Venue, Format, and Numbers in Evangelism

The Question of Venue: Is the Message Best Presented in Church Meetings?

The traditional answer to this question is "yes." However, it should be noted that this expectation that the Gospel is best presented in church meetings became firmly established during a period of the history of the Western church when virtually everyone born in a Western, "Christian" nation had at least a nominal church affiliation and an understanding that they "ought to" attend some church (even if most of the time they did not). This, in turn, was the natural consequence of an even earlier historical period prior to the Reformation when Catholicism was enforced by law, everyone in Catholic Europe was born a member of that Church and most people in Western Europe thought of the community as merely an outgrowth of the organized Church.

In that social setting, the idea that church meetings are the best place to present the Gospel at least made some sense. But today we do not live in such a social setting. In our modern Western world, the number of people who have even a nominal affiliation with any Christian church is rapidly dwindling, the number of people who have no identification with or accurate knowledge of Christianity is rapidly growing, and the general social sense that one "ought to" attend some church has largely disappeared. In modern times, we can no longer expect the unsaved to come to us. We must go to them.

Going out into the world to find the lost is, of course, the New Testament pattern. A large proportion of the evangelism in the Gospels and in Acts occurred in public places. See, for instance, Matthew 8:1 ff. and 13:1 ff.; Acts 6:8 and 8:5-7. Moreover, in those instances in which outreach occurred in a house of worship, it was in someone else's house of worship -- either the Jewish Temple or a synagogue. For example, see, Matthew 4:23 and 9:35; Luke 4:15-16; Acts 3; Acts 5:12 and 13:14.

To be sure, in I Corinthians 12, as part of his explanation of the proper regulation of manifestation of the spiritual gifts during church meetings, Paul contrasts the effect of tongues with the effect of prophecy on "unlearned and unbelievers" who happen to come into our meetings. I Corinthians 12:22-25. This implies that unbelievers will sometimes be present in our meetings and clearly teaches that we should order our meetings with that possibility in mind. However, this passage neither teaches nor implies that evangelism is to be carried out primarily during church meetings. Indeed, there is not a single New Testament example of evangelistic outreach that occurred during a church meeting in a church building.

The New Testament does not prescribe any single venue for evangelism. There are examples of outreach occurring in private houses, in the Jewish Temple, in synagogues, on the streets, in schools, in the public square, in a place where worldly philosophers gathered to discuss philosophy, and even in jails, courts and governors' palaces. See, Matthew 9:10-13; Acts 4:1-12, 7:1 ff., 9:10-18, 10:17-48, 16:25-34, 17:16-32, 19:9, 22:1 ff, 24:1 ff. Nor are there any instructions in the New Testament that place any location off-limits for evangelism, although it is clear that, in planning evangelistic outreach efforts, we should obey all the laws of men to the extent we can do so without violating God's laws. Romans 13:1-7. We are free to go anywhere, and the New Testament example is that we should follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to go anywhere the people who need our message are.

The Question of Format: Need the Presentation Follow a Worship Service Format?

"Evangelistic" meetings generally follow a standard worship service format. That is, prior to the presentation of the message, there is a series of preliminary exercises -- congregational singing, congregational prayer, announcements and an offering. Then, after the message, there is some more congregational singing and an invitation to "come forward" for prayer or counseling. This format makes some sense for a regular church meeting, which is attended mostly by believers who know most of the songs and are comfortable with the format. It gives the believers present an opportunity to worship and to prepare their hearts for the message.

But the standard worship service format makes no sense for a meeting targeted mostly at unbelievers. Most unbelievers will not know our songs, and even those who know them, because they have a background in our kind of church, will not be honestly able to join in them. An unbeliever, it will be remembered, has no relationship with God as a basis for worship. Receiving an offering from a crowd of unbelievers is also basically a futile activity: some may give out of habit or a sense of guilt, without understanding what they are really doing, but some also will be offended. Our standard worship service preliminaries are often, it might be suspected, an effective method for losing the attention of any unbelievers present. Moreover, as has already been noted, the "invitation" at the end of the service, while important if done correctly, may also often create confusion if the need for a visible "response" to the invitation is incorrectly added to the core message of the Gospel.

