{"id":721924,"date":"2020-09-23T02:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T06:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=721924"},"modified":"2020-09-22T19:42:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T23:42:28","slug":"9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones. Frankly, most churches lose the evangelistic passion that marked them in their beginning. Here are some reasons why:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In their early days, reaching lost people is part of their vision \u2013 but that focus decreases as the church grows.<\/b> No longer are they driven to evangelize as much once the church reaches critical mass.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. As the church matures, leaders give their attention to internal matters.<\/b> Questions like what type of polity will we have, when will we build (if we do), what curriculum will we follow, and others divert attention from evangelism.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Pastoral care requires more time as the church grows.<\/b> It\u2019s really a simple formula: more people in the congregation = more needs to meet and more requests for care. It\u2019s tough to meet those needs and evangelize, too.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Leaders fail to equip others to help them do ministry.<\/b> Instead of delegating work so they can keep casting vision for evangelism, they wind up carrying all the responsibilities themselves. Evangelism almost always takes a back seat then.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Fellowship\u2014as great as it can be\u2014becomes self-protective.<\/b> That is, the church loves to be together because it feels like a \u201csafe place\u201d from a messed-up and chaotic world. Churches in protection mode seldom invite outsiders to join them.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Transfer growth takes their attention off evangelism.<\/b> The church might well be growing, but it\u2019s growing by swapping sheep with other congregations. That growth\u2014consistent though it may be\u2014lulls the church to sleep evangelistically.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The church plans so many activities that members have no time left to develop relationships with non-believers. <\/b>The growing church offers more activities, and they often quietly expect members to participate in everything. The result is busy members who don\u2019t know non-believers.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Nobody\u2019s paying attention to conversion numbers.<\/b> They may have been burdened about those numbers during the early days of the church, but not so much anymore. Accountability decreases, and so does evangelism.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Leaders don\u2019t teach enough about the lostness of human beings.<\/b> I\u2019m convinced many members believe good people are going to heaven apart from a relationship with Christ\u2014and only consistent biblical teaching will change their perspective. Too little teaching on this topic leads to too little evangelism.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What would you add to this list?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones. Frankly, most churches lose the evangelistic passion that marked them in their beginning. Here are some reasons why.","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":721926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-721924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discipleship","category-outreach-and-evangelism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-23T06:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"headline\":\"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-23T06:00:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/\"},\"wordCount\":406,\"commentCount\":9,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Discipleship\",\"Outreach & Evangelism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/\",\"name\":\"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-23T06:00:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"description\":\"In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1365},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\",\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chuck Lawless\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well | Church Answers","description":"In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well | Church Answers","og_description":"In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones.","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2020-09-23T06:00:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2048,"height":1365,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chuck Lawless","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chuck Lawless","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/"},"author":{"name":"Chuck Lawless","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"headline":"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well","datePublished":"2020-09-23T06:00:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/"},"wordCount":406,"commentCount":9,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Discipleship","Outreach & Evangelism"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/","name":"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well | Church Answers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-23T06:00:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"description":"In reviewing a church\u2019s history, it\u2019s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/chris-dixon-M6Yiq9YIgAU-unsplash-scaled.jpg","width":2048,"height":1365},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-reasons-churches-stop-evangelizing-well\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f","name":"Chuck Lawless","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chuck Lawless"},"description":"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721928,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721924\/revisions\/721928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}