Christians believe they are evangelistic. On one level one could say that funding evangelists is evangelistic. There is, however, a clear difference between a Christian who speaks and a Christian who pays someone else to speak in his place. Christians who think that their responsibility to evangelize can be fulfilled by someone else, see evangelism as a duty that can be obeyed by proxy. But evangelism is a spirit that flows from the very purpose of one’s existence. Christians must live to declare the gospel just as Jesus lived to preach the good news. At times in history the rich could pay someone to take their place on the battle front during war. But a soldier whose life is dedicated to the fight, would never dream of allowing someone to take his place. To be a soldier is to fight. To be a Christian is to speak. The New Testament record is full of examples of men and women who spoke on a personal level to people about salvation in Christ. Certainly, some individuals had special responsibilities as “evangelists.” But every Christian was a messenger by virtue of the fact that they were disciples of Jesus, the Messenger sent by the Father.

Today, the life of a Christian is very different. Christians have invented for themselves a way of looking at the world that does not require them to personally share the message of Christ, a mentality that frees them from evangelistic guilt. They live in two worlds: one world that is secular with friends, neighbors. and family members who are not believers, and another world that is spiritual, with believers who share their common faith. That they live in two worlds does not imply that they are hypocrites. On the contrary they live by Christian principles in both worlds. But by perceiving their life as divided among two worlds, they relate and communicate with people in these two worlds in different ways. They talk to people in the secular world about work, school issues, social questions, family matters, neighborhood problems. They communicate with fellow Christians about church work, relationships with people in the local congregation, biblical questions, spiritual strengths and weaknesses.

Christians unfortunately find that maintaining the separation of these two worlds is useful. If they do not talk in their secular world about their Christian faith, they protect themselves against possible embarrassment. They will not be embarrassed if they do not live a perfect Christian life in their secular circle. They will not have to answer such questions as, “Why is the church you attend so small?” or “Why don’t you have a regular, seminary-educated minister?” More importantly, by maintaining this duality in life, Christians never feel compelled to talk to anyone in their secular world about salvation and sin. They never feel guilty about not being evangelistic. Language about sin and forgiveness is reserved for the company of fellow Christians. Christians have trained themselves to relate to people in different ways in these two different worlds.

The irony of this way of viewing the world is that it makes evangelism absolutely ineffective. In fact, Christians have produced methods of evangelism that will allow them to be “evangelistic” without actively entering into personal contact with the secular world. For instance, congregations hold “gospel meetings,” which by virtue of their name should be evangelistic endeavors. But if all the members of the congregation attend along with members of surrounding congregations, filling the meeting place with people, the “gospel meeting” is considered by some to be a huge success. Evangelists who come to preach the gospel during these meetings will also report the success of such “wonderful cooperation” in their field reports. So a gospel meeting can be successful without ever inviting anyone from the world of the lost to attend. The brethren from the local congregation can be satisfied that they have fulfilled their responsibility to evangelize. Imagine, successful evangelism without ever talking to anyone who is lost! Such a picture reminds one of a group of army generals sequestered in some lonely bunker beneath the ground anxiously talking about how to save the world from impending nuclear attack. They talk and talk and talk. But they never issue a command, never leave the bunker, never order any troops. They just keep talking and the world outside is destroyed.

Some forms of advertisement permit Christians to be “evangelistic” without saying a word and without attempting personal contact. Newspaper ads, door hangers, or flyers left in a conspicuous place do not require Christians to actually enter into communication with the lost. Such methods may be necessary at times to achieve mass coverage, but when Christians rely on these means to fulfill their evangelistic responsibilities, they protect themselves from possible personal rejection by the lost. It is evangelism without risk. But evangelizing without speaking is evangelism at its barest minimum.

By communicating differently in the secular and spiritual worlds, Christians have developed a mentality in which it is safe to not speak about Jesus in the secular world. After all, Christians do speak about Jesus, albeit, with their Christian friends. Speaking about Jesus in one world satisfies the mandate to speak and relieves one of the need to speak of Jesus in the other world. Paradoxically, this other world, the world of sinners, is precisely where Christians ought to be speaking.

