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Radical Christian Living  /  Churches That Evangelize  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 5
Bercot says effective evangelism must be a “full-time vision” embedded in “every service, every program, and every decision,” and he compares “tacking on” evangelism to strapping wings onto a man instead of designing a bird; what current church practices (schedules, service format, budgets, activities) reveal that your congregation is built primarily around meeting insiders’ needs?
Another way to ask: Bercot says evangelism should shape every service, program, and decision, not be an add-on. What parts of your church’s schedule, services, budget, or activities show it is mainly designed to serve insiders?

Direct Answer The transcript suggests that when churches design meetings and decisions mainly for members’ comfort, tradition, and “preservation,” evangelism becomes a “tacked-on” extra rather than something built into the church’s structure.

Support from Transcript:

  • Principle one: evangelism must be “a full-time vision and a top priority…embedded in the very fiber of your church…part of every service, every program, and every decision.”
  • He warns you can’t “organize a church around meeting your own needs… and then think…you can effectively tack on evangelism.”
  • Bird illustration: flight works because God designed birds “out of every fiber…from scratch,” not by “tack[ing] on wings to…human bodies.”
  • Vince Lombardi illustration: success at the end comes from what you “build into them all season long,” not a last-minute speech—parallel to not doing street tracts as a substitute for a church built for outreach.
  • He diagnoses most kingdom churches: “We’re not in an evangelistic mode. We’re in a preservation mode…depend upon rules and standards…[that] are walls that keep other people out.”
Discussion Follow-ups If an outsider attended your service once, what parts would signal, “this was built for insiders,” and what would it take to redesign without compromising discipleship?

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