Because our personal witness and faith-sharing does occur often in one-on-one conversations, there's a tendency at times to think of evangelism as a "Long Ranger" enterprise. Not so. Always the ministry of sharing our faith with others is supported by the community of faith where we belong, worship, serve, live. The other side of that issue is that folks who, as yet, have not made any claim to be Christians can be helped in that direction by simply participating in the life of a congregation. There they have the opportunity to experience God's love in the welcome of new church friends, to see what it means to other people to have faith in God and to orient their lives in the direction of God's leading. Just being part of such fellowship -- long before one has made any commitments at all -- is an inspiring thing. Here are a couple of other thoughts on this subject.
“Sometimes we imagine that evangelism takes place in only one fairly linear process: church people go to unchurched people and tell them the gospel; some of them believe it and thus become involved themselves in the church. That can happen, of course, but much of the time people become enmeshed in the life of the church before they have anything like a working knowledge of the gospel.” -Thomas G. Long, Neely McCarter, Preaching In and Out of Season
“The model for the missional church differs from mass evangelism and from seeker evangelism because missional evangelism locates the focal point of evangelism in a community of people who embody in their lives the message and reality of the Christian faith… The missional church evangelizes primarily by immersing the unchurched in the experience of Christianity.” – Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Evangelism
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