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A SAMPLE OF ENDORESMENTS David Cole, YWAM Campaigns Asia/Pacific Board of Regents Chairman University of the Nations. “This book is one of the most in depth looks at what Evangelism really is (and what it isn’t) that I believe has been written in the last century. I have been so inspired in my own calling through its content and often use it as a text book for teaching and imparting to young leaders in YWAM training courses as well as throughout other parts of the Body of Christ. Thank you Julian not only for such a valuable resource as well as for modeling the outworking of its content in your own life over the past few decades.” YWAM, University Of The Nations, New Zealand.

Pastor Mike Smith, Melbourne, Australia

“An incredible book that all pastors should read. I have been a Christian for 28 years and a pastor for many years, and when I picked up this book, I thought, I doubt this will teach me anything new about evangelism. I was so wrong. It has revolutionised my thinking. This is an incredible book that all pastors should read.”

Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland “The best book I have ever read. I am a solicitor (54) and a partner in a law practice. I unhesitatingly give my endorsement for Julian s book. Indeed, I would rate it as the best book that I have ever read!” Grant Buchanan LLB, B.Com, Auckland

Michael Angulo, Pastor and Church Leader

“Truly a work of Ministerial art. I really like this book and every true evangelist will love it also. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PUT IT DOWN, BUT WILL BE THINKING WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO READ IT AGAIN! A truly very well written book with good retrospective learning ideas. No true evangelist should be without this book. It is worth what it is worth and it will catapult you into great, deliberate PROVEN, ministry approach. Great book and I highly recommend it. Get this one, you won’t be disappointed!”

Julian Batchelor, M.ed (Hons), B.Th, Dip.T’Ching

EVANGELISM LOST! EXPOSING THE TRUE STATE OF EVANGELISM IN TODAY’S CHURCH

Acknowledgements I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the production of this book: Sheryl Kampenhout, who transferred a mountain of material from Power Point shows into Word documents and who served and encouraged me in such a loving and kind way; to Matthew Old, a faithful friend and fellow evangelist, who has been a Barnabas. He reached out his hands when the hills seemed steepest, loved me in spite of my failures, stimulated me with his sharp mind, and made me laugh when I wanted to cry; to Janice Teo, and her intercessory prayer team who are as vital to the ministry I direct as the heart is to the body; to the team of editors, including Ken Francis and Julie Belding; to all the financial supporters who have given so generously to me over the years. I especially want to thank Paul and Tina Richards, of Club Physical, owners of a gymnasium chain in Auckland, New Zealand, and Derek van Beynen, who have faithfully sponsored my ministry for over a decade. Few people have the privilege of being able to leave secular work to write and produce resources to further the cause of the evangelisation of the world, and to motivate and equip the Church to do the same. You, and all my other financial supporters, have made this possible; to those I live with who have not seen me for years because I have been locked away in my office writing, I give my sincere thanks. Special thanks to Neil Pollock. To Jenny Windeyer, the graphic artist, who designed the cover of the original 800 page book, and to Jenny’s husband Drew for going beyond the call of duty so that Jenny could focus on this project; to faithful Bernie Anderson who has sacrificed and given way beyond what a leader would expect of a dedicated co-worker; to Eleanor Goodall and Sue and George Jeffrey who epitomise love and true friendship; to the team at ESI for keeping all the various aspects of the evangelism ministry moving forwards whilst I directed most of my time to writing this book; for Dr Martyn Bowis who did all the programming for the electronic version of the gospel called “Proclaim it!”; for Henoch Kloosterboeror for producing all the brilliant drawings; Dr David Stewart, retired Principal of the Bible

College of New Zealand for nearly two decades of encouragement and mentoring; Denise James and Anne Bartley, staff at the Bible College of New Zealand for helping with research; all those who have helped proof read the manuscript and given comment, particularly Dr Marie Sewell, Gill Donald, Gill Lukey, Donna Hansen, Ainslie Vines, Ann Hunter, and Miriam and Ted Martin; to the academic staff of the Bible College of New Zealand for giving me a grounding in theology; for all those who have given financially and sacrificially to pay for specific aspects of the publishing of this book; for my friend Ray Comfort, for his inspiration and encouragement. There are few evangelists today who have journeyed on the road of trial and tribulation to achieve breakthrough as Ray Comfort. For John Stott, the academic evangelist for his coaching and input via his many books. For all the people who we have trained in evangelism around the world who are out there doing it â€“ you are the heroes in the battle for souls; for the many hundreds of pastors, leaders, and lay Christians around the globe who have contributed to my life as a Christian, and to this book; and finally, I thank Jesus Christ, whose amazing grace and love has inspired and kept me. All the revelations in this book about evangelism and the gospel were given by Him â€“ to Him be all the glory.

