BIG EVENT EVANGELISM - Irreplaceable or Irrelevant?
Bob Dylan, famous for many things, coined the often used phrase, “The times, they are a changing.” What was true over 40 years ago when he sang those lyrics is just as true today and anyone who takes issue with the rapid pace at which our culture is shifting in it’s values, definitions, and convictions is simply not paying attention. One needs to look no further than their phone. My Droid X now has more power, intelligence, and functions than the first spaceship to land on the moon. Dylan was right.
Yet while it seems that everything is being re-defined, we as evangelicals know that some things remain intact and unmovable in spite of cultural trends. God never changes. The gospel is true in all times and all cultures. Sin is still a big deal to God, no matter what we call it or label it. The church is still the Bride of Christ, God’s method of evangelism and discipleship and missions. And the Bible is still the perfect written revelation of God’s redemption of humanity just as Jesus is the complete flesh-and-blood revelation of God’s love and grace.
Wise Christians understand that questioning our methods is not the same thing as questioning the message of the gospel. As times change, we must, in the words of Paul, understand how to redeem the times in light of the prevalent evil of our day. Moreover, wise leaders understand that if the horse is dead, you need to dismount.
In other words, if something is not working anymore, then it should be fixed or scrapped. This is not rocket science, just common sense.
Which brings me to the simple question: are big evangelistic events still relevant? Do they work? Or are we wasting our time and money on them? Has their day come and gone?
In the spirit of full disclosure, I need to lay my cards on the table and admit that I am an evangelist who speaks at many of these large events. I am also the Teaching Pastor at a very large church that has seen thousand of conversions in the past 11 years. So I would be a hypocrite if I jumped on the bandwagon of “the day of big events is over, we should all just live in a small group forever.” So while I completely believe that big events, done well and deliberately for the sake of reaching the lost, are just as viable today as they were in the heyday of Billy Graham’s stadium ministry, there is no doubt that the landscape has changed. I would like to explore the reasons why as well as offering a few humble suggestions on how the church can leverage the “big event” once again for the sake of the Kingdom of God in reaching lost people with the gospel.
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE
Clearly, it is a different day than when I first came to Christ in 1987. I began preaching at age 14, the same year I was converted to faith. Back then there were a handful of big events, and they were really big. I went to a Petra concert with 10,000 people in Williams Bryce Stadium for the SC Baptist Youth Rally (now called “The Big Youth Thing”). I also remember Mylon LeFevre packing out the Coliseum in Columbia for the same event. The sheer size of those events took my breath away as a teenager. It was more than a big event. It was a big movement ignited by a big God.
About the same time I attended the Texas Youth Evangelism Conference in Dallas (summer of 1990) and nearly 20,000 teenagers gathered in one arena for a gigantic mega-event. I was awestruck.
Fast forward 20 years. In July of 2010, I actually spoke at the TX Youth Evangelism Conference, the same one I attended two decades earlier, and the attendance was less than 5,000. In August of 2011, I spoke at the “Big Youth Thing” at Carowinds, but instead of 10,000 students, there were just over 3,000. The times had changed.
But before you think I am lamenting an attendance drop, allow me to show you another perspective. At the event in TX, there were over 400 salvation decisions recorded. At the event at Carowinds, there were exactly 500 decisions for Christ (my assistant actually counted them). This had nothing to do with bands or personalities or concerts. These numbers (representing lives of real people) were the results of the leadership of those events being deliberate and focused about making the gospel of Jesus Christ the central reason for the event.
Again, this is not rocket science. Just common sense.
WHY SUCH A HUGE DECLINE IN ATTENDANCE?
This is the first question evangelicals often ask because we have been trained to look at the bottom line – numbers! There are reasons why big events have gotten smaller and I will mention them briefly and move on to more important things, like leveraging these events by making them “leaner and meaner” for the gospel.
1. Saturation– Billy Graham proved that you could pull off a big Christian event and pack the place out. He paved the way for everything from Friday night 5th Quarters to Promise Keepers to Beth Moore women’s conferences. But it took a generation for the smaller big events to gain traction. As Graham’s crusade ministry wound down because of his age, a fresh crop of mega-events rose up to fill the gap. Winter Jam. Acquire The Fire. The Passion World Tour. Hillsong Live. Even events like Catalyst and Unleash are all a result of an evangelical subculture that loves the big event experience. So today we have tours and concerts and leadership events coming to a major city near you all the time. How many do you go to? Which ones do you take your teenagers to? Across the board, more people are attending big events, but fewer are attending the traditional ones or the strictly evangelistic ones. Case in point; less than 5,000 people attended the Southern Baptist Convention this summer. That’s a bit off from the over 40,0000 that attended just 30 years ago.
