I grew up attending a denominational church every week. My mother, who did not regularly attend church herself, made sure that I was dressed and delivered to the hands of my teacher every week. For that reason, years later, I was unable to identify the "moment" of my salvation. As was my church’s tradition, I was baptized at my request when I was 13 years of age. Some years later, I had an airline seatmate who expounded the Four Spiritual Laws and lead me in the Sinner’s prayer. However, I didn’t get personally interested in evangelism until I had stopped attending church regularly in my mid-30s.

I am not sure what peaked my interest. As my children reached their teenage years, I became concerned that my oldest son was not willing to make "a commitment to Christ." I was worried that my lack of interest in church had something to do with his reluctance. My daughter had been baptized at the age of 8, and then again when she was older. My oldest stepson made a decision at a Calvary Chapel baptism and then was later baptized again by his denominational-pastor father. My youngest stepson made his decision early.

At the age of 39, tired, burned out, depressed, I was invited to attend a denominational church that was starting to reach out to people who had given up on church. The pastor eventually determined to "hive off" a new church that was targeted to reach people like me with contemporary music in worship, message-centered dramas and a heart to express love, acceptance and forgiveness to "backsliders" like me. I came back to church, and to God. I got involved in leading worship, small groups and heard about church growth for the first time

In my quest to hear more about worship and church growth I became exposed to hours of teaching tapes by John Wimber, the leader of the Vineyard movement, and the founding consultant of the Fuller Institute for Church Growth. I heard John and Peter Wagner expound, "The single most effective tool for evangelism is church planting." With those words I began a journey that eventually found me pastoring a Vineyard church in the mid-90s. It was then I discovered that church planting did not always lead to evangelism. I learned that transfer growth can be the basis for church planting and that churches birthed in this model seldom grow from new conversions. I also learned that it is difficult to lead an established church into a season of evangelism if it has not been birthed from the evangelistic harvest.

My few years of pastoring were an adventure in church growth, in reverse. We planted a church within a few months of the start of my tenure. This church split did not yield evangelism. Two new churches targeted to reach young adults were started under my watch, yet neither one yielded much conversion growth. I got involved in the Harvest Crusade in Anaheim, CA. but none of those converts entered our church’s front doors. Not that the work was without any harvest. One young woman, an agnostic whose boyfriend was a regular attender, came to faith in Christ and was married and baptized, all in the same day! I recruited a young man to be a "youth evangelist." When he and I had a conflict and his employment was terminated, it became clear that the church did not have enough life left to keep going. I did what I thought was the right thing to do and released the congregation to pursue God in other fellowships and decided that the time was right to launch a "new work" from the ashes of the old.

On the first night of the new church launch, something strange happened. I had been allowing a "Christian" punk band made up of skater-teenagers practice on the church’s sound system and drums. [They eventually blew out every speaker we owned!] On that first night I gave them the opportunity to perform and set up a couple of skateboard ramps in the parking lot. They invited their friends, and about 60 skaters showed up! God started an adventure that continues today. Five years later there have been several thousand decisions to follow Christ. Previous Next-Wave articles "If you build it, they will come" and "When they come you build it bigger" chronicle the skateboard outreach at the Ranch in Moreno Valley, California.

[The broken skateboards signify the surrendered lives of skaters at The Ranch]

Is there a new paradigm for evangelism?

Pioneers in postmodern ministry have asserted that "closing the deal" the way my seatmate in the airline did, or the way our Ranch evangelists have done for the last five years is not an adequate representation of the gospel that Jesus preached. With the sinner’s prayer and altar calls absent from the New Testament, they argue that decisions do not equal disciples. I couldn’t agree more. Todd Hunter, former national director of the Vineyard in the USA and erstwhile church planting coach for allelon, writes in his blog entry for May 29, 2003:

"The standard punch line in an evangelistic sermon is: "If you walked out of here right now, got hit by a truck and died, do you know for sure you would go to heaven?" My thought: I wonder if that is the best doorway into the all-encompassing Story of "God’s Will for the Cosmos?" Better questions might be: "If you knew for sure that you were going to live tonight, tomorrow and for a L-O-N-G time after, who would you follow? Around what would you organize all the various aspects of your life?" Or, when I find someone really struggling with belief in a god, or a Christian having a hard time with actual obedience, I sometimes ask "If it were up to you, would you like there to be a god?" "If so, would you want god to be fully god? To totally express his god-likeness? To completely have his way?" This line of questioning has a way of clarifying for people the real issues that, from time to time, get buried or muddy for all of us. Sometimes the best thing any of us can do, Christian or not, is to think through what it is we ACTUALLY, REALLY believe about God and where we are in regard to issues of "control." Sit down and think about it some day..."

In the "last" wave, I use this term with tongue firmly planted in cheek, the pioneers taught us a lot. Bill Hybels taught us that "Lost people matter to God," that the mission of the local church is "to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ," and that seekers can meet God in "seeker services." Rick Warren taught us that we should be "seeker-sensitive" in our services and purpose-driven as we lead the crowd through the rings of commitment until they become the core. Steve Sjogren taught us that "Small things done with great love will change the world" and that a conspiracy of kindness can demonstrate through servant evangelism the love of Christ in practical ways.

So, in the era of "the emerging church," the "missional community", is there a "new" paradigm for evangelism? How can we produce authentic disciples? Mike Bishop hopes that his church will "be made up of actual people that actually form a community for the sake of the world."

I have heard several of the missional community practitioners pondering the problem. They work diligently at producing the community and wonder about the who, what, where, when and how of being "missional." Apparently Jesus did not have the same problem that we have.

¹Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. ²There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. ³He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way--he was a short man and couldn't see over the crowd. ⁴So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by. ⁵When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home." ⁶Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. ⁷Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, "What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?" ⁸Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, "Master, I give away half my income to the poor--and if I'm caught cheating, I pay four times the damages." ⁹Jesus said, "Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost."

This New Testament story about the "Jesus kind of Evangelism" gives emerging church practitioners something to think about. No trying to close the deal with a "Sinner's Prayer", but rather, a simple self-invitation to lunch. The result is an instant conversion and repentance. The "crook" promises to give to the poor and make restitution. Jesus declares that salvation has taken hold. And then he declares his mission, "to find and restore the lost." We are left to wonder about the future chronicles of the Zacchaeus story...but there is no discussion of spiritual disciplines, authentic community or a discipleship program. In fact, Jesus didn't even ask Zacchaeus to "Follow me."

The Story of the Woman at the Well from John 4