You are more than likely to know that I work as a full time evangelist – if you did not – well now you know that I do! I have studied the topic of Religion since my time at college and all the way through university; and until now; and so with my academic learning and years of reflection in how to do evangelism I want to offer some thoughts, reflections and opinions on how we as Christians should be doing evangelism; in the Anglo – sphere; of Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand the United Kingdom and where ever else the Anglo culture dominates; here is looking at you Gibraltar and the Falklands! Some of these thoughts are consolidations of thoughts in other articles, and some are new and GOD willing insightful reflections I may not have expressed before. These thoughts are not thoughts about how to evangelise during Christmas, I am just offering twelve thoughts in a play on the song; twelve days of Christmas, these are thoughts for 2025
I suppose my first thought is to say; that Christian congregations, need to be engaging in the questions that society is already grappling with; not necessarily what the mainstream media is talking about, but in terms of free media – such as X; where the conversations are not filtered. There are issues; like the trans question, the question of Islamisation, mass immigration, the environmental crisis, amongst others, that the Church should be engaging with – almost akin to a discipling of the nations; by speaking into the public forum (which is media like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X) the Christian perspective on whatever the issue is that we addressing; as an auxiliary point on this ‘discipling of the nations’ form of evangelism; I want to stress; the complete importance of being committed to and envisioning what a New Christendom would look like; as a means to help us engage with the issues, in a way, that allows us to build our answers from a truly Christian perspective; and not simply borrowing from the ideologies of others; as say the Christians of Kerala India are doing; (who have adopted Communism). We must build our vision of society upon our values, and our values upon our doctrine; and our doctrines emerge out of our understanding of the Christian meta narrative. We can then authentically offer an alternative to the world in terms of a vision and direction for our society; by giving the Christian answer to the questions people are already trying to investigate; for as they investigate them, they will come across us – and in so doing – if we present well our case, they may be won close to our Lord and saviour.
The second thought I would offer; is building on the first; as well as giving the Christian answer to the questions that troubling our nations; we must indeed, push questions or angles or nuances into society for which the Church is the answer; or which challenge the societies assumptions. I do not mean by this pushing the question of ‘the gospel’ into society; but more on that later. I am talking about challenging the unchristian assumptions of our society – such as; is freedom the highest value or is freedom subject to a higher value such as the glory of GOD – to which our discipleship is aimed? Are we to couch identity in the individuals or should we have a more corporate identity of the Church? Is Christian multiculturalism better than Liberal Multi Culturalism? What does Church history teach us about the reality of Islamisation? Was that particular scientist American or Christian? Should we understand our identity in terms of national or religious label; are Australians or Christians? To whom do we owe our loyalty; a British Atheist or a Pakistani Christian? We need to confront the world; which thoughts and questions, to which Christianity – gives alternative answers – and be able to articulate those answers properly.
My third reflection is that Christians need to be engaging on social media – that is where the public debate is happening; it is happening on TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube; that is where we Christians need to be doing our evangelism; that is the public square of the world; and you will reach more people their than you will through an alpha course, or a Christianity Explored course, or GOD please forbid – street preaching or even worse, singing on the street – but more on that in a second. To do this well; large Churches like Kensington Temple and St Helens Bishop Gate; and missionary organisations like the London City Mission and other City Missions who have the resources; should have a front man / women; and a Camera crew; and go out of their way to discuss and/or debate people on the street; then upload those videos, hold livestreams; then debate people on social media; then upload videos of talks and interviews; all with a means to contact them. A team of people should be responding to the various kinds of emails that you will receive; zoom calls and coffee meetings should be arranged; and the relationships built upon; as you draw people to Christ. This is how to do evangelism is the 21st century! It is in these public interactions on social media; that apologetics and polemics really do come into their own – and are of vital importance; as they influence the public debate; and that is exactly what we should be trying to do – influence the public debate!
Fourthly; when we evangelise; we should have a clear target of who we are trying to reach; and emphasise those points of our faith that would be most appealing to them; perhaps its a pride in the spiritual contribution of Africans to the Church; if we are speaking to a black identarian; or the importance of the respect of the personal journey, if it were say someone who was an LGBTQ ally; or of strength and purpose to those drawn to Islam; we must know our audience; and be able to morph our message to the audience we are speaking to; this however, should NEVER involve compromising on any Christian doctrine or Christian value, it is merely about foregrounding and backgrounding different aspect of the faith according to the person we speak to I often talk about the Christian input into science to an atheist; and background the creation V evolution debate, and therefore please note – our engagement with people; is not just upon doctrine; but also history and culture as it interfaces with the life of the Church (the covenant people we are inviting them to join). We must do this with a clear sense of our own identity as Christians (which can only come from being deeply rooted in the faith and its traditions through history); a sound understanding of the fullness of the biblical narrative; and our ownership of our place in that story. We must have a confidence and firm conviction in our beliefs – something called for – again and again in scripture; but which it seems to many of our witless ‘church leaders’ are able to cultivate! A great aid to this endeavour, is the cultivation of a polemical and apologetical narrative – viz a vie the target group. Anyone who has ever done targeted evangelism will know exactly what I mean; as certain topics keep coming up again and again and again! So having a learned – best response – whether that be of a polemical (offensive) or apologetical (defensive) will be a great help. We need to be learning apologetic and Polemics in all our Church fellowships.
