Through my research, I've had the opportunity to interview the leaders of the most effective evangelistic churches in America. One of the first questions I usually asked was, "How has your church been so effective in evangelism?"

The answers came back as varied as the types of churches we interviewed: white-collar, blue-collar, rural, urban, suburban, white, Hispanic, black, Asian, lower-income, and upper-income (there were nearly six hundred churches in our study). Can we really discover how these churches are reaching people for Christ?

The answer is yes.

The Methodology Issue

Many church leaders today resist "how to" information. They do so primarily because of the plethora of material available about church growth methodologies and because they have learned there is no quick-fix solution to growing an evangelistic church.

Yet we must not move to the other extreme and disregard any methodology as without merit. Methodologies are important when we see them as tools to be used by God, rather than the perfect solution to our church needs.

In our written survey of these churches, we asked numerous methodological questions. As we tabulated hundreds of pages of data and followed up with telephone and on-site interviews, we made three general conclusions about evangelistic methodologies.

First, the types of methodologies are as numerous as the churches themselves. God is using a variety of methods in a variety of churches to draw people to Himself. Inevitably, the sheer number of responses meant that some of the methodologies conflict with others. That which works in a traditional church in Anniston, Ala., may not work in a contemporary church in Fresno, Calif.

Second, though the methodologies are many, the evangelistic principles are few.

Finally, among the many responses about methodology, three major trends emerged.

The "Big Three" Methodologies

Perhaps one of the most surprising conclusions we reached about evangelistic methodologies is that three factors are consistently important in most churches. Because of the importance of these issues, an entire article will be devoted to each of them. For now, however, let us take a brief look at them.

The Pulpit

Repeatedly, the leaders of these evangelistic churches told us preaching is one of the most effective means of reaching people for Christ. It cannot be overstated that the spoken word from the written Word is critically important in evangelism. The pulpit is powerful! In our infatuation with church-growth methodologies over the past three decades, we sorely neglected the role of preaching for evangelistic growth.

When we asked church leaders to rate the evangelistic methodologies, preaching consistently received the highest response. Additionally, the responses varied little with the size of the church. Churches with more than 1,000 in average attendance rated preaching slightly higher than most other churches as a contributing factor to evangelistic effectiveness. Such a response is not surprising, given the high profile of megachurch pastors. What is surprising is that leaders of churches with fewer than 300 in average attendance ranked preaching almost as important as the megachurch pastors did.

Remember, we are hearing the views of church leaders whose churches are already evangelistically effective. They are not giving us unsubstantiated opinions. They truly believe preaching is primary in their successful outreach.

Second, these pastors see the pulpit as the focus for evangelism in both the messages they preach and the emphases they make in this speaking forum. They not only see the sermon itself as a vehicle for evangelism, but everything that is said from the pulpit provides the church leadership and direction.

As one pastor commented, "God's Word is powerful. Faithfully proclaiming from the Bible is absolutely necessary for evangelism. But a pastor can preach faithfully from God's Word every Sunday, yet have little or no evangelistic thrust." He then concluded, "It's not either/or. The preacher must believe and preach God's Word with power, and he must keep evangelism as a priority in everything he says."

Prayer Ministries

Across America, a powerful movement of God's Spirit is transforming many churches from near-death to new life with evangelistic zeal. Though one must be careful about explaining the work of a sovereign God, we see a clearly discernable pattern in many of these newly awakened churches.

Prior to the visible manifestations of God's Spirit through repentance, brokenness, and people coming to Christ, a new emphasis on prayer and prayer ministries touches the church. Often the prayer emphasis takes the form of organized times for intercessory prayer or days of prayer and fasting. Rarely are a majority of the church members involved, but the minority who do participate see their lives radically changed.

This core of Christians provides the spark in the church that ignites an unprecedented evangelistic emphasis. Excitement builds as more people accept Christ.

Though the forms of prayer ministries vary, the leaders of these evangelistic churches stress that their personal prayer lives and the prayer ministries of the church are inevitably tied to winning souls to Christ.

One pastor shared, "We have had a three-year revival which seems to have come from the beginning of PrayerLife, a Southern Baptist prayer ministry. I have never seen anything in my life like this."

Our survey results ranked prayer ministries second only to preaching as the most important methodology in evangelistic effectiveness. Again, responses varied little with church size.

Sunday School, Small Groups

If any program-based methodology proved to be a dynamic tool for these evangelistic churches, it was Sunday School. Most leaders were amused at the prophecies of the decline or death of Sunday School. When asked about such predictions, they had a unified response: The problem is failure to use the program as an intentional evangelistic tool. Here are a few of their comments:

• "Our Sunday School is the most effective tool for evangelism."
• "We require all our Sunday School teachers to have evangelism training."
• "Our Sunday School teachers are encouraged to minister to those in need in our small community. Many have come to Christ as a result."
• "We evangelize through the Sunday School."
• "A majority of our baptisms come as a result of evangelistic teaching in the youth Sunday School classes."

Sunday School garnered the third highest response when we asked about the reasons for evangelistic effectiveness. Small groups, such as home cell groups, tended to be effective as well. The key to evangelistic effectiveness in these small groups is for them to be intentionally evangelistic and open-ended. By open-ended, we mean open to anyone joining and having no predetermined date of conclusion.