Revival's Golden Key (8 page)

Check the Soil

Here is our problem: Up to ninety percent of the evangelistic crop is failing. They wither and die as soon as the sunlight of tribulation, persecution, and temptation shines on them. We encourage them to be watered by the Word. We give them the “fertilizer” of counsel and support. We follow them up thoroughly, but all to no avail.

So, we then need to check the soil. If, before we plant the seed of the gospel, we take the time to thoroughly turn the soil of the heart with the Law, the effect will be the removal of the stones of sin upon repentance.

God has given us insight into the area in which we are planting. The ground of the human heart is very hard. The Scriptures call it a “heart of stone” (Ezekiel 36:26).

I have heard a number of well-known preachers say that it is biblical normality to have seventy-five percent of those coming to Christ fall away. During an altar call
,
³
they know that only one in four of those responding to their message will continue in their faith. So, more than likely they are not too alarmed by modem statistics that reveal an
eighty
- to ninety-percent failure.

This thought is based on the Parable of the Sower, which shows that only twenty-five percent of the crop was on good soil (Mark 4:1-20). But I don’t think Jesus gave us this parable as a consolation for disappointing evangelistic results. I think He gave it for our instruction.

When we study the parable closely, we see that the good 'Soil hearer, the
genuine
convert, had some things the other hearers didn’t have. He had
understanding
(Matthew 13:23), and he had a
noble and good heart
(Luke 8:15). Does that mean that throughout humanity, there are those who somehow have understanding and a noble and good heart, and we have to keep on sowing until we find them? No, Scripture makes it clear that there is
none
who understands (Romans 3:11), and that the heart of man is not good, but deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).

How then did the genuine convert obtain these necessary virtues? It is clear that something from
outside
his own
heart must have given him understanding and brought him to a point of having a noble and good heart. The schoolmaster taught him that his heart was wicked. The Law turned the soil of his heart and ex-posed the stones of sin. When these were removed through repentance, it left the good soil of understanding and a heart that saw itself in truth.

An old movie showed an officer of the law entering an illegal gambling casino. Look at what the manager asked the lawman: “Are you going to speak to the people
before
you arrest them? They
must
have the law spelled out to them so they will know that what they are doing is wrong.” Doesn’t that make sense? How on earth are the gamblers going to come peacefully if they don’t realize they have broken the law?

Using the
fast-folding
method of modern evangelism, we will continue to produce stony ground “converts,” with the devastating results revealed in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 7

MANGLED BODIES

C
ome with me now and see a tragic and sobering sight. We will go to the landing ground on which so many have fallen after putting on the Lord Jesus Christ using the
fast-folding
method:

■    
In
a 1990 crusade in the U.S., 600 decisions were obtained. No doubt there was much rejoicing. However, ninety days later,
follow-up
workers
couldn’t find even one
who was continuing in his or her faith. That crusade created 600 “backsliders,” or to be more scriptural, “false converts.”

■    In Cleveland, Ohio, in an “Inner City Outreach,” rejoicing no doubt tapered when those who were involved in
follow-up
once again couldn’t find one of the 400 who had made a decision.

■    
In
1985, a four-day crusade obtained 217 decisions, but according to a member of the organizing committee, ninety-two percent fell away.

■    Charles E. Hackett, the Division of Home Missions National Director for the Assemblies of God in the U.S., said, “A soul at the altar does not generate much excitement in some circles because we realize approximately ninety-five out of every hundred will not become integrated into the church. In fact, most of them will not return for a second visit.”

■    
In
his book
Today’s Evangelism,
Ernest C.
Reisinger
said of one outreach, “It lasted eight days, and there were sixty-eight supposed conversions.” A month later, not one of the “converts” could be found.

■    
In
1991, organizers of a Salt Lake City concert encouraged follow-up. They said, “Less than five percent of those who respond to an altar call during a public crusade... are living a Christian life one year later.” In other words,
more than ninety-five percent
proved to be false converts.

■    
A
pastor in Boulder, Colorado, sent a team to Russia in 1991 and attained 2,500 decisions. The next year, they found that only 30 were going on in their faith. That’s a little more than a one-per-cent retention rate.

■    In Leeds, England,
a
visiting U.S. speaker acquired 400 decisions for a local church. However, six weeks later only two were going on, and they eventually fell away.

