Lesson 4: Defining Success

A promising young family attended an outreach event at church and started coming to church on Sunday mornings. The husband and wife started to attend Bible Information classes, but then stopped. They no longer answered phone calls from the pastor or returned emails. Eventually, the husband sent a text asking the church to remove their name from the mailing list. How do the pastor and members process disappointment and rejection?

A congregation launched an aggressive outreach program throughout the summer. It was a great success. Unchurched kids from the neighborhood enjoyed themselves and learned about Jesus. Parents expressed appreciation. The summer came to an end, school started up again, and members were noticing that there were no new faces on Sunday morning. How does the church process disappointment?

A young man who attended the Lutheran elementary school and graduated from a nearby Lutheran High School has stopped going to church. He told the pastor that he was too busy and admitted that he found church to be irrelevant and boring. The young man came from an active church family. How do the church, school, and parents process disappointment and guilt?

Disappointment Hurts

Disappointment is like getting kicked in the gut. It hurts. It takes your breath away. It plants seeds of doubt and takes the wind out of the sails for future evangelism and outreach activity.

When results don’t match expectations in evangelism it can cause a spirit of apathy. Over time, a congregation can throw their hands up in the air and say, “We’ve tried everything! Nothing seems to work.”

In previous lessons, we have learned that verbal evangelism is more about removing obstacles that keep us silent rather than learning what to say. A congregation can become energized and full of enthusiasm to get the Word out in their community. Then, after prolonged efforts with no visible results, a river of enthusiasm and energy can dwindle to a small stream.

A big obstacle for personal evangelism is learning how to deal with disappointment and guilt. When we take a huge personal risk and step out of our comfort zones to proclaim the gospel, we naturally want to see results for our efforts. We want assurance that the next time we participate in evangelism, that it will be impactful and make a difference.

When these natural feelings are left unchecked, the spirit of despondency can breed inactivity and resignation.

It doesn’t have to be that way.