The Institute of Evangelism

Every Church an Evangelizing Community!

Good Idea!

Good Idea is our online magazine where you’ll find inspiration, tips, ideas, and stories of how God is working in other churches. Every month we offer one good idea to help churches grow in sharing the faith.

Love New Canadians: Developing a Pathway to Jesus for Immigrants in Your Neighbourhood

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When it comes to the biblical directive to love immigrants, Canada is a land teeming with opportunity. According to 2021 Statistics Canada data, 23.0% of Canadians are foreign born (landed immigrants and permanent residents).[1] In 2023 Canada welcomed more than 471,000 new permanent residents.[2] In addition, that year alone there were more than 183,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada,[3] about 51,000 new refugee claimants,[4] and more than 900,000 international students.[5] What can our churches do to help those who are new to Canada move along a pathway to Jesus?

 

Love New Canadians. A 3-Stage Intercultural Ministry Pathway

At our church in Calgary we have created a ministry for immigrants that consists of three parts. This pathway is a strategy for intercultural ministry. Stage 1 consists of classes and events that help newcomers settle in Canada. These classes have little or no spiritual content. Stage 2 is a transition from Stage-1 to Stage-3 classes. It is a gentle introduction to the Gospel for those who are curious about Jesus, Christianity, or the Church. Stage 3 consists of classes for those who want to follow Jesus or who are looking closely at what it would mean to follow Jesus. It consists of ESL Bible studies, Alpha, worship services, and small groups.

 

Stage 1: Friendship

Our goal with the Stage-1 classes is to meet the needs of immigrants in our neighbourhood and to help them settle into life here. We provide services that result in people in our neighbourhood coming into our church building and getting to know Christians who show love to them. Stage 1 consists of various ESL classes, “Jobtalk,” a citizenship class, the “Immigrant Transitions” class, novel studies, and “Project Confidence” (a public speaking class). A key part of Stage-1 activities is our monthly parties. They are a great way for us to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere. Examples include farm trips, garden tours, camping, curling, hiking, street hockey (or, in our case, church–parking lot hockey), snowshoeing, skating, mini-golf, an Easter egg hunt, banquets, and potlucks.

People come to these classes and events because they want to learn, to find a job, or to make friends. Some attend because they are bored, or lonely, or perhaps just curious about what happens in the church building. Many people have told me that coming to one of our classes was the first time they had ever entered a church building. When our immigrant friends feel comfortable and when they find the activities helpful and enjoyable, they are very likely to come back, try other classes that we offer, and invite a friend.

In Leviticus 19, God said to the people of Israel through Moses: “The foreigner living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love immigrants as you love yourselves. Remember, your people were also once immigrants. I am the LORD your God” (Lev 19:34). We begin with settlement programming as a way to treat immigrants like we would want to be treated if we moved to another country. We have discovered that this strategy is effective for producing spiritual conversations. We are comfortable spending weeks, months, and sometimes even years getting to know our immigrant friends as we trust the Spirit of God to draw them to Jesus.

 

Stage 2: Spiritual Curiosity

The second stage on the pathway is the transitional programming. We call it our ESL Bridges class. This class bridges the gap between settlement classes and events (Stage 1) and spiritual classes (Stage 3), focusing on the English language, Canadian culture, and the life and teaching of Jesus. It can be difficult for a newcomer to make the transition from an ESL class, farm trip, or line-dancing lesson to the spiritual conversations of a Bible study or Alpha. The Bridges class helps fill this gap.

We believe God gave us the idea for the Bridges class to address the spiritual curiosity of immigrants. Those who come are not usually interested in becoming followers of Jesus (at least not yet), but they are curious about our faith. Many come from countries where they were unable to ask questions about Jesus, the Bible, Christianity or the Church.

We begin each class with a focus on some aspect of culture. Every week it is something different. Examples include celebrating Thanksgiving, looking at the northern lights, dealing with a car accident, or finding a physician.

After the cultural introduction, we look at a lesson from the Gospels that is designed to help students learn English while exploring questions related to their own spiritual curiosity. Rather than trying to help students understand the Bible (which is a great goal), in this class we use the life and teaching of Jesus to generate discussion questions for newcomers to talk about their own lives. For example, when looking at John 2, where Jesus turns water into wine, we asked questions about marriage:

Q. In verse 2 Jesus and his followers were at a wedding. What are the components (parts) of a wedding in your birth country?

Q. What food is served at a wedding in your birth country?

Q. What are the various roles (jobs) people have at a wedding? Verse 10 refers to those who “have had too much to drink.” What are the effects of drinking too much?

Q. How would your life be different if you could change water into wine?

Each week we include a question that a seeker might ask to help us think about the personal implications of Jesus’ words:

Q. These verses in John tell us the story of Jesus’ first miracle. What miracle would you like Jesus to do for you?

We have found that these personal questions naturally lead to spiritual conversations. Newcomers learn English while at the same time building friendships with fellow students and loving Christian volunteers. These kinds of questions invite honesty and vulnerability. When we speak honestly ourselves and express our own vulnerability, our immigrant friends respond in a similar manner. Over time, we are able to have comfortable and natural spiritual conversations.

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Stage 3: Spiritual Focus

The third stage of this pathway to Jesus consists of spiritual classes, like ESL Bible studies and Alpha. It is for those who want to follow Jesus, or are close to faith, or new to faith. This is the kind of teaching that Christian faith communities are good at, though sometimes they need help with the ESL component.