Furthermore, Christians have developed certain viewpoints to reinforce this mentality in which it is safe, with respect to one’s conscience, to not be successful evangelistically. For instance, failure to convert sinners sometimes creates self-doubts. Frustrated Christians ask themselves, “Am I really fulfilling the purpose of my existence? Am I worth something as a Christian?” But then Christians may resort to another justification for their existence besides evangelism and that is the restoration of New Testament Christianity. The restoration movement in fact has become a crutch for the lack of evangelistic fruits. If a congregation is not growing in number, at least the members can comfort themselves by thinking that they are worshipping correctly. If they are not sharing the gospel with their neighbors, they still have self-confidence because they stand for the purity of the New Testament pattern. Thus, it is safe to not be evangelistic. But this crutch would immediately vanish if one were to simply realize that the restoration of New Testament Christianity will never be complete until Christians become genuinely evangelistic. We may zealously guard the worship against instrumental music, but if the very purpose of the church’s existence is ignored, then there is much that is left to be restored.

In the church it is also safe to be an evangelist without being evangelistically successful. Preachers can file field reports of their work without providing any information about the actual success or failure of evangelistic efforts. They can submit a report that lists the location of their gospel meetings, thanks the brethren for their hospitality, and acknowledges the cooperation of neighboring congregations and visiting preachers. The acceptance of this style of reporting leaves the impression that an evangelist is successful if he preaches in many places throughout the year. But can an evangelist be evangelistic if the majority of his audience is Christian? In fact, the popular determination of the faithfulness of an evangelist is based solely on doctrinal purity. Of course, an evangelist must preach sound doctrine. But as an evangelist he must be on the front lines making personal contact with sinners instead of just standing behind a pulpit before a congregation of believers.

Large meetings attended by Christians from many parts of the United States also provide a protective atmosphere to guard against guilt or despair from the lack of evangelism. These large meetings fulfill a very useful purpose by encouraging Christians. At the same time, however, they actually hinder evangelism in a subtle way. Christians who regularly attend worship at a small non-evangelistic congregation can attend the meetings to assure themselves that everything is all right with the church and that the country is full of strong Christians. But this image is deceptive.

What should we conclude if the majority of these Christians attending the large meetings are from non-evangelistic congregations? The activity and presence of so many people and the persuasive, evangelistic sermons presented at the meetings would actually deceive Christians into thinking that everything is okay, despite the truth that local evangelism is non-existent. The effect of such meetings would be entirely different if the teaching had the purpose of instructing and encouraging Christians to do personal evangelism at home.

Why do Christians in generally avoid personal evangelism? Christians have created a way of viewing their life that absolves them from responsibility, a non-evangelistic mentality that protects them from the threat of personal contact with the lost and from the despair of evangelistic failure. This mentality in turn supports a non-evangelistic system of evangelism.

A Non-Evangelistic System
A bright spot in local evangelism in the United States today is the establishment of new congregations by four or five families who join together to begin a new work. Such a group of families moves to a new area for the sole purpose of evangelism. They find new jobs and new homes. Then, with the help of an evangelist, they learn how to reach out to the community to make contact with people who would be interested in studying the Bible. These congregations are successful because all the members understand evangelism as a personal responsibility. If they did not see evangelism as the center of their life, they would not make such sacrifices for the gospel.

However, the general method of evangelism in the church for many decades revolves around “gospel meetings.” Although these meetings are advertised through newspapers and flyers as “gospel meetings,” the targets of such advertisement, the people who read the newspapers and pick the flyers off their porch, have little idea what a gospel meeting is. One hundred and fifty years ago when revivals were common among different religious groups, people understood that gospel meetings were worship services conducted every evening over a period of several days or even weeks. These days the denominations seldom hold revivals, and instead they conduct social programs or special entertainment activities to attract people to the church. It is not surprising that someone who reads an announcement for a gospel meeting does not attend because they really do not know what to expect. This fact makes a personal invitation all the more necessary.

The reality of most gospel meetings today is that they are not evangelistic in preparation, execution or follow-up. Before the gospel meeting there is rarely any communication between the preacher and the members of the congregation about how to prepare for the meeting. The preacher may try to inform himself about the spiritual needs of the congregation so he can preach to these needs. But remember, these services are supposed to be evangelistic by virtue of their label. The congregation that considers itself energetic will run an advertisement in the paper, print some flyers and pass them out around town on car windshields or doors of homes in the neighborhood, and send an invitation to surrounding congregations. But most important preparation for an evangelistic effort, personal face to face contact with the lost, is commonly absent. Usually more attention is paid to caring for the preacher than for the lost. A common sight on the bulletin board of a congregation conducting a gospel meeting is a list for lunch and dinner appointments for the preacher. Where is the list of people whom the preacher can personally invite to the services or study with?

