Dave Ferguson

We have a problem!

Evangelism has become a taboo word. Doing evangelism is seen as culturally inappropriate. Even many Christians feel like evangelism is wrong. According to Barna Research, nearly half of Christian Millennials say it is wrong to evangelize. At the same time, however, Christians still recognize that evangelism was central to Jesus’ mission. Barna reports that two out of three Christian Millenials believe being a witness about Jesus is part of their faith.

This confusion about evangelism has left the church with a lackluster approach to reaching the lost. This is also made obvious in Barna’s research that found more than half of Christian Millennials reported having two or fewer conversations about their faith with a non-Christian during the past year.

There is a solution!

If we are going to fulfill the vision of Jesus (Acts 1:8), we must be about the mission of Jesus: “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). That means we must revive evangelism. In doing so, we cannot go back to the approach of a previous generation that has sometimes treated people like a project or left them feeling like a group to be conquered or won. We must approach them with hospitality and as people, like us, who want to be heard and allowed to have their own spiritual journey. We must plant new churches that have cultures that prioritize evangelism by creating a safe place for people to belong before they believe.

Our God doesn’t see the world as a lost cause. He is relentlessly committed to restoring a broken relationship with each of us. Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

Our commitment to the cause begins when we make it personal. We are all lost people. When we let that truth motivate us, we can’t help but be passionate about reaching people far from God.

A church with a culture of evangelism will hold the Biblical values of evangelism, share the compelling narratives of evangelism, and live out the white-hot faith behaviors of an evangelistic church.

We will explore this cultural shift in 2023. Specifically, we will challenge every person to be engaged in the reproduction and multiplication of new churches by being commissioned as a part of the Exponential conference, Lost Cause!

Our world is not a lost cause. Join the conversations on reviving evangelism in 2023.


Dave Ferguson serves as President of Exponential Conferences while leading Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL.