The Speed of Biblical Evangelism

This is part of a series of posts on effective entry strategies in the modern American landscape. I am writing this series as a work in progress, not as an answer that I have found. In some instances, I may not even agree with myself, but I have found that writing out thoughts helps me arrive at answers that I do agree with, both Biblically and personally. I would love constructive feedback so we can grow together to better engage lost people with the Gospel. To follow this conversation, be sure to subscribe to this blog. You can click here to view all blog posts in this series.

I love the feedback and conversation on this series. My last post garnered enough responses that I thought I would repost some notes from friends with some personal comments as well.

Ed in Kansas shares:

Not long term evangelism, but long term response:

- Nicodemus

- Jesus’s brothers

This is a great point! Many readers will be familiar with “4 Responses to the Gospel” as a tool and training module. The first time someone in a training hears that our response to a ‘red light’ is to “move on,” they can find it hard to understand. But Jesus illustrates this perfectly (he illustrates most things perfectly, I suppose). He shows us that the invitation was always left on the table, but he didn’t spend further significant time with Nicodemus or his brothers when they were not interested in following him.'

Delton in Pennsylvania shares:

Frankly,  slow evangelism doesn't make for good stories in Scripture or missionary biographies.  But some of the letters seem to encourage it. 

‭I Thessalonians 4:11-12 NKJV‬ [11] that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, [12] that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

This exhortation seems to point to "lifestyle evangelism."  He seems to be telling us to let our life speak of the reality of the Kingdom as we live among those outside the Kingdom. It doesn't forbid proclaiming,  but the focus of the command is our lifestyle. 

Also Peter:

‭I Peter 2:11-12 NKJV‬ [11] Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, [12] having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

And ‭I Peter 3:15-16 NKJV‬ [15] But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; [16] having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

Our good works are to be a significant part of our witness,  leading people to approach us with questions even before we proclaim to them our hope! 

Now,  this doesn't rule out an active and proactive proclamation of the Gospel,  but it does seem to leave room for that to, at times, be secondary to us quietly living out our witness in our communities until the Spirit softens hearts and opens doors for the proclamation.  

One thing this challenge is our Christian ghetto lifestyle,  which you've mentioned in previous posts.  Our lifestyle witness only works if we are among unbelievers enough for them to bear witness to our hope.  

I have often thought of this Thessalonian passage. And while Paul seems to almost encourage a ‘slowness’ here, we shouldn’t forget 1 Thessalonians 1:8, which says: “The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it…” So there is both an excitement about broad gospel sowing and a calling to live as a consistent follower of Jesus.

Finally, Neill from South Asia shares:

This is a fairly large difference between CPM and DMM approaches.  And especially when DMM is done among Muslims it often does take 3 to 6 meetings to share.  My history would be that I shared “Any3” all the way through at least 200 times in Malalysia over 4 to 5 years …. But never got one follow up meeting.  Somewhere in the middle of the long story I realized I was “sharing too much” and “pushing too far” in one meeting.   

I don’t think there is much easy Biblical evidence for “going slow”.  I do always share that I am a believer in Isa al Masih in a first meeting if I hope to share with that person later, but I don’t get to much of a [gospel] presentation til the third meeting. 

I make some allowances due to the culture you are in, the religion you are reaching out to, the spiritual gifts of any certain believer… keep trying, keep modeling for others, but allow some various patterns… not just one.

This is just such a good reminder that we have to aim for reaching lostness, not aim for using a tool. If 200 gospel shares have not led to even one follow-up meeting, as Neill explained, then it is time to reconsider our approach. Great insight!

Maybe next week we’ll get to a new topic in this series…

Are there Biblical examples of ‘slower’ evangelism?

This is part of a series of posts on effective entry strategies in the modern American landscape. I am writing this series as a work in progress, not as an answer that I have found. In some instances, I may not even agree with myself, but I have found that writing out thoughts helps me arrive at answers that I do agree with, both Biblically and personally. I would love constructive feedback so we can grow together to better engage lost people with the Gospel. To follow this conversation, be sure to subscribe to this blog. You can click here to view all blog posts in this series.

My last post ended with this question: What Biblical passages come to your mind about long-game evangelism?

