Evangelism: whose responsibility?

 I met a fella awhile ago who told me, with great authority that a minister and one and only one responsibility, that being to evangelize; bringing new Christians into the fold. I politely thanked him for his input and restrained myself from saying what total bull that is. Lot’s of folk like to tell pastors what they should be doing.

I have met pastors that have stated with pride how many souls they have brought to Christ, saved, through their evangelical efforts. I generally don’t engage them in debate, because it is generally worthless. But I think to myself. Dude, you are self deluded and egotistical. They only person who brings another to Christ is Christ himself. Or, the only one who every saved anyone was Jesus the Christ. It seems a rather basic tenant of our religion, but folk are always looked for brownie points with the Lord I guess. Plus you were not saved on some particular date when you decided to follow Jesus, you were saved at Calvary where everyone else was.

My view of pastoral responsibility is entirely different. I am pleased that the Presbyterian church has reinstituted the term for a pastor as that of the a teaching elder; for that is truly what we are. The elders of a Presbyterian congregation are responsible to a Presbytery (our bishop) for the welfare and maintenance  of a congregation; equally responsible. I always trick new sessions with the question, “How many members are there on this session?” And, they inevitably get it wrong. They forget to count the pastor, and just count the ruling elders. Our job as a session is to care for the congregation in all ways. The only particular responsibilities as pastor has that other the ruling elders don’t, is to select scripture and hymns and to preach. All the rest we share. But an unsaid responsibility of a pastor is train, teach a session in how to go about our mutual responsibilities. It is one reason why pastor moderate session meetings. I always took significant time in a session meeting for training purposes (most just act like corporate boards). I didn’t feel we needed to rehash committee work unless something was glaring out of order. In fact, sessions make only one or two major decisions a year. Mostly we just try to stay aware.

Back to evangelism. That is the responsibility of the laity. We are to share our faith overtly with friends. The best piece of evangelism I ever heard in my church was at a bowling alley where a couple of members were talking about what they were doing in the church and how the enjoyed it. A team member heard them and began attending the church and eventually joined. Another pastor friend of mine, when he first arrived at a new church made between 2,000 and 3,000 calls to enlist new members. Two families joined the church as a result of his efforts. Later that church grew by leaps and bounds because folk began tailoring ministries for that community and people gathered.

So, if you find the responsibility of evangelism too much for you, become a pastor and tells others how to do it. It works better that way. Numbers just confuse the issue somewhat. We are called to be faithful and obedient to the Lord. When we do that, church likely grow, but not always. A lot of so called evangelicals just are selling simple ideas to complex questions that please people. Please God and let God bring them in. Or has Paul said roughly, milk diets are find, but bring on the meat.

Next I may expound on how congregations typically become anti-evangelical, even those who espouse to be evangelicals. Clue, “Why are you doing sitting in my pew?!”