2. Dilution – There really is no easy way to say this, so here it goes; so many of the big events that leaders take their students to are fun and energetic and awesome, but they just don’t make a big deal out of the gospel. In other words, something besides the gospel is central to the event. I am all for family friendly entertainment and good Christian fun. But there are a limited # of events you can go to in a year, and if you spend all your budget on fun events that make your kids laugh and make your ears ring but you never prioritize events that are planned and executed for the sole purpose of exposing your students to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ (where they are actually told that God loves them, that they must repent of their sins and trust Christ alone, and then are given an opportunity to do that) then it is no wonder the big evangelistic events have suffered while the positive, entertainment driven youth events have multiplied. And while those who run these events do a great service to the Kingdom by providing great events, over time the message of the gospel can easily become diluted. The gospel is not just having good Christian fun in a safe environment. Concerts and comedians and roller coasters are all wonderful but they are not, by default, evangelistic. If the clear gospel is not proclaimed, then the event may lead to an eventual conversation about the gospel, but in the short run it was just good Christian fun (and I do not say this with a condescending tone, but rather to clarify the difference in the big events themselves).
3. Confusion– To be honest, many leaders have told me to my face that they took their group to an event that was promoted as an evangelistic outreach only to arrive, attend, and leave without ever hearing the gospel proclaimed or having an opportunity extended where people clearly understood that they needed to be saved, or ever heard an explanation of what they had to do in order to respond to Jesus at all. Every youth minister understands how hard it is to get lost students to come to church. It is easier to get them to come, at first, to an event not held at a church building. So when you cash in your influence and get your dedicated teenagers to invite their un-churched friends to come to an event where you believe they will hear the gospel, and they don’t, you know that it may be difficult to get them to come back. Sometimes we only get one shot with a lost kid. And we want to make it count. So while the gospel may be present in the lyrics of great songs sung by cool bands, there is a difference in a lost student (with little previous exposure to the gospel) trying to figure the gospel out by piecing together clues she gained at fun Christian events….and a lost student hearing someone clearly communicate the essentials of the gospel and then telling that student what the Bible says is necessary for them to be reconciled to God – and then giving them an opportunity on the spot to respond.
HARD WORK AND A FEW FIGHTS
A funny thing happens when the simple gospel is clearly proclaimed and people are told what they must do to be saved. I have seen it happen for 25 years and it never, ever fails, whether it’s a big event or a small Bible study or a conversation in a coffee shop. People actually respond. They are convicted by the Holy Spirit. Their hearts are broken over their sin. God comes to them in that moment and by His grace, they put their faith in Jesus and begin a relationship with Christ. That moment (at the invitation) is not the end. It is the beginning of a life of discipleship that unfolds in the context of a local church that is serious about hand-crafting lifelong followers of Jesus.
Yet I know from experience that if we are going to see the big events leveraged for the sake of seeing lost people respond to the gospel (instead of giving up the big events to good wholesome Christian fun), it will require a unified, concerted effort on behalf of those who organize and pay for these events. Those in charge must value evangelism and not just fun and entertainment. They must be vigilant in protecting the mission of the event, which is the proclamation of the gospel, if that is indeed the mission of the event.
HARD WORK
There was a day where the phrase from “Field Of Dreams” applied to big Christian events…”If you build it, they will come.” That day is gone. You cannot book a band and a speaker, order some pizza and hand out a few fliers and get 500 kids to show up anymore. To put on a great event and get a great turnout takes months of prayer and preparation. Events that are thrown together are usually poorly attended and do more damage than good. That is why for some churches that may lack the resources or staff, the best idea is to find the best evangelistic event you can, put on by someone else, and throw all your weight behind getting your students there to that event. A youth minister recently told me that the reason why they come to our Crossroads events each year is because we do a better job putting on evangelistic events than they ever could. His exact words were, “It’s the best bang for the buck.” So be realistic. If you cannot leverage an event of your own to reach lost students you’ve been building relationships with, then find the one out there that is the best bang for you buck and work hard to fill up the church van to get your kids there. Just make sure you’ve also done the hard work of making sure that the gospel is the mission of that event or you will leave disappointed.