How To Read This Book Truth is extremely important to Jesus. This book is about being aligned with Jesus and the Truth about evangelism and the gospel. 3 John 1:4 says “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” I know from working with Churches and Christians all around the world for the past 40 years that 98% are not walking in Truth when it comes to their understanding of evangelism and the gospel. This is a tragedy beyond words. I want you to understand at the very start that the insights and revelations in each chapter are hierarchical i.e. chapter two builds upon chapter one, chapter three upon chapters one and two, and so on. Hence, the ideal is to try and read all the chapters in the book in sequence. If you skip chapters, or even parts of chapters, you might miss something vital, and open yourself to misunderstanding or even defeat. Having said this, after you have read chapters one to seven, which are the foundational chapters in the book, each chapter thereafter is designed to stand alone. So, read chapters one to seven first. This is essential. With respect to evangelism, if you follow the advice I am giving here in the pages of each chapter, you’ll position yourself perfectly to be used by the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus in ways you’d not imagined possible. How so? Read the book and find out. Start by completing the “Evangelism Fitness Test.” This is a diagnostic survey which will tell you the extent to which you are out of alignment with the Truth about evangelism and the gospel. Sit this test before you read anything. Then do the same test again after you have read all the whole book to check to see if your mind and thinking has been thoroughly re-aligned! Enjoy the journey!

Evangelism Lost! Exposing The True State Of Evangelism In Today’s Church.

et’s face it, most Chrisitans struggle with “evangelism,”1 even the very thought of it.  Just the sound of the word causes the vast majority in the Church to shudder and recoil in horror. Try blaspheming in a church service. Today, you’ll get much the same reaction when you mention the “E” word. There are reasons, and this book will reveal what they are. If you are a Christian who struggles with evangelism what you’ll learn in this book will be the key to your personal breakthrough. I am going to introduce you to some revolutionary tools and strategies which will make evangelism easier than you ever dreamed or imagined - even if you are a shy, timid introvert, really elderly or really young, or disabled, or someone who has never engaged in evangelism ever before. I will also answer most, if not all, of the hard questions you might have about this critical subject. For example: 1 By “evangelising” I mean the proclamation of the gospel or the spread of it through gospel tracts or some other medium like video. This is the biblical definition. There is currently tremendous confusion in the Church about what this word means. When I talk about “failing to proclaim or spread the gospel” I am referring principally to personal evangelism i.e. most Christians no longer go about their daily activities doing this as they go. Book Three is dedicated to defining evangelism. I also show how many wrong definitions of evangelism have infiltrated the Church, each hindering Christians from evangelising. In Book Four, I define “the gospel” and show how distortions of this phrase have also worked against our efforts to evangelise the world.

• “How do I overcome my fear of evangelism?” • “Why do I have this fear in the first place?” • “Why do I feel nervous and worried when I think of myself doing evangelism?” • “When I start a conversation with a non-churched person, how do I know what to say?” • “Is everyone in the Church to evangelise, or only those with ‘the gift’ – what does the Bible really say?” • “What is ‘evangelism?’” • “What is ‘the gospel?’” • “As a pastor, I have found motivating and equipping my people for evangelism extremely difficult. What do I need to do to remove the blockages? If all my people have the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit was given for witness, how come they don’t do it?” • “In our evangelism today, why don’t we see signs and wonders like they did in the Early Church?” • “What does the research say about creating an evangelistic church or an evangelistic culture? How have other churches done this successfully? What must I, as a leader, do to make this happen? Is there anything I am unknowingly doing and saying which might be putting my people off evangelising?” These and other critical questions will be answered as we progress through each chapter.