Our pathway is designed to make it easy for immigrants to move from Stage 1, to Stage 2, and then to Stage 3, where they become mature followers of Jesus. We have found that, on average, for every ten who attend settlement classes and events (Stage 1), four will attend the Stage-2 ESL Bridges class, and two will attend the Stage-3 spiritual classes. Our goal is to increase the settlement programming so that more people will be on the pathway to Jesus. The more new Canadians attending Stage-1 settlement classes, the more will come to the Stage-2 ESL Bridges class, and the more will attend Stage-3 Alpha classes and ESL Bible studies.

In the past seventeen years we have seen hundreds of our immigrant neighbours progress along a pathway towards Jesus, and dozens have become his disciples. Many join small groups, volunteer, bring their children to Sunday school classes, and attend worship services. Since we started Love New Canadians in 2014, we have found that the model also works well across Canada, in faith communities with as few as twenty-five people, large churches with more than five thousand members, and everything in between.

[1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026a-eng.htm accessed Jan 20, 2023.[2] https://www.cicnews.com/2024/02/canada-welcomed-471550-new-permanent-residents-in-2023-0242798.html#gs.d44amy accessed Aug 3, 2024. See also https://www.immigration.ca/canada-welcomes-record-471550-new-permanent-residents-in-2023/ accessed Aug 3, 2024.[3] https://www.hcamag.com/ca/specialization/immigration/temporary-foreign-worker-approvals-more-than-double-from-2018-to-2023-report/494668#:~:text=How%20many%20temporary%20residents%20are,reported%2C%20citing%20data%20from%20ESDC accessed Aug 3, 2024.[4] https://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/statistics/protection/Pages/RPDStat2023.aspx accessed Aug 3, 2024.[5] Calgary Sun, Jan 14, 2024, p. 10 (no author stated).

Showing Up is Half the Battle

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As a chaplain for politicians, I’ve learned that showing up is half the battle.

As followers of Jesus, we have the world’s most incredible message to deliver. Still, the message is in danger of not being heard if we don’t give thoughtful consideration to how we show up in others’ lives through a regular, engaged, and unordinary presence.

Let me go back about five years. In the spring of 2019, my young family and I moved from our pastoral charge in Huntsville, Ontario, and I began showing up at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at Queen’s Park as a legislative chaplain. I had just joined the team of Leading Influence, a national non-profit organization that provides non-partisan chaplaincy and pastoral services to Canada’s elected officials and their staffers. As the Ontario Spiritual Care Provider, I was commissioned to connect with Members of the Provincial Parliament to support and encourage them in their uniquely challenging role of public office.

Since 2007, the ministry model for Leading Influence has specified that we neither have nor seek official status in the legislatures we serve, thus allowing utmost ministry latitude and missional clarity. Simply, our team quietly builds relationships by providing a ministry of presence in the lives of the dear people of Queen’s Park. In my sixth year of showing up at Queen’s Park, I continue to see lives transformed across the political spectrum across the political spectrum.

As I am a full-time chaplain, my presence in the lives of our MPPs has been regular. Almost every day the legislature is in session, I walk the hallways of the House, giving high-fives and handshakes, visiting the public galleries for Question Period and debates, and taking my lunches with them in the cafeteria. I’m determined to be seen doing good things and heard saying good words. This isn’t because I want my presence to be “all about me,” but because I want to follow Jesus’s instructions in Matthew 5:16: “…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Believe me, this introvert would much rather blend into the surroundings any day!)

Most of us want to make a difference in our world—one that makes significant, quantifiable changes in everyone’s lives. There’s nothing wrong with that, but as time passes, the more I’m reminded that the results and fruitfulness of our outreach endeavours squarely rest with Jesus. (Remember John 15:1–8? He’s the root, we’re the branches.) Few of us will have the measurable impact of the likes of Billy Graham; I’m persuaded that, for most of us (me included!), showing up with faithful, regular presence is foundational.

Beyond being regular, our presence must be engaged, not passive. In legislative chaplaincy, that means I actively learn more about our elected representatives and understand their duties and responsibilities. Engaging means discerning the direction the wind is blowing in others’ lives and then setting our sails accordingly. For example, in the stormy winds of the Covid-19 pandemic, physical presence at the legislature was reduced acutely. Endeavouring to provide chaplaincy ministry during the pandemic felt like captaining a sailboat with no wind. The momentum I had experienced before the lockdowns came to a grinding halt, and the wind was suddenly blowing in a completely different direction. I quickly had to redirect my sail and change up my efforts to find other ways to encourage and support without being physically present. A new opportunity developed for virtual ministry delivery and a new kind of momentum picked up pace. Almost overnight, the ministry was now all about text messaging, Twitter DMs, good old-fashioned phone calls, emails, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. And, who can forget the countless hours spent on Zoom calls on screens across the land?! Ministry flourished in those days in ways it couldn’t have otherwise. When in-person contact resumed, many Members told me how much they appreciated my continuous from-a-distance follow-up, one of them saying, “Thanks for continuing to check in when everyone else disappeared.”

Lastly, when we show up regularly and are engaged, we must also be unordinary. Early on in my time here, several MPPs and staffers were suspicious about me hanging around all the time, as you may imagine. I remember one Member asking me, “Why are you so friendly and kind—what exactly do you want?” In a politician’s life, nearly every interaction involves someone asking for something they need or complaining about something they’ve already received. However, doors swung wide open as I remained soundly non-issue and non-partisan with no agenda.

