Developing a Discipleship System
An Evangelism Strategy That Works!
by Ralph E. Bauserman, Evangelism Consultant, General Board of Discipleship

One night last May when I was flying home from a meeting with some conference and district leaders in the Troy Conference, I found myself seated by a young man from Virginia. He was a middle-level manager who was on his way to Cedarville, Ohio, to interview six college students for a position in his insurance company.

I struck up a conversation with him and learned that he and his wife and two sons had recently moved from Indiana to Virginia. He and his wife had grown up in Indiana. We talked about the difficulties related to moving one's family to a new location and the pain of leaving close family ties behind. He told me that he and his wife had committed this matter to prayer and they each felt God's leading in their decision.

When I asked him if they had found a church home in their new community, he said that after a serious search, they had finally settled on a church that was a fifteen-minute drive from their home. He indicated that although it was not like his church back home, it was meeting his family's spiritual needs. When asked if he and his wife had become active in the church, he replied that they were in a Bible study and that he had coached a boys' basketball team. When I asked about the boys' basketball team, he told me a wonderful story.

Some of the leaders of the church were increasingly aware of the number of unchurched families in the community. As a means of reaching some of the boys from these families, the congregation decided to create a basketball league. Since the congregation had no gymnasium facilities, they negotiated an agreement with a nearby elementary school for the use of the gymnasium. The congregation decided that each basketball team was to be made up of six boys and that two out of the six had to be from unchurched families. This meant that before this league could get underway, church members had to do a lot of reaching out and inviting. Finally, the league was ready to begin — with eight teams (which included sixteen unchurched boys). My friend on the plane said that each coach was provided with a devotional booklet and was trained and charged with the responsibility of having a devotional time with his team at each practice and following each game.

He went on to tell me that one of the unchurched boys on his team was a very tall boy who demonstrated very little athletic ability. In fact, he said this boy was, without a doubt, the worst basketball player in the church league. However, the boy was present for each practice and game and was given his share of playing time.

My friend began to notice that this tall boy was showing up for church and could be found sitting with some of the other boys with whom he was playing basketball. One morning, the boy brought his father to church with him; and when the minister gave an invitation to Christian discipleship, this boy and his father got up from their seats and made their way down to the chancel area. They knelt at the chancel rail; and the minister knelt beside them, laid hands on them, and prayed for them. Following the worship service, the tall boy came running up to my friend (his basketball coach) and said, "Me and my daddy got saved!"

Granted, in many of our churches, we are not talking about "getting saved." However, in this church, somewhere in Virginia, something spiritually significant happened in the lives of a young boy and his father; and it happened precisely because this church had an evangelism strategy that was working!

At the next meeting of your church's leadership team, will you examine your church's evangelism strategy? How are you going about your mission of reaching the unchurched? How are you involving them in the kinds of experiences where their lives will be touched and transformed by the presence and power of the Risen Christ? Does your church have an evangelism strategy that is working? Would you dare ask these questions at your next meeting?

posted 8-5-02