hat this book is really all about…

The main thrust of this book, however, goes much deeper than answering questions about evangelism and giving you access to revolutionary tools and strategies which will make doing evangelism easier. What I really want to do is explain step by step how you can mobilise yourself and your whole church for evangelism. You’ll never be able to do this until your eyes have been opened to the 8

truth you are about to read in this book. In fact, it’s more than truth. It’s revelation directly from heaven, a gift imparted by the merciful benevolence of the Holy Spirit. What you are about to read could never have been arrived at by the cleverness of man alone, his intellect alone, or his senses alone. What I am about to reveal to you is a detailed critique of the cosmic battle which is constantly raging in the unseen world between light and darkness for the souls of men and women, and, most important of all, the glory of God. And why is this critique so absolutely critical? As I have just said, you’ll never mobilise yourself or your church into evangelism (and keep it going) if you don’t study and understand what is going on behind the scenes in this battle. It’s what is going on behind the scenes which is stopping you and the people in your church from doing evangelism. That is to say, this book unveils root causes. And how do I know there is a battle going on? Well, you’re about to read statistics and facts which show beyond doubt that the evangelisation of the West is currently at its lowest point in the history of the Church. It’s under attack. It’s in crisis. As with any crisis, if we don’t isolate the cause(s), we’ll have no hope of fixing it. A good doctor carefully diagnoses a patient’s sickness before prescribing medicine.

on’t be like an irresponsible doctor…

It’s the same with the current crisis in evangelism in the Western Church. Diagnosing why you and the people in your church don’t evangelise must precede prescriptive action. At all cost, resist being like the irresponsible doctor who was quick to prescribe pills (e.g. “Oh quick, let’s run a seminar on evangelism!”) for a problem he had not thoroughly diagnosed. If you are a pastor or a leader who is looking to mobilise all your people to evangelise their world, then let me tell you as 9

plainly as I can (after fourty years of experience) - pumping out a few rousing, tub thumping sermons and beating the drum from the front will never cut it. Neither will organising a couple of training sessions to equip your people to evangelise. The current crisis in world evangelism is way too deep and complex for hype, or shallow, quick solutions. My prayer is that as a result of reading this book, you’ll put to the sword what’s causing you to not do evangelism, and you’ll start doing evangelism yourself. Most important of all, you’ll know how to mobilise everyone in your church. That is to say, you’ll be ready to be used by the Holy Spirit to help cause a resurgence in evangelism in the Western Church.

ood news and bad news…

However, before I unveil the models and maps of the war zone, and take you right into the heat of the battle, I need to give you some good news and some bad news. Let me explain.

rom 100% to 2% in 2000 years…

I was saved in 1984 and spent most of that decade studying. After completing degrees in both educational psychology and theology, I went teaching, and was appointed principal of a primary school in 1990. But, after receiving a call to become a full-time evangelist, I never took up that position. For the next eight years, I trained and motivated young people from local churches for short-term beach missions in New Zealand. They travelled to stunning beaches to take Christ to the holiday-makers, and hundreds of non-Christians were swept into the Kingdom. We ran exciting programmes for children, teenagers and their parents. At night teams gave Christian messages in marquees, and bands played Christian music. All kinds of performing artists supported the cause. It was a wonderful season in my life. During this time I undertook a serious personal study of the 10

book of Acts. When I came to Acts 5:40-42, the Holy Spirit spoke powerfully to me: “His speech persuaded them. They called the Apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The Apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped proclaiming the gospel.” (Acts 5:40-42). What struck me was that the Apostles, the Church leaders, those who’d actually walked and talked with Jesus, the original twelve, were modelling an evangelistic lifestyle.2 These were men who has been personally mentored by Jesus for three years. One can’t get any closer to the fullness of the revelation of Jesus than that! Don’t rush over what I have just written here. It’s crucially important. Let me say it again. “Those who’d actually walked and talked with Jesus, the original twelve. These were men who has been personally mentored by Jesus for three years.” If you want to know what a true Christian leader looks like, put aside for a moment all the books you’ve been reading on Christian leadership, and meditate on Acts 5:40-42. These verses answer the question “What does a true Christian leader look like?” True Christian leaders deliberately leave their homes each day (or if you are a leader reading this, your office at church), eager to find lost people. Once they find them, they seek to explain the gospel to them. Essentially, this is what it means to be active in evangelism - daily seeking out lost/unsaved people, or those we meet as we go about the course of each day, and graciously/lovingly explaining the gospel to them. I am not saying that this is all that a Christian leader should do all day (obviously), but it ought to be their priority, 2 In Book Three I discuss in detail how I came to define evangelism as the proclamation or spread of the gospel.

