Last week we began addressing our responsibility to test the fruitfulness of ministries and missions in which we are investing the Lord's resources. In large operations such as charities, which are devoted to distributing material goods, this is much easier to measure than when we examine evangelistic and missionary outreaches.

I have asked numerous large audiences of Christians how many met the Lord through crusades, Christian television, tracts, or other such means of evangelism. Usually all of those combined were less than 5 percent of the audience. The other 95 percent responded that they had met the Lord through the witness of a friend or relative. When asked, even those who met the Lord at a crusade or other outreach were usually taken there by a friend or relative.

If you have trouble believing this, ask the question in your own church or among your own group of Christian friends. Certainly we should thank the Lord for the 5 percent who are reached through all of these other means, but should we be putting 95 percent of our evangelistic and missionary efforts and resources toward that which is producing only 5 percent of the fruit? Maybe.

I say maybe because I think missions and evangelism could be much more effective than they are. By changing our strategies a bit, they could be a very efficient and good investment, although in God's eyes they may be already. I say this because we have the example of how Philip was stirring an entire city with the gospel, and the Lord plucked him up and sent him into the desert to speak to just one man! That does not seem to be a very efficient use of such a powerful evangelist, does it? We must always keep in mind that the leading of the Lord trumps everything. If He wants to mobilize an army and spend millions to reach just one person, that is His business. However, I would want to hear from Him very clearly before doing something like that. Otherwise, we should seek to get the maximum return for our spiritual, as well as our natural, investments.

Presently, the church seems locked into methods and strategies that were developed hundreds of years ago and were based on the transportation and communication of the time. We still call these strategies "modern missions." This is not the case with all, but it is with far too many. It is also making for horrendously inefficient use of people and resources in too many cases. If preparing for the kingdom is building a highway, building a highway is too difficult to spend needless time and effort going up box canyons if they can be avoided and lead nowhere. Almost all of these can be avoided. That is why we have the Bible and why we have history, which is His story.

We are in need of new mission strategies that take advantage of our present transportation and communications systems. Even so, the most effective evangelistic force is by far an encouraged church. This is also the primary fruit of Christian television, providing teaching and encouragement for believers, as well as continually imparting a heart and responsibility for the lost.

Christians who are growing spiritually themselves will share their faith and blessings from the Lord with others. Christians who are growing will have such a light around them that unbelievers will want to know why they are so happy and how they have so much peace in this world of increasing fear and stress.

This is probably why Paul's first missionary journey was to preach the gospel to those who had not heard it, but his second was to check on and strengthen the churches he had established on his first journey. Once the churches had been established, they were expected to do the work of evangelism in their regions.

Last week we also touched on the subject of the emerging wave of new missionaries whose mission is to pray and worship the Lord. Is this a valid form of missions? It definitely is and will bear much fruit by encouraging the whole church to seek a greater intimacy with the Lord. It will also one day be a very powerful evangelistic force. How will this happen?

This model of 24-hour prayer and worship going on before the Lord is taken from David's tabernacle, which was pitched on Mount Zion to house the Ark of the Covenant that King David had brought up to Jerusalem. David then brought the Levites to Jerusalem where they took shifts so that there were always four thousand Levites praising and worshiping the Lord. The only dwelling place of God in Scripture that the Lord says He will "rebuild" is the tabernacle of David, which we see in Acts 15:16-18:

"After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name," says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.

Here we see that this will be done so that "the rest of mankind may seek the Lord." This movement, which many believe is the beginning of the restoration of "David's tabernacle" can have a major, positive impact on the whole church and on the fruitfulness of evangelism. It is still maturing and may have some issues yet, but that is true of every new movement and is still true of many ancient ones.

There is nothing in this world more contagious than someone who is getting closer to the Lord. Our relationship to God is the primary reason why we were created, and there is nothing in creation that will ever be as fulfilling as simply getting closer to Him. There is no greater investment we can make with our time than that which is spent seeking Him. Whether it is going to edifying church services, prayer, study, or other basic spiritual disciplines, this must be first in our life. If just one person in every church starts to get closer to Him, you can count on it eventually infecting just about everyone else. This is actually our most basic mission as the church—to help reconcile men and women to their God.

Remember, this is a study of how the highway is being built for the coming King. We want to be committed to being good stewards, handling the gifts and resources entrusted to us in a way that brings maximum fruitfulness. We also need to understand that fruitfulness and efficiency in ministry and missions cannot always be measured like the output of an assembly line or an investment in a stock. What value could we put on a single Christian getting closer to the Lord, being healed, or a trial or temptation being overcome because of the encouragement of sound teaching?

Even so, the Lord instructed us to judge a tree by its fruit, so we need to be able to recognize the fruit, and be able to measure it somehow. We also need to have the wisdom to discern when the Lord is pruning a tree, i.e. a church or ministry, so that it can later bear even more fruit.

The quality and efficiency of a power tool can be judged by the amount of energy it consumes to produce power. For example, if a power drill consumes one amp of electricity to produce 1/4 horsepower at the drill bit, but another consumes 2 amps to produce the same, the latter will have much more friction in it, which makes it only half as efficient as the first. The more power produced measured by the power used determines the efficiency of a power tool. Now let's apply this to missions.

Evangelistic crusades can be very effective in Africa, Asia, and South America. In Africa, you could spend $100,000 putting on a crusade which would result in 100,000 converts. In America, you could spend $1,000,000 putting on a crusade which would result in relatively few true converts. Just a few decades ago this was not the case in America, but it seems to be now. Where should we be investing in crusades?

Maybe we should invest in them in America. Again, we cannot put a value on a single soul, but before we do this, we would need clear guidance from the Lord. A directive from above trumps everything else, including any efficiency studies. However, without that clear directive, we should use the judgment that He has given to us. If the same money and effort that it takes to hold a crusade in America was used to encourage the churches in America, it would probably result in far more conversions here.

We must also keep in mind that if you asked how people came to the Lord in Africa or other continents, there would certainly be a much higher percentage saying they came to the Lord through a crusade or Christian television. I think it was this wisdom to adjust our spiritual strategies to local situations that the Apostle Paul was referring to when he said what has been paraphrased as "when in Rome do like the Romans." This does not mean to compromise our character or nature, but rather when in an unfamiliar place, to adjust our strategy so that it will be effective in reaching people without being an unnecessary stumbling block.

It is a good thing that many Christians will invest in just about anything that has the slightest possibility of reaching those who do not yet know the Lord. It is also a bad thing because so many of the resources given to missions are wasted. Stewardship requires accountability. Greater accountability is needed to bring about greater efficiency in the way the church operates. We also want to better manage what we are trusted with personally. In the time to come the church will become a great light to society on every level—including wisdom, excellence, and efficiency in the way we manage what has been entrusted to us by the King.