World Evangelism Is a Team Sport

* originally posted Oct. 21, 2007, at sbcimpact.org

During the last half-century or so, much has been made of the importance of personal evangelism. This emphasis, no doubt, has had many positive effects. For example, whenever you gather together a group of evangelical Christians and ask them to raise their hand, indicating how they came to know Christ, almost invariably, the great majority respond that the influence of a friend or family member who shared Christ with them personally was of primary importance. In the overall scheme of things, personal evangelism has proved more effective than crusade evangelism, mass media evangelism, or many other similar methods. However, I think it is possible that, at least in some circles, we have done an overkill on personal evangelism.

As Americans, we have a cultural tendency to be very individualistic. We also have a tendency to be task-oriented as opposed to relationship-oriented. There are certain individuals with a natural ability to make cold turkey conversation with people, explain the gospel to them, and lead them to make a decision to follow Christ. Many of these may also have an authentic spiritual gifting as an evangelist. I believe it is very important that these people be encouraged and empowered in the use of their gifts. In church planting ministry, for example, a key factor in numerical growth early on is having at least one person (preferably more) in the group who is gifted, encouraged, and empowered as a personal evangelist. The problem, many times, however, is when these people practice gift projection and begin to insinuate that if everyone else were as spiritual as they are, they would regularly share Christ in the same way as them and likely have the same results.

I think a more balanced view is to recognize that God made each of us differently and has given a different combination of spiritual gifts to each one. And while it is true that some may be more gifted than others at a certain style of evangelism, the Great Commission was not given to us as individuals, but rather as fellow members of the Body of Christ. This means that in order to truly carry out Jesus’ command, we must learn to work together.

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet ‘I don’t need you!’” The Becoming a Contagious Christian course, written by Mark Mittelberg, Lee Strobel, and Bill Hybels, does a great job of driving home this point. It teaches that while each one of us as individuals is called to play a part in the proclamation of the gospel to lost souls, different members of the Body of Christ have different styles of evangelism in which they operate most naturally. Some are more gifted at a more direct, confrontational style. Others are better at building long-lasting friendships with people that serve as a helpful platform for sharing Christ. Some are especially talented at reaching out to others through acts of kindness and service. Others find it very natural to invite their friends and neighbors to special activities at which they know the gospel will be shared in an appropriate manner. Still others are best equipped to answer difficult questions and help unsaved people work through intellectual doubts. The most effective evangelism, though, is when each one of these works together as a team with others who may have different gifts and preferred styles.

One very practical point in relation to this is that it is very often quite strategic, whenever we have a spiritual burden for a lost friend, to introduce them as soon as possible to other members of the Body of Christ. It has been noted, for example, that the average person, before coming to faith in Christ, has around seven different meaningful encounters in which the gospel is shared in one way or another with them. Many times, where we ourselves may not be successful at helping our unsaved friend to cross the line of faith, another member of the Body of Christ may be able to follow up our witness and bring them to this point. It has also been demonstrated that the probability of new converts leaving out the back door of the church within the first year after making a decision is directly inverse to the number of meaningful relationships they had within the church before making that decision.

On a similar note, I believe that God has especially designed it so that the Great Commission and the task of world evangelism cannot be successfully accomplished by the efforts of any one segment of the Body of Christ working in isolation from the rest. As Southern Baptists, God has used us greatly in world missions and evangelism. But we cannot say we do not have need of the other parts of Christ’s Body, whether in our own backyard or around the world. As American Christians in general, we have the same need of working together with our brothers and sisters in Christ from other countries and people groups.

On a baseball team, each team member has a unique role to fulfill. The leadoff hitter is normally gifted at getting on base and stealing bases. The clean-up hitter, though, is normally more gifted at driving in runs and hitting the ball out of the ballpark. In the same way, the pitcher, and each of the various fielders, has a unique role to play that contributes in a special way to the overall success of the team effort. In our local evangelistic efforts, some are great leadoff hitters. They are able to meet new people with ease and first introduce them to the Body of Christ. Others may be more gifted as clean-up hitters, able to tackle the difficult questions some of the leadoff hitters may be baffled by.

In world missions, some organizations may be great at translating the Bible into new languages. Others may specialize at reaching university students and intellectuals. Certain denominations, for one reason or another, seem better suited than others for reaching people of certain socio-economic groups. In the past, God has allowed the American church to be especially used in sending out cross-cultural workers from amongst themselves to the far corners of the earth. In recent years, though, it seems like a good part of the gifting and anointing as foot-soldiers in the task of fulfilling the Great Commission is being sovereignly distributed by God to believers in the two-thirds world. At the same time, the relative priority responsibility of the American church to financially underwrite the world missions enterprise does not seem to be diminishing. That is not to imply, though, that the American church should intentionally send out fewer cross-cultural workers. It is generally not a bad thing for your leadoff hitter to hit home runs.

The implications of this are far too broad to discuss them all here. The important point to remember is that God especially delights in using all of the various members of Christ’s Body to accomplish the tasks He has given us. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them to all men” (1 Cor. 12:4–6). In our positive and necessary emphasis on personal evangelism, may we not at the same time fall into an overly individualistic approach to evangelism and world missions.