■    
A
mass crusade reported 18,000 decisions, yet according to
Church Growth
magazine, tragically ninety-four percent failed to even become incorporated into a local church.

■    In November 1970, a number of churches combined for a convention in Fort Worth, Texas, and secured 30,000 decisions. Six months later, the
follow-up
committee could find only 30 going on in their faith.

■    In Sacramento, California,
a
combined crusade yielded over 2,000 commitments. One church followed up 52 of those decisions and couldn’t find one conversion.

■    
A
leading U.S. denomination published that during 1995 they secured 384,057 decisions, but retained only 22,983 in fellowship. They couldn’t account for 361,074 supposed conversions. That’s a
ninety'four
percent
fallaway
rate.

■    In Omaha, Nebraska, a pastor of a large church said he was involved with a crusade where 1,300 decisions were made, and not even one “convert” continued in his or her faith.

■    Pastor Dennis
Grenell
from Auckland, New Zealand, who has
traveled
to India every year since 1980, reported that he saw 80,000 decision cards stacked in a hut in the city of
Rajamundry
, the “results” of past evangelistic crusades. But he maintained that one would be fortunate to find even 80 Christians in the entire city.

■    In the March/April 1993
American Horizon,
the National Director of Home Missions of a major U.S. denomination disclosed the fact that in 1991,

11,500 churches had obtained 294,784 decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could find only 14,337 in fellowship. That means that (no doubt despite the usual intense follow-up) they couldn’t account for approximately 280,000 of their decisions.

■    
A
major Christian television network broadcast an interview with a Russian Christian leader on

July 5, 1996. She said of Russian converts, “Many thousands have received salvation and healing... but because of there not being many leaders, not many stayed with their faith.”

Notice where the blame is laid with the Russian professions of faith.
They fell away because they needed more leaders. In light of the fact that God “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24, KJV), either He
wasn’t
able to keep them, or His hand wasn’t in their profession of faith in the first place.

Statistics such as the preceding are very hard to find. What organizing committee is going to shout from the housetops that after a mass of pre-crusade prayer,
hun-dreds
of thousands of dollars of expenditure, truckloads of follow-up, and the use of a big-name evangelist, initial wonderful results have all but disappeared? Not only would such news be utterly disheartening for all who put so much time and effort into the crusade,
but the committee has no reasonable explanation as to why the massive catch has disappeared.
The statistics are therefore swept under the hushed carpet of discretion.

A Southern California newspaper bravely printed the following article in July 1993:

“Crusades don’t do as much for nonbelievers as some might think,” said Peter Wagner, professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Three percent to sixteen percent of those who make decisions at crusades end up responsible members of a church, he said. “That’s not counting Christians who recommit their lives.”

These statistics of an eighty-four to ninety-seven percent
fallaway
rate are not confined to crusades, but are general throughout local church evangelism. In his book
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire,
Jim
Cymbala
notes the lack of growth in the Church: “Despite all the Christian broadcasting and high-profile campaigns, the Christian population is not growing in numbers nationally. In fact, church attendance in a given week during 1996 was down to 37 percent of the population, a ten-year low... even though 82 percent of Americans claim to be Christians” (Zondervan, p. 90). The problem is not with the crusades, but with the methods and message of modern evangelism.

Sadly, these are not isolated cases. The mangled bodies of those who are erroneously called “backsliders” lay strewn on the ground as a disastrous result of a
fast-fold
ed gospel.

I received the following letter from a pastor in Florida:

We have seen... over a thousand led to the Lord on the streets...Not many of these teens are at church. I’ve been analyzing this, and last month, for example, I preached face to face on the streets the whole gospel (death, burial, and resurrection) with a focus on repentance and remission to 155 people. Seventy made commitments to Christ. I know my preaching is correct, but I know I need better follow-up; any recommendations?

His dilemma was that he was preaching the light of the gospel (Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection) without using the Law to awaken his hearers. Like many others who see this enigma, he thought that his converts needed more follow-up. A respected minister, whose evangelism program has exploded across the world, said that his policy attempts to get at the heart of the fall-away rate of new converts “by placing great stress on the follow-up.” However, to fall into the trap of thinking that follow-up is the answer is like supposing that putting a stillborn child into intensive care will solve the problem.