their ‘30-minutes-each-day-never-to-be-dropped’ hallmark. It was so when the Church was birthed in Acts, and it ought to be today. Period. After a careful study of Church history, I discovered that virtually the entire Early Church had been mobilised to do this (led by the excellent example of the Apostles) and they reached the known world with the gospel. Who says virtually everyone was mobilised? Church Historian Michael Green reports: “The biggest difference between the New Testament Church and our own,” he says, “is that every member was a witness.3 The responsibility of bearing witness to Jesus rested fairly and squarely upon every single member.” It was a stunningly wonderful discovery to know that it was possible to mobilise virtually the whole Church to evangelise. It happened because the leaders of the day were leading by example. I reasoned that if it had happened before, it could happen again. Eusebius, the third century Church Father and historian observed how and why the Early Church grew so prolifically. “At once, in accordance with the divine Scriptures, the voice of its inspired evangelists and Apostles4 went forward to the whole earth and their Word [i.e. the gospel message] to the end of the world. In every city and village arose churches crowded with thousands of men like a teeming threshing floor.”5 Wow! But how things have changed today! I found out that today personal evangelism in the Western Church is at an appalling all time low. Only 2% of Christians regularly engage in it. How do we know this? 3

There is much confusion about what “to witness” means today. It means to proclaim or spread the gospel. It does not mean engaging in social action, not mowing one’s lawns on Sunday, or not smoking etc.

4 Some have taken this to try and prove that only those with the gift of evanglism and the Apostles did all the evangelism. This is not what Eusebius is saying. I discuss why evangelism is the responsibility of all believers in Book Eight. 5

Michael Green. Evangelism in the Early Church. Highland Books. 1969. p 201.

isten to what the experts say…

For example: 1. The late Bill Bright, Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, reported that only a tiny 2% of the Church body is currently walking in obedience to Jesus’ command to “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel” (Mark 16:15).6 2. According to Christianity Today, only 1% of its readers said they had “witnessed”7 to someone that day.8 3. American evangelist Greg Laurie reports 75% of people in Church do not even know what John 3:16 says.9 4. George Barna, Director of the Barna Research Institute, concluded the majority of Christians in the West had stopped proclaiming the gospel. He writes: “How ironic that during this period of swelling need for the proclamation of the gospel, the ranks of the messengers have dissipated to anaemic proportions. The world’s greatest gift (the gospel) is now faced with becoming the world’s greatest secret.”10 5. Widely-travelled author and pastor Dr John Piper, in addressing his own church on the subject of evangelism said, “Virtually every earnest Christian is grieved by his weakness in this area. Did you know that? There is not a zealous Christian in this room who feels content with his effectiveness in personal evangelism.”11 Other respected scholars and leaders confirmed what these leaders were saying. 6

ited in: Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. The Way Of The Master. How To Share Your Faith Simply, C Effectively, Biblically…The Way Jesus Did. Tyndale Books, 2004, p.1.

In Book Three, I discuss the difference between “proclaiming the gospel” and “witnessing.”

ited in: Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. The Way Of The Master. How To Share Your Faith Simply, C Effectively, Biblically…The Way Jesus Did. Tyndale Books, 2004, p.18

Greg Laurie. How To Share Your Faith. Tyndale Books, 1999, p.48

10 George Barna.  Evangelism That Works. Regal, 1995,  pp.22 – 24 11 http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper88/pipe001b.htm

For example, Dr William Abraham, Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Texas, said: “One cannot gainsay the fact that there has been a steady decline in the fortunes of evangelism over time. The situation is one of serious crisis for the Church in the West.”12 Billy Graham said: “A few years ago, an official of the World Council of Churches stated at a consultation on evangelism in Switzerland that …evangelism was the most important task facing the Church. He pointed out that the Church was rapidly losing out in the world population explosion.”13 Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham Centre at Wheaton College, Illinois, says: “It is the view of the authors that gospel proclamation is in decline in much of the Christian world, especially the West. Books on church growth, conferences on church leadership, and even missions’ gatherings and writings give little ink or emphasis to gospel proclamation… the general talk [in the Christian world] is that gospel preaching is archaic and ineffective.”14 “Research shows that despite the extraordinary missions’ efforts of the Church, three out of four people alive on Earth today still have not heard the gospel,” says Kevin Swanson, president of Mission Aviation Fellowship.15

e are a generation living in The Dark Ages of evangelism, and we don’t know it…

What Jesus intended to be the main thing is now on the brink

12 Dr William J. Abraham. The Logic Of Evangelism. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002, p.10 13 C ited in: Leighton Ford. The Christian Persuader. A New Look At Evangelism Today. Harper and Rowe, 1976, p.7 14 L on Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP, 2003, pp.23-24 15 Cited in: Challenge Weekly, A New Zealand Christians Newspaper. June 26, 2006. Volume 64, issue 24, p.1

