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Since 1991 I have served the Lord in
England as an evangelist. During
that time I have preached thousands
of times in churches, camps and
special events. I have helped to lead
evangelistic missions, holiday Bible
clubs and witnesses at agricultural
and county shows. I have been privileged
to be there for the birth of
Challenge Community Church in
Hereford, and have seen the Lord
use and grow the work of Youth
Trek with young people.
However, one thing has challenged
me perhaps more than any other – the demise of evangelistic missions
in local churches. In years gone by,
and more so even before my early
days as an evangelist, the “gospel mission” was the main stay of the
work of the evangelist, and supplied
the regular oxygen needed by
churches, both in seeing people converted
and in enthusing their fellowship
for the task of evangelism.
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Times have changed. Firstly, in
England, church attendance dropped
from 11.3% in 1975 to 9.5% in
1989. Since then, that number has
slumped to around 5%! In the
1960’s and 70’s when missions were
popular and well attended, they
were boosted by the large minority
of Christians in the area of the mission.
Often Christians from other
local churches would attend and
support a mission in another church.
Still, many other missions were
organised on a town or area wide
basis. Sometimes an evangelist only
had to pitch his tent on the local
green to draw an interested crowd.
Secondly, when unsaved people
came to the mission, they had some
kind of religious or church background.
Many of them would have
been to Sunday school or perhaps
had Christian parents or grandparents.That background acted as prepared
ground for the seed of the
Good News. Sadly, we now live in a
society where churches are empty,
and most people have no background
or understanding of the Bible or the gospel. I recently heard the
remark of a school boy who asked
the teacher why God named his son
after a swear word!
Thirdly, as a result of all this, and
also because of the encroachment
of the world and worldly values into
our lives and churches, we have lost,
to a greater degree, our passion for
the lost and the necessity of evangelism.
We are all busier than ever
before and time is of the essence.
The pace of life has meant that
many Christians struggle to maintain
a daily quiet time. The world in
which we live preaches a message of
tolerance. In this atmosphere the
gospel seems an unpalatable message,
even to some believers!
Finally, there have been some successes. “The Alpha Course” in particular,
but others too, like “the Why
Course” have shown that the gospel
is still the “power of God for the salvation
of all those who believe!” The
Alpha course in particular has a tried
and tested formula – a hearty meal,
a friendly and informal environment,
a clear presentation, and an opportunity
to discuss the issues form the
basis of its success.
Unfortunately many of us have put
all our eggs in one basket. For some
churches the evangelism programme
is “Alpha.” If it is fruitful,
that is great, but many run out of
steam, and others are dependant on
the same few Christians to organise
them, thereby not involving the
whole church in the fulfillment of
the great commission. “We don’t
need evangelistic preaching today,
people won’t listen to it” some say.
Let’s not forget that evangelistic
preaching is at the heart of the
Alpha course! In fact the messages
are 45 minutes long on average,
longer than most church sermons!
It is not the preaching or the presentation
of the gospel that people
have rejected, but the packaging.
Our society has turned its back on
the church with its outmoded forms
of worship, dress, and poor image!
How sad if our “image” puts people
of, when we have the very message
our world needs!
Martin Erwin
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