Triumph & Tragedy in Evangelism

It’s now well known that evangelism is a process. Individuals are at various stages in the journey towards salvation in Jesus Christ…and even in the journey with him as new creations. However, this knowledge hasn’t yet made much of an impact in the way we plan for the process of evangelism. For the most part, any evangelism planning we do is done under the assumption that one event (or one style of event) will suffice. In doing so, we resemble a homeowner trying to paint his whole house, inside and out, with a two-inch sash brush. While he will be thoroughly satisfied with the results when he paints the windows and wood trim, he’ll grow tired and frustrated—and even do a poor job—trying to paint the exterior siding and interior walls with such a brush. Our world now requires us to be very deliberate about tailoring our evangelistic efforts towards people who are at vastly different stages in their spiritual lives.
An example: Along with several churches, we recently participated in a local evangelistic event at which more than 1,000 people attended. In the follow-up, I noticed at least 3 typical responses to the event. Christians loved it. They were thrilled by the opportunity to take friends & family to a quality event that would both entertain and provide a Gospel presentation. People I would label “active seekers” (those who attend church but have never made the life-altering decision to follow Jesus Christ) were equally positive. In fact, this event seemed to be tailor-made for this group of people. Many of them became followers of Jesus Christ on this night. In fact, in the church I pastor, one entire family joined the Kingdom on this night. As my British friend would say, “The night was ‘spot on.’”
There’s a third group, however, left less than enchanted. There are a small handful of people attending our church who have zero church background. None. One 20-something lady was never in a church before attending with a friend…with great fear and trepidation I might add. Several other people took friends with a similar vacuum in church experience. My conversations with these people have been significantly less warm. While they knew the event was sponsored by Christian churches, and that the performer planned to talk about Jesus Christ, they were unprepared for both the length of the presentation and the “arm-twisting” (her word) they felt. In fact, the reaction was universal distaste from this group: each, in one way or another, said they felt cheated, wanted to leave, and refused to “fill out that stupid card.” Ugh. I apologized.
Now, negative feelings should never cause us to back away from evangelism. This particular event was a great success for those familiar with the church and its ways. However, if we’re going to target people who are much farther away from the Church (not necessarily from Jesus!), I’m convinced our approach will have to be different. If we’re going to plan our evangelism with the process in mind, it’s going to require us to be much more deliberate about what (or whom) we’re trying to reach. Where in the process are we attempting to “land” with this event? Further, it probably isn’t safe for us to guess…I would have guessed wrong on this one! We’ll have to find a way to ask.