Most Christians who experience conversion to Christianity as an adult hold wonderful memories of the event. For them, the people who shared the Good News and the moment of decision become very special. Each case of an adult conversion recorded in the Book of Acts was surrounded by just such events. When the Ethiopian eunuch heard the Gospel from Philip and the Philippian jailer heard it from Paul, they were converted and the result was rejoicing-personal and emotional exuberance expressed by new Christians. From my own and other adult conversions, I know that it still happens today. The following story was shared by a friend who holds just such happy memories of his own conversion:

"Eleven years ago I met George, a former missionary to Greece. When I met him, he and his family had relocated back in the U.S. after having served sixteen years and he was now selling insurance (he sold me a policy). Though he was several years my senior, our families became friends and we enjoyed spending time together.

"I was amazed at how often George was able to work God into our conversation, but I never saw him as overbearing. He didn't push us to attend his church. He just continued to ask questions that made us think. Soon important events began to unfold. George invited my wife and me to share dinner with his family. Afterwards, he suggested that we play a little racquetball and -- by the way --there was a Bible study at a friend's home that he wanted us to attend. Out of respect for our friendship, I told him, 'Okay, George, we'll come this one time.'

"The study was attended by a total of nine people. The discussion that took place as we studied made the Bible come alive as I had never known possible. On the way home, my wife and I found ourselves going over points of interest in the study and curious about next week's subject. We were hooked!

"After six weeks (we attended the Bible study regularly), George invited us to his office f6r lunch. He told me that he had something more important to talk about than insurance. He shared what the Bible said about sin, forgiveness, and God's plan for salvation. The next day my wife and I -- with joy -- responded to the Good News and became Christians."

What turned out as a wonderful conversion story involving special people and memorable events actually began as a situation fraught with risk. Where does a Christian like George -- just as Philip and Paul Demonstrated -- find the courage to confront another human being with the divine claims of Christ? What would motivate someone to move beyond his or her comfortable Christian community and risk possible conflict, personal rejection, and perhaps the loss of a friend? (At certain times and places it could include risking one's life.)

The church growth movement has contributed more toward evangelism renewal than any other recent effort in North America. Reactions have ranged from high praise all the way to extreme criticism. Some writers have suggested that evangelism and growth are motivated by numerolatry (worship of numbers) and success mongering. In other words, people seek notoriety by increasing the numbers and flaunting it as success.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Christians like George find the deep-felt motivation from strong theological convictions. Scriptures -- from Genesis to Revelation -- reveal the heart and mind of God, and his will and commands for evangelism are numerous and explicit. Years and mountains of written academic debate have not shaken churches of Christ from an evangelical commitment to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20).

Also, churches have not forgotten that numbers represent souls facing an eternal destiny with or without Christ. As a twenty-one-year-old Christian convert, I once was a number. I do not remember if two or twenty baptisms were registered in the congregation that year. All I do know is that I thank God I was one of the numbers. Baptismal or attendance numbers are not crass nor are they symbols of success. They do represent precious souls and reflect a church's concern for God's mind and heart.

This material is not intended as a theological treatise. An abundance of books and articles address the topical and textural issues relevant to the church's mission. Nor are the research findings offered as a pragmatic substitute for theology. Growth-minded congregations are frequently accused of doing things simply because they work (pragmatism) regardless of biblical truths (theology).

Feeding the poor, serving a neighbor, or teaching someone about Christ are examples of actions motivated by Scriptures whether they produce any measurable results or not. Christians should first ground all ministry activities through the theological enterprise. Hopefully, the research findings will encourage churches to do exactly that and I am confident that leaders will rediscover their God-given evangelistic mandate. The time is right-we have a receptive population of adults and there are effective methods available to reach them.

Study Findings

Whether it is evangelism, benevolence, or missions, each church action is a faith response to God's revelation. By God's design, however, evangelism produces measurable growth for the local church. Just as America's future depends on healthy families giving birth to a new generation, Christianity's future depends on churches having new births in Christ. Theology and basic logic should motivate churches to evangelistic action. And now, a growing body of research verifies the impact of evangelism on church growth.

In this study evangelism results produced a strong relationship with membership gains and overall growth. All baptisms are included in this variable, both biological growth (baptisms of members' children) and conversion growth (baptisms of the unchurched). Growing Churches averaged annually 7.1 baptisms per 100 members while Declining Churches averaged 3.7 baptisms per 100 members.

Our findings discovered over forty different factors related to numerical increase. Staff and members are taxed by an endless list of possible good works. So, how important is evangelism compared to so many other options? To answer this question, local institutional factors were subjected to multiple regression analysis. This helped identify which variables in a multivariate context were the strongest predictors of growth. As stated earlier, four institutional variables (what a church does) surfaced as significant predictors and baptisms-to-membership ratio was third in predictive efficacy. This means that few activities in church ministry are more vital to church growth than evangelism.