And while I did get a little feedback on this series in general, no one sent me a specific passage in answer.

But, recently I was studying Acts 16:5-16 with some friends and we saw a couple of places where we could nuance an answer. Even Paul, it seems, did not instantaneously share the Gospel everywhere he went. (Although he did seek to do so and he engaged people in conversations that pointed to Jesus as the way all the time.)

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. - Acts 16:6-10 NIV

How much time passed (and miles were walked) between the start of this passage and the end? There was a desire to reach those without the Gospel, and there was even specific movement toward the sharing Gospel, but it seems like there was very little actual Gospel work. Are we talking months? Hundreds of miles? Probably. Did Paul, Timothy, Silas, and Luke feel like they were making an impact for the kingdom? Probably not. But were they pursuing God’s heart for the lost? Probably yes.

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. - Acts 16:11-13 NIV (emphasis mine)

I had never noticed the phrase “And we stayed there several days” before. Reading the text, this is probably at most 6 days, because at the first possible Sabbath, they went where Jews and God-fearing Greeks would gather. What did they do for those days? Possibly they were engaging in spiritual conversations without any recorded fruit, or possibly they were waiting and praying. We really don’t know, but I was surprised to see that little gap in time there that I had never noticed before.

I’ll give us one more from the next chapter:

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. - Acts 17:16, NIV

It seems again that while Paul did very much get directly to the Gospel message, there was a short period of observing and feeling God’s heart for the lost.

Alright, now that I have got you started, I’ll ask the question one more time: What Biblical passages come to your mind about long-game evangelism?

Send a reply or a message! We’ll move on to a different, similar topic next week.

Short game vs long game evangelism

This is part of a series of posts on effective entry strategies in the modern American landscape. I am writing this series as a work in progress, not as an answer that I have found. In some instances, I may not even agree with myself, but I have found that writing out thoughts helps me arrive at answers that I do agree with, both Biblically and personally. I would love constructive feedback so we can grow together to better engage lost people with the Gospel. To follow this conversation, be sure to subscribe to this blog. You can click here to view all blog posts in this series.

I don’t even like the word evangelism. I don’t know if I ever have. But, call it what you like, all followers of Jesus are given the task to Make Disciples of people that are currently NOT followers of Jesus. So at some point, the message of Jesus needs to be shared, and the reality of a different worldview needs to be addressed…

How do we approach this? We can play the short game. The “no place left” training path is great at this. You can truly get from Hello to the Gospel in one conversation. I think we should be ready to do this. I’ve trained this a lot. I’ve done this a lot.

But, that approach has its challenges, as it can quickly burn bridges or leave us with no other options after we’ve knocked on every door in a neighborhood.

We can also think about the long game. I think that the KC Underground has done a great job of codifying a slightly longer but still intentional pathway to telling people about Jesus. (Basically: pray, engage, move from casual to meaningful to spiritual conversations, and invite people into discovery Bible studies).

But the long game has its challenges too. First of all, the urgency of the task can be lost. There are literally billions of people dying without hope and without Jesus. How long of a game can we play? Second, I don’t see a lot of Biblical support for long-game evangelism.

Short-game evangelism is all over the Word: the Woman at the Well, Philip with the Ethiopian, The Jailer in Philippi… I could go on. As Mike Shipman said in my interview: "The Gospel is never intentionally delayed in the New Testament past the first meeting."

I fully agree with that statement, but I also feel at a loss when it comes to reaching two very different places:

• My neighborhood (Leading with the gospel puts you as the ‘weirdo’ that people avoid.)

• High-security concern places (Western missionaries will get kicked out and local believers will immediately get persecuted if they lead with the Gospel.)

This quote from Nik Ripken in The Insanity of Obedience is appropriate at this point:

“The more resistant, the more dysfunctional the culture, the older and more respected should be those we build relationships with in order to become a midwife to a rapid spread of the Good News. Historical Christian cultures will increasingly focus on reaching children in order to protect and preserve their denominational or theological base. To begin movements, befriending those thirty years and above with a godly, in-culture witness is the healthiest manner through which to see the kingdom of God start strong, grow deep and wide.” P166

This leads me to this question: Are there Biblical examples of long-game evangelism? Let’s end this post there. I would love to hear from you.

