From what I’ve seen, the overall preferred mode seems to be sharing the good news by demonstration rather than proclamation. Now, we do proclaim the Gospel, and altar-type of Gospel-decision calls are used in many BIC churches and settings, but not all. Part of this is due to the fact that we believe salvation is a holistic experience that affects all of life and thought, and that obedience to the Great Commission is making disciples, not just converts. Additionally, it is important to the Anabaptist background in us that these disciples become part of a local church community of believers to complete the process. In fact, many of us believe that church planting is the best way to practice evangelism and reach the unchurched. Thus, friendship-type of evangelism seems to fit us well.

The BIC approach to evangelism implies that we must continually train our people to “live the faith” rather than just “mouth the faith.” While we have used different types of simple Gospel presentations, we shy away from seeing these instruments as sufficient in expressing the full Gospel.

We must work harder at getting across through preaching and teaching the imminent return of Jesus Christ, noting how desperately crucial it is that we share God’s good news with neighbors, colleagues, and unchurched family members now! We must also somehow seek to inspire and motivate the 2nd or 3rd generation Christians in our more established churches to share their faith on a more active basis. We must train, in a continuous and ongoing fashion, Christians in our churches on how to witness, what to share, and how to do pre-evangelism apologetics on a personal level. One helpful way to encourage boldness is to have new Christians lead the way in evangelism committees and training, as well as personally sharing their testimonies in regular Sunday services.

—Carl Shank, Cross Roads BIC Church (Mount Joy, Pa.)

I believe that the church is alive and well. Many tell me of first hand experiences of witnessing to others. Just today in church, a man shared how he was on the telephone trying to get his email backup and running. While on the phone, the operator began telling him about Jesus. This was a pleasant surprise to him to have someone witness over the phone to him. They talked for about 45 mins. He knew that the call was being recorded, so told the operator how much he was blessed by her boldness in her witness. We also have a lady that is a midwife and gets into many homes in our area. This has been an open door for her in sharing Jesus Christ with many hungry hearts. I preach that we all need to share a word for Jesus everyday, no matter where we are.

An early church father once said something like this: “Live a life that tells for Jesus, and if necessary use words.” Our lifestyle is very important. In these days, we need to give a word and extend a loving helping hand to needy people all around us.  May we make ourselves available for the Holy Spirit to fill and use everyday for God's honor and glory! It should be our prayer for the start of every new day. May we all first make friends and then be bold in our witness as the Lord fills our mouths with His words.

—Pastor John M. Keefer, Big Valley BIC (Belleville, Pa.)

St. Francis of Assissi offered this wisdom: “Share the Gospel always…when necessary, use words.” The question of demonstration vs. proclamation is really a “horse and cart” issue.  The Scripture is clear: We are to let our “light shine before men, that they might see [our] deeds” (Matthew 5:16), and at the same time, we are to to “Go into all the world and preach...” (Mark 16:15).  Specifically regarding evangelism, Paul admonishes, “…faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17, cf. Rom. 10:14).

Demonstration is the horse.  By living the Christian life—being a good neighbor, hard worker, loving parent, loyal friend, faithful spouse, etc.—we “earn the right to be heard’; that is, we become credible witnesses.  Proclamation is the cart.  That is, we become credible witnesses. However, if we only live the Christian life without clearly explaining God’s offer of salvation to others, we might actually mislead people into the false belief that being a “good person” is all that matters.  So, as we “gain favor” (Acts 2:47) with people, we should not hesitate to use our credibility with individuals in order to be effective ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20).

I have in my life and ministry had people come to me in response to my “demonstration.”  But I would have been remiss if I did not take that opportunity to clearly explain God’s offer of salvation.

—Walt Roberts, Crossroads BIC (Hagerstown, Md.)