Measuring Success in Evangelism

Author: Michael Gott

An old, worn-out evangelist in his early 80’s looked at me for a long, long time and then said, “God has called us to be faithful evangelists but not necessarily successful evangelists.”  Now, you know that is the kind of statement that always gets a growling “Amen.”  But let me tell you, the statement is faulty, and I think I can explain why with all due respect to the aged evangelist.

This idea mistakenly concludes that if one is faithful, he will not be successful; that is, that they are diametrically opposed.  The idea is you cannot have both—but that is a very false assumption.

I once hit on a phrase I could never forget.  It was this:  “glorified failure”—that is, to over-spiritualize to the point of making an effort to glorify, in some inverted way, failure.  Like failing to prepare to preach and then justifying flipping through the Bible at the last minute, calling it “divine direction.”

To some evangelists size (meetings, number of decisions, and even the amount of the love offering) and success are inseparable.  It’s the bigger is better idea.  The growth spiral has destroyed many evangelists as the pace gets faster and faster.  “This many this year, now how many next year?”  I was told Major Ian Thomas said to an evangelist, “If cash flow and moving in circles of powerful people is a symbol of God’s blessing—the mafia should be very confident of heaven!”
 
I recall an evangelist saying in a national news magazine that “in America only Billy Graham had more decisions for Christ than he had that year.”  Let me quickly tell you he burned out and is no longer in evangelism!  Unfortunately, that’s not an uncommon thing.  Pride precedes a fall; therefore, evangelists of this mind-set do not seem to remain uncorrupted by money, sex, and alcohol.

I have seen this—when being successful in evangelism is a combination of aggressiveness, flair, contacts, and endorsements and the super-American entrepreneurial spirit; watch out—the wreck is just around the corner!  Bigger is not always better!

But others say success is quality not quantity—it is being low-key and having a quality ministry in smaller churches and getting invited back every three years to the same church.  It is a close-knit relationship with a circle of 50 to 75 pastors.  It is faithfulness and stability—that is success.

Which is correct?  What is success in evangelism?  Let me admit—I cannot say, and I am not able to concisely give an answer to suit everyone.  But we should address the subject, so I do have a word to say about it.  However, I compare success in evangelism to a diamond.  The whole diamond is needed to make up the famous diamond luster; all parts are needed to make the whole.

Different strokes for different folks.  I would categorize the late Henry Roe a great success even though he always went to very small rural Texas churches.  I also see Jay Strack as a success.  He is in major metropolitan churches.  He too is experiencing success.  He fits there.

So success, in my mind, is interchangeable with the word fulfillment.  Inner fulfillment; that is, am I what God designed me to be?  If the answer is yes, then I categorize that as great success.  God leads none of us by the exact same route.  The secret, in the end, is to be led by Him!  The boy said to his father, “I do not care where we are going as long as we go together.”
 
A European (I do not know if he was a Christian) said a great truth:  “Real fulfillment is not so expensive or difficult to acquire, but oh, how dearly we pay for the cheap counterfeit.”

Augustine, that wonderful church father, said it this way—we find fulfillment by doing the following:  “Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate with Christians; obey the laws; trust in God’s sovereignty.”

On the humorous side, the Swedes have a nice proverb:  “Worry less, pray more; eat less, chew more; talk less, say more; be jealous less, love more; and you will find fulfillment in life.”

When the darkness gathers around us, success is not in circumstances, but in ourselves.  It’s not something we see, like our name on a billboard; or feel, like the heat from an air duct.  Success is something we are.  It is inner confirmation.  My situation differs from others, and I am glad I am who I am and that they are who they are!  I celebrate that fact; that is how I reassure success.  I do not want what they have or what they do—I want to be the me God has shaped over the years.

I can suggest another issue is, do I fulfill my responsibilities before God?  Am I, as the old song says, “lightening the corner” where I am?  We are to feel incredible exhilaration knowing that we have faced our self-doubts about something difficult and we have been biblically responsible.  I was trustworthy and fulfilled my role.
 
When it comes to evangelism, I believe we must always simplify.  Go back to Scripture and ask, “What is the essential role of an evangelist, valid regardless of the age in which they live?”  Take the Bible and figure out what an evangelist is supposed to be and do, and do it faithfully and fervently, for God has put it into our hearts.

Corita Kent said, “Life is a succession of moments.  To live each one is to succeed.”  Yes, but I would add, “To live each one being totally obedient to all of God’s will I know is to succeed!”

Another facet of success in evangelism is centered in the question “Through me do they see Him?”  Did my ministry reflect Him?  Are people responding to the prompting of God’s spirit in their lives?  If so, that is very much a kind of success.  Who is more successful, the evangelist who preaches to thousands or the one who lovingly won a boy, whom no one loves, to Christ as he waited outside a McDonald’s for an empty cup so he could sneak a refill with Coke for free?

Faithfulness and fervency, perseverance and passion, preaching and personal work—these are some of the facets of the diamond of success.  Each alone will not bring great glory to God, but together they make a luster for a King’s crown.  The Psalmist said, “Teach us to count our days” (Psalm 90:12).  That means every moment is of infinite value and significance.  I am to be resolute as God’s servant in this present hour.

It also means I live now and only now, and I will do what I see assigned to me by God this moment.  I will seize any opportunity.  A person’s ministry is squandered not by dying too soon; rather, a ministry is cut short minute by minute, day by day, in a thousand small ways.  We lose the sense of success by losing the moment.  Life is now, and the future is now!

Success in evangelism is to follow faithfully and be courageous at the moment of greatest importance.  That moment is now.