What Biblical passages come to your mind about long-game evangelism? Are there any? Please reply or send me a message!

We don’t spend enough time with lost people.

This is part of a series of posts on effective entry strategies in the modern American landscape. I am writing this series as a work in progress, not as an answer that I have found. In some instances, I may not even agree with myself, but I have found that writing out thoughts helps me arrive at answers that I do agree with, both Biblically and personally. I would love constructive feedback so we can grow together to better engage lost people with the Gospel. To follow this conversation, be sure to subscribe to this blog. You can click here to view all blog posts in this series.

To connect this to previous posts, I ended the last blog by saying: “One of the biggest challenges in having any engagement with lost people is…”

The average American believer does not spend any significant time with people who are far from God. As I have trained extensively in evangelism, the most common trainee is not there because they have no desire to share their faith and have made no attempts to do so. No, the most common trainee is someone who HAS attempted spiritual conversations with the few lost people who are regularly in their lives (a family member or two, a co-worker, one or two neighbors). The trainee comes to the training because he or she is looking for some other tool or method that will help them get further with that person.

The reality is that the person that they want to share with may be, for the time being, a “red-light”. A new method is not what is missing. God needs to work in their heart in his time.

But then, practically, the trainee has no one else… or maybe more appropriately, no WHERE else to share the Gospel. They have been faithful with their small relational network, but do not have anywhere else to engage lost people. (The smallness of their relational network is often just due to our American culture, not necessarily the fault of the trainee.)

I could say “Find some ponds to fish in,” but I think before we fish we might just need to go find some ponds. Yes, we can lead with the Gospel and share about Jesus far more quickly than we think, but the emphasis on that previous statement needs to be “find some ponds”.

Just go make a regular habit of hanging out with lost people. Not just around them, but in relationships with them. It won’t be easy. Many of the spaces that used to be natural places to connect have been hijacked by the ever-present smartphone.

I’ve heard rumors that there are neighborhoods in America that still naturally connect with block parties and mailbox conversations. Mine isn’t one of those. It’s not that we haven’t been welcomed into a relational network… after 10 years of living in the same neighborhood I have seen the stark truth: There is no relational network in some neighborhoods.

So yes, start with that small list of people that you want to see come to Jesus. But if you have already lived as a faithful witness to them, shared as much as you can with them, and left the door open for more spiritual conversation… then it’s time to find another pond or two.

Two resources to dive into if you, like me, need some help in this area:

1) A simple one-pager from Rodger Shull on the types of communities that are good to enter.

2) The KC Underground has a great focus on entering existing networks of relationships in their initial training rollout: The Missionary Pathway - KC Underground

Does a house of peace search work in America?

This is part of a series of posts on effective entry strategies in the modern American landscape. I am writing this series as a work in progress, not as an answer that I have found. In some instances, I may not even agree with myself, but I have found that writing out thoughts helps me arrive at answers that I do agree with, both Biblically and personally. I would love constructive feedback so we can grow together to better engage lost people with the Gospel. To follow this conversation, be sure to subscribe to this blog. You can click here to view all blog posts in this series.

A friend of mine summarized this challenge on a recent Zoom call. I wish I had recorded his words, but my best attempt to summarize is this:

“The House of Peace search in America has given us a place to take any believer out and show them that starting spiritual conversations that lead to sharing the Gospel is possible. It’s not clear if it is finding us actual houses of peace with any regularity.”

While there are exceptions, the infrequency of finding actual people of peace would beg us to take a step back. I think there are a lot of things at play here, but one of them is that we have failed to recognize the vast differences in culture and context between three distinct times and places:

1) The time of Jesus and the place of Israel. We find the instructions for the disciples when Jesus sends them to look for a person of peace in Luke 9, 10, and Matthew 10.

2) The present time and the places that have seen huge movements to Christ.

3) The present time and any place where modern American culture is the dominant cultural norm.

Does our modern American culture have even a whiff of the hospitality that existed in Jesus’ time in Israel? I would say no.

When someone shows up at an American home without an invitation, the present cultural response of the American “host” is this: “How do I get rid of this person politely but quickly?” (We would never voice this, but if you think I’m wrong, consider your own thoughts when a pollster or salesman shows up at your door without an invite.)