During the progress of the meeting the members will do very well if they them-selves attend each night. Yet they could do much to insure the presence of sinners at the services to hear the gospel. They could make follow-up visits to people who seemed interested in attending but did not come during the first part of the meeting. The members could offer to pick people up to bring them to the services. And of course door knocking and personal invitations to friends can continue through the course of the meeting. The preacher may decide on the topic he plans to speak about based on the type of audience that is present. If no sinners are present then he may chose to deliver a sermon with the purpose of encouraging Christians.

Later after the meeting is finished and the preacher is gone, the local Christians have the responsibility of following-up of any visitors who may have attended the services. However unless the members of the congregation are enthusiastic about evangelism and have the ability to communicate the gospel to sinners, there will be no follow-up.

A congregation may hold two week-long gospel meetings a year and perhaps one or two meetings that last only through a weekend, Friday to Sunday. In the meantime no evangelistic work is usually conducted in the congregation. The membership simply lives according to their dual view of life, two worlds, one secular and one spiritual, without any evangelistic effort that might link the spiritual with the secular and force them to communicate with the lost about the gospel.

The greatest tragedy that signals the failure of our system of evangelism is the evolution of gospel meetings. Unfortunately, because of the lack of evangelistic preparation on the part of the congregation and the preacher, gospel meetings have become occasions for teaching Christians. Preachers now come to gospel meetings prepared to teach Christians, and if they have a building full of Christians then they are very pleased. The tragedy of this phenomenon resides in the self-deception under which Christians labor. While they continue to call these meetings, “gospel meetings,” they convince themselves that they are practicing evangelism. They have fulfilled their responsibilities. But genuine evangelism rarely happens in such meetings. Their non-evangelistic system of evangelism satisfies the conscience but does not win the lost. The result is a congregation of Christians dwindling in number and at the same time convinced they are doing what they can to preach the gospel.

Non-Evangelistic Training
Two very serious weaknesses in the evangelistic work of the church has led to a crisis in the present system of evangelism inadequate training of evangelists and little or non-existent training of evangelistic Christians. These two faults have contributed to a system that is not producing disciples who can reproduce themselves. Evangelism is largely an attitude, a spirit that is absolutely alive with energy to seek and save the lost. But evangelism also includes a message and the wisdom necessary to deliver that message. The spirit of evangelism comes from the heart. The message and wisdom of evangelism comes from training.

In the last two generations the work of an evangelist has undergone a gradual change from traveling and conducting gospel meetings to working locally with a single congregation over a period of time. This change has had a undeniable impact on the training of evangelists. In the 1930’s and 1940’s traveling evangelists were much more common. They would live in one place for many years but spend most of their time traveling back and forth across the country. Some would spend an average of twenty-five weeks a year away from home conducting gospel meetings. They defended the faith, fought for the truth, and preached to sinners. Non-Christians still attended gospel meetings at that time because these meetings were similar to the revivals many denominations used for converting people. Christians too were more aggressive about personally inviting people to attend the meetings.

By the 1950’s evangelists began to spend more time in one single area doing evangelistic work. Churches were established in places were there were few surrounding congregations to support a new mission work. The evangelist felt compelled to spend several months or even a year or two to build up the new work. Soon other congregations that had existed for some years but had shrunken in size due to a lack of evangelism called in evangelists to help them for a short period. Of course, because of the requirements of raising a stable family, evangelists preferred to stay in one area for a longer period of time. Congregations were not too adverse to the evangelist staying for longer periods because he provided good, regular teaching and possibly helped the congregation grow in number. And now with the passage of time, many congregations do not permit evangelists to spend
very much time away from their congregation preaching in gospel meetings.

Evangelists located in a certain area for a period of time could provide necessary training to help members of a congregation become evangelistic and develop as a powerful beacon for the gospel. However the training most evangelists received had prepared them more for conducting gospel meetings rather than training Christians for one on one evangelism. Most evangelists in the last two generations have been trained by traveling evangelists whose experience and expertise consisted of knowledge of doctrinal issues and sermon preparation and delivery. Defending the truth and preaching sermons are very necessary elements of an evangelist’s ability. However when young evangelists found themselves working in a specific area for an extended time, they did not really know what to do. The system of training preachers had produced homileticists and polemicists, but not evangelists who could do the daily footwork of building contacts. Their role models were traveling evangelists. So in many cases (but not all) they had received insufficient training in building contacts for personal evangelism, organizing Bible studies, stimulating the congregation to do personal evangelism, and training members to conduct personal evangelism.

