by Libby Lovelace

NASHVILLE - According to data from LifeWay Research, an arm of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles in Alhambra and NorthPointe Community Church in Fresno are "standout churches."

Over the past several years, a number of leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention have sounded the alarm that churches are becoming less and less effective in evangelism: baptisms among Southern Baptist churches have numbered less than 400,000 each of the last five years, with 2005 showing the lowest total since 1993.

With input from Thom Rainer, LifeWay president, the research area looked at churches that meet the following criteria: baptized at least 26 people per year for 10 consecutive years; overall worship attendance growth during the same 10 years; and a membership-to-baptism ratio of no more than 20 to 1.

Out of more than 43,000 churches in the SBC, 22 met the criteria based on data they reported annually, including the two California congregations.

So what do the standout churches have in common?

Pastor sets the bar
The most common element is the essential role of the senior pastor. Each research team noted how strongly the pastor sets the tone of the church.

All pastors indicate evangelism is of utmost importance. "Focus" and "intentionality" are commonly used when referring to the pastor's intent to keep evangelism a major priority.

"These pastors do more than stress the importance of evangelism, they lead by example as they are personally passionate about and involved in sharing Christ both from the pulpit and through personal interaction with the unchurched and lost," said Brad Waggoner, director of LifeWay Research.

Church members interviewed describe the pastors using terms such as "highly relational," "personable," "caring," "passionate," "humble," "strong leader," " a shepherd" and "very authentic."

Nearly all the churches describe their polity as pastor- or staff-led and are characterized by a strong sense of teamwork. A common term used to describe the leadership style of the pastors is "shared leadership." Even laypersons view themselves as part of the church leadership team.

The average tenure of the pastors included in the study is 15 years. As noted in Rainer's book, "Surprising Insights," pastoral tenure is strongly correlated to church health and effectiveness.

Church atmosphere

Another commonality among the churches is the overall atmosphere and tone. They are consistently described as "exciting," "dynamic," "energetic," "upbeat," "friendly," "welcoming," "warm" and "positive."

"Clearly these churches possess an environment conducive to reaching people for Christ," Waggoner said. "The members of these churches are enthusiastic about their church and thus are quick to invite their unchurched friends to visit."

Evangelistic appeal

The presence of a consistent evangelistic appeal is another common factor. Pastors indicate they seek to include the gospel in most, if not all, of their sermons. They stress the importance of preaching the gospel and providing opportunities for lost people to respond. More than two-thirds indicate they offer a public invitation at the end of every service. The others invite inquirers to fill out a decision card.

Intentional outreach

Intentionality in evangelism is another attribute: the pastors are focused on reaching people for Christ. Whether it's through focusing the content of sermons, planning the worship services or simply the nature of church programming, it is clear that everything is designed with outreach in mind.

Evidence of this intentionality can be seen in the frequency of a visitation or follow-up strategy employed by nearly all of the churches. All but four are committed to a regular, organized visitation program.

This spirit of intentionality goes beyond visitation. Many of the churches plan and conduct a variety of church events and programs with an evangelistic motive. The pastors and staff are careful not to let the church calendar fill up with random events unless they are designed, at least in part, to reach people for Christ.

Not all the same

While these long-term evangelistic churches share many common elements, they also have their differences, which can be placed into the category of methodology or programmatic emphases.

Preaching

One-third of the pastors indicate they preach topically. Nearly half are committed to expositional or textual preaching, and four use other terms to describe their preaching style.

"Clearly, the style of preaching varies among the long-term evangelistic churches," Waggoner said. "The only common element is that all of the pastors possess an evangelistic fervor and provide some sort of evangelistic appeal during the majority of the sermons."

Style of worship

The most common characteristic is an environment of excitement and passion. Most of those interviewed indicate there is a real sense of God's presence during the worship services. The majority of the pastors use the words "contemporary," "informal" and "casual" to describe their style of worship. Three of the pastors say their worship service is "blended" in terms of music. Only one pastor uses the term "traditional" to describe his church's worship.

Four of the churches consider their worship services to be "seeker-driven" or "seeker-targeted."

Evangelism training

Another area of notable difference is the aspect of formal evangelism training. Half the churches use programs such as FAITH, while the other half is split between occasional classes and using only the pulpit to train believers in evangelism.

Small group strategy

The small group strategy of the churches varies. Eleven use on-campus Sunday school as their primary fellowship groups, while six meet in off-campus small groups and two have a mix of on- and off-campus groups.

"When looking at both the similarities and differences of these long-term evangelistic churches, what can clearly be celebrated is that the churches in this study can be a great source of encouragement to any pastor, staff member or lay leader who dreams and prays to be part of a church that is effective in reaching the lost," Waggoner noted.ÿ"Scripture promises that the gospel is powerful to save. We are commanded to preach the message of reconciliation. As we can see in the leaders of these evangelistically effective churches, passion, commitment, focus and intentionality can lead to celebrating the regeneration of many souls."