[Next Generation] Building an evangelistic culture: the foundation of a sending culture

Building an Evangelistic Culture: The Foundation of a Sending Culture

by Adam McCampbell

            Building an Evangelistic Culture is no small feat for any church or organization. Even many missions sending agencies struggle to build this culture as well. When it comes to laying your foundation for this culture one of the most important components to remember is consistency across the board. Discouragement will happen, and typically it will happen more than encouragement. In those times, we must remember that God is making his ‘appeal through us.’^[1] I remember when I was a Journeyman every time we went out to the different cities or villages in South Asia the theme of the gospel was the same, “No one here wants to hear the gospel. We tried, but no one else here wants it.” Although when they finally heard the gospel and heard it presented in a way that had removed church language and focused simply on Jesus, the people responded positively. An Evangelistic Culture then becomes more than simply seeing people go out to share the gospel, it becomes about creating a culture that is effectively sharing the gospel, impacting lostness, and reproducing disciples from our local context to a global context. 

            Now the question remains, how do we do this? First let me say there is no such thing as a silver bullet in any of this, but there are solid principles we should follow to help us move closer to creating this culture. Through grasping the Great Commission, understanding our role in planting and watering, and knowing that a training culture is also a going culture we can begin to build an Evangelistic Culture that is Christ centered and Kingdom focused. 

Principle #1: Grasping the Great Commission

“Go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” 

– Matthew 28:19

            When it comes to the Great Commission there are two schools of thought about the command to go. One thought says it means ‘as you are going,’ while the other thought understands it as an imperative command to go. Many times we see these two thoughts as an ‘either/or’ situation rather than a ‘both/and’ situation. On the one hand we should make sharing the gospel an active part of our life, that wherever we go we are ready to share the gospel, as Peter tells us in his first epistle ‘to be prepared.’^[2] On the other hand we need to see this as an imperative command to go by intentionally having times in our life where are going for the singular purpose of sharing the gospel. The reason we need to see this angle of the Great Commission is because of how Jesus unpacks the command of making disciples at the end of verse 19. He said for us to ‘teach them to obey.’^[3] He never says that we are relaying information or knowledge, but that we are to show others how to be obedient to Jesus in sharing the gospel and making disciples. Many times when we look at the Great Commission we see it through our own eyes: what we are called to do in our obedience. Not only should we see it in that way, but we should also see the calling of the Great Commission in how we are leading others to be obedient as well. We are called to ‘teach them to obey.’^[4]

            How can we do that? Well, one of the best ways to do that is by setting up a time for  going out to share and bringing others along with us. In doing this we are able to model for them how to share the gospel. We are not simply relaying knowledge, but we are relaying skills to them. Skills they can use, skills we can sharpen, and skills they can use to be obedient to Jesus. It is in the modeling of sharing the gospel that we can begin building our foundation of an Evangelistic Culture. I would go on further to say that without modeling there will not be an Evangelistic Culture created in our church our organization. When we grasp the Great Commission and understand that modeling obedience is a key principle in teaching others to obey, then we will be one step closer in creating the culture we desire for our church or organization.

Principle #2: Understanding our role in planting and watering

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” 

– 1 Corinthians 3:6

            Paul gives us our role in sharing the gospel in 1 Corinthians 3:6, and that role is planting and watering. He says God is the one who will make it grow. In other words, God will bring them to salvation. That is why Jesus said ‘no one can come to the Father unless the Spirit draws them first.’^[5] Now we must also understand that ‘faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’^[6] Our part is not to bring salvation, but to plant the seed that God will grow into salvation. This simply means our goal should not be have them pray a prayer, but to gain an opportunity to follow up with them. We want to see them come to Christ, but that is not our purpose in sharing the gospel. Our purpose is to plant the seed, and how can we best do that apart from sharing the gospel? By reading the Bible with them! Gospel sharing in theory becomes about filtering people we speak to, to find those who are interested in learning more about Jesus, and begin a Bible study with them. It is also a time for them to invite others to join. When we are able to sit down and read Scripture with them, then we are able to share the gospel over and over with them each and every time we meet together. Planting the seed is not about getting them into the pew, but about getting into relationship with them through the Word of God. This is where that seed will begin to sprout as God works through His Word in their life. It is also a time where we meet their needs by caring for them in Christ. Remember the concept of farming that we see throughout Scripture takes commitment and personal involvement. It is more than having someone pray a prayer or inviting them to church. It is about introducing them to a personal God, who personally sent His Son to die on the cross for their sins, to personally invite them into relationship with Him, and for us to personally share a personal gospel to them for the opportunity to start a personal relationship with them. That is our role in planting and watering. It is all about being personal, because that is what it is going to take to develop disciples that will be faithful in developing other disciples. 

Principle #3: A Training Culture is Going Culture

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will by my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” 

– Acts 1:8

            Several years back we were challenged in the way we measured success to change from measuring budgets, buildings, and butts; to measuring disciples made and disciples sent. This was a very much needed paradigm shift in our thinking, but in this shift we have still found a way to measure success outside of the heart of this paradigm shift. Meaning, we tend to find churches and organizations hyper focused on sending that it seems the calling in their life has been thrown out in the attempts to reach the success of sending more people. It is a great thing to be sending more of our people overseas to the mission field, but it is not a great thing to send those not called, unprepared, and ones who had never been approved in their local context; meaning seeing reproducibility out of their life that impacted the lostness around them. We have taken our eye off of the local context by creating a means to the end vision where those who are of an international background or from lower economic or social  background are simply a means to an end for us to gain the experience or approval needed to be sent. In doing so, the calling to our local context has been overshadowed by a paradigm shift of sending internationally rather than looking at our calling of being a going culture where God has placed us. In other words we have missed the essential non-negotiable in all this: to never send someone globally before they have faithfully gone locally. If our culture is to send, then it must be a training culture that is also a going culture. That going culture will start locally before it starts globally. That does not mean this can not happen simultaneously, but we can not forgo going locally for only going globally. We even see Jesus addressing this in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, as well as, his final words to his disciples before his ascension in Acts 1. In Matthew 28 we are called to go to the nations, then in Acts 1 Jesus almost unpacks what that means when he said: “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”^[7] We are called to an overseas context, and I would argue that should be a simultaneous event. We see this clearly in Scripture that we as a church are called to each one of those context and that includes local and global. In our attempts in creating an Evangelistic culture that is focused around training others for that to be successful we must also be going in our local context as well. Not as a means to an end, but seeking to impact lostness by bringing those into Christ and developing multiplying in their context to reach their area. 

            When it comes to creating an Evangelistic culture for our church or organization, we need to remember there are solid principles for us to follow. I will finish this article with this conclusion that an Evangelistic culture in our church is the best source for us to create a Sending Culture win our church. The foundation for that Sending culture is desire and obedience. Our Evangelistic culture that is focused on effective gospel sharing, impacting lostness, and developing multiplying disciples; will help us to create an environment primed for a Sending culture. One that will help us to raise up the next generation of those to be sent who are abiding deeply in Christ, applying principles of multiplication within their local context and life, and ones who are approved that have impacted the lostness around them and who have developed disciples who multiply. My heart and my hope is that every church and every organization in Arkansas is moving towards creating a Evangelistic culture that will lay the foundation for a truly effective Sending culture.

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^[1] 2 Corinthians 5:20

^[2] 1 Peter 3:15

^[3] Matthew 28:19

^[4] ibid

^[5] John 6:44

^[6] Romans 10:17

^[7] Acts 1:8