Fifthly, we Christians must rediscover a culture – that flows from our identity as Christians; as distinct and different from the world around us; and it must emphasise and be cultivated in such a way as to make us ‘different’ the those who are not Christians. This should involve, how we mark times and seasons, dress, food, celebration, and mourning, what our political goals are, how we speak, what we read and watch and listen to; we must be less like the none believing world, not more like it! This culture, should serve a number of purposes, it must re-enforce our identity as Christians; our solidarity with one another, give us something to be able to invite people to participate in, draw us closer to other Christians; and then speak as a people! The English particularly ache for a culture – they have lost – and we can give it back to them; as Christianity – is a significant part of English culture. The easiest way to get someone started on that journey – is to get them to live out the seasons of the calendar; and either invent, or rediscover, customs and values that marks it. We Christians – must see ourselves as the People GOD has made us to be! A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart unto the Lord; we need to live that reality! Evangelise as a people with a culture and an identity of our own; we can not and should not simply treat Christianity as a series of intellectual premises that you should give assent to – or a few values, you live your life by (though of course this is part of what being a Christian is about); no being Christian, is and should be a complete way of being – that reworks you right through and in every way and level!
Sixthly; Christian congregations – must be the places; that live our this reality seven days a week; not just a few hours a week, when they get together; our congregations need to be the place a person can expect to: find a life partner, find a business partner, find their friends, find a job, be the place they find help for the problems that they face; whatever the problems are. The Congregations of the Church; should be problems solvers – whatever the challenge is; we should find the resources amongst ourselves; and skills and abilities to deal with it! I am often left bereft at the poverty of the leadership of the Church; who neither see nor attempt to ‘deal’ with the problems being faced by their congregations. One of the biggest hinderances to this reality; is the unwillingness of Churches to work together; frankly, and let me stress this; many of the problems all Christians face are so big, no individual, or individual congregation can hope to overcome – we simply MUST work together to tackle some of the biggest challenges. A good church leader, is one who can see what challenges his congregation is facing, not what challenges they are facing to meet his program! There is a world of difference there; and I am quite positively certain most Church leaders have it the wrong way around. Churches need to be a place where someone walks in – and sees – these people are for one another, not against one another; that they know who they are!
This brings me to an important part of Church life which is my seventh reflection- that virtually nobody does; which is that of finding why a new person enters the Congregation and faith; and why someone leaves either congregation or faith! There should be an entry or exit discussion; and when something is identified as a reason; the Congregation or (if churches are working closer together – as they need to) congregations; then work to either do more of the same or plug the gap! Each time we review this – we should try to improve the culture of the Church – to address its problems and build on its strengths. Sometimes it is just circumstantial a change of job requiring a move of address, but sometimes its such a consistent pattern – it cries out something has gone wrong in church life such as; where are all the men? Where are all the elder teens and young adults? Trust me the answer is not found in giving another theologically sound bible thumping sermon; or saying more rosaries, or more Jesus prayer; these are sociological issues, because the Church – is a sociological reality – and sociology (as practiced from a Christian perspective; by people like me) can help in the discussion.
I think I should say again in my eighth thought offering- and I know I have said this a lot – about my thoughts on bad evangelism. It is probably well known to regulars of my media output that I am no fan at all of street preachers; so rather than just repeat myself ad nausea; I thought I would try to articulate, why all the street preaching, all the street singer, and pamphleting is such a bad way to evangelism! It is because we are trying to do Church at people – we are trying to do things, that are normalised practices in a Church at people outside of a church; but it is usually just done as a solo! A street preacher – is just giving a sermon without a congregation; and random church minstrel singing away ‘Amazing Grace’ out of tune with no musical accompaniment is just painful to the ears! Both of these look, feel, and are odd, but not in a good way – because they do not appreciate the culture we are in; which, whatever we think of it; is a consumer culture! Handing out tracts that cost you 8p per tract; with a silly cartoon, and a reading age of a ten year old – communicates, that Christianity is not serious, all of these together communicate – that Christianity is childish, stupid and only for the unwell; because that really is how you look brethren – when you do evangelism this way! A good street evangelism involves ‘engagement’ discussion, not something you do AT people, but something you do ‘WITH’ people; so find ways to do evangelism that is participatory. I would say setting up a book table and giving out good second hand books and well written pamphlets (not like confetti) is a better way to do things, but perhaps you can think of other participatory forms of evangelism.