Our team at Leading Influence often discusses how our chaplaincy care must be given “in a spirit opposite of the culture.” As followers of Jesus, we ought to have the corner on the market when it comes to kindness and grace! The message of 2 Corinthians 2:14–17 is that Christians will be either the aroma of life or the stench of death. Deciding which one to be should be the easiest choice we make each day.

As we thoughtfully consider a more robust theology of presence (referred to colloquially among chaplains as “loitering with intention”), we must remember that it doesn’t have to be a major rewrite of our daily patterns; some minor tweaks here and there could make all the difference. It might mean purposefully leaving 10 minutes early to allow space for meaningful conversations, not just hurried waves as we rush by. It could simply be updating someone’s contact card on your smartphone after a conversation to recall their spouse’s name or a birthday or anniversary later. Or maybe it’s opening your calendar to the day after someone’s surgery or another meaningful life event to jot down a reminder to ask them how it went.

You’re probably not employed as a chaplain, but how can you connect more intentionally with the people you run into on a daily or weekly basis? It doesn’t have to be complicated. Showing up in regular, engaged, and unordinary ways is half the battle.

The Conversion Stories of Scripture: A Treasure Trove

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Seven years ago, I changed the way I taught evangelism. I made this change because I started delving into the conversion stories of scripture and discovered that they contained a treasure trove. Now I teach students, churches, and dioceses about evangelism through the lens of these biblical stories. I’ve been astonished at the difference this approach has made. Students have learned that the sharing of faith is not dependent on finely honed arguments, superior communication skills, lovely evangelistic resources, sales tactics, or market-trend analysis. These stories teach us that the best sort of evangelism is God-dependent, Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-initiated, and based on both prayer and respectful human interaction.

I have gathered what I have learned into a book, and on June 25th, A New and Ancient Evangelism: Rediscovering the Ways God Calls and Sends will be released in North America by Baker Academic. What follows is a small excerpt from Chapter Two, which explores the conversion of the man known to many of us as the Ethiopian eunuch, found in Acts 8:26-40. In this story Philip, one of the Seven chosen to help lead the early church, is told by an angel to go to a certain place. There he encounters an important Ethiopian official (a eunuch) who is on his way back from worshipping in Jerusalem. As this man rides in his chariot, he reads aloud from the book of Isaiah, in what we now know as Chapter 53. Led by the Spirit, Philip approaches the man and strikes up a conversation that quickly results in the man’s conversion and baptism.

I hope you find this excerpt thought-provoking, and I hope it encourages you to consider who the Spirit may be prodding you to invite into a life-giving conversation. To discover other truths about a thoroughly biblical form of evangelism, and to read what precedes or follows this excerpt, the book can be pre-ordered through Amazon, Indigo, or your local Christian bookstore. Enjoy!

 

 A Poignant Passage

 We know little about the history of this Ethiopian. He was likely forcibly castrated as a slave; it is also possible that he suffered an accident that resulted in castration. Least likely, he may have been born with what today would be called ambiguous genitalia. We simply don’t know. We do know that he had no say in his condition and no power to change the stigmatization that was inextricably connected to it, both within Judaism and in the broader Greco-Roman culture. Because of his physical deformity, he was also cut off from God. He was relegated to being part of a ridiculed and despised group. He would never have children to carry his name into the next generation. And he simply had no say in any of this.

Let’s now consider the passage the Ethiopian eunuch was reading.

Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.
(Isa. 53:7-8), quoted in Act 8:32-33)

 

Is it any wonder this passage caught his attention and resonated so deeply? While we can’t know what this man was thinking, we can guess why the Ethiopian asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” (8:34). How could Isaiah, a prophet of God, understand so deeply what this eunuch himself felt? Or did the prophet know another who was so despised and rejected, so wrongly judged and shamed? About whom was the prophet speaking?

Good News for the Suffering

 Philip’s response is summed up in one sentence in this story: “Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus” (8:35). Christians looking for a script for sharing the gospel will be disappointed, for Philip took quite a different approach: listening first, asking if help was needed, awaiting an invitation, and responding to a question only with what he knew about Jesus, the person who Christians throughout the ages have identified as fulfilling Isaiah 53. One who suffered at the hands of others. One who suffered humiliation. One for whom justice was denied. One whose life was taken from him.

And yet that was not the end of the story for the one written about by the prophet, as Philip must have conveyed. The resurrection of Jesus turned his humiliation and death upside down. What looked like a horrible defeat was revealed to be an ultimate victory. The victory of God. The good news. God, in Christ, had atoned for the sin of all the ages, and he was now reconciling the whole world to himself. I often wonder if Philip showed the Ethiopian eunuch a passage in Isaiah located just three chapters after the passage he was reading. If he did, it would surely be part of the good news that Philip spoke of that day. Isaiah’s long-promised Suffering Servant had come, and as a result everything had changed.

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people,”
and do not let the eunuch say,
“I am just a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off. (Isa. 56:3–8)

 

The story of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts takes place among a series of stories about the sharing of the gospel with more and more outsiders. Philip seems to have been particularly called to this work. First we read about him preaching to the Samaritans. Next we learn about him discipling and baptizing Simon, who was formerly a sorcerer. This conversion is followed by him being sent to reach the Ethiopian eunuch, after which he was whisked away to the city of Azotus and then to villages and towns up the Mediterranean coast, until he finally reached Caesarea, where he settled. The church in Jerusalem may have been persecuted and scattered, but it was now reaching farther and farther out across the ancient world.