When someone showed up at a home in Jesus’ time (and I would say, in many places in the world today), the cultural response was: “Come in, let me get you something to eat and drink while you rest.”

One of those cultural responses would make it easier to live out the command given to the original disciples: “Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you.” The other would necessitate we understand the principle behind the command.

The principles of Luke 10 are 100% true. But the practical outworking of them in America is not so easy. Principles from the Word will inform modern work in any culture and context. However, a failure to recognize the differences in culture and context can lead to a lack of fruit which can, in turn, lead to frustration on the part of the laborers.

There has been tremendous fruit from a near-literal following of these Luke 10 commands when they have been applied in places that have a similar cultural hospitality response as Israel in the time of Jesus. I think we should celebrate that fruit whenever we hear about it. But, should we take the model of sending out teams two by two to villages in India and transpose it across the ocean by sending out teams two by two into American neighborhoods?

I think two things are true: First (I repeat myself), the principles from Luke 10 still apply in America. Second, the fruit of this effort on American soil has not been as stellar. Therefore, if the principles of Luke 10 still apply, I would argue we haven’t put them into practice in a culturally appropriate way.

This isn’t a new problem, as my friend Rodger noted back in 2017.

In fact, across all three networks, every single church that was started by going 2X2 had ceased to exist. The only churches that lasted were ones where a person or a group of people decided to share with their relational networks and invite them to their own house to gather as a church. This was a massive revelation to me because the facts were painting a pretty clear picture of what was working, yet no one in the Gathering or BAH networks was looking at these facts and letting them inform their strategy.

Despite all this, the two-by-two-door-knocking-house-of-peace search still seems to a regular way we are training people to reach the lost and make disciples. We are guilty of what we often accuse other ministries of doing: Repeating the same pattern without seeing much fruit and expecting to see different results.

Before you comment or message: Yes, of course there are exceptions to what I am saying. God can do and will do what he wants to draw people to himself. However, I have not heard or seen enough data (or even anecdotal stories) in the last seven years to contradict Rodger’s point from Houston in 2017 which was held up by the data.

So where do we go from here? I have a whole lineup of posts on the subject, so head to ontheroad.link to get subscribed to the conversation.

Two by Two and Oikos

Welcome to the start of a series of posts on effective entry strategies in the modern American landscape. I am writing this series as a work in progress, not as an answer that I have found. In some instances, I may not even agree with myself, but I have found that writing out thoughts helps me arrive at answers that I do agree with, both Biblically and personally. I would love constructive feedback so we can grow together to better engage lost people with the Gospel. To follow this conversation, be sure to subscribe to this blog. You can click here to view all blog posts in this series.

My first post is a guest post from a friend, Rodger Shull, about a shift in entry strategies they made as they pursued the the lost in Houston several years ago. From this point forward, his words are in regular text and any comments I make will be italicized.

2X2, Oikos, and Why Research Is Important In CPMs By: Rodger Guigou Shull

Though this case study is written by me, I am indebted to the Holy Spirit for truly being the one who revealed this information to me. He gave me this understanding through His Word, but also His works.

Background

    In 2017, I was walking around an apartment complex in southeast Houston in the heat of the summer, and I was frustrated. For 2 years, my team in the city had been going 2X2, knocking on doors, and sharing the gospel as the Bible talks about in Matthew 10 and Luke 10. Despite all of these efforts and thousands of gospel shares, it seemed like we had few if any disciples or churches that had started..

When Rodger says “going 2X2” he means a specific engagement strategy of going out as a pair of believers and engaging people where they are (often knocking on their doors). Usually, the people you are meeting are strangers to you at the outset.

    I prayed and told God that I would continue going 2X2 as long as He wanted me to, but it seemed like a pretty fruitless endeavor. In that moment, in the middle of those pastel-colored apartments, He opened my eyes to something I had been missing in His Word.

The Revelation

    I had done enough Bible studies about persons of peace (POP) to know that many gatherings and churches in the Gospels and Acts were started by faithful witnesses going 2X2 to find a POP who would then share with and gather their relational networks (or “oikos”). In fact, I thought that was how all of the churches were started in the Bible.