With that said, it should be no surprise that there are no New Testament examples of evangelistic meetings carried out in a modern worship service format. Most of the time, the only preliminaries that occurred before New Testament leaders preached to groups of unbelievers were healings and miracles. See, for example, Matthew 4:23-25; Luke 6:17 ff. and 11:16 ff.; Acts 2:4-12, 3:1-10 and 16:25-34. These obtained, rather than lost, the attention of the crowd. When a crowd gathered to hear the message without the need for a miracle to get their attention, the speaker went directly into the message. See, Matthew 5:1 ff. and 13:1 ff.; Luke 11:29 ff. and 12:1 ff.; Acts 13:13 ff., 16:13 and 17:18-22. There is no mention of congregational singing or prayers before the presentation of the message on any such occasion. Nor is there any mention of an offering being taken, since offerings were to be provided by believers�not unbelievers�as an act of worship during their meetings on the first day of the week. See, I Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8-9.

However, what is clear from these examples is that, in the New Testament, the format of meetings held to present the Gospel was flexible and adapted itself to gain and hold the attention of unbelievers under the circumstances presented in each case. Gaining attention for the Gospel message should also be our goal in planning and execution of meetings for unbelievers. Yes, other activities besides preaching may contribute to this goal. Music, drama and dance, presented for the purpose of attracting unbelievers and focusing attention on the coming message, may be effective in some settings. So may video and multimedia presentations, in some instances. Indeed, all of these media may be used to present the Gospel message under some circumstances. Healings and miracles certainly still draw attention, when they occur.

We do not live in the First Century; modern people seem to have busier lives and shorter attention spans than people who lived in less technologically-advanced eras. So we may sometimes have to add things to our presentation that have some "entertainment value" in order to hold the attention of modern people. But there likely will be many other times when it is most appropriate to simply start the meeting with the preaching of the Gospel, just as was often the case in the Early Church. However, we must always remember that the purpose of whatever we add to our presentation is only to focus attention on the Gospel message, not to entertain or to make church people present comfortable in the feeling that they are "in church."

Similar flexibility is required, of course, in the presentation of the Gospel outside of organized meetings.

The Question of Number: Is One-on-One Presentation the Norm Outside of Organized Meetings?

No, the New Testament norm for presentation of the Gospel outside of organized meetings is presentation by pairs or teams of Christians. There are, of course, a few examples of individual believers presenting the Gospel by themselves. See, Acts 8:5-8, 26-40. Thus, there is scriptural example to support strictly individual, one-on-one evangelism. But pairs or groups going out together are much more common in the New Testament than individuals going out alone. Jesus himself usually traveled with the Twelve he had chosen. Moreover, when Jesus sent out seventy of his followers into Israel to preach in preparation for his coming, he sent them out in pairs. Luke 10:1. When Paul was originally sent out by the church in Antioch, Barnabas was sent with him. Acts 11:25-26, 13:1-5. When Paul and Barnabas parted, Paul chose Silas to go with him, and Barnabas chose Mark. Acts 16:35-40. Indeed, Acts suggests that Paul generally traveled with a larger team, not just his principal ministry partner. See, Acts 13:3, 16:1-3, 18:5 and 19:22. Acts records but one instance in which Paul was alone in a city when he preached to the people there. Acts 17:15-34 records Paul's solo ministry in Athens, in which he taught for some time, then preached a powerful sermon on Mars' Hill, but only a few people were saved. Thus, while we are certainly to be ready to give an answer one-on-one to anyone who asks the reason for the hope in us, the norm for organized evangelism is to send pairs or teams.

At least three reasons are fairly obvious for this preference for sending pairs or teams. First, the members of a team can provide each other encouragement and support. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. Going out in teams is a large part of the solution to the common problem of being too afraid to witness, as we give each other courage none of us would have alone. A partner, or the other members of a team can also help us avoid distractions and temptations, and keep focused on what we are doing. Second, when we go in teams, we can give each other immediate prayer support. There is power in two or three agreeing together. Matthew 18:19-20. Finally, going in groups emphasizes our unity to the world. It is through our unity that the world sees the Gospel. John 17:23. No individual is the Body of Christ; the Body is found in groups of believers acting together. See, I Corinthians 12. So the norm for New Testament evangelism is going out deliberately to present the Gospel, and going out in groups or teams, to places where unbelievers are.

Ian Johnson
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ian4christ41@yahoo.com

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