When we define evangelism we include comprehensiveness as well as contact. To have a five minute chat about the Gospel with every creature in the world is not to evangelize the world. That is contact alone. That is an introduction and such is valuable indeed, but evangelism is much more than that. Evangelism is comprehensive.

 (Editor’s Note:  Dr. Hulse presented this material as a series of addresses he gave to The Carey Conference in 1975.   We believe this material has as much, if not more, application to the church today and are reprinting it with the permission of the author.  We have devided it into six separate postings: the introduction and five major points.  We will run 2 of these a week over the next three weeks.)

1. Evangelism defined from the New Testament in which we also see what evangelism is not.

Evangelism is the preaching of the Gospel to every creature. There is no limit. We are to go into all the world. No kind of person is excepted, old or young, male or female, rich or poor, weak or strong. There is a priority. The Gospel is to be preached to the Jew first (Rom. 1:16). Apart from the application to the Hebrew people there is another lesson to be drawn from this priority. The Gospel must be preached and applied to our own immediate family circle first. The Christian mother teaching the Gospel to her children is a power that has worked to the salvation of multitudes. Some of the best missionaries have emerged from Christian homes, men such as John C. Paton and William Bums.

When we define evangelism we include comprehensiveness as well as contact. To have a five minute chat about the Gospel with every creature in the world is not to evangelize the world. That is contact alone. That is an introduction and such is valuable indeed, but evangelism is much more than that. Evangelism is comprehensive.

Our Lord states this comprehensiveness as follows: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19). The teaching is to be such that those disciples or learners that are made are prepared for baptism into the Trinity and such baptism presupposes a thorough and detailed understanding of each of the three persons of the Trinity.

Think of the colossal ignorance, the woeful darkness, the terrible deception about Creation, the Bible, God, Christ, and the Church prevalent today. The task of dispelling this ignorance and deception by way of proclamation and teaching is enormous. Until the end of the world we are to tackle this task with intelligence, courage, energy and dependence upon the Lord who is with us to the end of the age.

Evangelism, then, is the preaching of the Gospel in detail and in a thorough manner to every creature. If people will have nothing to do with it we do not give up but persevere in the knowledge that this is what our Lord has commanded and therefore in wholehearted obedience we will continue.

Having given this brief definition we can now observe what evangelism is not.

(i) Evangelism is not John 3:16 in isolation

We must not think that if we shout out a few texts on a street corner we have fulfilled our evangelistic responsibilities. Favourable sites for open air preaching in this modern world of heavy traffic noise are rare and should be utilized wherever there is reasonable prospect of a listening audience. But if such is secured and used regularly it forms only one means of evangelism.

Likewise when literature is distributed we must remember that our dropping a few printed tracts or leaflets through letter boxes, while better than nothing, falls far short of the great commission to evangelize. Much that is done today can be likened to a farmer who, instead of engaging in the systematic labour of ploughing and planting ten acres of corn, goes out for five minutes and throws a few handfuls of seed on the ground, the most of which is immediately devoured by the birds of the air.

(ii) Evangelism is not revival

Recently I procured a cassette tape on the subject of evangelism by a well known preacher. I played it several times and was edified by it but in actual fact he did not say a word about evangelism! It was all about revival and the theology of revival. I believe in revival with all my heart, but revival is not evangelism. Revival will lead to better and more effective evangelism.

If, however, we slip into thinking that we can do nothing until revival comes—and it has not come now for well over a century—then we slip into irresponsibility of the most diabolical kind. Our Lord commanded evangelism. We are to obey as best we can. We may be weak and the churches may be weak. Nevertheless we may never excuse ourselves. Evangelism is an abiding obligation to the end of the age. Our Lord did not say that we ought only to evangelize when he sends revival. The principle of Psalm 126 is apposite here. If we sow in tears we shall reap in joy. We are not to excuse our sloth by saying to ourselves, “An well, in revival hundreds will be saved, but all our efforts bear little fruit—but one here and two there—so I am going to ease up and wait for revival!” Revival may never be seen in this generation yet multitudes will continue to be saved one by one throughout all nations, through the ordinary outreach and witness of local churches.

(iii) Evangelism is not the establishment of a preaching centre

Some dear brothers in the ministry that I know think that all they need do for evangelism is preach in a pulpit three times a week. They pray for people to come in but such prayer shows a lack of common sense for the people round about do not even know of the existence of that pulpit. God uses means. He will not send angels to tell the people. We must tell the people and if they are utterly opposed to going to a church then we must resort to other means of teaching them. Our Lord did not lay it down as a condition that the teaching must begin in ecclesiastical buildings.

It becomes clear to disciples that Christ and his people are one and that there are decided obligations to make use of the means of grace and to gather where God’s people gather. Initially, however, we must be ready to teach people in homes, either theirs or ours.

The pulpit, as we shall see, is the Church’s most powerful instrument in the conversion of souls but we must never imagine that the mandate to evangelize is fulfilled merely by the establishment and maintenance of a preaching centre.

(iv) Evangelism is not a special crusade or campaign

The idea has long prevailed in evangelical churches that for the most part evangelism consists of a special evangelistic effort once or twice a year, in which an evangelist is employed for a week or two. At the end of every meeting a call is made for decisions for Christ. At the end of the campaign the results are made known. Some souls may have been drawn in and truly saved by this method and in some cases churches have been quickened to recognize their responsibilities.

Having come from this kind of tradition and having observed this practice in various places I have noticed that very little, if any, regular, consistent evangelism is carried on in these churches. The tendency is to make a big effort for the special campaign and then to go back to doing nothing until the next effort comes along. In addition to this, the system is fraudulent and dishonest in the extreme—it is a big lie! Only a small fraction of those advertised as though they were converts continue.

When the truth is exposed the excuse is made: “it was worth it for one or two!” It is disgraceful that dishonesty of this kind should be practised by some platform evangelists who have to advertise their success in order to continue in business. If all the decisions that have been reported in such a way as to give the idea that they were converts were in fact true converts, we would be living in the millennium by now! Lying at the root of it all is defective theology which brings us to consider the question of doctrine upon which the apostles, particularly Paul, laid such stress.

Rev. Erroll Hulse, who worked with the Banner of Truth Trust, serves on the pastoral team of Leeds Reformed Baptist Church, Leeds, England, and is editor of Reformation Today, a valuable publication for those interested in reformation worldwide. He is also the author of The Believer’s Experience, published by Carey Publications.