of extinction. Most alarming of all, most Christians, including leaders, are completely oblivious to this appalling situation, just as leaders in the Dark Ages were oblivious to the situation they were in. And here’s the thing - in the the Dark Ages16 (roughly the 1000 years between 500AD and 1500AD), the Catholic Church dominated. It believed that salvation came through works, indulgences, and partaking in the sacraments etc. Salvation by grace through faith was there, right before their eyes in the Bible. For 1000 years, this crucial truth was lost. It wasn’t until Martin Luther burst onto the world scene in 1517 that the covers were dramatically pulled off, and the heresy of works righteousness exposed. What amazes me is this - why did God allow this heresy to dominate for 1000 years, and for the truth about salvation by grace, held by the tiny remnant, to struggle? Why didn’t God raise up a Martin Luther 1000 years earlier? The answer? God works through people, and for 1000 years His eyes were roaming the earth looking for a man or a woman who would stand up and expose the heresy and fight against it (2 Chronicles 16:9). Why don’t you be that man or woman in your church/town/city who will stand up and fight for the cause of the gospel, evangelism, and the Great Commission? Right now, our generation is living right in the middle of another Dark Age - this time the Dark Age of evangelism. Today, as I have already pointed out, only a remnant (2%) personally and regularly engage in it. Tragically, the error of non-involvement in personal evangelism now dominates Western Christianity, just as salvation by works dominated the Dark Ages back then. Today, God is looking for men and women who will stand up and be God’s Martin Luther in the current crisis in evangelism. That is to 16 There is wide and varying understanding among historians about what we mean by ‘The Dark Ages’

say, men and women who will expose the crisis, and dedicate their lives to fighting against it. Will you be one of these people? As you read this book, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would speak to you to reply “Yes! I will be one of those people!”

How are you going with evangelism? Do the test…

The sources I have quoted so far which cite the decline of evangelism are reliable. Yet, there is a far more telling piece of research - the voice of our own conscience. When I am preaching in churches I explain what ‘The Gospel’ is,17 and what it is not, and give an example of a Gospel message.18 Then I ask the following questions of the audience: “How many of us, honestly, would have gone out of our way intentionally to give the full gospel to a nonChristian in the last twelve hours?” Usually, no hands go up. “How many in the last 24 hours?” Again, no hands go up. “How many in the last week?” No hands. “The last month?” One or two hands.19 I then ask people in the church to look around to see how few hands have gone up. Most people are completely shocked. For the first time in their lives they realise that what they thought was happening was not happening at all. Most Christians are aware they are not sharing the gospel but they are completely unaware so few in the rest of their Church are doing it. Replicate this experiment in almost any Western church and see for yourself. What are some of the consequences, in the West, of a Church 17 I have found that I need to define all my terms carefully in churches, otherwise people think that having a casual conversation about God, saying “Jesus loves you”, “giving a testimony”, or even bringing up the subject of God is the same as “proclaiming the gospel.” 18 You can view this at www.biblein11.com 19 W e have also found that usually when the faithful few have raised their hands and are further questioned about what they mean by “proclaiming the gospel” they back down admitting that the message they shared with the non-Christian was not the full gospel at all. It was either their testimony (which didn’t include the gospel) or it was just a good general discussion about God and Christianity (which touched on aspects of the gospel but was not a clear, succinct full gospel presentation). This is why I show a clear example of a gospel presentation before asking the question.

which has stopped proclaiming the gospel? First, more people are exiting the Church than entering it.

