The Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields highlights the importance of evangelism in growing the Church of the future.

A WHILE ago, prior to lockdown, I had an interesting conversation in a local primary school staffroom. I was asked to choose a hymn for the school Christmas service.

I immediately thought of Child in a Manger.

To my astonishment, hardly anyone in the room had ever heard of this unique and most famous of Scottish hymns, originally written in Gaelic!

As I reflected on this, and thought about the age profile in the room, I realised that the vast majority of the people I was speaking with had no current church connection, probably in their childhood had never attended any kind of church organisation, and they were indicative of a generation that knows little or nothing about Jesus and are teaching a generation that knows even less than themselves about our Lord.

Therein lies our challenge as a church!

I remember the Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan delivering the mission plan to Dunfermline Presbytery (a well-constructed and thoughtful document that is well worth a read) being concerned about a generation in Scotland growing up knowing little about Jesus – two generations perhaps?

It is encouraging to witness some of the new presbyteries seriously addressing this issue of generational deficit by appointing Mission Directors, or something similar.

Mission begins with making connections. We need to find simple ways (like cafés) of connecting with people in our communities and building good, strong friendships and relationships – meeting people where they are and at their point of need. But is that enough?

Do we not need a step beyond that?

Evangelism! But what do I mean by that?

Intentional presentations of the Gospel that invite people to understand Jesus, His mission and ministry, and encourage them to make both a commitment of faith and discipleship – as one evangelist put it – to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

Is that simple but powerful message being articulated by us to our communities? How else can the Church grow unless people become ‘attached’ to Jesus in a personal and life-changing way?

Journey with me to the Gospel of John and chapter 3.

My own journey to faith was from agnosticism. When I was at my first service in church, the message was clear – there was hope to be found in a person: Jesus.

Whoever believes in Him has eternal life.

That clear and simple message is repeated four times in John:3 and that clear and simple message needs to be articulated by us, the Church. It got my attention and started me on my journey to faith.

You see, we don’t shape the message, the message shapes us. The message – the essence of the good news is there.

We don’t have to find it, but, in its simplicity, articulate it. I have watched for 40 years as we all have tried to find clever ways to entice people to church and faith – have we been successful? Maybe we need to listen to the Master and make it clear and simple again.

I am not advocating a return to mass evangelistic crusades. However I believe that there are people out there in our Church, in Scotland, with real evangelistic gifts who need to be released to do this as their sole ministry. Think about our current situation. We are trying to save as many Ministry of Word and Sacrament posts as possible in order to keep the Church ticking over. We need more than that.

We need to create outreaching posts to grow the Church.

“When I was at my first service in church, the message was clear – there was hope to be found in a person: Jesus.

Consider this as a possibility – along with Mission Director posts (or some equivalent) why not appoint a presbytery evangelist in each of the new presbyteries? Someone skilled in evangelism and who can identify the right people in presbytery and teach these skills? Is that maybe not the best investment we might make with one of our allocated ministry posts – one that might actually help to grow the Church in each presbytery?

The Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2022/23 and minister at Dunfermline: St Margaret’s.