Strategic Evangelism Plan for Local and Global Church Mission

Biblical and Historical Foundations for Local Church Evangelism

The biblical and historical foundation for local church evangelism can be found in Scripture as well as in the history of Christianity from the time of the Apostles to the present. In Scripture, for example, we find various letters written to different churches throughout the ancient world, where the first Christian missionaries had embarked and established local congregations. The Acts of the Apostles describes the efforts of these missionaries as they spread the Word of God, converting new peoples and engaging new cultures whose outlooks were not always the same as those they had previously encountered. Thus, in the Epistles of St. Paul one finds various methods of persuasion and pastoral advice pertinent to people in particular places—and yet holding universal significance as well, because human nature is essentially the same regardless of locale.

The special qualities of the Apostles also played a part in how these first missionaries went out to evangelize. As Eusebius notes, St. Luke likely hailed from Syria and, as St. Paul notes, he was outside the circle of the circumcised (meaning he was not a Jew). And yet Luke took upon himself the task of learning the history and culture of the Jews because he understood two things: first, that Christianity was the fulfillment of the Hebrew Old Testament, giving a logical reason to study Jewish history for the sake of theological continuity; and second, that he would be preaching to these very people. Thus, the historical foundation for local church evangelism is rooted in catering to the needs of those being evangelized.¹ The same principle applied to the Evangelists whenever they encountered new peoples, whether Greek, Persian, Indian, or Asian. Indeed, Jackson Wu notes that Acts describes "great numbers of converts, as in Antioch (11:21), Iconium (14:1), Derbe (14:21), Thessalonica (17:4), Berea (17:12) and Corinth (18:10)."² While these converts were no doubt due to a tremendous infusion of grace at the outset of the early Church, there was surely some special identification made between the missionaries and the locals—as, for example, in Acts 2:6, when the "Galileans" are heard preaching to each person in his own tongue.

From a historical point of view, one finds the spread of Christianity and the establishment of local churches as integral to the process of evangelism. For instance, when the New World was discovered, missionaries came from Europe to evangelize the Native Americans. They did this by establishing local churches and engaging each group as they encountered them. Likewise, each group had its own peculiarities which needed to be understood in order for the missionaries to "plant the seeds of faith," so to speak.³ Just as soil must be tilled, evangelists around the world have needed to work with the soil of the soul wherever they have gone. Thus, one finds St. Thomas in India, Francis Xavier in Asia, and John Winthrop in New England—each establishing the local church as part of their evangelical directive.

Developing a Local Evangelism Strategy

Even though every locale is unique with its own set of people, there should be unity insofar as the teaching of Jesus Christ is found from one place to the next.⁴ This means that what Christ teaches is the same no matter where one is and applies to all. How that message is communicated is what differs and depends upon the situation the evangelist finds before him. In developing a strategic plan for mobilizing a local church in evangelism, this distinction is an important point to keep in mind.

As Kirsteen Kim notes, "the term 'mission' derives from the Latin 'I send,'" which implies that the evangelist is being sent by someone else and is not simply acting on his own.⁵ The Sender, of course, is God Himself, who calls each missionary to spread His Gospel.

So what is the pastor's role in evangelism? It is to deliver Jesus Christ to the people. When dealing at a local level, the best way to do this is by adopting a strategy that conforms to the needs of the local community. This strategy, while considering the needs of the locals, should also adhere to the overall universal vision of the doctrine of Christ. For this reason, we find in Proverbs 29:18: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." It is the people who must ultimately conform to Christ, even as the local mission adapts to meet their immediate needs.

Therefore, the goal of the local church and the local evangelist should be to achieve the goal of Christ: to open the eyes of those who may be blinded by a category mistake when it comes to knowing who Christ is.⁶ What is Christ's goal for these unique people? Ultimately, it is to bring them into union with God in Heaven. What impediments exist to keep members of the community from coming in? These impediments are likely to be unique in every situation, but by remembering that human nature is the same no matter where one is, a strategy can be safely devised for any situation.⁷

Step One: Do not ask how your church can make a difference in the community. Instead, go to the community and see for yourself. Visit different places and different sources. Be everywhere and make yourself visible. You are there for the people, not the people for you. It is true that church growth is good, but it must happen organically—it is not the main goal. The main goal is to connect with people and ultimately to provide them with tools to fulfill their spiritual needs. The best way to connect is to identify shared ground and show that you can build a friendship with them in Christ. Social welfare may be important on one level,⁸ but what matters most is spiritual welfare: economies come and go, but the soul and the spirit are eternal. Go to the hospitals, to the homeless, to community leaders, to business leaders, to the schools, and to other churches. This will take time, so remember that Rome was not built in a day.⁹ Take time to meet everyone. Truly immerse yourself in the life of the community so that you know its needs, its struggles, its strengths, and its weaknesses.