Loving God as the Starting Point

When churches think about how to encourage their members to share the faith, they often start looking for a new program or the latest resources in evangelism. Yet this story, and most other conversion stories in the Bible, suggests that evangelism begins with something else entirely: a deep love for God that results in a commitment to spending time with God. Our efforts to cultivate missional churches must begin with teaching our people that the Christian disciplines of silence, solitude, meditation, and prayer are the birthing ground for sharing the gospel with others. Philip’s amazing interaction with the Ethiopian eunuch began with hearing something, an instruction from an angel of the Lord.

In the West, these spiritual disciplines have often been viewed merely as the way we ourselves are fed in the faith, and so they have become disconnected from the church’s calling to share the gospel. But if we don’t see these disciplines as attending to God, how can we be attentive to God’s prodding, direction, and guidance in sharing the faith? The Ethiopian eunuch came to know about God’s amazing love for him demonstrated in the life of Jesus, the Suffering Servant, because Philip heard God’s direction. As we see in so many biblical conversion stories, and as we see in research on churches that are effectively reaching new people today, learning to listen for God’s direction is key. God most desires us to be a people of prayer. The Great Evangelist wants to teach and guide us, if we only make listening and speaking with him a priority, not just for our own sake but for the sake of the world God loves. As we seek to be a people who reach out with the gospel, our first question should be, Is this goal grounded in a deep love for God as evidenced in a commitment to prayer?

 

Content taken from A New and Ancient Evangelism by Judith Paulsen, ©2024. Used by permission of Baker Academic.

 

Go Into All the World Wide Web

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Jesus told his followers to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15), but what happens when the world moves onto the Internet?

We have entered the digital age, and are spending more of our time online for nearly all facets of life, from banking and bills to work and video calls, and especially for breaking news and many of our social connections. Most recent reports indicate we spend an average of seven hours a day on our screens, phones and digital media.

Not all ways we can use this new technology are good or beneficial for human flourishing. Yet from the Roman roads to the printing press to radio and television and now the Internet, Christians have always leveraged communication tools to take the Good News of Jesus to those who need it. With each new tool, we need to learn how to use it most effectively. Let’s consider some ideas of where to start with the digital tools we have today.

  1. Display the fruit of the Spirit. We all have likely seen some uncomfortable posts from Christians online trying to share their faith or views but sounding more like a clashing cymbal than a loving voice. When we post online, above all else we need to consider how to do so with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Perhaps the last one is the most critical to mention. Sometimes the way to share our faith online is simply to demonstrate the restraint so many others seem to lack.
  2. Remember: digital first, not digital only. We can use online platforms like Facebook or Instagram to connect with people, but it’s better to move into more personal ways to continue building trust and relationship. I’ve tried posting an invitation like, “Drop by Starbucks Monday from 8–10 a.m. I’ll be there and I’d love to see you!” I bring my laptop to do work between visits, but I often find people are so hungry for connection that my time is filled with conversations and opportunities to pray with people. Many are looking to turn their online chats into in-person connection if given the invitation, and sometimes a casual opportunity like this is less intimidating than setting up a formal one-on-one conversation.
  3. Join neighbourhood forums. We can use apps like Nextdoor or Facebook to join or start a neighbourhood group to connect with those around us. It’s amazing how quickly that leads to opportunities to meet our neighbours’ needs and to see what concerns them most—and to share laughs, find out about local events and build trust that enables more meaningful conversation.
  4. Consider chat rooms versus street corners. Some of the bravest among us may have tried door-to-door evangelism or street evangelism. Increasingly, people do not trust strangers on the street, but they are more open to having conversations with strangers online. Some of the most effective evangelists I know are seeing great fruit in chat rooms like JesusCares.com or ChatAboutJesus.com, where people are having real conversations, asking questions and accepting Christ. This could be a great way to offer your time each week to those seeking truth.
  5. Start a YouTube channel. YouTube, which is owned by Google, is the second largest search engine in the world. People wanting to know how to roast a chicken, the history of electric vehicles, or whether the Bible is trustworthy are going to YouTube by the billions. A friend of mine who was a devout atheist began to explore Christian claims on YouTube, and actually gave their life to Jesus this year because of the platform. If you want to share your faith and enjoy talking to the camera (or are willing to learn how to), there is a huge strategic opportunity to answer questions, share your life, and interact in the comments with real people on this platform. Grab a friend and do it together!
  6. Be your real self. My last encouragement is for us to be our true and authentic selves online when we post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok. We may start out by copying the voices of our most admired Christian leaders, but the best way to connect with an audience is for each of us to find our own voice—not just sharing the shiny parts of our experiences, but offering some of our real-life struggles and unpolished life with kids, work and messy homes. That builds trust, and it’s more sustainable if we don’t put on a persona. We can share Jesus by sharing ourselves.

Let’s be courageous! The online world is a new one to navigate, but if people loved by God are there, the people of God should also be there, demonstrating God’s love. He has planted us in this unique time in history to prayerfully leverage all the tools available to us to offer hope and life to a world struggling with loneliness, confusion, mental health challenges and unclear identity.

Jesus is not just good news, but the best news in the world. So let’s become the best communicators of that message as we practice and live out our lives online and in person.

