by C. Peter Wagner
As the Latin American Church emerges toward full maturity, it is experiencing some severe growing pains. Two of these, theological articulation and ministerial training, affect the foundation of the church and the edification of the church. The third, evangelistic impact, influences the extremely important matter of the extension of the church.
As the Latin American Church emerges toward full maturity, it is experiencing some severe growing pains. Two of these, theological articulation and ministerial training, affect the foundation of the church and the edification of the church. The third, evangelistic impact, influences the extremely important matter of the extension of the church.
Paul, writing to the emerging church in Ephesus, deals with theological articulation in 4:13 and with ministerial training in 4:11-12. In chapter three, he touches on evangelistic impact in verses 7 and 8: "Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
One of the measures of the maturity of any church is sustained growth, both in spiritual depth and in numbers. Paul goes behind doctrine and behind the ministry to his evangelistic burden: the gospel which will bring people to Christ.
In Latin America, the crisis in evangelistic impact is what might be called a "sleeping crisis." It crept in unawares. Until recently, few leaders knew that the crisis even existed.
The alarm clock that woke churchmen up was a book called Latin American Church Growth by William Read, Victor Monterroso, and Harmon Johnson published in 1969. Five types of churches are classified in this book: traditional denominations, Pentecostals, faith missions, newer denominations, and Adventists. The group I was associated with could best be described as a combination of faith missions and newer denominations, groups that have taken certain pride in stressing soul-winning as their goal. But the statistics in the book show that whereas these groups have sent over 40 percent of the missionary force, they have reaped only 5 percent of the harvest of souls.
On the other extreme, the Pentecostals have only 10 percent of the missionaries but over 60 percent of the church members. Even eliminating the Pentecostals, the faith missions and newer denominations have about 45 percent of the missionaries to 12 percent of the members, while the traditional denominations have 50 percent of the missionaries and 70 percent of the members. This book showed that evangelicals might have been making much more of an evangelistic impact in Latin America than they have been making.
How did this crisis arise? What produced it? The answer is still vague. Some writers have begun spotting different trouble spots here and there. Dr. George Peters, in his excellent book, Saturation Evangelism, says some rather startling things. Analyzing Evangelism-in-Depth in Latin America, he says:
Our problem, however, arises when we are confronted with the baffling fact that a comparable rise in figures cannot be shown in church membership. Comparing church membership to the public figures of the evangelistic campaign that took place in different countries, the discovery of the fact that this particular movement seemingly does not result in substantial measurable church growth at first alarmed me; later it troubled me and now it has grown into a deep and steady concern.
After Peters finishes the chapter, he says,
All of the above factors must be taken into consideration before judgment is expressed over the disappointing fact that in spite of strenuous efforts, sacrifice and seeming success, general church growth is not being accelerated as we would hope end desire. Let us not point fingers at one another, but rather examine all factors and think of solutions to this critical problem.
In another book, Mobilizing for Saturation Evangelism, edited by Clyde Taylor and Wade Coggins, Edward Murphy of Overseas Crusades wrote a chapter called, "Follow-Through Evangelism in Latin America." Murphy pin-pointed some of the problem areas of this crisis in evangelism. He describes a program of saturation evangelism in Colombia in 1968. Then he analyzes the results as follows:
The cycle of increasing numerical growth that reached 14,000 the year before the campaign was broken and dropped back to 6,000, the lowest figure since 1966 . . . The 1969 census thus reveals that the saturation effort has not yet produced an increase in numerical growth in the churches.
Could it be that some of the methods we have been using might tend to smother growth rather than accelerate it, in spite of all the planning, financial resources, time, and advertising invested? Writers like Peters and Murphy are now raising such questions. In September, 1970, forty missionary executives related to Latin America gathered at Elburn, Illinois, for a three-day consultation. Through prayer, Bible study, self-criticism, and detailed examination of this crisis they attempted to get to the bottom of it. The book, Latin American Church Growth, was the principal study document. These executives acknowledged that some dramatic breakthrough in evangelism is urgently needed.
Perhaps there are some guideposts that might give some direction to the search for a breakthrough. Five possibilities could be mentioned:
1. Sharpen the definition of evangelism. One of the weaknesses in our whole evangelistic outlook is that we have failed to understand fully what we are doing. Many books on evangelism either do not attempt to define it at all, or else the definition is very fuzzy. The key question in defining evangelism is: What are the goals? How can I tell when I have successfully evangelized? Goal-setting is essential. One can’t answer the question as to whether a certain evangelistic effort has been successful or not if he doesn’t know what the goals are. An equally important question is: Are there better methods to reach these goals than the ones we have been using If goals have not been defined, it is difficult even to talk about methods. Evangelism can only be defined properly if goals are clearly articulated.