hurch attendance falls…

A team of researchers from the University of Manchester found that church attendance in Britain dropped from 20.3% of the population in 1991 to 16.8% of the population in 1999.20 A 3.5% fall equates to 426,300 people who dropped out of attending church over an eight-year period. This is equal to 4,000 churches with congregations of 100 closing down. Take Australia as another example. Church attendance in Australia plunged from 9.9% of the population in 1996 to 8.8% in 2001 – a substantial 1.1 fall in just five years. A 1.1% fall equates to approximately 184,000 people who dropped out of attending church over a five-year period. This is equivalent to 1,000 churches with congregations of 184 closing down.21 Significant leaders in New Zealand are taking notice. Pastor Tak Bhana, of West City Christian Centre in West Auckland has pastored a large growing church for almost 19 years. “If I was ruthlessly honest,” he said, “I would have to admit there are hardly any more Christians in West Auckland today than when I started. I believe the same scenario is being played out in many parts of our nation. The end result is that the percentage of Christians in this nation has remained unchanged for the last 50 years.” 22 Rodney McCann, leader of New Zealand’s Baptist Churches agrees that: “overall the Church in New Zealand is not growing.” 23 20 S ee Maria MacKay. Faith In God Declining Faster Than Church Attendance. www.christianitytoday.com, 16 Aug, 2005. 21 A s per NCLS Research. Church Attendance As A Percentage Of The Australian Population. www.ncls.org.au, 2001. 22 Cited in: Challenge Weekly magazine. Volume 65, Issue 37. October 1, 2007. p. 8 23 Ibid, p.8.

America fares no better: “The inescapable conclusion is this: the Body of Christ in America is not growing – either numerically or spiritually. It is, relatively speaking, shrinking – burdened by the crass commercialism and the quest for power and glory by celebrity preachers.”24 According to pastor and author Jim Cymbala: “Despite all the Christian broadcasting, and high profile campaigns, the Christian population is not growing in numbers nationally.”25 Southern Baptists are equally alarmed: “In our own congregations, we see falling rates of baptism and other signs of concern. In 2008, Southern Baptist churches baptized more than 33,000 fewer people than in 1950 – and that was with more than 17,000 additional churches. Baptism rates among teenagers have fallen dramatically, and many young people become disengaged with the church soon after graduation from high school. In 2008 we baptized only 75,000 teenagers. In 1972, we baptized 140,000. Why? Research conducted by LifeWay Research on the Millennial generation and research by Thom Rainer on previous generations indicate that every American generation from early in the twentieth century forward has been less evangelized than generations before. Tracing generational patterns from the World War II generation to the Millennials, the estimated number of Christians has fallen from 65% to 15%. Churches in America

24 Cited in: Challenge Weekly Magazine. Volume 65, issue 3. February 5, 2007. p 2. 25 Jim Cymbala. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, 1997, p.90

are losing ground with each successive generation.”26 Allison and Anderson report: “In 1992, the median adult attendance per church service [in America] was 102. By 1995, it dropped to 95 and in 1999 it fell to 90 – an eleven percent drop in seven years…. interestingly….during this time the number of Christians sharing their faith also declined.”27 Say Rusaw and Swanson: “Attendance at two-thirds of US churches has either plateaued or is declining.”28 Many denominations are haemorrhaging. Take, for example, the Episcopal Church. In February 2005, it announced to its members: “The most urgent message the Commission has to convey to the Church is not a happy one. Current data indicates we are going in the wrong direction. So far, what has doubled is the rate of decline in attendance. The numbers should alarm and disturb us.”29 And it’s not just the Episcopal Church which is squealing. It’s all denominations: “In 1960, mainline church members made up 14.4% of the American population. In 2000, mainline church members comprised only seven point four percent of the American population. Looked at as a percentage of the population, membership has decreased almost fifty percent in 40 years.”30 And is the Protestant presence in the U.S.A. declining? 26 “Embracing A Vision For A Great Commission Resurgence Among Southern Baptists. Final Report Of The Great Commission Task Force Of The Southern Baptist Convention June 15, 2010.” Cited at: http://www. pray4gcr.com/historic/report.pdf 27 Cited in: Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP, 2003, p.30 28 Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson. The Externally Focussed Church. Group Publishing. 2004, p.27 29 http://www.episcopalarchives.org/e-archives/bluebook/13.html 30 Marth Grace Reece. Unbinding The Gospel. Real Life Evangelism. Chalice Press. 2008, p.25

Yes. “Recent research from the University of Chicago shows the America’s Protestant majority is fading rapidly and will be gone by the time you hold this book in your hands. From 1972 to 1993, the percentage of Protestants in the U.S remained fairly stable at sixty-three percent. However, by 2002 the number had dropped to fifty two percent. Protestants are in steady decline.”31 What is the overall picture? At worst, “All across Western Europe, church attendance [1991-1998] has plummeted…”32 Dr William Abraham: “There is no going back on the thesis that the proportion of the population [in the Western World] who take Christianity seriously has shrunk drastically.”33 Are there other consequences for a Church in the West which has stopped proclaiming the gospel?