Welcoming Newcomers to Worship: Three Lessons from a Church Nomad

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In my career as a consultant and coach for churches, I have visited dozens of Canadian churches from St. John’s to Powell River and from Edmonton to Kingsville. The worship experiences have been amazingly varied: from liturgical to charismatic, from a forest in a local park to a historic cathedral, from Hmong to French, and from Catholic to Salvation Army. Every time I visit someone else’s church, it is a learning opportunity I cherish. As a missiologist, I firmly believe that churches must participate in God’s redemptive mission. So, one of the questions I always ask is, “How would a newcomer, especially one who is not a Christian, experience this worship service?”

I always take some imaginary friends with me when I visit churches. They are a composite of people who have had spiritual conversations with me but are not connected to a church. They cause me to wonder what their response would be to the church I am visiting. Some of them are spiritual people who do not consider themselves Christians; others have concerns from past negative religious experiences; others have perspectives shaped by a different faith. I find it helpful to ask myself how my friends might react to each experience of worship.

In all of my church visiting, I have learned that a few things are vitally important in order to welcome newcomers. So, at the risk of contributing to the crazy amount of “click bait” you are already exposed to, here are three things I have learned from being a church visitor (and that you will want to discern about your own church, too).

 

What to Pay Attention to in Your Worship Service

  1. Invitation/Friendliness (Hospitality)

The experience of visiting a new church starts well before stepping through a doorway. Most of the time I have been invited by a friend. However, it can be quite a scavenger hunt to visit a church where you do not know anyone. Recently I found a church in a city in southern Ontario from their online posting and, while I was able to get to the correct neighbourhood without a problem, I had to walk most of the way around the block (following the sandwich boards and banners) to find their entrance in the back of an apartment building. I strongly recommend that you ask someone to test how easy it is for a stranger to find their way into your worship service or listen to the experiences of recent visitors.

One of the most obvious things that affects a new visitor is the friendliness of the “regulars”. Our hospitality needs to be spiritually and relationally sensitive to the needs of the visitor, who comes to worship with expectations unique to their life experience. A few months ago, I attended a worship service in the Maritimes where I watched the office administrator leave the building to stand in the parking lot to wave in someone she had met that week. Her new neighbour had recently arrived in Canada, and she wanted the visitor to know she had a friend to sit with in this new community. How people relate to each other before, during, and after worship speaks volumes about the qualities of Christian community that have been nurtured over time in each particular church. But it is essential that this community is ready to open up and take in strangers and newcomers, even before they come in the door.

Discernment questions: How challenging is it for someone to enter into the worshipping community? Do the folks at your church spontaneously welcome someone into church and do what they can to make them feel at home?

 

  1. Gospel-Shaped Community

Recently I visited Baptist, charismatic, Mennonite, and Presbyterian church plants that offered opportunities to reflect on what it means to enter into Christian community as part of the introduction to the Lord’s Supper. These short explanations of the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were directly linked to the themes of the Sunday morning. One of the ministers even offered a personal invitation to meet with anyone who wanted a follow-up conversation that week.

Some experiences of congregational worship focus more on moral teaching than the message of salvation. However, I have experienced church worship services that are transformative because kerygma (proclamation) and didache (teaching) are intertwined. Love of God and love of neighbour are often just-below-the-surface themes of worship, and the ways they are present has an impact. I have interviewed people who started following Jesus after moving to Canada and they spoke about the importance of experiencing the community of faith during worship—the power of the spiritual and relational environment of a gospel-shaped people. The emotional ambience of a service, as well as the themes of the songs, prayers, and speaking, combine to create a collective experience of worship that is more than the sum of its parts. How people relate to each other before, during, and after worship speaks volumes to the qualities of Christian community that have been nurtured over time.

Discernment questions: Acknowledging that the Gospel can be presented during worship through both words and actions, is the good news of Jesus clearly explained at some point in the service? Is an opportunity to interact with the good news offered during the Bible reading, as part of the sermon, or as an invitation to conversation, reflection, or prayer?

 

  1. Faith-full Intentionality

My biggest take away from a new church experience is always reflecting on why they did what they did together; what was their intent? Sometimes it is obvious; when a congregation offers Spanish, French, and English during worship we know something about who is being invited to participate. Often it is more subtle or nuanced; a certain way of wording the pastoral prayer, or how children are encouraged to engage, can speak volumes to a visitor. Leading worship is definitively more art than science; it is crafting a moment in time together where we experience God, share life with each other, and reflect on how the Holy Spirit is at work around us.

Discernment questions: How does your church’s intentional faithfulness in worship sensitize people to the presence of the Holy God among you? How do you identify (and celebrate) the “fruit” that is nurtured by the environment of worship?

 

How to Experience Someone Else’s Worship Service

One of the most effective ways to get better at welcoming visitors is to practice being a visitor yourself. Experiencing other churches and church traditions while travelling, or worship services that meet at a different time than your own, can be valuable learning opportunities. As a veteran church visitor, I have discovered that, in order to learn well, the most important thing to get right has been my attitude. When visiting churches, it is important to enter in genuinely curious about how the body of Christ is embodied in this place, at this time, among these people.

