New Report on Church Growth through Evangelism

Twenty percent of Christian Reformed congregations—201 churches—reported growth through evangelism in 2023. What can we learn from those churches?

Resonate Global Mission’s church engagement teams sent surveys and sat down to talk with 59 of the pastors and other leaders from these churches to learn the stories behind the numbers and share the findings with other churches. The full report and a discussion guide are free for churches to download from Resonate’s website.

“As Resonate, it’s our hope that the percentage of those churches that can report growth through evangelism continues to grow—and we wanted to look at the stories behind the statistics. So along with the surveys we asked, What was happening? What was the congregational context? What did the pastors think was crucial?” said Amy Schenkel, Resonate’s congregational gospel witness leader.

The report is a helpful tool for any church looking to grow through evangelism. Schenkel said that while many churches might think they need a big budget, a lot of staff, the right location, or a state-of-the-art building to spur growth, the findings show that a church’s ability to build relationships with people in the community has been the most important factor in welcoming new believers.

“A pastor was telling me their story of growth—but they also weren’t sure if they were going to make their budget this year. The type of congregation, the context of the congregation, and the state of the congregation—in terms of all those tangible factors—had no impact on leading to growth through evangelism. The health of the church seemed to make an impact—the way they were able to love and care and be hospitable made a difference,” said Schenkel.

Many of these relationship-development opportunities happen at the church buildings through programs such as Alpha, Global Coffee Break, Wednesday night dinners, meet-the-pastor lunches, or new member lunches. These programs all relied heavily on the relationships developed among the participants. Most of them also included food.

The surveyed churches also revealed a great emphasis on relationships being developed outside of the church building. In fact, this emphasis is what made the programs and events hosted by the churches most successful.

Most often, when unchurched people came to one of these programs, they did so because they were invited by someone they had a relationship with. The churches who grew through evangelism had a clear vision and mission to “move mission to the center of the church,” as one pastor stated.

The churches were also quite varied. Some were small, and others were large. Some had a lot of full-time staff; others, only a bivocational pastor. They were located in rural, urban, and suburban communities both in Canada and the United States.

What they had in common was that they were warm, welcoming, safe, healthy, caring, open, hospitable, loving, embracing, humble, a place of healing, playful, and open to  providing meaningful connections.

“I think there’s something here that everyone can lean into,” said Schenkel. “These pastors and congregations are in the thick of it, and they have seen how God is at work among them. What can we learn from them, and how can we bring that to life in our other spaces?”

Head to resonateglobalmission.org/evangelism to read the report or download a free discussion guide that pairs the Church Growth through Evangelism findings with questions to work through together as a church council, mission committee, or small group.