The Problem With Evangelism

In my opinion, one of the reasons that evangelism in the church is not effective is that it is being taught by evangelists!

What?

Can I be serious?

This is just my theory, but it is based upon observation. There is a well known person within my fellowship that is known as an evangelist. He makes type A personalities seem shy. He exudes confidence and passion. He is what we all would consider the consummate evangelist. He teaches evangelism in at least two schools and has recently started his own school of evangelism. He travels to churches teaching congregations how to evangelize. I have spoken with two pastors that have had him come to their church, teach them how to evangelize, and has led them to their neighborhoods to put into practice what he had taught them. A year later, they reported to me that it has made very little difference in their church. 

This was only two samples--not exactly enough for scientific study, but I asked myself why this was the case in these two churches. Was it because the congregation could not grasp what they were being taught? Was it because they lacked the motivation to continue after the evangelist was off to the next church? Was it because they did not have the charismatic evangelist to follow? 

I can't say for sure, but I have made several observations about evangelism through the years.

1. Most churches struggle in the area of outreach and evangelism.

2. Many people are timid when it comes to sharing Christ with strangers.

3. Many people have preconceived notions of what an evangelist is and know that they could never measure up.

4. We all know that we should be reaching out to others and feel guilty when we don't.

Since we know that evangelism is a weakness in most churches and that evangelism is important, we call on the evangelist to come and teach us how to reach out to the lost. We sit and learn from these evangelists, but know in our hearts that we will never be like him no matter how hard I try. We try to evangelize how we were taught, but soon become discouraged because it does not come natural and we have not seen much fruit. I have been in many training sessions and have learned from each one, but mostly I learned that I will never be an "evangelist" in the classical sense and be comfortable sharing with my faith with strangers. 

So what is the solution?

Each of us has been given a voice. "Voice" is where our divine gifts, talents, and passion converge and everyone has a different voice. The voice of peace maker, of teacher, of shepherd, of prophet, of mercy giver, etc. Not everyone has the voice of the evangelist, nor were they intended to. Paul tells Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. The evangelist shares the good news of Jesus Christ. Anyone can share the good news, but should do so with their own voice. "Evangelism" is natural when we do it with our own voice. Let us stop emulating the evangelist, find our own voices, and start sharing the love of Christ with others.

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Empower Somebody's Dream

I have hopes and dreams of what I want to accomplish in the next 10 years. 

Do you? 

I hope that you do. 

I spend a lot of time thinking and planning about future endeavors. A few years ago I was disappointed in a certain person because I felt that they did not give me enough support so that I could establish an after school program. I tried to get them to catch the vision, but ultimately I could not get the kind of support that I felt I needed to get the program started. Recently I was visiting the same person and realized that they had a dream also and that I was so wrapped up in my own dreams that I could not see theirs. I apologized to that person for not giving them more support for their dream. It saddens me to know that my support could have made the difference for them seeing their dream become reality.

This was a lesson learned and one that I am hoping to pass on to you. In our efforts to achieve our dreams, we should not neglect helping others realize theirs. I am not suggesting that we lay aside our own visions for the future, but in our effort we should not get so busy that we fail to see others visions and pass up opportunities to help them succeed. I love the word "synergy." It means the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sums of their separate effects. I love to see synergy in action. It basically says that we can accomplish more together than we can by ourselves. This is God's plan. God intended for us to help one another.

My doctoral work was on leadership empowerment. The greatest thing that I realized during my research is that every individual has untapped potential to empower others. There is not a human being, regardless of their circumstance, that does not need to be empowered. The wealthiest person and the poorest person need to be empowered. They need empowering in different ways and to different extents, but they both need to be empowered.

Besides helping get resources, we can empower each other to accomplish each other's dreams by:

1. Helping others to clarify their dream. Having someone to talk things over helps to clarify our dreams. We can help them by asking probing questions. Ask them to clarify, give examples, breakdown and/or expand their thoughts. Active listening is rephrasing their statements back to them to make sure that you are understanding their dream.

2. We can help them make their dream more concrete by getting them to articulate what they desire to accomplish. It is difficult to act upon dreams that remain abstract.

3. We can help them set goals that will accomplish their desired result. Realistic and meaningful milestones should be set. Goals should be broken town into smaller goals or milestones so that they are not overwhelmed by the magnitude of their dreams.

4. We can help them to take action. Every person is different. We tend to be doers or thinkers (see my blog "Be an Executioner"). Doers tend to jump out and do things without making good plans (#1-3 above help doers set goals). Thinkers like to plan. Sometimes they plan too much and have difficulty starting a project. We can help these thinkers initiate their action plans.

5. We can help them reflect and review their actin plans. A feedback loop is important for any project. This helps us adapt our strategies for current projects and to avoid pitfalls for future projects.

I am currently working on Empower 4 (see www.jimmybayes.org/empower4 and my blog titled "Empowering Others") for more information on empowerment.

Empower4 (E4) is an empowerment program that explains how everyone or organization can divinely, socially, structurally, and psychologically empower others. Stay tuned for more information regarding E4.

Share your dreams in the comments section below:

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