It might be said that one reason God “comes” to us for our own salvation is to “send” us on a mission to be instruments of divine grace in the lives of others. The approach of evangelism in small declining church revitalization efforts needs to be: Person Centered!

Small church approaches to evangelism need to be person centered. This is the pattern and strength of the small church. The small church attracts through the contacts people have with its members. Most members in smaller churches believe they are off the hook when it comes to doing evangelism. That is usually the reason they have declined and are in danger of closure. Laity are wanting what the larger churches have and yet the larger churches were once smaller churches but the difference is that the people in the larger church went to work reaching people for Christ Jesus. In the smaller declining ones they are looking for someone else to do their work and since that is not the calling of a gospel minister nothing gets done. Pastors equip and laity does the work of the ministry in growing churches. In dying ones they complain about nothing being done in evangelism.

One of the great tragedies in many smaller declining churches today is that no one is very involved in the work of evangelism.