Step Two: Prayer. People need to pray, and Jesus Christ Himself gave us this example (Luke 5:16). Just as Jesus departed into the wilderness to pray, so too must the evangelist show the community the importance and power of prayer by praying for his community and encouraging them to do the same. "Pray always" (1 Thes. 5:17) says Scripture—and this can be accomplished by always remaining in a spirit of grace with God. Through prayer all good things will come and help will arrive. Schedule regularly planned prayer times in your church so that the community can gather together. Make these prayer times frequent throughout the week and keep the church doors open.

Step Three: Train others to help you. The local church needs support from within the community. The evangelist is there to spread the Word of God and bring Christ to people, but the people themselves must also respond and be ready to serve as pillars of the local church. This should be a humbling and beautifying exercise, not an occasion for pride or status. Members will need to be trained so that the church can grow strong and so that the Word of God can be taken to many places within the community at once. The basis of training is catechism: education.¹⁰ Educative classes should be offered regularly at the local church. They need not accompany scheduled prayer times and can have separate hours, but they should be scheduled and held even if no one comes. The evangelist should be willing to preach to the birds and the fishes in the manner of St. Francis of Assisi when there was no one around to hear the Word of God. That is the attitude the local evangelist should adopt. Remember: he is there for the people, not the people for him. The posture he should dwell upon daily is that of Our Lord on the cross—his mission is the way of the cross, and in that way he should rejoice, for it is his calling, his vocation, and through it he will be united to God.

Step Four: Follow-up. If persons you have met in hospitals or on the streets have moved on, found homes, or left their hospital beds, go and find them. See how they are doing. Consider them your friends. It is natural for an individual to continually check on one's friends; the same applies to the evangelist within the community. Seek them out, be their friend. Give each day to a certain number of them and keep them on a rotation. This is how the Word of God is manifested in the hearts of men—through exposure to charity, prayer, and mercy. This can even be done by reaching out through social media and establishing an online presence. In the digital age, an online presence can go far in drawing attention to one's mission.¹¹

Step Five: Keep the main focus of evangelism at the fore. Maintain the prayer life; maintain the spreading of the Word of God; maintain a graceful relationship with God at all times; and remind yourself why your church exists in the community. There are many churches in the world—so ask yourself, how does Christ shine through yours?

Defining the Ministry: Mission, Vision, and Values

The mission of the ministry, both locally and globally, is the same: to lead persons to union with God by bringing Jesus Christ to them. This means that the evangelist must meet and interact with members of the local community so that they know he is there. It also means that such interaction must be coupled with an introduction to the Word of God through biblical study. The evangelist should therefore be prepared to study Scripture and to teach it to the community through various forms of instruction.

These lessons can be taught in various ways and need not always take place in a classroom setting. If the community is rural, lessons can take place in the fields. If the community is urban, they can take place in the squares, in parks, or in community centers. The main point is that they take place. The lessons should take a formulaic approach covering the various topics of the Gospels. As Livingston remarks, "a true biblical foundation for mission must be grounded in the reconciling event of God in Christ."¹³ This means that the focus of all the lessons is Christ—not the evangelist giving the lesson or the people hearing it—but rather God in the Person of Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice and death on the cross was offered so that sinners could be forgiven.

The mission is to convert sinners to putting on the "new man" who is Christ. This comes by example (the charity of the evangelist), by preaching (the evangelist must know the Word of God before he can spread it), and by interaction with the community (the evangelist must locate members of the community at all levels and never tire of seeking them out, whether at home, in the hospital, on a lunch break, at work, in prison, or in the park). Thus, the mission is simple when understood in terms of Christ's own words: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:30–31). This commandment should serve as the overall mission of the evangelist—to uphold it, follow it, and spread it so that others may come to God through adherence to it.

