How Can Your Church Grow through Evangelism?

Twenty percent of Christian Reformed Churches reported growth through evangelism in 2023. What can we learn from those churches as we share the love of Christ in our churches and neighborhoods?

Resonate Global Mission’s church engagement teams sent surveys and sat down to talk with the pastors and leaders of the churches that reported growth through evangelism. We wanted to learn the stories behind the numbers and share our findings with other churches. The full report, as well as a discussion guide, are available at www.resonateglobalmission.org/evangelism as free downloads.

We sat down with Amy Schenkel, Resonate’s Congregational Gospel Witness Leader, to share a little more about this report—and how it can help churches.

Q: What prompted this survey?

Amy: Our denomination collects data on how many people come to our congregations through evangelism each year. As Resonate, it’s our hope that the percentage of those churches that can report growth through evangelism continues to grow—and we wanted to look at the stories behind the statistics. What was happening? What was the congregational context? What did the pastors think was crucial? We really wanted to interview and figure out the circumstances of people who came to find faith and are joining Christian Reformed churches. These are pastors and congregations who are in the thick of it, and they have seen how God is at work among them. What can we learn from them, and how can we bring that to life in our other spaces?

Q: This research took statistics and looked at the stories behind the numbers. What excited you about these stories?

Amy: This was the best part of my summer—doing this work and sitting down with pastors and hearing them tell these stories. There’s so much hope in that. Throughout the New Testament, the Kingdom of God comes quietly. It doesn’t come with a big army or with trumpets or something like that. And so, actually sitting down and having these interviews with pastors, oftentimes in their own settings, it was like seeing the Kingdom of God come quietly in every single one of those stories. And that was just really beautiful.

Q: What surprised you about the stories you heard?

Amy: It struck me that, in many of the stories shared, there was a crisis moment. The person that they were developing a relationship with had a health thing, or were grieving, or some type of challenge. And the person from the church—whether that was a pastor or a church member—was God’s hand and feet in that moment or season, and that made the difference. 

Q: Why should churches dig into these findings?

Amy: I think every church wants to grow, especially if they’re concerned about their own sustainability or wanting to grow younger as a congregation or something. But what the pastors in this report made clear is that your church’s sustainability cannot be the goal of your evangelistic growth—it’s because we, as people of God, are called to be sent. To be part of God’s mission. 

These are long, slow relationships that happened to bear fruit in 2023. And it could’ve just as easily been another year. There’s this hope that we’re all part of developing the kingdom of God together. We’re all part of the mission of God together. The fruit is happening in our denomination in different places at different times. But we’d love for our congregations to live into the different things this report talks about so we can see more fruit.

Q: What would you say to churches who are feeling discouraged about their growth?

Amy: The churches in this report are incredibly diverse. They are in rural communities, urban communities, and suburban communities. They are small and large. They are in Canada and the United States, on the East Coast, the West Coast, and anywhere in between.

It’s not necessarily that they had more money, or they had more staff, or they had a better building, or a better location. It was a little bit of everything. A pastor was telling me their story of growth—but they also weren’t sure if they were going to make their budget this year. The type of congregation, the context of the congregation, the state of the congregation in terms of all those tangible factors had no impact on leading to growth through evangelism. The health of the church seemed to make an impact—the way they were able to love and care and be hospitable made a difference. I think there’s something here that everyone can lean into. 

Head to www.resonateglobalmission.org/evangelism to read the report or download a free discussion guide that pairs the Church Growth through Evangelism findings with questions to work through together as a church council, mission committee, or small group.