What Is Success In Evangelism?

In an age when true evangelism is considered passe or unsophisticated by its cultured despisers, may we believers never adopt such corrupt thinking.  In a retrograde culture where right is considered wrong, and God is said to be irrelevant, may we believers shine as lights in this present darkness.

     "What is success in evangelism?  Is it when the person you witness to comes to Christ?  Certainly that's what we want to happen.  But if this is success, are we failures whenever we share the gospel and people refuse to believe?  Was Jesus an "evangelistic failure" when people like the rich young ruler turned away from Him and His message?  Obviously not.  Then neither are we when we present Christ and His message and they turn away in unbelief.  We need to learn that sharing the gospel is successful evangelism.  We ought to have an obsession for souls, and tearfully plead with God to see more people converted, but conversions are the fruit that God alone can give. 
     In this regard we are like the postal service.  Success is measured by the careful an accurate delivery of the message, not by the response of the recipient.  Whenever we share the gospel (which includes the summons to repent and believe), we have succeeded.  In the truest sense, all biblical evangelism is successful evangelism, regardless of the results."

-from "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald S. Whitney, p.103.

Always Have Confidence in God

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea roar, and all it contains;
Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
Before the Lord, for He is coming,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
And the peoples in His faithfulness.

Psalm 96:11-13

 

CEO-ing the sheep

An excerpt from Left Behind in a Megachurch World by Ruth Tucker:

"According to Rob Marus, Southern Baptists are particularly tuned into the megachurch mentality because they, perhaps more than any other denomination, measure success in terms of numbers of baptisms or converts.  'The more conservative and evangelical the church, the more important growth is,' he argues. 'It becomes almost a jockeying contest to see how many you can attract, how many you can convert, and how many you can baptize.'  It is no accident that every one of the presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention int he past two decades has been a senior pastor of a megachurch."  (p.93)

CEO does not automatically equal shepherd.  Success is faithfulness.