Developing an Evangelism Strategy for a Rural Church

Have you ever heard a statement such as, “Only X percent of Christians ever share their faith?” Usually, it’s some number like only five or two percent. Or maybe you have heard this one? "If half of the Christians will just win one person to Christ each year, we can win the whole world in ten years.”

I'm not saying these statements are inaccurate, but I want to move beyond using guilt to motivate people to witness.

The truth is most Christians already feel guilty about not witnessing more. True evangelism comes out of the overflow of our spiritual life. As for me, I was once sentenced to death, but I've been given life in Jesus. I got to tell somebody!

METHODS VS STRATEGY

What we’re talking about here is the difference between evangelism methods and evangelism strategy. Starting with method is like a doctor starting with a prescription without doing a thorough exam. We want to do the examination first.

Most evangelism methods come from a suburban setting and are based on the law of large numbers. For example, if I were to go down the street of a big city witnessing to everyone I met, I can keep going until I finally find somebody who's willing to listen to me. It doesn’t matter if they get mad at me. But in a rural setting, I have to understand the law of interwoven relationships.

Let’s say I go to a town of one thousand people. I go to the mayor first and say, “Let me tell you about Jesus.” If I make him mad, I just made the principal of the school mad, because that’s his wife. And the chief of police, his brother. And his sister-in-law who runs the bank. Once I make one person mad, I've killed my witness in the whole community. We need to think carefully about strategy.

A SPIRITUAL PROCESS

Lost people are somewhere along a spiritual spectrum. On one end are people that are antagonistic toward Jesus. The next place on the spectrum is uninterested. The next place on the spectrum is a person interested in the Gospel. Then the moment of conversion!

Most evangelism methods focus just on the conversion end of the spectrum. But in rural settings, you have to build to conversion. Of course, every conversion is a miracle from God and sometimes God uses us to slowly move somebody along.

One time my dad’s preacher asked, “Who do you know in the community that would be the most unlikely to go to church?” Dad said, “George won't ever go.” Dad had invited him to church a couple times. George’s response was emphatic, “I’ll never go to church, don’t ask me again.” Then the preacher said, “Start praying for him.” Dad responded, “That's a waste of time and energy. He's antagonistic.” But he started praying for George.

The next time dad saw George, he asked again, “Would you like to go to church?” And George said, “What would I have to wear?” Dad said, “Just come as you are.” George showed up the next Sunday. And the Sunday after that, George gave his life to Christ. Three weeks later he was baptized. By the time George passed away, he was teaching a class in the church. It's a miracle!

Now Geore jumped from uninterested to interested to conversion just in a matter of three weeks. But as we know, that's the exception, not the rule. Most of us are working with people who are years in the process. And you can't go to them and apply some new evangelism method you’ve just learned. In rural areas, building relationships is a key part of moving them along that spectrum.

THREE TYPES OF EVANGELISTST

Here are three types of people in each church. There’s the Gifted Evangelist. There’s the Timid Evangelist. And there’s the Non-Evangelist.

The Gifted Evangelist is easy to spot. They come to every evangelism training event held at the church. They're constantly looking for that next surefire method. They'll go to conference after conference. They come back and say, “Hey preacher, we ought to do this new method of evangelism” and get mad when you are slow to respond.

Timid Evangelists will share the gospel with their cousins or close friends when the situation is just right. They will reluctantly attend evangelism training classes but seldom use what they learn.

Non-Evangelists have not shared the gospel with another person. Also, they will not come to any evangelism training.

My cousin Troy is a classic example. He became a Christian when he was 45. He's a quiet man and just a good old country boy. He'll tell you, “I'm not good with words.”

Troy will never come to a witness training event. He has to have a relationship with someone and feel safe enough before he’ll talk, much less witness to someone.

The Non-Evangelist or Timid Evangelist hardly ever turn into a Gifted Evangelist. It’s like trying to change their DNA when you're trying to move them from one end of the spectrum to the other. It's just not going happen. So we have to think differently.

I asked my cousin Troy one day, “How you do you witness?” He said, “Watermelons!” I said that makes no sense. He went on to elaborate, “When my watermelons get ripe, I fill up my pickup truck with watermelons. I then go through the community and hand them out to everyone. I then invite them to church.”

His philosophy is to get them to church where an evangelist can talk with them. For Troy, handing out watermelons in the community has become his method of evangelism.

SMALL STEPS OF COURAGE

The Timid Evangelists are probably going to need something more than a project like growing watermelons. They need a safe place where they can exercise 90 seconds of pure courage.

Here is one suggestion. Ask them to tithe one night a month and invite somebody over for dinner who doesn't go to church. For the Timid Evangelist, this is a stretching exercise. They may need some training before this. They need to understand the unchurched will come for ice cream or a cookout when they won't come for Sunday school. The 90 seconds of courage comes when it is time to eat.

The timid evangelist can say something like, “I go to__________ Church, and I want to invite you to come to our church on Sunday. If you come, I'll meet you at the door and walk in with you. Now I'm going to pray for our food. ”They pray and that's all.

Here's a second suggestion for the Timid Evangelist. Take the five houses on each side of them. Go to each door and say, “I'm___________ from ____________Church. I want to pray for my neighbors, and I want to pray for you. Is there anything in your life I can pray for right now?” Sometimes people will reject you. Most of the time they'll tell you something.

The key to this ministry is to pray with them right there. But pray a short prayer, like, “Lord, this person's mother is dying. We pray for them in this terrible situation that you give them peace. Let them know that you love the min a very real way. Amen.” Start with a few houses and pray for them.

Then go back in a month and say, “I've been praying for your mother. How'd that go? Oh she passed away? I'm so sorry. Let me pray for you and your family.” The neighbor might be thinking about how serious death is. Now they know a church has been praying for them and loves them. The goal is to get them to think, “I don’t go to church anywhere. But if I were to go to a church, I would go to that church that is praying for me.

CREATING A CULTURE OF EVANGELISM

As soon as someone becomes a Christian, I teach them to share their faith, even before I teach them to pray. I want them to go back to their friends and say, “I once was blind, but now I see.” Remember that Bible story of the lame guy? He said, “I don't know how it happened, but it was this man named Jesus.”

After they’re comfortable with that, then teach them to include one Bible verse, like John 3:16. Other methods can come later, but give people something real and something simple.

We should also constantly celebrate evangelism from the pulpit. One day I asked Troy up to the front to talk about his watermelons. I didn’t say, “Tell us about your evangelism method, ”because Troy would pass out and die. I said, “Troy, take just a minute and tell us about your watermelons.” He said, “I grow watermelons y'all.” I asked, “What do you do with those watermelons?” “I give them to people and invite those people to church.” Then I said to the congregation, “You can do this too.”

Prepare each person to minister at their level and challenge them without using guilt. This is how Jesus did it. Jesus was like, “Come and see. Look, listen, and learn.” He didn't teach his disciples a method. It was more of a strategy which matched that specific person, even though the message was still the same.

In the rural setting, don't focus so much on methods. Focus on relationships and encourage people to take one step forward at a time. When people are working from within their specific evangelism giftedness, they can be very effective for Christ!

Dr. Jeffrey Clark serves on the Advisory Council for Rural Church Institute.