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PUTTING AN END TO WORSHIP WARS - Elmer Towns

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in evangelism are effective in making disciples of various types of people through their personal<br />

evangelistic efforts.<br />

During the late sixties, the author began compiling lists of the largest and fastest growing<br />

churches in America. The Ten Largest Churches described ten churches which had experienced<br />

significant church growth. 1 Other books including America's Fastest Growing Churches<br />

described churches which rose to prominence because of their commitment to and effectiveness<br />

in reaching their community for Christ. 1 Pastors like Rick Warren, Bill Hybles, Lee Roberson,<br />

Richard Lee and Jerry Falwell are widely recognized as pastoral leaders of evangelistic churches.<br />

THE STRENGTHS <strong>AN</strong>D CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE EV<strong>AN</strong>GELISTIC<br />

CHURCH<br />

The strength of the Evangelistic Church is found in its commitment to evangelism. Most<br />

pastors of Evangelistic Churches would agree with Spurgeon's claim, "There is no wrong way to<br />

win people to Christ." As a result, evangelistic churches have produced outreach ministries<br />

which have become prototypes for others committed to evangelism. In recent decades, several<br />

highly effective outreach ministries have been born out of the evangelistic zeal of these churches.<br />

Before the 1950s, local church evangelistic crusades were a highly effective means of<br />

reaching people for Christ. Churches would erect tents on their property or conduct week long<br />

evangelistic meetings. The gospel was preached and people were won to Christ. Also, great<br />

youth rallies would be held on Friday and/or Saturday evenings and similar results were achieved<br />

among students.<br />

Visitation evangelism was a widely used means for reaching people for Christ. On a<br />

designated evening, evangelistic teams would go out from the church to visit prospects for<br />

salvation. If there were no prospects, visitors would simply knock on doors "cold turkey" to look<br />

for those who might prove to be prospects for the gospel.<br />

During the 1960s Sunday School busses were being widely used to reach people for<br />

Christ. Long bus routes were established and bus captains spent most of their Saturdays<br />

knocking on doors to find riders for their Sunday School busses the following day. In some<br />

churches, over a hundred children would come to church from a single bus route. By the peak of<br />

the bussing movement, many churches were purchasing Sunday School busses assuming the bus<br />

itself would result in increased attendance.<br />

During the seventies and eighties, many other evangelistic strategies were developed and<br />

used to reach people for Christ. Coffee houses and concerts, telemarketing and television, drivein<br />

films and bumper stickers were all used as means of communicating the gospel. Some proved<br />

to be more effective than others in achieving their desired end, but all were born out of the vision<br />

of evangelistic churches. Denominations composed largely of evangelistic churches experienced<br />

significant growth as new churches were established to reach new communities. Indeed, starting<br />

new churches appears to be the most effective means of reaching people for Christ.

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