A few examples of this are Cornelius gathering his household in Acts 10 and Lydia and the Philippian jailer and their households responding in faith in Acts 16.

    However, on that day, God brought to my mind the story of Pisidian Antioch. The church there was started when crowds gathered around Paul and Barnabas as they went to the synagogue to teach. The story never mentions a person of peace! Despite reading through Acts many times, I had never seen this before.

Analyzing The Data

This understanding of the Scriptures was so new and exciting that I couldn’t get it off of my mind. I decided to pull out a church generational map to see if I could find consistent characteristics amongst the churches in our networks that were sustaining for a long period of time that differentiated them from those that were dying off within a few months.

Of the three major house church networks in Houston, M4, Gathering (the network I am a part of), and Bay Area Houston (BAH) networks, it was very clear that the churches in the M4 network were sustaining much better than those in the other two networks. The biggest difference is that the Gathering and BAH networks were doing a massive amount of 2X2 sharing while the M4 network was not.

In fact, across all three networks, every single church that was started by going 2X2 had ceased to exist. The only churches that lasted were ones where a person or a group of people decided to share with their relational networks and invite them to their own house to gather as a church. This was a massive revelation to me because the facts were painting a pretty clear picture of what was working, yet no one in the Gathering or BAH networks was looking at these facts and letting them inform their strategy.

Communicating The Findings

I was so excited about what God showed me through His word and works that the next time my team met together, I could barely contain myself. When I had my first opportunity to speak, I blurted out everything I had been shown by God in one long, rapid-paced mass of words. After getting out everything I wanted to say in about a minute, I stopped, took a breath, and looked up, and was greeted by dumbfounded stares from my entire team. Needless to say, they did not receive my blunt communication style and more or less blew me off.

Nonetheless, over the coming months, I kept putting my findings before them and forced them to see what I saw. The facts were brutal because they showed that a major part of our strategy was not effective in reaching our vision, but in the end, the facts don’t lie and we slowly started to conform to the truths they showed us.

In hindsight, I should not have been this frank and overbearing in how I went about sharing my thoughts. A more gracious and slow conversation would have been much more Christ-like than beating the data over my team’s head. I’m thankful that they were gracious towards me. They did eventually tell me to tone down how I talked as kindly as they could, so hopefully I won’t make the same mistake in the future. 

Changing The Strategy

After many months, we started to view our oikos as the primary people we needed to focus on when seeking to share the gospel. We started vision casting toward the importance of sharing with our oikos during our church gatherings and in our strategy meetings.     

The Result

Our total number of sustained disciples and churches immediately began to increase despite the fact that our total number of gospel shares decreased. Not only that, but we have gradually elevated the role that research has in informing our strategy as we continue to also seek the Lord through abiding in Christ, prayer, fasting, and His Word.

Wow, don’t miss that takeaway. The answer to seeing more fruit among lost people was NOT more Gospel sharing. It was having a more strategic intent in how they were sharing the Gospel. Or to be more specific, they were being more strategic about who they approached in the first place.

Takeaways

If you are struggling with getting to sustained churches and disciples, I encourage you to consider whether or not you are elevating Oikos as the primary people that you and your team need to be sharing with.

Remember, by “Oikos” Rodger means you and your disciples’ relational network.

However, that’s not really the point of this case study. The story about how we changed our entry strategy was really just an illustration of the important role that tracking and research play in informing CPM strategy. Prayer and biblical principles should be what we go to first when trying to come up with a good CPM strategy, but I find that practitioners frequently base their strategies on what they feel will work, on a hypothesis, or on what best suits their temperament. There are myriads of reasons why this may be the case: maybe people don’t usually think in terms of research, maybe no one is keeping track of the information, or maybe the facts are too difficult to bear so people don’t want to face them.

 Whatever the reason I pray that CPM practitioners would elevate the role of the researcher on their teams, and would allow facts to inform their strategy.

You can find Rodger’s original article here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f670FdATJ-okHfWcVlrTAOKL69baJg3Sv3AfA7mdvrA/edit?usp=sharing

He provides these links to these other resources:

NPL Houston Case Studies: 2016, 2017

A helpful Bible study on the importance of sharing with oikos: Video, Document