A christian apologist offers six stages evangelistic churches should navigate to increase their influence and effectiveness.
Lee Strobel shared strategies for increasing churches’ evangelistic effectiveness during a session on pastoral apologetics at a recent conference of christian media executives.
Strobel, professor of christian thought at Houston Baptist University began his presentation by saying he is concerned and fearful that the value of evangelism is diminishing in American churches.
Here are his six stages of development:
Stage one is where leaders in the church own and model the value that lost people matter to God. He said, “Your church will probably be no more evangelistic than you are as its leader personally.”
Stage two is leaders must instill that evangelistic value into the congregation. They must help their congregation understand that an evangelistic lifestyle is normal for a Christian.
Stage three is leaders must empower a point person to lead the evangelistic charge. Stroebel put it this way, “If there is no name next to a task, nothing gets done.”
Stage four is leaders must make sure that 100 percent of the congregation is trained to naturally and effectively share Jesus Christ with others.
Stage five: Leaders must unleash those who are gifted or passionate about evangelism.
And finally stage six: Strobel said leaders must create catalytic ministries and events to reach their community for Christ.