A FEW FIGHTS
You’d be surprised to know how hard it is to convince some people who invite me to speak at large events that we actually need to give the preacher more than 15 minutes and that we actually need to invite people to repent of their sin and being a relationship with Jesus. It’s not that way everywhere, but the big events have the potential to get lost to numerous little agendas. Like death by a thousand paper cuts. Everyone wants to promote their thing. Everyone wants to get up on stage. Influential people need face time. The band wants to be the headliner and sometimes even the speaker gets territorial about stage time. I remember showing up at an event about 10 years ago. The promoter told me I had 45 minutes for the message and the invitation, but the stage manager for the event told me that the band had not agreed to have a speaker that night and I would not be preaching. This was simple lack of planning and communication on their part, but there I was, with thousands of students in the audience that needed more than just some Christian rock and roll. They needed the gospel. So with gentleness, I stood firm and fought for a chance to preach. They gave me 20 minutes. God saved many that night. But it should have never gotten to that point. If it’s just a concert, then rock hard for Jesus and have a good time. But if the purpose of the event is evangelism, then be clear about it. Be unified and fight to maintain that purpose, no matter what. Stand your ground.
THE ANSWER?
The big evangelistic event isn’t dead, it just needs to figure out what it is trying to accomplish. When it’s focused on evangelism, it’s still one of the most effective ways to reach people for Christ.
At "The Big Youth Thing" at Carowinds in August, there was 1 band and 1 speaker and 500 students made decisions for Christ. Sometimes less is more. The purpose was for students to hear the gospel and be saved. It worked. The rides and roller coasters were fun and they probably drew a lot of students to Charlotte. But when they got there, they had a chance to meet the living God. That is the right way to leverage the big event for the sake of souls. It is the gospel that makes these events still relevant today. Without the gospel, it’s just fun and games.
Comments
November 29 2011
Kelly
And that is why we come to Crossroads Summer camp! Wonderfully written, Clayton.
November 29 2011
Mark Holloway
Jesus says a lot about the Kingdom in a very small verse. The Kindgom is like yeast. Not just ‘less is more’. Much, much less is exponential. A tiny, little yeast in a lot of dough is HUGE. Jesus wasn’t a farmer, He invented it. You once said, “Draw ‘em with candy and you have to keep ‘em with candy”. The big events were soul candy, probably. Dunno. But at the end of the day, am I a friend of the King, intimate? The Lord is always doing a new thing. Trouble is, we may not like it.
November 29 2011
Cristal
“If the clear gospel is not proclaimed, then the event may lead to an eventual conversation about the gospel, but in the short run it was just good Christian fun.” AMEN!!
November 29 2011
Kent Shingleton
Good word Clayton! Can’t wait to see the harvest this march at Tennessee Yec! It’s all about Jesus.
November 29 2011
Adam Strayer
I often hear from youth pastors that “if it’s not fun, they won’t come.” That’s true, and as a program leader at my church for young boys, i agree with the thought. It’s just too easy to get carried away with trying to make it interesting to get attendance and forget the purpose of the meeting. I plan fun activities weekly to draw the boys to class (lost people generally don’t hang out in churches for the hymns) and if i’m not careful, i’ll loose sight of the importance of pointing them to Jesus. I often feel like the Christian life is a delicate balancing act of not getting too carried away with any one ideal, (Freedom from the law vs. a license to sin, Evangelism vs. Discipleship, etc.) and this is no exception. Fun is the draw, evangelism is the purpose. To not share the Gospel clearly and allowing a response time would be like getting in the boat, baiting your hook, yet never throwing it in the water. Why waste our time with the planning of events to save the lost and never tell them how to be saved. Let’s run fun, interesting events that set up the greatest thrill of all, seeing lost people be forgiven and born again into the family of God.
November 30 2011
brian burgess
The Gospel, The Gospel, The Gospel, it has no shelf life and as long as we are on this earth, we will preach it, teach it, and in God’s power live it. Love your insight brother.
December 1 2011
steve strickland
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” Jesus says. Thank you for helping to keep the focus JESUS . I love that He saves, and that He also supplies the means (us proclaiming the GOOD NEWS).
I love that Paul said that all we do, when done for Jesus’ Glory is used by Him to bring salvation. (1 Corinthians 10:31-33). Whether it is a big EVENT, living room, ball field, hospital room, classroom, or in our own home…... GLORIFY JESUS… and Jesus will save. Hey, after all, when we glorify Jesus in and with everything, then it is all a BIG EVENT (eternity is BIG)
thanks for the encouragment.
December 3 2011
Lev
In my 20 years as a believer, the problem I’ve seen with many “big tent” evangelistic events is that they promote a sort of “easy believism” gospel that isn’t really the gospel at all. Maybe people have started to realize that isn’t the Way. I saw a lot of kids “saved” in my youth group growing up at such events, and many later lost the battle to sin and gave up the faith all together! This is a trend many others have told me they noticed also. Yet those kids’ evangelist probably still “boast in Christ” about them, counting them among the number of those they’ve seen saved through their preaching
I always heard verses like John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8 at such events. Verses I *never* heard, but which many of the converts obviously needed to hear, were passages like the following:
Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will repay each person according to what they have done. *To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.* (Romans 2)
“...you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.” (Romans 6)
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