elief in God among non-Christians falls…

The team of researchers at the University of Manchester, England, also found there was a dramatic decline in belief in God among non-Christians. All this disturbed me greatly.  I had always had the impression from the songs we sing in church, the mission reports, magazines, books and general Christian information we read, hear, or see, that the Church in the West was a great army making massive advances into the kingdom of darkness, steadily and consistently taking ground.34 31 Ibid, p.26 32 Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP, 2003, p.29 33 Dr William J. Abraham. The Logic Of Evangelism. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002, p.13 34

Some churches are making great gains, and we rejoice in this, but their number is small compared to the total number of churches in existence in the West. It is perilous to conclude from observing the prolific growth of some churches in the West that all churches are faring well. The truth is, many large churches are growing at the expense of smaller churches i.e. people from small churches are simply transferring to the larger churches. As such, much large church growth is actually transfer. I discuss this issue in Book Seventeen. Furthermore, many large ‘successful’ churches are growing not through evangelism, but through clever marketing.

Discovering these impressions were shockingly inaccurate and left me feeling deflated.

oincidence or consequence?...

I asked myself, “Are these declines in belief in God and Church attendance just coincidences, unrelated to the Church ceasing to do evangelism? Or are they consequences?” I believe they are consequences. How so? First, if the Church stops evangelising, the lost stop hearing the gospel. And not hearing the gospel, fewer are being saved and assimilated into churches. Second, when the Church stops evangelising, Christians lose life, direction, meaning, and passion for their faith. Doing evangelism fuels all four aspects of a Christian’s life. And when Christians do not have these aspects of their Christian life fuelled, they drop out of Church. I am not alone in my thinking. “There is a clear connection between [plummeting] Church attendance and proclaiming Christ,”35 say Allison and Anderson. Their conclusion fits with Scripture; “…whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly” (2 Corinthians 9:6).36 I found myself drawn to the writings of many great Christian statesmen, authors and leaders around the world – men and women who had observed how evangelism was being hindered in the West.

ignificant leaders are saying the same thing…

Billy Graham used the phrase “the un-seeded generation”37 to describe those who had never heard the gospel.38 He said this when he turned down an invitation to hold a 35 Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP, 2003, p.30 36 True, the context of the Scripture is money, but the principle still applies. We cannot expect a harvest from a field not sown with seed. 37 In the Bible the gospel is represented as a seed (e.g. 1 Peter 1:23) and the human heart as the soil (e.g. Luke 8:15). 38 Cited in: Jack R Smith. Fifty Great Soul Winning Sermons. Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, 1994, p.11

crusade in a city where the non-Christians had not heard the gospel. This was because the Christians in that city had not been proclaiming it. In using this phrase, he was effectively saying, “What is the point in expecting a harvest from a field not sown with the seed of the gospel?39 I don’t want to waste precious time and resources by going to such a city.” Graham’s comment now applies to virtually every city and town in the West. In 1967 Dr John Stott wrote a book called Our Guilty Silence: the Church, the Gospel and the World. In it he spoke of the reluctance of Christians to go into the world and proclaim the gospel.  There I was in 2013, reading a book written in the 1960s about a crisis that had apparently existed for decades. Jack Hanes, author, pastor and missions’ mobiliser, wrote in His Last Command, Our First Priority40 that “35,000 people were dying daily without having heard the name of Jesus.” Hanes’ insights added fuel to my desire to write this book. Mark Mittleberg of Willow Creek Church said: “Unfortunately, the work of evangelism has been pushed off onto believers by pastors, pushed onto pastors by believers or pushed off to those believers with the gift of evangelism.”41 Mark Conner, Senior Pastor of the 5,000 strong Waverley Christian Fellowship in Melbourne, Australia, said: “In most churches, evangelism just isn’t happening.”42 Greg Laurie, US evangelist said: 39 Notice that it’s the seed of the gospel we are talking about here. “Seed sowing” is a popular theme in church circles. We are often exhorted to sow the seeds of kindness, love, righteousness, purity, money, time or whatever. Such exhortations ought to continue. But the seed Billy Graham is talking about is none of these things. It’s the seed of the gospel. Only this seed is the power of God for salvation. Exhortations to sow this particular seed are becoming increasingly rare. In this book, you will discover why. 40 Jack Hanes. His Last Command, Our First Priority. Megalife Ministries, Kingswood, Sydney, Australia, 2002, p.17 41 Cited in: Bronwyn Hughes and John Bellamy. A Passion For Evangelism. Turning Vision Into Action. Open Book Publishers, 2004, p.157 42 ibid, p.157