  • I genuinely want to know why they do what they do, so my lack of familiarity is actually an opportunity to learn something. When I am authentically interested, often one of my new friends will explain to me why what I experience as strange or confusing has value for the people of this community.
  • While I generally try to enter fully into the experience of worship, I do not need to turn off my spiritual and theological discernment. Often there are moments in a worship service when I realize that they have found a way to express something about God that many of us have neglected.
  • There are other times when I leave with something on my heart that caused a “ping” on my spiritual/theological radar. I often pray for the church I have visited, and these moments can inform my intercession. I have to remember that, as a visitor, I may not fully understand all of the issues but I know God is present with them.

 

 

James Watson (MDiv, PhD) had the privilege of visiting worship services as part of his 20-year career as a consultant and coach for church planting and congregational health. He carries these experiences forward as a 2024 Research Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research at Wycliffe College, where he is leading an in-depth research project on Canadian church planting. He is enjoying the opportunity to reflect on how the Holy Spirit is at work among the churches in Canada.

 

Conversion as Reconciliation: A Multifaceted Relationship. Part 2 of 2

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In this second of a two-part series, I continue to explore how viewing conversion as the formation of a relationship with God helps us reframe our efforts to share the gospel as churches and individuals. [Click here] to read the first article.

Does becoming a Christian mean accepting a set of beliefs or doctrines? Is it an emotional or spiritual experience that happens to a person? Or is it a choice they make? Or does it have more to do with being baptized and joining the church? How we answer these questions has a profound effect on the way we share the gospel, as churches and individuals.

Last month we began to explore the idea of conversion as reconciliation. Paul explains that “while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). In other words, the distance from God we once experienced is being replaced by closeness and friendship. As we explored last month, this is not a one-time event but a process that unfolds step by step over time—just as in human relationships.

However, not only is relationship formation progressive, it is also multifaceted. It affects many aspects of life, including: cognitive, as knowledge is gained of the other person; emotional, as affection and fondness take root; volitional, as decisions are made to invest in the relationship and change in response to it; and social, as each person gets to know the friends and family of the other.

Each of these elements plays an essential role in the formation of a relationship. If two people in a romantic relationship do not know each other, no matter how strong the feelings of attraction are, their relationship is not healthy. On the other hand, if they know everything about each other, but do not like each other, or refuse to compromise, or never join each other’s social circles, their relationship is on shaky ground.

Human relationships are wholistic, integrating many aspects of life. The same is true of a relationship with God. However, when we think about conversion (and evangelism), we tend to emphasize just one area of transformation. In fact, most of our ways of framing what it means to become Christian fall into one of five models of conversion:[1]

  1. The cognitive model views conversion as coming to believe a certain set of beliefs or doctrines. Education and argumentation are therefore essential tasks for the evangelist. Introductory classes and apologetics are especially important tools within this model.
  2. The emotional model looks for an affective experience—a Damascus Road vision (like Paul) or a “heart strangely warmed” (like John Wesley). Evangelism, then, focuses on stirring up emotions that will lead the person toward Christ. Both modern experiential worship and traditional revival services focus on this aspect.
  3. The volitional model primarily sees becoming a Christian as a decision to be made. Evangelism, therefore, targets the human will through persuasion. Billy Graham called for people to make a “decision” for Christ, and many evangelistic approaches of the last fifty years have likewise emphasized this aspect.
  4. While the previous model focuses on the human side of the relationship, the supernatural model accentuates the divine. God does the quickening and regenerating by his own initiative, and this is what matters most. In this model, human evangelists are responsible for proclaiming the gospel, but the results are entirely in God’s hands.
  5. The social model closely associates becoming a Christian with joining the church, so efforts centre around the convert’s incorporation into the community through social connection and entrance rites, especially baptism. The outreach efforts of many mainline churches are built around this communal component.

Each of these models captures one piece of what it means to become a Christian. However, we intuitively know that there is more to conversion than simply assenting to Christian beliefs, having an emotional experience, or encountering any one of the other aspects on its own.

Looking at conversion as reconciliation can give us a more complete vision for what it means to become a Christian. This “relational model” incorporates all five elements of conversion—cognitive, emotional, volitional, supernatural, and social—into the wholistic process of forming a relationship with God. It also allows room for each of the above approaches to evangelism, giving them all a role to play in the larger objective.

This framework can help individuals become more aware of the needs of those they are sharing their faith with. Evangelists can consider which aspects of a relationship with God are already developing in the other person, and which are missing. They can also identify the aspects of evangelism they gravitate toward—and ask for help in areas of weakness. For example, if someone has a strong emotional connection with God, they will likely emphasize this in their evangelistic efforts. However, if the person with whom they are sharing has intellectual questions, they can enlist the help of a friend who is interested in apologetics and the more cerebral side of Christianity.

This way of looking at conversion can also help churches analyze their congregation’s overall strategy. Stronger and weaker areas can be identified, and efforts made to fill in missing gaps. For example, a church may welcome spiritual seekers effectively (social), offer a well-attended introduction to Christianity class (cognitive) and foster an environment for passionate worship (emotional). However, if they do not regularly call people to “repent and be baptized” or give opportunities to make a commitment to Christ, they will miss the important volitional aspect of the conversion process. Incidentally, this framework also helps to explain the effectiveness of the Alpha course, which gives attention to all five aspects.

Just like a healthy marriage, a relationship with God is complex, multifaceted, and constantly growing. This is just as true at the beginning as it is at the twenty-fifth or fiftieth anniversary. Which aspects of your own relationship with God are strongest and weakest right now? How might God use your own growth and development in those areas (or others) to help those who are just getting started? How can you partner with those who are strong in different areas to create a more wholistic approach to helping people become Christians?

