Result Driven Evangelism
Evangelistic conferences can sometimes be really good, and at other times they can be very odd. Just like everyone else, those who are involved in gospel ministry can sometimes be impacted by pride, and the constant desire to see results for their labour.
In 2012, I was invited to attend a conference for evangelists which gathered men from around the world for a few days of fellowship, training, and then outreach. I arrived a few hours early, so upon arrival at the hotel, I got to mingle with other evangelists who had also arrived early. As we chatted, something I noticed was that there seemed to be a bit of ‘spiritual jostling’ going on, that is, there were these attempts to outdo the other evangelist by speaking of all the ‘fruit’ that had been seen in their respective ministries.
Being the youngest one in the room, no one paid too much attention to me, until one man said, “Josh, what is the largest crowd you have ever preached to?” I wasn’t sure of the exact numbers, but I remember one church saying they had 800 people in attendance at an evangelistic service where I preached, so that was the number I used. Upon hearing this, the older evangelist just smiled, laughed, and said, “Oh… OK… you are one of those low-level evangelists who don’t speak to many people.” With that, I was ignored.
Over the years, I have noticed that in evangelistic work there is a desire to speak to large crowds and to see visible fruit from our gospel work. These desires aren’t necessarily wrong, as we should desire to proclaim Christ to as many as possible, and we should long for many to be converted. The danger, however, is that in our desire to see the crowds and the results, we can often lose focus upon God, and the good news He has given.
It is easy to be tempted into compromise, soften our message, or engage in man-centred approaches to draw the crowd. It is easy to lower the gospel call of repentance and faith, to one of easy-believism so that we can get people to “uh-huh” to a few questions we ask them about Jesus. It isn’t hard to get people to say they want to be saved, and it isn’t hard to gather a crowd. But if we spend our time focusing upon the crowds and results, then what we are doing is feeding our pride. We are finding our identity as gospel preachers not in the Lord who calls us, but rather in the tangible results.
I do understand the temptation to focus on getting bigger crowds and increasing the results of our outreaches. I understand this temptation because in times past I have given into it. There have been times when I have thought that if I am truly going to succeed as an evangelistic preacher, then I need to get more people saved. This temptation is fuelled by the fact that many Pastors and churches often ask gospel preachers about their results and how many people have been saved under their ministry. I know of churches who have rejected solid gospel preachers all because they didn’t have the required number of people saved in the month previous.
The internal pressure of pride and the external pressure of results can very easily make preachers compromise. But by doing so, we turn into unfaithful servants of the Lord, and in many cases, we create false converts. What we need to realise is that the Lord in His providence is the One who gathers the crowd, and does the saving. I can’t save anyone – salvation is completely a work of God. If He wills to use me to see thousands converted, then that is a sovereign work of God. If He chooses to use me to only see a handful of people saved, then again, that is His sovereign will. If God chooses you to only share the gospel, but never see one person come to faith, then that is the Lord’s doing. Our job isn’t to be worried about the numbers or the results, our concern must be upon faithfully proclaiming the Lord Jesus.
In Acts 16:11-15, we read of the Apostle Paul coming to Philippi. After spending a few days in that city, he went down to the riverside, and there he met some women. Paul shared the gospel with the group, but the text tells us of one specific woman, Lydia, who heard and responded. What is interesting is that we see in this passage, that salvation is totally of the Lord. Paul was faithful in proclaiming the gospel, but it is the Lord who saves. In Acts 16:14 it says, “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”
Here is a picture of faithful evangelism. Paul proclaims the gospel, but the Lord must work if anyone is going to be saved. The Lord takes the gospel as proclaimed by Paul, and then He opens the heart of Lydia so that she may repent and believe. We don’t have any mention of the other women believing, just Lydia.
From the example of Paul, we have two points that we would do well to remember.
1) We must be faithful in evangelism.
If we want people to hear the gospel, then we need to go and tell them of Jesus. Paul faithfully proclaimed the good news; he didn’t sit back and wait for people to come to him, rather he went out and found the lost. If we are going to see people saved, then our goal isn’t to wait for the crowds to come to us, we must go out and share the gospel. There is no concern in our passage about the number of people; there is no reference to Paul waiting to speak to thousands of people. He spoke to a small group, and only one (that we know of) was converted.
2) The Results are up to God.
Remind yourself regularly that the results of our evangelism are not dependent upon us. We cannot save anyone. If you become focused on getting results, then you will end up compromising the message to make it appear that more people are being saved than truly are. It is very easy to create a false convert, just tell them to change their mind and believe a few facts about Jesus, or tell them to quickly mumble out a prayer. Then slap them on the back and tell them they’re saved. Many people well end up in Hell because an evangelist compromised the gospel message in the pursuit of results. What we must do is constantly remind ourselves that it is the Lord who opens the sinner’s heart. The salvation of anyone is subject to God’s sovereign choice; if He opens the sinner’s heart, then to God be the glory! If He chooses not to open the sinner’s heart, then to God be the glory!
All of us who are involved in evangelism should only desire the audience of One – God. He is the only One we should be seeking to please. If He chooses to bring crowds in to hear the gospel, then we rejoice that the Lord has chosen to do that. But if He brings only one or two, then let us rejoice in that also!
The results of our evangelism will not be known until eternity, so let’s focus on being faithful, and trust that the Lord will open hearts in His good timing. We just need to make sure that we make much of Jesus in all that we do – the results are up to God.