The pattern of the local work of evangelists that emerged from the 1960’s on was not really evangelistic, if evangelism consists of more than pulpit preaching. Through the years there were always exceptions to the rule, but more often than not the congregation depended on the evangelist to do most of the local teaching. He actually was not doing anything more than a well equipped congregational leader ought to do. Usually the congregation grew to some extent because most preachers could convert some people by virtue of their general abilities in explaining the gospel. But when the members of a congregation considered inviting an evangelist to do local work, one of the primary qualifications was first availability, then doctrinal soundness, and preaching ability. Evangelistic success in previous works was often not an important factor in the decision. Because of the lack of evangelists and the multiplicity of congregations that wanted evangelists, the first question was always, “Who can come?”

The other weakness of our present system is the lack of properly trained evangelistic Christians. According to the example of the early church, every Christian ought to be evangelistic.

· Once Christians possess the spirit of evangelism, who will train them? · Who will teach them how to channel their evangelistic energy in the right direction?

If a congregation does not have an evangelist working directly with the members, the only role model will be the visiting preacher who holds the gospel meetings. Following that role model, congregational leaders may come to understand their function to be pulpit teaching. Knocking doors, pursuing contacts, and conducting Bible studies may not even enter the imagination of a congregational teacher because he has never seen an evangelist perform these sorts of activities.

Furthermore, preachers that pass through may not view their work as encompassing congregational training in evangelism. In fact since they were trained under the pattern of traveling evangelism they may not have the skills to train people. Here lies an important problem: evangelists who were trained by traveling evangelists may not have been trained in personal evangelism. Then when these evangelists must train Christians for evangelism, in local congregations they may not have the resources for training. Training requires a scriptural plan, organization, a curriculum, practical experience, and patience.

The reality is that at some point in time someone will have to train Christians to make contact with sinners and communicate with them about salvation. Evangelists will not be able to solve the lack of personal evangelism among Christians by simply mounting the pulpit and condemning Christians for not sharing the gospel of Christ. Christians may have the desire but they need to know how. Training involves providing wisdom and knowledge.

Knowledge is an essential commodity in Christianity today. In our modern culture there exists so much suspicion of people who claim to be ministers of the gospel, that if a local congregational teacher stands before his audience, ill equipped in terms of knowledge or ability to communicate the teachings of Christ, he will not receive the respect of unbelievers. People in the community are accustomed to listening to civic leaders, teachers, and social activists who know what they are talking about. Preparation for evangelism requires knowledge. Of course, even new Christians can speak to unbelievers about the joy of salvation and the peace of the Christian life. But someone in the congregation will need to answer questions that inevitably rise during studies with non-Christians. The necessary systematic knowledge is not gained through periodic contact with evangelists during gospel meetings.

Wisdom is also essential to personal evangelism. Understanding how to establish a regular study with a sinner, what subjects to teach the sinner, how to create interest, how to motivate change, how to communicate with love and patience, can all be learned by trial and error over a long period of time. In fact, under present methods, trail and error is the usual teacher. Unfortunately, long before wisdom is won, Christians become too frustrated and surrender. What other successful institution or business in existence today expects employees to learn their trade completely on their own by experimentation? That Christians create two worlds to avoid personal contact with sinners is of no surprise: Christians have not received the training to give them confidence with sinners.

· The present system of evangelism in the church is failing because most Christians cannot and do not reproduce themselves.

Rebuilding Evangelism
The present state of personal evangelism among Christians is the result of gradual tendencies working over a period of at least forty or fifty years that replaced evangelistic energy with an avoidance mentality Change will need to be dramatic and systemic. The system of evangelism must change to conform to biblical principles and allow for success.

First, evangelists must seriously reconsider their purpose and work. Much talk and study has been done over the last several years concerning Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:11-12 in regards to the work of an evangelist. Unfortunately the passage has not been taken seriously. A fundamental part of an evangelist’s work is to equip Christians for works of service and for increasing the body of Christ. This instruction clearly implies that besides preaching the gospel, evangelists must prepare the saints for the work of evangelism to build up the body of Christ. Adequate preparation provides the knowledge and wisdom necessary to carry out personal evangelism.

