Biblical Success in a Small-Town Church (Part 1/4): Evangelism

I'm going to begin a four-part series on what biblical success looks like for the small-town church. (Though my focus and context is rural ministry, in all actuality, these apply to the city church as well.) The fuel for this discussion comes from a frustration with worldly standards of success - which can be specially difficult to please in a small town.

One of the hardest questions that can be asked of a small-town church or minister is, "How many members do you have?", or better yet, "Has your church grown since the time that you started there?" Sometimes these questions are followed up by asking how many are in the town. Upon hearing the answer to their question, the questioner does the mental math and comments on whether that's a good or bad ratio of members-to-town population.

It's not that these questions are inherently rude; in fact, I would probably ask the same questions if I were in their shoes. The problem lies in what they reflect. Behind these questions is the mindset that the success and goal of the local minister, or of the local church, is determined by the amount of people in the pews on Sunday morning. I do believe that there IS a place for acknowledging a head count, but that's a different discussion for another time. My question is whether the aim of Jesus' command to make disciples (Mt 28:19-20) was ever primarily concerned with a head count or membership. My thesis is that it was not, but rather that it involved (and still should involve): evangelism, good works, discipleship, and training. In the first post of this series, I'll address evangelism.

Evangelism*
To become a disciple of Jesus one first has to have their heart transformed by the Gospel. The Gospel is the Good News of God's grace in Christ that was first preached in the early church. Believing the message that God took the punishment of sin for humanity upon Himself in the death of Christ is the only way that we don't have to have our just desserts. Instead Jesus, Who was raised from the dead, has power over death and gives a spiritual resurrection to all kinds of people. People who by nature were not God-fearing (Rom 3:9-19) can worship God from their hearts. What is the mark of such a heart transformation, of becoming a disciple? Faith.

This response of faith only comes about by the preaching of the Gospel (Rom 10:17). So if the initiation to becoming a disciple depends on a heart transformation, can we hold this as a responsibility of the local pastor or church? No, even though we know and can expect God to transform people through the preaching of His Word, we can't take that impossible burden of changing hearts upon ourselves. We should ask, however, as a standard of "success" or health, if we are doing our part in sharing the Gospel message with the community God has placed us in (and by 'sharing the Gospel', I'm referring to oral communication). We are stewards of the Gospel and ought to make that message known and understood to others. A church that does not convey this message of God's grace in Christ to mankind is missing the ball. Rather than measuring nickels and noise, our participation in communicating this message to our community should be a standard of success that we take seriously.

During this past first year that we've been in Vogla, I (Chris) have gone around to several homes. I hope to have been to the rest by the end of this next summer or so. I didn't go out of my way to explain that I was the new pastor in town, although some guessed within seconds (not hard to do when you live in a town of 200 and everyone knows when someone new is moving in!). Nor did I push for an opportunity to share the Gospel. Pastors often are seen as alien life forms to be avoided; I wanted to come across as a "normal person". I wanted to come across as friendly and without an agenda. When I follow up with these folks as I meet with them around town or as we build friendships with them, I will look for ways to share the Gospel with them. Some folks I've found are not timid to talk about faith and that's great for me. If I do a second round of doing door-to-door visits I may employ tracts or a personal testimony, but I want people to know I care about them and don't simply have a superficial interest. The Gospel gives us gives us greater reason to care about people. If we altogether avoid communicating the hope we have, we're failing to measure up to biblical success.

*Note on Evangelism: I'm using the term evangelism how many folks use it today - to describe the initial transaction in the life of a disciple between the sharing of the Gospel and the heart transformation in the recipient of God's grace. The biblical term evangelism, however, encompasses much more than just preaching the Gospel to the unsaved; disciples are also to continue being fed the Gospel and its truths throughout our lives. I'm using the term evangelism to speak of the proclamation of God's grace in Christ to those who have not yet embraced Him - though the terminology in Scripture doesn't limit itself to just that.