Personal Evangelism

Used by permission of the author, Dr. Charles Kelly, President of The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

I will never forget the first time I went to First Baptist church of Dallas, Texas. I was thrilled over the opportunity to visit this legendary congregation while I was in Dallas for a weekend. It was awesome! The choir loft stretched from one side of the balcony across the platform, to the balcony on the other side. they had a full symphony orchestra. I had never seen anything like that in church before. The music was so dynamic that I wondered why they did not install seat belts in the pews to keep people from floating off during the praise time. We got to the time of the sermon, and Dr. Criswell stood up and said, "I 'm going to do something that I have never done before." I was thrilled because that meant my only visit to the church would be an historical occasion! And then Criswell said, "I am going to read the church budget." I'm thinking, "No, he won't". And at that 11 o'clock Sunday morning service, being carried live on television and radio, Dr. Criswell opened a folder, put on his glasses, and read line by line through the church budget. For 3o minutes, he read the church budget.

By the time he finished, I was bored almost to tears. In fact, I was more than bored. I was mad at his waste of a opportunity to preach the gospel and call people to salvation! To my surprise, he indicated that a invitation would be extended in spite of the unusual nature of his "message". I thought we would surely beat the Methodists and Catholics to the cafeteria today. He closed his file folder, took off his glasses, put them in his pocket, and began the invitation.

Twenty minutes later people were still responding--coming down the aisles, coming from the back, and coming from the balcony. I said to myself, "I'm going to get a copy of that budget for my next revival". I envisioned a whole new approach to evangelism: budget revivals!

The invitation was finally over, and Criswell began introducing people who had made their decisions for Christ to the congregation. "Oh, glory, glory, Tom come stand here,lad. This is Tom. Some of you may recognize Tom. He is a sportscaster on one of our local stations and now he comes giving his life to Jesus. Oh, glory Bob, Mary--come and stand with Tom You don't recognize Bob or Mary, but they are on the other side of those cameras showing Tom, this good looking lad, and they have been telling Tom about Jesus. Now Tom comes to be saved."

On and on he went, introducing each one who made a decision that day. In most cases, he pointed out somebody in the congregation who had been witnessing to them. Slowly it dawned on me. The secret to First Baptist, Dallas, was more than the man behind the pulpit; it was the people in the pews telling the people they knew about Jesus. The secret to every great church is not just a great pastor. It is a great congregation who leaves church each week to go and tell the people they know about Jesus.

Part of the reason personal evangelism has not permeated the life of the church is because the typical church has lost sight of her mission.