In this series we interview leaders of churches and other Christian outreach organisations to find out what evangelism strategies are currently being blessed by God. Here we talk to Peter Ko, church planter and chairman of RICE (Renewal and Inter-Church Evangelism).
TGCA: What are the special challenges of evangelism in the context of your ministry?
As a church planter and pastor, I find it difficult to figure out the interplay between helping individual Christians do more evangelism, versus how to “program” evangelism into the life of the church. Without individual evangelism, there’s not going to be much fruit from the second. But without the second, there’s no opportunity for the body of Christ to welcome evangelistic contacts: the “next-steps” of disciple-making get neglected.
Both are necessary, and yet to stimulate both, other good things may need to be sidelined in the life of our church. Evangelism is already difficult and costly, and so it’s much easier to focus on other good (but not best) things we could be doing as a growing church.
TGCA: Are there any particular changes that you’ve noticed occurring in recent times?
As our congregations have grown beyond the new-plant stage, transfer growth has increased—and that’s been a mixed blessing. Transfer growth makes it potentially easier to mobilise more Christians to serve in the mission of our church, but in reality it can increase the critical mass of Christians who are not really on mission—which stalls the whole evangelistic mission of our church.
TGCA: What’s one (or more!) thing that you’ve been trying to do with evangelism lately?
In light of the above challenges and changes, I’ve been working on four key things that I am leading our congregations to focus on in the year ahead:
1. Funnels
2. Networks
3. Temperature
4. Low-hanging fruit
1. Funnel evangelism occurs through event based activities—such as carols, playgroups, ESL teaching, mercy ministries etc.—which create bigger numerical opportunities to reach those whom you would never reach via the existing (family and friends) networks of your people. Funnels are better at getting in touch with your local geographic community. But they’re also costly in terms of human resources. They haven’t necessarily resulted in more conversions than our natural networks.
2. Network evangelism relies on the connectedness of our own people. It can work through events, but it requires fewer resources. Network evangelism has worked for us on regular Sunday church gatherings, via our small groups, and through the social and sporting groups our people are part of. They can be injected with a bit of fuel via mission campaigns (we’ve held evangelistic Sundays regularly to encourage our people to bring their networks to church). Although these have a lower cost, compared to funnel events, they have produced a higher yield—that is, more long-term contacts, and more conversions.
A church like ours needs to use both funnels and networks, and use them in a smart way. Funnel events are high cost, so we can only do a couple of them a year. Network events are low cost and therefore can be more easily integrated into the normal life of our church.
3. Temperature. Alongside our funnel and network events, we need to be generally raise the temperature of personal evangelism among our people. We need evangelism constantly to be on the agenda so people are always thinking: “who are the non-believers around me, and what steps can I take (along with prayer) to promote the gospel with them?”
Temperature-raising happens through:
- gospel-centred teaching (pulpit and small groups);
- accountability and fellowship relationships (e.g. small groups as a regular base for sharing and praying about non-believing friends and family);
- the church calendar (i.e. ensuring evangelism and evangelistic opportunities are central to the program of our church);
- training in evangelism.
3. Low-hanging fruit. We need to have an effective evangelistic follow-up team who will intentionally follow-up on every single unbeliever who comes to church. They’re ‘low-hanging fruit’ because they’ve already taken the step to come to a Bible teaching gathering. In any given calendar year, there are scores that come through our doors, who just need someone to offer to meet with them; to explain the gospel to them and ask them to respond. We need to free up our best evangelists and train new evangelists for this kind of ministry.
TGCA: How has it all been working?
We’ve seen our funnels and networks work particularly well in the past, but because of the high resource cost of funnels, some have fallen by the wayside and need to be revived, or new funnels have needed to be created. Planting new churches and congregations can significantly help to raise the temperature of evangelism, as we’ve experienced in our Bankstown plant (now nearly two years old). However, with time, the temperature cools and we need to work harder to stoke the flames or evangelistic growth stalls.
We’ve identified a few able evangelists who can help the staff pick low-hanging fruit, but much more needs to be done on that front. This one’s a no-brainer, since most of our conversions have not come via event-evangelism, but through one-on-one follow up with unbelievers who have come to us via our funnels or networks.
TGCA: Has it provided insights into what we should or shouldn’t be doing to share the gospel?
I think it’s shown that all four factors need to be in play in the life of a church and its members. Neglect any of them, and you’ll find an imbalance and inability to make the most of the mission that God has given us through our churches.
TGCA: Is there any key bit of advice you would give to people who find evangelism difficult?
It’s interesting that I’ve been asked to contribute to the evangelism channel at TGCA since I don’t think I’m a particularly gifted evangelist. However, I see it as part of my responsibility as a church leader and pastor to “do the work of an evangelist,” as Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5. So my best advice to people (and church leaders) who find evangelism difficult is to keep trying and not give up.
It can help if you work out why you find evangelism difficult and intentionally (and prayerfully) address those reasons.
- Maybe you need some training in evangelism or apologetics?
- Maybe your circles of unbelieving friends are shrinking, and you need to get involved in a new social or sporting network?
- Maybe its just that your evangelistic zeal has cooled and you need to prayerfully apply the gospel to your heart regularly, asking God to help you feel the reality of the judgment and the urgency of people’s salvation.
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