In March of this past year, Vision New England published the results of their “Recent Convert Study,” wherein they interviewed 200 converts who had come to faith in Christ within the last two years. Two statistics made quite an impression on me:
(1) Seventy-one percent (71%) of the recent converts came to Christ through the witness of a personal friend, co-worker, neighbor, or family member.
(2) Eighty-six percent (86%) of the recent converts said that the process of coming to faith took months to years.
Neither of these statistics surprise me, because they are very consistent with what I’ve seen for myself here at First Baptist Church. The vast majority of folks who have come to faith in Christ began their spiritual journey as a result of a friend or family member who took a personal interest in them and extended a personal invitation to come to a Sunday morning worship service, Bible study, or some other church-related function.
Furthermore, virtually every person who has come to know the Lord as his or her Savior over the last few years did not come to faith immediately, but over a period of time, as they sat under the teaching of God’s Word, and were prayed for and befriended by caring Christians.
While there are many avenues in which evangelism takes place, certainly on of the most effective means is the formation of redemptive relationships. Just recently, a bicycle/car accident resulted in the death of a ten-year-old boy who had attended First Baptist Church many times at the invitation of one of our member-families. The driver of the car who hit him happened to be a neighbor whose children have also been to our church — again through the invitation of this same church member-family. Who knows how this network of relationships will work out to the glory of God and the good of these families in the wake of this awful tragedy?
We never know how God might use our feeble attempts to befriend others with the love of Christ to make a difference for eternity. What a great reminder to be faithful in forming redemptive relationships with every person that God puts in our path! Remember, “the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise” (Prov. 11:30).