If you read this blog regularly, you know I’ve never seen a strongly evangelistic church without a pastor who leads them in that direction. With that finding in mind, here are some “evangelistic questions” pastors ought to be asking of themselves:
- “Do I genuinely grieve the spiritual condition of non-believers?” In my opinion, the only way to answer this question honestly is by looking at our evangelistic efforts.
- “Am I so amazed at Jesus that I can’t help but speak about Him?” Too often, our heights of fascination over Jesus are past-tense – much closer to our conversion than to today.
- “If my church members duplicated my evangelistic efforts, would I be pleased with that?” I fear too many not-very-evangelistic pastors would be forced to say, “No – do as I say, not as I do (or don’t do).”
- “How much time do I intentionally spend with non-believers?” It’s tough to be evangelistic when you don’t know many non-believers in the first place.
- “What are the names of the non-believers for whom I’m praying?” A generic, “I’m praying for all lost people in my community” doesn’t typically reflect a real burden.
- “Who’s that person with whom I need to share Jesus, but I haven’t done it yet?” Most of us can quickly determine who that person is.
- “If my church doubles in size, but almost entirely by transfer growth, would I be pleased?” I think it might be easier to answer “no” to that question than it is to genuinely feel that way.
- “When’s the last time I shared the gospel outside my church office?” Intentional evangelism doesn’t wait for people to come to our office; it goes to them.
- “Who am I equipping to do evangelism?” The best evangelistic pastors are not only telling the story themselves, but they’re also training others to do the same – and they can usually name their trainees.
- “Do I genuinely grieve the spiritual condition of non-believers?” I repeat this question here because it’s a foundational one for us. Grieving lostness is a start toward doing evangelism.
Even if you’re not a pastor, how would you answer these questions?
