Many arguments made against crusade evangelism are made against a stereotype or just a certain portion of the event. Immediately we begin thinking of the gold cufflinked hucksters and swindlers, the perfect-haired phony and fear monger and those whose message is near to nonsensical to the unchurched.
The focus of the criticism is frequently against the evangelistic sermon and the celebrity status of the evangelist. If you have been thinking along the lines that crusade evangelism is dead, I'm asking you to read further and consider some ways the crusade evangelism is relevant.
CRUSADES ARE NOT JUST ABOUT ALTAR CALLS
Believe it or not, the evangelistic sermon and altar call, even the actual crusade services are a small part of the process. There are months of preparation events that lead up to the event and months of follow-up ministry after the event is over. The actual crusade event might be 3-7 days long but what happens before and after the event are just as significant and it is in those events that we will find the most relevance for our churches and community.
Crusade preparation often takes upwards of a year. We did it in about nine months here. Our events included a kick-off rally, concerts of prayer, a prayerwalk, a spiritual leadership seminar with Dr. Elmer Towns, a ladies tea, a volunteer recruitment rally, a youth rally, a business and professional breakfast, counselor and follow-up training, numerous organizational meetings, an Encounter Sunday promoting the event in churches, and a lot of fundraising with some development training. All of these contributed to the unity and well being of the community and benefited our local churches. The church gained leaders from this event.
A good proclamation evangelist knows that it's not all about him or her but about Jesus Christ and Him alone. In a good crusade people come to know Christ before the Crusade services, at the services and for years afterward.
Crusades heighten the evangelistic senses of a church. They train members with a way to share their faith and a way to disciple someone. Sure it's propositional and maybe not the most pomo way of doing it. But the very fact that it trains and motivates them to do something about sharing their faith is relevant, and could likely lead them to pursuing other more relevant ways of sharing Christ.
In theory, after a Crusade is over, the churches are left with a community of saints excited about doing personal evangelism and churches that are motivated to work together in common mission. More evangelism should happen after a crusade is over than at the crusade itself.
In our community a Billy Graham Evangelism Associate, John Wesley White, led a crusade in 1981. There was a young man who went forward to receive Christ. He is now a teacher in the city high school, involved in youth ministry and is involved in leading a local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Nearly 24 years later that small crusade that was hardly remembered has had ripple effects on young people in the community. A good crusade produces that effect multiple times over, often with stories that only God will see.
CRUSADES PROMOTE UNITY
Crusades are about Christian unity. Several years back I enjoyed a book entitled, The Word and Power Church by Douglas Bannister, which described the breaking down of walls or blurring of lines between charismatic/Pentecostal and Bible churches. Elsewhere, I have read about disparate groups finding common causes in things like pro-life, anti-war, sex education, etc. Traditional lines amongst churches are being crossed more and more. A crusade can cause that to happen exponentially.
Unity is exemplified in the witness of a community's churches ministering together in common mission. The world takes notice when that happens and all hell trembles. If there is anything our communities long to see, it's churches that work together, and not just swap members and snide remarks. How often do we hear the questions about why are there so many different churches and wondering why they can't get along.
Jesus himself prayed for our unity that it would be a witness to those who don't yet know him. There are very few other methods or events that bring together the church catholic in a way that an evangelistic crusade does. The leadership team alone for a recent event in my city had the following denominations represented: Episcopal Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran, United Methodist, Assembly of God, Church of God, several independent/non denominational churches, American Baptist, Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist, Mennonite, Presbyterian and Wesleyan. Other denominations were represented amongst the several hundred volunteers. That doesn't happen too often in any city. Since this event there is a hunger for this to happen more and more in my community.
I don't know of many other things that would cause this type of unity to happen.
CRUSADES FOSTER COMMUNITY
I hear Boomer pastor friends of mine bemoan the fact that Gen Xer's in their church have spotty church attendance. From their perspective, if these people were really committed they would be in church every week. But Gen Xer's are committed ... to authentic relationships, many of which they have outside of church. When they have these treasured relationships, they are considered so valuable that church attendance takes second place to the birthday parties, wedding weekends, camping trips away with friends, etc. Connection and community are such a high value that when church interferes with them, it takes a backseat.
But it's not just Gen X, we are a culture of 'networkaholics'. We love to connect and love the feeling of finding the six degrees of separation between us and our new friend. We love it when the world feels small like a village where we are known and know who's in the village.
Crusade evangelism fosters new relationships and networks. Serving on a ministry team, attending a ladies tea, praying together at concerts of prayer, attending business and professional luncheons, bringing friends to affinity events and the crusade, attending counselor and follow-up team training classes, and doing so without regard to which church one is from creates a tremendous sense of community. One of my favorite memories of our event was of me, the Evangelical Covenant ordained pastor, serving an Episcopal Church, teaching a counselor training seminar in a non-denominational Pentecostal church, organized and hosted by the Training Team Leaders, who were 2 Southern Baptist pastors and another independent church guy.
In soliciting feedback for the event in our city, one of the common refrains is that "I feel like I have friends in all the churches." And there is a belief that more will happen for the cause of Christ because of the friendships and relationships built throughout the church.
But there is more. So many community business leaders were generous to the crusade with their financial and other resources. A respect for each other was built and there exists a stronger sense that we want to support each other's business.
Clergy relationships were not bad in our city. But the crusade caused them to get much better. I personally grew an incredible respect for my ministerial colleagues. I was amazed at their humility and servant hearts. I now know of great pastors all over the North Country, most of which I did not know before. I'm excited for their ministries and have felt their support in new ways.
And at the heart of every crusade, there is a heightened sense of responsibility for every believer to have relationships with the unchurched that respect their dignity and exemplify the love of Christ.
For those who just came into a relationship with Christ, there is a follow-up team that is intentional about building bridges between that one and a church, and having someone mentor them in the faith.
Relationships are the life-force of crusade evangelism, just as they are at the heart of our culture. There is a longing both inside and outside the church to be connected. Participating in a crusade contributes to meeting that need in a godly manner.
There's more ....
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