When Evangelism Feels Broken

Does evangelism work in modern culture?

Evangelism has long been a cornerstone tradition in our churches. Since the early days of this movement, our churches have held extended series unpacking prophecy and teaching what we believe the Bible teaches. As a pastor, I have preached many evangelistic meetings myself. And as we conclude this year of Pentecost 2025, I know many of you have done the same.

But let me ask you honestly: What kind of turnout did you get? Did you actually bring in the harvest?

I am not questioning our methods or our message but perhaps issuing a challenge. For years, we have spent thousands of dollars on advertising—mailers, door hangers, billboards, online ads—and we have even tried to use social media. I couldn’t even begin to estimate the enormity of ad dollars that our conferences and churches have spent over the years, often to great effect. Yet, in today’s culture, our efforts in certain places don’t seem to go as far nor reach as many people as they used to.

Our culture is far too busy and far too hurried; our calendars overflow, making it hard to attend even for a weekend in many cases. And while the content is good, the draw often has not been what we hope for. Maybe it's time to look at evangelism from a different angle?

What if we moved evangelism from an event to a lifestyle? What if we trained our members to invite people to church every week, not just for large series and events?

Growing up in the church, I was only ever told to invite people when a big series or evangelistic event was coming. Often, that was only once a year. At worship, we would see the same people week after week and wonder why our church wasn’t growing.

A few years ago, I attended a local growing evangelical church. I was curious to know why they were growing. Two things stood out to me:

First, I noticed that they did everything with excellence. They didn’t throw together things last minute. Everyone was trained, and every piece of literature was coordinated. You could tell their entire Sunday worship experience was coordinated with excellence.

When was the last time you felt that walking into an evangelistic series, let alone a worship service on Sabbath?

Second, they strongly emphasized that every week the members should make it a goal to bring someone new to experience the gospel. From the front, the pastor announced that not only was it important to invite people to church but that it was central to their mission.

Now, putting theological disagreements aside and granting that some Adventist churches excel at this, what would happen if we ran more of our churches with orchestrated excellence? What would happen if we trained our members to invite people to church weekly, rather than making that suggestion only during a big series?

Perhaps our usual methods of evangelism still work, but they only seem to have real results when we make discipleship part of our daily lives. I have a passion to see the church resemble the early church, when numbers were added daily. But that is not going to happen if we are only evangelistic once a year.

We should be living as evangelistic disciple makers. Sharing the good news and inviting people to our churches should be a daily practice. We need to be involved in people's lives with care and compassion. We need to make disciples, not mere converts.

Discipleship is evangelism, and it does not happen in large meetings; it occurs in day-to-day life and over long periods of living together. What would happen if we were making disciples daily? Our so-called “reaping” meetings would then be way more fruitful. And isn’t that our calling: to make disciples?

Of course, this raises a deeper question: Are our churches the kind of places people are excited to invite others to? Are they places of love, joy, and community? That might be another discussion, but, perhaps, it’s also where real evangelism begins.

Ryan Hodgins pastors Pursuit Worship and Lighthouse Fellowship in Charlotte, NC, and is passionate about discipleship and helping churches grow through everyday evangelism.