Recently, a few local churches got together to run a mission by themselves. It would cost a couple of thousand dollars for each church plus the time spent to perform the organizing and preparation.  The question became, was it all going to be worth it? There was a time when we would never question an outreach mission such as this.  However, in the end, the members of these churches decided that the only people likely to come out on a cold evening were "churched" people wanting to "support the cause". For the mass of humanity, lost and apart from God, we need to think of other ways to evangelize.

Evangelism means different things to different people. For many church people it means bringing unbelievers "under the sound of the gospel" by running special events or services that attract outsiders, and at which a gospel message is preached. Sometimes it means running special "marketing" programs - visitation, home-meetings and the like. Sometimes it involves a total transformation of the church from a worshipping fellowship of believers to a mission organization. For many, the only valid form of evangelism is personal witnessing.

So what is evangelism? In simple terms it is the communication of an important message from God. The message found in John 3:16-17 is the best shorthand statement but the statement in Matthew 11:28 proclaiming that Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" is just as good.  Today, we need to employ the most effective means available to get the message out to as many people as possible. For Jesus that meant employing the "wandering prophet" method to get the message out to "all" the villages in Galilee and Judea. But the times have changed.  For us, in this electronic world, it is time for our church to begin to use our resources to share our message through every new medium available; i.e. the Internet, Facebook and Twittering and etc.  Keeping our young people, and their friends, informed and energized in their faith by communicating with them in their media world is a necessary step in our evangelizing efforts. 

John VW