[1] These five models are not necessarily exhaustive. They emerged as a way to organize the various perspectives I encountered while researching conversion for my MA thesis. While we are focusing here on Christian perspectives, they can also be helpful for categorizing secular scholarship on conversion. E.g., anthropologists focusing on changes in worldview are highlighting the cognitive element of conversion, whereas Freudian psychoanalysts view it as an emotional event.

Conversion as Reconciliation: A Growing Relationship. Part 1 of 2

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For the next two issues, I’ll be sharing some of the insights on conversion and evangelism that I gleaned while writing my MA thesis a few years ago. Don’t worry, though—I’m not taking over Good Idea permanently. After next month we’ll get back to hearing from a variety of authors.

Reconciliation is a relational word: two parties who were previously estranged are brought together, and a friendship renewed or formed. It is one of the ways the New Testament describes the transformation that occurs when someone becomes a Christian. “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” (2 Cor 5:17–18). Part of what happens during conversion, then, is the formation of a relationship with God.

This has important implications when it comes to sharing our faith. Paul describes evangelism as “the ministry of reconciliation,” refers to the gospel as “the message of reconciliation” and depicts us as ambassadors of Christ, appealing to people to “be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:18–20). In other words, our job is to help people who are estranged from God establish a friendship with him.

The same God who created us to connect with other people also designed us to connect to himself, so we can expect to find some similarities between the two kinds of relationships and how they grow over time. Communication scholar Mark Knapp outlines a five-stage process that describes the development of human relationships. However, it can also help us envision what happens as people begin a relationship with God:[1]

Initiating

Initiating refers to the moment when two parties meet for the first time. While this phase is brief and superficial, it sets the tone for the relationship—and determines whether one is desired at all. The earliest stage of a relationship with God is similar. While individuals may have heard about God, and may even allow for the possibility of his existence, it is at this point they become personally aware of his reality. This may be through an initial sense of his presence, an answered prayer, or some other personally significant sign that he is there—and interested.

Experimenting

The next phase in human relationships, experimenting, focuses on gathering information about the other person—their hometown, occupation, hobbies, and other basic facts. This often takes the form of “small talk” which creates a sense of safety, opens paths for future conversations, and “auditions” the potential friendship. Individuals in this phase of the divine-human relationship are also experimenting: attending church, reading the Bible and other books, having conversations, and getting to know the basic facts about God and Christianity. As they begin to pray (sporadically and timidly), they may also have a sense that God is getting to know them as well.

Intensifying

In the intensifying stage, increasing self-disclosure leads to growing trust, vulnerability, and intimacy between two people. Insider vocabulary is developed and the relationship itself becomes a topic of conversation. Similarly, in a relationship with God this phase is characterized by intensified interest and an increasing sense that the relationship is two-way. Prayer and worship become more frequent and intimate, and the quest for God becomes more active and all-encompassing.

Integrating

The next phase, integrating, moves beyond information to transformation. As commitment grows, incompatibilities must be addressed and compromises made. Both parties must change so they can be more fully connected to each other. In divine-human relationships, this is the point at which questions of discipleship and commitment must be answered. Integrating God into a human life calls for change—repentance, obedience, and amendment of life.

Bonding

The final phase of relationship formation, bonding, refers to an official, public commitment to the other person. While this may include the declaration of formal statuses such as “dating” or “engaged”, the ultimate example of bonding is marriage. A clear parallel is baptism, which publicly acknowledges the relationship between the individual and God. Depending on the tradition, bonding could also include public testimony, confirmation, or being received into membership in a church.

Of course, there are clear limitations to the analogy between human and divine relationships: God is unlike any human partner, all-knowing and unbound by time. Furthermore, every relationship, whether it is with God or another human, is unique and cannot be forced into a universal pattern. Arranged marriages are a good example of a major variation where bonding occurs near the beginning of the relationship—perhaps something like infant baptism!

The purpose of considering this model is not to list five discrete stages every Christian goes through during their conversion. Rather, it is a thought experiment that gives us a fresh way of looking at the ministry of reconciliation. Evangelists who operate out of this kind of framework focus on helping individuals engage, one step at a time, in their relationship with God. They are less likely to employ a one-size-fits-all approach and can cultivate a greater sensitivity to what is needed for relationship formation at any particular time.

This framework can also help us understand why evangelism no longer works the way it did several decades ago. Then, most people gradually acquired a basic knowledge of God at church, school, and home, so that by the time they reached adulthood, most were past initiating and well into the experimenting phase. For many, only a brief burst of intensifying interest in God was needed before they were ready to commit their lives to Christ. Some approaches to evangelism such as revivalism capitalized on this by providing people who already knew about God an emotional experience (intensifying), a call to repentance (integrating), and a chance to be baptized (bonding), all in a short time frame.

However, in today’s secular culture, many people have no knowledge of God whatsoever. Evangelism must start at the very beginning, helping them become open to and aware of God’s existence. Acquiring the kind of basic knowledge of God and the Bible that could have been assumed in the past might now take months or even years. Before they can seriously consider the invitation to follow Jesus, people need to have established enough of a relationship with God to know to what and whom they are committing. Evangelists today need to be in it for the long haul, ready to patiently walk people through these early stages of relationship formation before expecting whole-life surrender and baptism.