My ninth reflection is to say; Christians often think; that we must get to the rudimentary gospel as quickly as possible; talk about sin, Jesus’s death on the cross, his resurrection; and then heaven and hell; this poor form of evangelism is even worse – if done AT people! However, I think that the problem at the heart of evangelism; is that the ones doing it, see themselves as scattering seeds; like militant guerrillas, they do a hit and run job, they have no desire to cultivate, or to engage in the long term! They deliver a message and then leave; the seeds land in whatever soil they do! I want to encourage you brethren – why not see yourself, not just as scattering seeds, but of watering and cultivating, and harvesting the work of others – or even yourselves! We should be trying to draw people – the people of GOD (this is not me saying be winsome; some people are drawn by fair minded and courageous opposition either to themselves or others). We should be trying to create orbits of influence and interest in the Church, catch people up, in the gravity well, of the life of the Church, until it fills their horizons! This should be done by being inspiring and influential, not through force or command; though those who have the power and authority; should certainly use it to help the Church in whatever way they can. Once again this engagement – requires we actually speak to people about what they are already trying to learn about, and come to conclusions on; as well as getting them to think upon topics they have not even considered.
Naturally as you evangelise in the now internationalised west; you will encounter people of other religions; or groups. I want to try and save you some time with my tenth reflection. Christians often chuck themselves at the most ardent supporters of a belief system thinking that they will convert them; I’ve seen Christians make this mistake at the corner. The people who are well integrated into a community rarely leave it; which is a clue to the Church how to stop apostacy, however, it is also a clue as to where we Christians should be targeting our evangelism; as those on the periphery of the community – we are trying to penetrate; the ones for who – their religious life – has already failed them; this is does not necessarily mean those whose lives are socially dysfunctional, to wit they find themselves on the edges of their own community – thought it definitely does mean those people as well! It could mean say – a highly successful nominal Muslim – who abandoned his own religion long ago. Aim your evangelism at the Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, JWs, Mormons, who are already halfway out of the door; and who are heading for the exit anyway. This obviously requires; and I can not stress this enough, that the Church, must have as part of its discipling; training and investment to move people up the socially functional scale; as if you do target lots of people with high levels of social problems, but you do not move them out of them, you collect for yourself a dysfunctional Church; and Church leaders need to be conscious of this! Muslims particularly who leave Islam – will need lots of support; the Church really must embody what it is to be a family; your church programmes; are not enough – the Church is a people; not a social club. Do you think that Christians from a Muslim background; really gave up their entire community and world, for two/three meetings a week? We need to be a community, a people, a family, everything we claim to be; and so often are not!
My eleventh thought offering for the Church is that we need to be able to pivot our evangelism with ease and mobility. I started evangelising Muslims seven years ago; I never expected that in so doing, I would have found myself with so many opportunities to evangelise the English working class – and yet – now I do! I have therefore accepted this; and I have trained my evangelistic efforts on the open doors that have presented themselves to me; I did not ignore them – to pursue my target audience. I still make deliberate efforts to reach out to Muslims; but now, and quite unexpectedly, I am also making deliberate efforts to evangelise the white workings classes of England. Do not be frightened to navigate the tensions within society to use one group, to evangelise the other. My opposition to Islam has helped my efforts to evangelise white working classes. Remember however, always whilst navigating such groups – that it is the advantage of the Church that we are to seek on every occasion and through it all – that loyalty to the Church will stop you falling into the mistake of siding with one group over the other, and allowing the audience to dictate agenda, the Church – the body of Christ; is the only side we should ever be on; against the world!
Finally, my twelfth is to say that right now in the west; there really is a renewed interest in the Christian faith; all the evidence shows from the tone of public debate, to increased numbers of baptisms, and increased Church attendance, that our culture is open to revising its dismissal of Christianity. We have an opportunity, we must cultivate it, harness it, build upon it. One way of doing that is to use each new convert; to deliberately through him, as a Church – target systematically all of his friends and family; and then repeat that with each new person – that sweep produces – repeating again and again! Another is to celebrate every conversion of a man or women; publicly, we must build the sense of momentum; we’ve not had for along time; this again will be done through social media; such as posting up baptism, confirmations, and so on and cultivate the sense of a return to the Christian faith.
I hope dear reader you found my twelve thoughts for Evangelism at Christmas stimulating and challenging if after reading this you thought this blog was useful; please share it with the Church leader, or mission group, or evangelistic group; to which you belong or are affiliated. Christians,
