A few years ago, I spoke with a pastor who was planting a church in Miami. He came from the Bible Belt and wanted to launch his church on Christmas Eve. Under typical circumstances, this is a good idea. However, Miami is an uncommon city with a unique culture. I explained to him that because of Miami’s Latin influence, starting on Christmas Eve was not a good idea. Hispanics celebrate Noche Buena on Christmas Eve, a traditional family meal centered on roasting a pig, rice, beans, and hours of playing dominoes. I pleaded with this pastor not to start his church on Noche Buena. He told me there were many non-Hispanics in Miami. I agreed but explained to him that everyone in Miami celebrates Noche Buena. I told him to wait until mid-January to launch his church, and he would see greater success at his kickoff service. He didn’t listen to my counsel. Instead, he invested more than $100,000 to promote his new church, and when he launched on December 24, 10 people attended. The verdict? Culture wins again.
Sam Chand wrote, “Culture—not vision or strategy—is the most powerful factor in any organization.”1 If that is the case, how do you change a culture? Better yet, how do we as pastors create the right culture in our churches? Before I answer that, let me clarify something at the outset. When I talk about culture, I’m talking about more than having a list of core values or pillars of culture in the church. Many churches have a mission statement hanging on the wall, but it means nothing in the church’s daily life. Culture is what you celebrate, what you value, what you will sacrifice for, and what you invest your resources in.
So how does a church create an evangelistic culture? I would like to believe that every pastor desires for people to know Jesus in his church’s Sunday services and for the congregation to be sharing their faith during the week. If that’s the desire, why does it happen so infrequently? It’s not a lack of desire, commitment, or calling. I believe many pastors simply need some encouragement on how to create an evangelistic culture where people coming to know Jesus is a regular occurrence. The goal of this essay is to share some practical leadership on how to achieve this godly goal.
Raise the Biblical Value of Evangelism
New believers don’t need to be told that evangelism matters. Why? Simply put, they have just experienced the joy of salvation and the forgiveness that’s found in Jesus. However, the longer people are believers, the more they can slowly turn inward and lose the passion for seeing lost people come to Jesus. This is why pastors need to continually raise the value of evangelism through the teaching of the Scriptures. The Great Commission is an appropriate place to start. Teaching the Book of Acts is a wonderful intensive on how the Holy Spirit empowers believers to share the Gospel. However, evangelism is not merely a New Testament activity. The Old Testament clearly shares God’s heart for the nations. In Isaiah 49:6, the Lord tells the people of Israel, “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” From the conversion of Rahab, the healing of Naaman, and the amazement of the Queen of Sheba, the pages of Scripture are full of examples of God’s desire to see people saved. A godly culture of evangelism begins when we value what God values in Scripture.
Make Evangelism Part of the Normal Christian Life
One of the things I have noted in almost three decades of pastoring is the power of the stories we tell. Stories have a way of penetrating the heart and engaging the mind. When Jesus was confronted with an audience that consisted of religious leaders, tax collectors, and other assorted sinners, He told three stories about lost things that had been found (Luke 15). Quoting statistics about how many lost people are in your city is interesting, but they likely won’t move people to action. However, if you tell a story about a prodigal son who returns to the Lord, it will move people to pray about the prodigals in their own lives and maybe move them to action to share the Gospel. One of the most powerful tools in a pastor's toolbox for creating culture is the stories we tell. That means we need to share the Gospel personally and then talk about what God does in those conversations. People do what is modeled for them. You talk about your experience reading the Bible, praying, loving your wife, and being generous because these are all activities that are part of the normal Christian life. If you make it a point to talk about sharing the Gospel with your neighbors, friends, or a server at a restaurant, people will rightly view sharing the Gospel as normal.
Share the Gospel in Your Services
One of the easiest ways to create a culture of evangelism in your church is to present the Gospel in your services and invite people to come to know Jesus. You might be thinking, “That sounds good, but I don’t have the gift of evangelism.” So what? Do you only give if you have the gift of giving? Obviously not. Then learn to present the Gospel in a church service by watching great evangelists. Just as listening to great Bible teachers taught us how to teach the Bible, we can learn evangelism from watching the pros. Watch a Billy Graham crusade or a Greg Laurie church service and see how they present the Gospel and invite people to respond. The goal isn’t to copy them word for word (which, truth be told, I basically did early on, when I was learning and growing in my evangelistic gifting), but to see how they present God's truths and invite people to make a decision to follow Jesus. A great place to start is this message from Greg Laurie at the 2025 Harvest Crusade. I encourage you to become a student of great evangelists, and even if you aren’t particularly gifted in sharing the Gospel, you will get better, and the Lord will use it. Remember, if people watch you share the Gospel every Sunday, you are teaching them how to share the Gospel in their personal lives.
The Gospel is Contagious
I am convinced that if people could experience the joy of leading someone to Christ, they would never stop sharing the Gospel. This is why people love seeing lost people come to Jesus in church services. If all of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents, it shouldn’t surprise us when the saints on earth rejoice as well (Luke 15). If people know you’re going to share the Gospel in your services, they will bring their friends and family to hear the Gospel. They will also know how to share the Gospel themselves. A guy named Alex who attends our church emailed me recently. He led a friend to Christ and wanted to tell me about it. He talked to a friend over lunch, presented the Gospel, and invited him to pray to ask Jesus to forgive Him. Alex’s friend said yes, prayed to receive Christ, and the kingdom of God grew a little bigger that day. The email Alex sent me moved me. He said, “Pastor Bob, I did exactly what I see you do every week. I presented the Gospel exactly like you do at the end of each service. Then I led him in the same prayer you pray each week. I want to thank you for teaching me how to share the Gospel by faithfully sharing it each week.” The Gospel doesn’t need to change. However, your church culture may need to change so those in your services can respond to the Gospel or have a friend share it with them over a meal. The best time to change your culture was ten years ago. The second-best time is now.
- Chand, S. R. (2018). Culture catalyst: Seven strategies to bring positive change to your organization. Whitaker House ↩︎
