Habits of an Evangelistic Pastor/Planter
Yesterday (Thursday) I attended a KBC sponsored Pastor/Staff Forum at Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington. We began with a time of worship led by a Praise Band from Porter Memorial and an excellent message by Pastor Bill Henard calling us to understand the depths and tragedy of lostness in the world
The rest of the time together we listened and dialogued with Dr. Chuck Lawless, Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth, Southern Baptist Teological Seminary. Dr. Lawless focused on personal evangelism and evangelism in the church.
During one of his sessions, Dr. Lawless shared some results that were gleaned from a recent survey of the top 4% of churches in baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention. Those that were considered to be in the top four percent were those that had achieved at least a one baptism to twenty members ratio for at least two consecutive years with the same pastor.
I was fascinated with the results which, many of them, validated some strong convictions I already held. Below are some of the findings:
- 100% of the pastors believe that hell is a literal place.
- 100% of the pastors affirmed that Jesus is the only way to the Father and that a personal relationship with Jesus is necessary for salvation
- 91% disagreed with the statement: "Evangelism is simply proclaiming the gospel with no attempt to persuade others to believe." They neither walked away from persuasion nor manipulated.
- Many of the pastors have been trained in multiple evangelistic programs: 45 %-Evangelism Explosion; 39%-Becoming a Contagious Christian; 46%-Continuous Witnessing Training; 51%-FAITH;57%-Share Jesus Without Fear; 43%- One Day Soul-Winning Workshop. These guys had multiple tools in their evangelism toolbox.
- 49% of the pastors had a personal evangelism accountability partner: these partners asked questions like: "how many lost people are you praying for?", "how many intentional relationships do you have that you are prayerfully wanting to share the gospel?", "when was the last time you shared the gospel?"
- 79% prayed daily for opportunities to evangelize others.
- 73% set aside time to do personal evangelism. Notice intentionality and accountability keep surfacing.
- 79% shared the gospel with someone in the last week.
- 47% shared the entire plan of salvation 50 times during the last year.
- 97% used counseling opportunities for evangelism.
- 95% pray for nonbelievers by name.
- 59% currently have more than 5 relationships with non-believers, praying for an opportunity to share the plan of salvation.
These are the habits of pastors who are effective in reaching the lost for Jesus Christ. They are habits that every Pastor/Planter or other believer could make their own habits. What kind of a commitment to personal evangelism will you make? The salvation of the world hangs on your answer.
2 Comments posted by: Larry Baker on January 25th, 2008
