I love evangelism. Public and personal. Contemporary and traditional. To those who write it off as a numbers game? It’s always a number until that number is your mother…or father…or child. You get the picture.
NAD evangelism is spiking. Even before Pentecost 2025. Thank you Jose Cortez and Calvin Watkins for leading the charge. But we have a big problem. Retention.
Now I know that the primary reason that people give for leaving the Adventist church is the church members, not the doctrine. And I also know that what’s missing from Adventist evangelism…are Adventists! The members are generally not involved, and an uninvolved member can poison a meeting and a church.
But It’s more than the members. At times it’s our methods. Since I was a kid, we’ve tended to take an “ends justify the means”, look the other way approach when some of our evangelists and evangelistic methods crossed the line of ethics. We gotta do better.
We can’t continue to lose 50-75% of baptisms within weeks of the meeting. Because every time we do, it makes it harder to do evangelism the next time. Members get jaded. Pastors get drama. And evangelism gets written off as a hustle. Couple suggestions:
You’ll have to Keep em, the way you Caught em!
Compassion Campaigns are the best things that have happened to evangelism in the NAD in years. It’s Ellen White’s advice on steroids. But at its core, it’s sanctified social work. That’s a great thing. We should meet felt needs whether they join our church or not. But if they Only come for sneakers, they’ll probably only stay for sneakers…and other stuff.
They should be clear that they are joining a church
There are too many instances where this ain’t clear. Intentionally.
Consider the value of a church plant
At times bringing new members into our churches is like bringing a baby into a nasty nursery. They won’t survive. Consider a church plant, branch Sabbath school, second service…or another option. Ya gotta save the baby!
Disciple! Disciple! Disciple!
The reason we have so many issues with evangelism in the first place, is because our members need to be discipled! It’s a life-long process of maturity that includes regular reminders of mission. And if that’s a need for existing members, you KNOW it’s a need for new members.
Too many churches have no intentional discipleship process. Put an intentional discipleship program/process/funnel in place for the entire church. We can help with that.
As for the timing of baptism? The Adventist church has always emphasized “thorough instruction” before baptism. That actually seems to be the opposite of what we see in the New Testament. Baptisms seem to immediately follow personal repentance and profession of Christ. But whether you baptize them immediately or eventually, discipleship in the context of a Christ-centered church, is still the key.