While the Holy Spirit can (and sometimes does) short-circuit the typical conversion process, evangelists need to accept that helping people become reconciled to God will normally be a process that unfolds over time. It is a relational process in every way. It is also a holistic process, one that involves transformation of the mind, heart, will, and other aspects of human life. Next month, in the second part of this article, we will look at how an awareness of the multifaceted nature of conversion can also help us see evangelism with fresh eyes.

[1] Mark L. Knapp, Social Intercourse: From Greeting to Goodbye (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1978), 35–40.

How (and Why) Canadians Become Christian: Five Lessons from Recent Research

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Two years ago, John Bowen and I partnered together to research how and why adults in Canada become Christians. We were inspired by similar studies in the UK (Finney, 1992) and the USA (Stone, 2018), and the helpful insights they offered for evangelists. However, we wanted a particularly Canadian take on the subject. So, we designed a questionnaire, hired a data services firm which administered it, and then began the long process of analyzing the data.

The results are in, and the good news is that Canadians are still becoming Christians—and at about the same rate as they have been for at least fifty years. You can access the full report, but below are a few tasters of our findings to get you started.

Becoming Christian can be complicated.

Sometimes we think that becoming Christian is simple, something that happens in a moment. While some respondents (16%) described their conversion as a single, life-changing event, most said it involved a process. Of these participants, 61% said the process lasted more than a year, and 30% said it lasted more than five years!

What did this process of becoming Christian look like? We asked respondents to arrange the following seven elements according to the order in which they had occurred in their journey: attending church, sensing God’s presence, understanding the gospel, making a commitment, praying in their own words, experiencing God’s forgiveness, and having questions answered. We wanted to know if there was a common order in which people experienced their journey toward Christ. There wasn’t. Over a third identified church attendance as their first step, but other than that, no meaningful pattern emerged.

Becoming Christian is often a convoluted and lengthy process. Evangelists need to understand this and be in it for the long haul.

Helping people become Christian can be (relatively) simple.

Christians often think evangelism is difficult, requiring special gifts, knowledge, and resources. But our research says this is not the case. First of all, it’s not surprising that relationships with Christians were really important for respondents. They indicated the importance of friends (40%), a spouse or partner (32%), a pastor or priest (19%), parents (13%), other family (12%), and even their own children (11%) in coming to faith. (This adds up to more than 100% because respondents could choose multiple options.)

What did these people do to be helpful? The three most important things, according to our respondents, were that they demonstrated the love of Christ, invited them to church, and lived an attractive life. This is help that any Christian can give. However, despite the common truism “preach at all times; when necessary, use words”, helping people become Christians does involve talking. This is seen in the next three ways people helped: they answered questions, taught the practical aspects of the faith, and shared the gospel.

While many could benefit from some training in these last three verbal aspects, the most important things we can do to help people come to faith are almost embarrassingly simple: love, live, and invite.

Evangelism should be aimed at churchgoers too.

Another common misconception our research exposed was the idea that evangelism is something that happens outside of the church. For many people, starting to attend worship services was an important—and often early—part of the process. Churches should be ready to welcome newcomers who are still journeying toward Christ. But perhaps even more significant are the 8% who described themselves as active in church and the 26% who indicated that, before their conversion, they had mistakenly thought they already were Christian.

As important as it is to bring the good news to the world around us, it’s likely that some of the harvest is already sitting in the pews.

Not everyone who becomes Christian is on a quest for God or forgiveness.

Sometimes Christians assume that non-Christians all live with burdensome guilt or emotional emptiness that sends them on a search for God. This was certainly true for some of our respondents: 30% were wondering about the meaning of life, 27% were curious about God and Christianity, 15% struggled with shame, and 11% with guilt. Almost half (47%) said they had a sense that something was missing.

Not everyone, however, had a “felt need” that led them to Christ. Although they could select as many options as they wanted, most respondents did not choose the above options to describe their previous life. In fact, 20% described their pre-Christian life as marked by contentment. This seems to indicate that many people became Christians not because they went looking for God, but because God came looking for them—often through their friends and family. They accepted the gospel simply because they believed it was true, not necessarily because they had been on a quest for meaning.

Awareness of “felt needs” can be helpful in contextualizing the gospel, but evangelism that is exclusively focused on this misses those who don’t feel a need for the gospel.

The best resource is the oldest.

Besides relationships and churches, what other kinds of ministries, programs, or resources were helpful in the process of becoming Christian? We asked about all kinds of things that are usually thought of as evangelistically effective: Christian television, radio, websites, books, music, youth groups, camps, campus ministries, and classes like Alpha. While they had influenced some people, none of these options were chosen by more than 9% of our respondents, and most were chosen considerably less.

When it came to helpful non-personal resources, the one that came out on top by far was “reading the Bible” (30%). This lines up closely with the 28% of people who said that one of the things their friends or family members did for them was help them to understand the Bible. This is a gentle reminder to those who think of the Scriptures as old-fashioned, difficult to understand, or even potentially offensive: God still speaks through this book.

Evangelists and churches should find ways to introduce non-Christians to the Bible, the oldest and most effective written resource we’ve been given.

Our research offered a number of other insights that are helpful to churches and individuals who want to become more effective at evangelism. You can access the full 20-page pdf report by clicking the link below to learn more about:

  • the background of our respondents who became Christians
  • what they value most about the churches they attend
  • how churches supported their newfound faith
  • how their lives have changed since they became Christians

 

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