Evangelism: Environmental Factors

"City people in our mobile society could easily and quickly get to our buildings and services, but by and large, they are unwilling to risk negotiating the cultural chasm between themselves and the church." Jack Dennison, City Reaching

Evangelism may be impacted by several environmental factors, including the following:

Make up of the church: If the church is essentially a "carve out" of members from the sponsoring church, members may not feel quite the pressure for evangelism (as compared to a church starting with no pre-existing members). In addition, the members who've been "carved out" may bring the culture of the sponsoring church with them. As a result there may be a tendency toward attitudes and programs that are a better fit for the sponsoring church than for the new one.
Another environmental factor is the "worldview" of the target community. For example, the prevailing attitude toward the church may be negative or at best ambivalent. Members of the community may harbor many mental models of the church and of Christians that could become obstacles to evangelism. If this is the case, it is critically important not to condemn those who hold this attitude. It is equally important to introduce them to the Christ who ate with sinners and associated with tax collectors, the poor and outcast. See http://www.mercystreet.org/ for a website that addresses these issues.

"In a recent radio interview I was sternly asked by the host, who did not consider himself to be a Christian, to defend Christianity. I told him that I couldn't do it, and moreover, that I didn't want to defend the term. I told him that I no longer knew what the term meant. Of the hundreds of thousands of people listening to his show that day, some of them had terrible experiences with Christianity; they may have been yelled at by a teacher in a Christian school, abused by a minister, or browbeaten by a Christian parent. To them, the term Christianity meant something that no Christian I know would defend. By fortifying the term, I am only making them more and more angry. I won't do it. I told the radio talk show host that I would rather talk about Jesus and how I came to believe that Jesus exists and that He likes me. The host looked back at me with tears in his eyes. When we were done, he asked me if we could go get lunch together. He told me how much he didn't like Christianity but how he had always wanted to believe Jesus was the Son of God." Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz.

The "illnesses" of the community are perhaps the most important environmental factor. Where are the needs? How severe are they? For your new church to have any expectation of reaching the community, it must reach their needs with the compassion of Christ.
"Spiritual receptivity" is another environmental factor. Is the community receptive to the gospel? Is it "good soil" or "rocky soil," thin soil or soil choked with weeds and thorns? Your research, going back to the process of selecting the target community, should provide insight to this factor. The spiritual receptivity of the people will influence the approaches to evangelism that you employ.

All of these environmental factors should be reflected in the Mission Vision Values of the new church.

Go back to Evangelism: Best Practices

Go on to Evangelism: Issues

Last Modified 7/12/05 5:57 PM

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