So, here’s the deal: there’s no gift of evangelism in the Bible. In other words, no one has the gift of evangelism. However, everyone has the responsibility to evangelize!
Therefore, it’s in the job description of every pastor and leader—regardless of title or position—to equip God’s people to evangelize.
Third, the church has created the assumption that evangelism is something that happens at the church and not through the church (i.e., believers).
Over the last 30 to 40 years, especially in the Evangelical world, churches have emphasized the practice of “inviting” their friends, family, co-workers and neighbors to church so that they can hear the gospel. To help create incentives for doing so, churches spruced up the music, added strobe lighting and smoke machines and dressed up the building to make it less “churchy.”
This worked for a while, and still continues to work in certain areas. However, for the most part, many of the people who are going to come back to church have already come back.
The problem is, while many have fixed up the barn, the wheat still isn’t harvesting itself.
We have some nice looking barns; the problem is that we have fields and fields yet to be harvested. It reminds me of Lanny Wolfe’s lyrics, “My house is full, but my field is empty … It seems my children all want to stay around my table, but no one wants to work in my fields.”
We have to defuse the idea that the most likely place evangelism will occur is “at” or “in” the church. Rather, we must explain that the future of evangelism will take place in neighborhoods, homes, workplaces, coffee shops, sports fields and community areas—and equip our people for such a future. In short, we must transition from an attractional to an incarnational model of evangelism—from a “come and see” to a “go and tell” people.
The way to de-professionalize evangelism is through dispersion.
Evangelism is not reserved for a professional, a gifted person or a specific place; it is a practice reserved for every believer in any environment they may occupy. Churches must communicate this, and work toward equipping every member to be a minister and a missionary—regardless of whether they’re a stay-at-home mom or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
The truth is, most believers will never become “professional” pastors or evangelists, but they can—as seen in millions of children around the world who play sports—participate in a common practice that not only brings them joy, but others as well.
Ed Stetzer holds the Billy Graham distinguished chair of church, mission and evangelism at Wheaton College and the Wheaton Grad School, where he also oversees the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism.