5 Evangelism Strategies That Guarantee Results

Follow these empirically proven methods and your church will enjoy successful evangelism ministries

Having been a Christian for more than twenty years before deconstructing my faith, I stand in a unique position to give advice on how to conduct evangelism. I also happen to specialize in psychology, so I understand the various kinds of emotions and triggers that are involved in religious conversion.

This piece may read like a satire to Christians, and in a sense, that is true. I have no intention of encouraging Christians to win more converts. That would be a strange thing to desire as a nonbeliever. At the same time, I do believe that the strategies I share work like a charm, and some churches are already practicing them to get people baptized, so I am not lying or being sarcastic when I say these strategies will make churches grow.

So why am I sharing effective evangelism strategies if I am not a Christian? Read on. I will explain it below.

Encourage Christians to have children, many of them

Being born in a Christian family is the single strongest predictor of a person being a Christian as an adult. It is backed up by many research papers. One study finds that the more intense the religious socialization process, the more likely the children will grow up to follow their parents’ religious affiliation. So if you are running a church, it is best practice to teach your congregation the importance of the commands “Be fruitful and increase in number” (Gen. 1:28) and “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Prov. 22:6).

This principle applies to all major religions, not just Christianity. It is projected that, from 2015 to 2060, the Muslim population will increase by 70% while the growth of the world population in the same period is only 32%. This growth of the Muslim population is, in large part, the result of the large families they tend to have.

Appeal to non-believer’s taste

People are mostly driven by their emotions in making day-to-day decisions. In the consumer market, telemarketing, packaging, and pricing strategies all have one common goal: Make the product emotionally appealing to potential customers. If the advertisement of the product (not necessarily the product itself) can elicit positive feelings, people are more likely to purchase it.

The principle is the same in religion. When people look at religions, they will most likely approach the ones that bring them good feelings. Take astrology for example. If you analyze its rational and empirical basis, you will quickly find out it is bull. Yet people are drawn to it all over the world. Why? One main reason is that it is an easy way for people to get to know their personality types and other people’s. It provides concrete guidance (even though lots of confirmation bias is involved) on how people should conduct themselves when they are not sure what their goals are or how they fit in society. It is comforting and reassuring.

So how exactly does one appeal to people’s taste if the goal is to make them convert to Christianity? Church’s worship style is key. In one of the churches I attended (and shall remain nameless), the senior pastor explicitly and unapologetically asked the older church members to tolerate him as he transitioned the church to a more contemporary style of worship. He said his goal was to attract young people to come to church.

He was smart. He understood the power of association. If young people associate Christianity with boring hymns written 300 years ago, they are not going to be interested in the gospel. But if they think everything about going to church is cool, from worship music to the outfit style of leaders, they would be more open to accepting Jesus and look forward to being part of that cool group.

It’s no wonder that many of the mega-churches today incorporate trending stuff into their programs and ask prominent and successful people to share their testimonies on the stage. It works.

Approach people who have emotional needs

One of the reasons why Christianity has existed for thousands of years is not that it is rationally valid or empirically grounded, but that it is successful in meeting emotional needs. The assurance of sins being forgiven and everlasting life after physical death is some powerful claim that heal people’s regret over past deeds and ease their fear of death.

When people have bigger emotional needs, they are more desperate and therefore more motivated to fulfill those needs at a higher cost. People who just went through trauma, young people who just graduated from high school or college and are at a loss of what to do with their life, and ill people with pessimistic prognoses are more likely to believe in the gospel message. Approach these people, share words of empathy with them, and provide them with practical assistance will boost your success rate of conversion.

Crowd evangelism: Introduce lots of Christian friends to your target

Studies in the psychology of social influence show that people are more likely to give up their own opinion when they see other people holding a different opinion in unison (See the famous Asch experiment). Christians can utilize this subtle but powerful mechanism of conformity by making friends with non-believers and introducing them to many Christian friends.

A good method is to invite the target non-believer (preferably only a single person) to join a social event. The event, of course, is sponsored by the church, but the non-believer does not have to know that at the time of the invitation. When the non-believer is with a crowd of Christians, his or her opinion of the Christian faith can subtly change to conform to the group without the involvement of verbal persuasion.

I immigrated to a new country a few years ago. One of my recent colleagues tried to pull this tactic on me once by inviting me to a potluck event in his neighborhood. I did not know my colleague was a Christian at that time, but since I was familiar with all kinds of evangelism tactics, I immediately became suspicious and asked him directly who the organizer of the event was. He had no choice but to admit that it was a church event. It just might have worked for other new immigrants who were still seeking to find their place in the new country.

Establish an authority figure

Some of the scam attempts I encountered over the years involved some perceived authority figures like policemen or prosecutors. When facing an authority figure, people tend to stop thinking and comply with their requests. Scammers are fond of manipulating their potential victims this way.

When the context is right, an authority figure can get people to do anything, including murder. The famous Milgram experiment shows exactly this vulnerability of human nature (and it was replicated recently in France):

Earlier in this article, I mention mega-churches that adopt contemporary worship style, but there is another kind of mega-church that also attracts many members. It is the hierarchical and authoritarian type. John MacArthur’s church comes to mind.

They [elders of the church] have authority over you because they bring to bear upon you the application of the Word of God which they teach and which they live. You obey them, you submit to them, they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. — John MacArthur

They emphasize the importance of submission. Submission to the pastor is almost equivalent to submission to God.

This may sound counter-intuitive, but it works, just like Milgram was able to get volunteers to electrocute another person with a lethal level of voltage in the experiment.

People obey perceived authority figures. It’s that simple. Once Christians understand this characteristic of human nature, they can use it to maximize the results of their evangelism ministries.

Feeling a bit uneasy?

Understandably, many Christians feel ambivalent about these tactics. They would rather use rational persuasion to convince non-believers of the trustworthiness of the gospel message and the reality of God’s existence. But the fact is that most Christians didn’t get converted because of intellectual engagement. The “leap of faith” is not encouraged by reason but by emotion. Just ask yourself, if you are a Christian, under what circumstances did you decide to believe in Jesus?

The intellectual side of Christianity is only effective to Christians in reassuring them that they made the correct decision to believe. People like to think of themselves as rational, so they try to use reason to justify the decisions they ALREADY made. But if Christians think that intellectual debate can win souls, they are misguided. The energy is better spent on influencing people emotionally. Ultimately, apologetics is for Christians, not outsiders.

Conclusion

So why do I share these evangelism tactics? First, I would like to alert non-Christian readers to watch out for these moves that are targeted at them. Second, I would like to let the readers realize that “salvation by grace through faith” is an odd doctrine. There are many factors that influence or manipulate people into believing. It makes no sense to see faith as a virtue, worthy to be rewarded with eternal life.

Ultimately, I want to show readers what role the human psyche plays in religious conversion. Once we gain a better understanding of our mind, hopefully, we can get a clearer picture of what religion is about, as believers or non-believers.

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