There are three major answers to the question, What is evangelism? Each one sets forth its particular goals.
The first definition says that the goal of evangelism is compassion, A text often used is found in Matthew 25:42-46: "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not . . . . These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Nothing here says anything about preaching the gospel or making other people Christians. The text simply teaches doing good to other people. Evangelism is doing good to all men, according to this definition. What does this mean? In Latin America it generally means participation in revolution in order to change social structures.
One of the major advocates of this point of view is Professor J. C. Hoekendijk. He says, "The goal of evangelism can be nothing less than what Israel expected the Messiah to do. In other words, he will establish the Shalom. And Shalom is much more than personal salvation. It is at once peace, integrity, unity, harmony and justice." The true evangelist, according to this point of view, is the one who promotes peace, integrity and social justice among all people. The Christian responsibility toward a Buddhist is to help him become a happier and better-adjusted Buddhist. To attempt to make the Buddhist become a Christian is called "proselytism," and is considered degrading to his humanity.
Another definition of evangelism sets its goal as communication. The text for this one is Mark 16:15-16, where Jesus says to his disciples, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." From this point of view, when you have effectively communicated the gospel to an unbeliever, and he has had a chance to say yes or no to Jesus Christ, then he has been evangelized.
One of the sharpest definitions of this point of view is found in J. I. Packer’s book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Packer says, "According to the New Testament, evangelism is just preaching the Gospel. It is a work of communication in which Christians make themselves mouthpieces of God’s message of mercy to sinners. The way to tell the fact of whether you are evangelizing is not to ask whether or not conversions are known to happen as a result of your witness; it is to ask whether you are faithfully making known the Gospel message." Some call this point of view "proclamation evangelism."
The third possible definition sets the goal as conversion. Those who define the goal of evangelism as conversion do not reject either compassion or communication. They are both veryimportant. There is a reason to doubt whether a person is a Christian if he doesn’t have compassion. If there is no compassion shining through the message of an evangelist, he will produce a credibility gap. Furthermore, Christian presence is the first indispensible step toward true evangelism. But it is just that – a step toward a goal further down the road. Likewise, there are no conversions without previous communication. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God . . . And how shall they preach, except they be sent?"(Rom.10:17,15). Communication is a second step down the road, but it is not the end of the evangelistic journey.
According to Matthew 28:19-20, the most complete statement of the Great Commission, the goal that Christ sends his disciples out to reach is to make disciples. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (RSV). Among the four verbs – go, make disciples, baptize, and teach – "make disciples" is the only imperative. The other three are participles, all helping verbs. They help toward the goal of making disciples. Anything less than making disciples may be classified as a good evangelistic effort, but not successful evangelism. Jesus made his followers fishers of men; he expects them to be successful fishers of men. Some people call this definition "persuasion evangelism" after 2 Corinthians 5:1 I , where Paul says, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."
Part of the reason for the crisis in evangelistic impact is that we have stopped at communication as our definition of evangelism, whereas we should have moved ahead of that to define the goal of evangelism as conversion.
2. Increase missionary mobility. Some missionaries in Latin America have been casting their nets in the water and bringing them up virtually empty for twenty years. It might well be that if they cast their nets on the other side, or if they launched out into the deep, or moved elsewhere, they could cast the same nets into the water and bring up a great draft of fishes. This is what the Lord wills. He does not desire that as fishers of men our nets come up empty year after year. It is difficult for a mission administrator to apply this principle. Missionaries are not pieces on a chess board. Complex feelings and emotions are involved. Many leaders wish they could do more to increase missionary mobility, but some workers resist change strongly. This is one reason why many feel more comfortable to set communication rather than conversion as a measurable goal in evangelism. But to the degree that missionaries are not mobile, effective evangelistic work suffers.
3. Eliminate guesswork in evaluating the effectiveness of evangelistic efforts. Many missionaries just assume that because they are working hard, and because they are praying fervently, they are getting results. We naively assume that God’s Word is not returning void. But when a book like Latin American Church Growth comes along, it shocks us. We wake up to the fact that we have not been getting proportionate results for our hard work and sacrifice. Our guesswork wasn’t very accurate when faced with the hard facts. Philip Hogan, Assemblies of God mission executive, has commented, "The demand on the part of homeside constituencies who support the program is to see results, and often the more spectacular the result, the more liberal the support . . If we are willing to set our goals as inquirers only, they can be had in fairly sizable quantities. However, if we count the gains in churches established, this is sometimes another story. By this I mean identifiable local witnessing units of the body of Christ where inquirers have become born-again believers. In our Good News campaigns we have made this our objective. We count our gains in churches."