“It is my personal opinion that most Americans – much less the rest of the world - have not really heard the gospel.”43 Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham Centre at Wheaton College: “The West, including North America and Europe, is post-Christian at best. Vast populations are unaware of the Christian gospel.”44 With so many significant leaders saying virtually the same thing, I knew this was a crisis situation, a new Dark Age. The Lord showed me it was not just Christian statesmen, authors and leaders who were concerned. I thought of evangelism ministries around the world with whom I had had contact who were trying to mobilise Christians for personal evangelism.   Most were finding the task agonisingly difficult. As if my concern from research was not high enough, in 1998 the Holy Spirit took me to new levels by giving me a vision of a waterfall.

vision of a waterfall…

I was standing next to a large waterfall, like Niagara Falls. It was a calm, clear day. Suddenly, right before my eyes, the water was filled with people. Instead of water going over the falls, it was people. They were trying to stop themselves from falling into the abyss, but it was too late. The faces of the tumbling bodies were filled with terror and panic as they fell into the great chasm below, their screams and cries bloodcurdling. Some distance from the edge of the falls, way up stream and to my left, the river was filled with happy, carefree people frolicking in the warm sun and gentle current. Most seemed completely unaware they were nearing the 43 Greg Laurie. How To Share Your Faith. Tyndale Books, 1999, p.47 44 Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. Going Public With The Gospel. Reviving Evangelistic Proclamation. IVP, 2003, p.72

falls. Then I looked over to the other side of the falls. Mature trees were dotted around a beautifully manicured lawn.  Sunlight filtered through the leaves onto the grass where groups of people were engaged in various activities. Some were worshipping, some were studying the Bible, some were praying, and some were prophesying. Some were praying for the sick while others just talked. Still others were listening to a sermon, and one group was dancing.  What I noticed particularly was that everyone faced away from the water and all seemed completely oblivious to the screams of the people right behind them who were tumbling over the falls.

e are everywhere, but they are just not hearing…

Was this a picture of much of the Church in the West today?  I believe so. While we are busy with many good activities, a spiritual disaster is happening right behind us. Millions45 of unbelievers in the West are pouring into hell, never once having heard and understood the gospel. They’re not from some lost tribe. They’re your neighbours and mine, family members, co-workers and co-students. Christians, are everywhere, but non-Christians are just not hearing the gospel. Overwhelmed by the situation, I went to prayer. I considered: • The vision of Niagara Falls. • The research regarding the decline in gospel proclamation. • The similarities between the Dark Ages and the Church today. • The research showing the Church in the West had not

45 U sing the word “millions” might seem like a wild exaggeration which cannot be substantiated by research. Not so. We have been surveying a large sample of non-Christians. After presenting the gospel to them, we have asked them the question, “Have you ever heard this message or anything like this message from somewhere else or someone else?” and their answers are remarkably consistent. Upward of 95% say “No.” If only 2% of Christians in the West are evangelising, then it figures that most non-Christians are not hearing the gospel.

grown in real terms for decades. • The observations of the Christian leaders mentioned above. • The reports from ministries worldwide that were seeking to mobilise Christians for personal evangelism. My conclusion? Most Christians in the West had stopped going purposefully and regularly into their world to proclaim or spread the gospel but there was no natural or logical reason for this.

or example...

It is not as if we lack finance. The Western Church has billions of disposable dollars. Our communication tools include the web, video, DVD and CD, TV, radio, satellite, Facebook, Twitter, Google, ipads, iphones, ipods, tablets of every make and model etc. We have wonderful graphic design and printing capabilities. All John Wesley had was a horse, a Bible, and the Holy Spirit. Power to proclaim the gospel is available. Acts 1:8 speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit, through whom there is power for every believer today (Romans 5:5). Jesus’ command to“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel” is not too complicated to understand. It is not as though we cannot find anyone to whom we can give the gospel. There are billions (literally) of people who have not once heard and understood this message. Many of them are in the West where there is a church on every corner. Finally, we are not on our own for Jesus promised, “I will be with you” (Matthew 28:20). So, how have we moved from everyone evangelising in the Early Church to only 2% doing it today? Who or what has caused this gigantic shift? How have we regressed 98% over 2000 years? I clearly felt the Holy Spirit challenge me to find answers to these questions. For 16 years I sought God and undertook serious, prayer, study, and research. 25