Where is everyone?

It was the one night almost no one showed up at the church building.

During my first ministry as an Associate Pastor with a Free Will Baptist Church in California, that local church was evangelistic in an old school way: we had “visitation” every Monday night.

What sounds like a supernatural drop-in from a celestial being was actually the pastoral staff encouraging faithful church members to gather at the church building every Monday night to team up and then go visit people from the community who had visited during church services the previous day.

On Monday nights, you could hear crickets in the parking lot.

Rarely did anyone other than the pastors and a couple deacons show up on Monday nights. Often, it would be just myself and the senior pastor. Everyone else had an excuse as to why they couldn’t call on visitors, especially if there were known opportunities for sharing the Gospel.

It was much easier to get signups for the church softball league. It was easier to recruit Sunday School teachers. It was easier to get people to be greeters or ushers or volunteer for serving food at the local mission. It was easier to get women to join in a girls night out, or round up guys to mow the lawn around the church property.

Almost no one wanted to get anywhere near an opportunity to share the Gospel with strangers from the community who didn’t know Christ.

Fortunately, that lack of interest changed over the next couple years as we took discipleship more seriously and began equipping the saints for works of service (Eph. 4:11-12). As Christians began to risk sharing Jesus Christ with others, that local church tripled its Sunday attendance. As church members deepened their personal relationships with Jesus, they couldn’t hold back from sharing the love they had for Christ. The result was a need to keep the baptistry filled and heated because a lot of people were having their old selves buried there as they responded to the Gospel message.

That local church was already known in the community for it’s private school, it’s competitive softball team, and some other activities. But it didn’t begin to make a real impact on that community until its members started sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Suddenly, lives were being changed, and whole households being dramatically impacted.

Suddenly, what had been more like a spiritually-oriented club became the body of Christ serving, growing, thriving.

That’s what happens when the local church rediscovers its purpose, and then pursues its mission of actually making disciples.

That’s the responsibility of every person who calls himself or herself a child of God. Churches today may not be as “old school” as still having “Visitation Night,” but the need to share the Gospel with the lost in the community remains the same.

The call goes out to all Christians to respond.

Are you hearing crickets? Or are you dusting off your Bible and making yourself available?

Scotty