Training, if it is efficient and productive, will involve some sort of scriptural organization. Unfortunately in past years when individuals have thoughtfully tried to organize a system of training evangelists, training Christians to do evangelistic work, or training congregational teachers, critics have cried, “What will the digressives say?” But if a method is scriptural, we cannot worry about what some digressive might say in a debate. This fear has seriously hindered scriptural work. Christians need to worry more about the dying evangelistic spirit than some fallacious argument in a debate. If our enemies were smart they would keep us in constant debates so that we would never accomplish any profitable work for fear of not being able to answer an argument. While there may not be any congregations that are on the verge of accepting multiple cups or women teaching in public, there are indeed many congregations that are in danger of “losing their candlestick” from the lack of evangelism.

Why is it not possible for evangelists and students of the Bible to sit down together and discuss in an open forum what methods of training can be used and what methods cannot be used? When critics condemn a certain method of training without offering a possible positive alternative, the motives of their criticism are really suspect.

In regards to methods of personal evangelism, there is not just one way of approaching people with the gospel. Personal contact with sinners must be made; but the question of whether this contact is through door knocking, personal acquaintances, setting up a table in a public place, or simply walking up to people on the street, depends on the culture and the neighborhood. Christians should not be so dogmatic as to say only one method is valuable. The goal is successful personal contact. If one scriptural method does not produce results then another one should be tried.

Once evangelists energetically pursue personal evangelism they can be proper role models for Christians. The proverb is usually true that students never rise above their teachers. If Christians are not evangelistic, then evangelists should examine themselves first to discover if they are truly evangelistic. Evangelists must especially be examples of perseverance. They should never surrender to frustration or disappointment.

Another systemic change is necessary to alter the mind-set of Christians. Christians must see that the Christian life only has meaning and purpose through speaking to sinners about salvation. If evangelists are first role models then they can with integrity deliver a drastically different message to Christians. That message will be: Christians are not okay if they are not sharing the gospel. Congregations are not okay if they are not making personal contact with the lost. New Testament Christianity has not been restored, simply because multitudes of Christians and even evangelists are apathetic or slothful about reaching the lost. This message needs to be proclaimed in every public meeting and private conversation among Christians.

There are in the church several sources of influence that have the power to motivate Christians to participate in personal evangelism. One manner of influencing Christians is by means of brotherhood periodicals. A sampling of issues of the Old Paths Advocate from the last forty years reveals that approximately just three percent of the articles during these years even remotely touched the subject of local evangelism. The evident conclusion is that writers and publishers did not give personal evangelism a priority. Another expression of current thought is the annual Preacher’s Study. But over the last ten years, on the average, less than one topic a year has been devoted to personal evangelism. If the leadership of the church is serious about church growth, personal evangelism must occupy a place of priority in the writing and research of Christian thinkers.

Some practical but drastic changes in the manner in which the work of the church is conducted would greatly contribute to evangelistic results.

· What would happen if evangelists worked with the members of a congregation for one or two weeks before a gospel meeting to prepare them to do personal evangelism? · What would happen if evangelists refused to conduct gospel meetings for congregations that will not participate in personal evangelism? · What would happen if the large brotherhood meetings shifted emphasis and served as mission meetings in new communities to begin new congregations? · What would happen if every year the Preacher’s Study devoted several discussions to methods and means of motivating personal evangelism among Christians? · What would happen if evangelists traveled across the country to present week-long training sessions in personal evangelism and then returned to the congregations for regular follow-up training? · What would happen if more materials were produced to assist Christians in presenting the gospel at someone’s door or on the street?

The answer to these questions can only be positive The real question is, "Just how willing is the leadership of the church to make sacrifices, both evangelists and local leaders, for the goal of church growth?”

Conclusion
In the first century the disciples of Jesus had a system of evangelism: they “preached the word wherever they went” (Acts 8:4). The real threat to the church today is not innovations as much as the possibility of the death of local evangelism. Christians are not preaching wherever they go.

Some foreign fields have experienced great evangelistic success mainly because the Christians in those countries do not follow the pattern of evangelism here in the United States. One wonders what a native evangelist from a foreign country would really think if he made a visit to the United States and followed around behind an American gospel preacher for a few weeks. Some foreign works have actually been hindered because preachers from the United Sates have taken the American mentality to foreign soil. The success of foreign works is the result of Christians who evangelize wherever they go.

Convincing Christians to live a life of evangelism will require some profound and sacrificial changes. Such changes will only happen if people see the problem as it really is: despite all the motions and words, evangelism in the United States is dying!
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