This type of goal-setting eliminates much of the guesswork reflected in some evangelistic statistics. A new local witnessing group of believers established, as a part of the body of Christ furnishes something _ objective to count. Suggestions like Hogan’s will help set our sights on the true target, and undoubtedly increase our evangelistic impact.
4. Solve the follow-up problem. This is the most significant area in our search for solutions to the crisis in evangelistic impact. Edward Murphy of Overseas Crusades says, "When after a month of seed-sowing we leave the people alone, wholly unprepared to carry on a more difficult follow-up ministry, we’re saying that seed-sowing evangelism is more important that follow-through evangelism. We are not convinced that the fruit that remains is a valid test of the effectiveness of our ministry."
In the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, several city-wide campaigns with very well-known evangelists have been held in recent years. A local pastor subsequently made a study of how many decisions were registered in each campaign and then went around investigating how many were in the churches. The percentage of "fruit that remained" was so insignificant that it called into question the value of city-wide campaigns in general. In one campaign where 600 decision cards were signed, only five of those people were in the churches a year later. Perhaps the five would have been converted even if there had been no campaign.
A Latin American evangelist came to our city for a week’s campaign sponsored by all the evangelical churches. He started on Sunday night. Monday morning he called me to come to his hotel for lunch. He said, "Why is the fruit not remaining from my campaigns? Why is it that we have so many decisions and yet so few people added to the churches?"
As we discussed the problem, I said, "I don’t pretend to have the total answer, but let’s just go back to what you said last night. After the invitation, you had all the interested people come forward to pray with you. Then you gave them advice as to what to do. They were babes in Christ, ready to consider every suggestion you gave them as their spiritual father. What did you tell them to do? You told them to pray, to read the Bible every day, and to tell somebody else about the decision that they’ve made. Now all these things are excellent. But, I feel you’ve left out the most important one. You didn’t tell them anything about becoming identified with the church. I believe that much of the secret in effective follow-up needs to be a church-centered approach. You need to tell the people that they should join a local evangelical church, and be baptized as soon as they possibly can."
Juan Carlos Artiz is the pastor of one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in Buenos Aires. Ortiz takes a fresh approach to the matter of follow-up. His people go out and invite all sorts of unbelievers to the church. On Sunday night after the song service Pastor Ortiz stands up and says, "Welcome to everybody here. How many people are with us for the first time? I want you to stand up. We’ve got a gift for you." All the visitors stand up, and the ushers give them a New Testament. Then he says, "You folks have come to hear the gospel, right? I’m going to preach, but I’m going to preach to Christians; you won’t understand a word I’m saying. You want to hear the gospel. In that other room some others will explain to you what the gospel is all about, and how to receive Christ. Get up now and go over there. If you become a believer tonight, you can stay here with us next Sunday." They go! They listen to the gospel, they ask questions; hundreds have accepted Christ. When they accept Christ, they are urged to be baptized the same night. A member of the church who lives near them is assigned to care for them. This has proved to be a highly successful system of evangelism and follow-up.
5. Maintain the vision of reaching the lost. Many a missionary and even some missions, originally called to win the lost to Christ, have fallen into a syndrome of church development. Priorities have been twisted. First they’ve gone out to make disciples. Then once a church has been formed, slowly and steadily the vision of reaching the lost dims and the ministry of helping the church becomes primary. It’s very good to help the church, as long as this does not cloud our evangelistic vision.
Some say, "It’s time to leave evangelism to the nationals." I don’t fully agree with this. Nationals, of course, should evangelize, but missionaries should also evangelize and maintain their vision of winning the lost. If missionaries are only helping to edify the church, the emerging church will naturally ask: "What are the missionaries’ priorities?" With few of the missionaries evangelizing, the conclusion may well be reached that missionaries do not think evangelization is very important. As a result, the church itself is likely to think evangelism is unimportant.
Theologians are very important to an emerging church. Teachers for seminaries and Bible institutes are desperately needed. But my most acute concern is that we have so few evangelists, so few missionaries who say, "God has called me to an evangelistic ministry to win the lost."
I once took a poll of a large group of missionaries, asking each to write down on a piece of paper what his spiritual gifts were. Not a single missionary wrote "evangelism." Unfortunately, that is not uncommon. One of the great needs is for the Holy Spirit to pour out his gift of evangelism, calling out people who will dedicate their lives to bringing multitudes of lost men and women to Jesus Christ. When this happens, we may well be on the way to seeing a more powerful evangelistic impact in Latin America.
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