In a recent film aimed at church leaders, Rico Tice of Christianity Explored pithily summarised where the UK is in evangelism right now.
In 1954 Billy Graham preached the cross at Haringey stadium and 40,000 were converted, but 90% of them were already churchgoers. By 1994 people were starting from much further away, commonly believing Christianity was irrelevant, untrue and weird. For them, coming to faith took time and often involved evangelistic courses like Christianity Explored.
A person they know and trust
Now Tice says that, in 2017, people are locked into a post-Christian culture that is spiralling downwards at an alarming rate. This means most are already so far away from any thought of the gospel that they initially won’t consider doing a course. Instead, they first need the gospel taken to them, outside our church structures, by a person they know and trust, in a location they are comfortable with.