The overall vision of the local mission is found in Christ. Christ is the goal, the objective, the ideal, the inspiration, the formation, the practicum, the teacher, the priest, the father, the brother, the friend. The vision of the evangelist should be so infused with Christ that he sees Christ in all—to his left, to his right, before him, behind him, above him, below him. His mission is to see Christ in others and to serve Him in that way, so that all might then see Christ in one another. This is the most important vision—more important than any community service event, rally, block party, or mere "fellowship." Fellowship without Christ is hollow. Thus, the evangelist must cultivate a "spirit of mission" within the community—a spirit rooted in Christ and in Christian charity—and this will help drive the community toward the supreme spiritual goal: Heaven.

Organizational discipline and "spirit of mission" are intimately linked in an organization's successful operation.¹⁴ The spirit of mission is collective in the sense that it is the motivating factor, the common interest, among individuals within an organization, driving them to achieve a specific aim or common good. Each individual adds to or takes away from the total spirit of mission. An apt metaphor may be found in the idea that each individual is a cylinder in an engine: if all cylinders are firing and working together according to the precepts to which they are bound, the spirit of mission can be said to be operating optimally.

The idea of spirit of mission is thousands of years old. Sun Tzu states that "he will win whose army is animated with the same spirit throughout all its ranks."¹⁵ This idea is still commonly held today, expressed generically in terms such as team spirit, esprit de corps, community of interests, and group spirit. Regardless of the exact term, the idea is consistent: an organization rooted in achieving the common good. The spirit of mission can also face an opposing "anti-spirit," most typically expressed in counter terms. Antiquity speaks of competing spirits—one that embraces transcendental ideals (the good, the true, and the beautiful) and another that embraces a self-serving, anti-social, anti-communal lifestyle. One of Lincoln's most memorable speeches concerns a "house divided" among competing "spirits." The evangelist of the local community should be able to discern competing spirits and use the spirit of Christ as the one truly unifying spirit.

The values of the mission can be found in the Beatitudes. The Christian life is spelled out clearly in these eight beatitudes preached by Jesus and recorded in Scripture. The first beatitude is: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). "Poor in spirit" refers not only to a spirit of detachment and simplicity, but also to a spirit of giving, of charity, and of penance. Luke writes, "Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort" (Luke 6:24), and Matthew tells how Christ told a young man who desired to be perfect: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me" (Matt. 19:21). It is difficult for those who have many possessions and many attachments in this world to foster the kind of relationship with God that He desires. He wants all of our hearts, not just a portion of them. He wants us to depend on Him for all things and to recognize that all things come from Him, right down to our very lives. This is a value the evangelist should keep in his heart and spread to others.

The second beatitude is: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). Here, Christ urges His followers to have sorrow for sin and to long for the peace that is to come in the next life in union with God. If Christians do not pray, make sacrifices, and do penance for the sins of mankind, they risk losing their happiness in the next life: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep" (Luke 6:25). The evangelist should also teach this value to the community.

The third beatitude, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5), refers to those who suffer all things with patience and humility. These followers of Christ will be rewarded with a heavenly inheritance. The fourth beatitude, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matt. 5:6), refers to those who crave the things of God—the true, the good, and the beautiful; virtue, holiness, and justice. The fifth beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" (Matt. 5:7), directs individuals to model themselves on Christ, who is always merciful to us. We shall reap what we sow, says Scripture; therefore, if we would like mercy from God, it is only just that we show mercy to our fellow men. There are both corporal and spiritual works of mercy that a Christian can practice. One can feed the hungry as well as pray for souls and make sacrifices for them. The merciful will be judged favorably on the last day, says Christ, for in every poor person, in every sinner, the merciful Christian sees God—sees Christ in his neighbor. Therefore, Our Lord promises to say on the day of judgment: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me" (Matt. 25:34–36).

The sixth beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matt. 5:8), refers to those who possess the habit of virtue rather than the habit of vice, and teaches Christians to cultivate a purity of heart in their thoughts, words, and actions. The seventh beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Matt. 5:9), teaches men to love one another. The eighth beatitude, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:10), refers to Christian martyrs—those who suffer for the faith, for Christ, for their religion, for their virtue, or for anything that binds them to their God. Here, Christ teaches His followers not to expect a comfortable life as a Christian but to embrace all the obstacles that come their way. This should also be the evangelist's message.