Churches need to devote more time and resources to evangelism and better equip members to share their faith with non-Christians, evangelist Canon J John has said. Speaking at the Church Resources Exhibition (CRE), the founder of the Philo Trust warned that many churches devote the overwhelming majority of their time and resources to worship and the wellbeing of existing congregations, while neglecting evangelism.
He recalled Philo Trust research among 1,000 Evangelical churches, which found that only 36 said they had provided evangelism training during the previous decade. He challenged church leaders to be more intentional about evangelism, including making training in sharing the Christian faith a regular part of church life. “Research indicates that we spend over 95% of all of our time, energy, money, resources and manpower on worship and wellbeing. We spend less than 5% on witness.
Do you not agree there's a slight imbalance there?” J John suggested churches distribute their resources more equally between the three. However, he emphasized that simply telling Christians to witness to others wasn't enough and they needed to be shown how to do it. “We've got to equip people. We've got to help people,” he said.
He encouraged churches to consider running an evangelism training course every year, saying they must think beyond the needs of their existing congregations and consider how they can reach people on the fringes of church life and those with no connection to Christianity. “I want you to lead the church as if you were an evangelist,” he said.
“In other words, it's a mindset that you're not just thinking about the flock, but you're thinking about the fringe and you're thinking about beyond the fringe.” Other speakers at the exhibitions echoed the importance of intentional outreach and disciple-making, exploring how churches could engage younger generations