From global outreach to spiritual conversations over cups of coffee, in-person methods of evangelism were largely placed on hold during the global pandemic last year. Now, as pastors and their congregants emerge from COVID-era church, in-person evangelism is once again an option.

For a recent ChurchPulse Weekly episode, Craig Springer—executive director of Alpha USA—joins hosts Carey Nieuwhof and David Kinnaman to discuss the current state of evangelism in America.

div class="embed-container"iframe title="ChurchPulse Weekly Live w/ Craig Springer - June 7, 2021" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/559820553?dnt=1&app_id=122963" width="500" height="281" frameBorder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write"/iframeOn the Intersection of Evangelism and the Church’s Reputation After listening to Kinnaman present stats from recent Barna studies on evangelism (including Reviving Evangelism, Five Changing Contexts for Digital Evangelism and Reviving Evangelism in the Next Generation), Springer’s initial response is to remind listeners that the Church’s reputation in society matters when it comes to sharing the gospel.

In Reviving Evangelism (2019), data show that non-Christian’s would be more open to considering Christianity if the Church had a better reputation. Springer notes, “As Christians of different generational cohorts—[Gen] X, Boomers, Elders—we want the younger generation, Gen Z, to be empowered to share their faith more and more effectively.” He continues, “We can talk about how we can train and model, but let’s be real to say the reputational legacy that we create now in an inflamed society matters. It’s setting the stage for what our children and their children’s effectiveness in evangelism will have to battle against.”

“[The Church’s reputation] is going to change the next generation’s ability to effectively reach their friends for Jesus,” Springer concludes. “I want to make sure we all hear that point loud and clear.”