Center for Creative Ministry — A recent nationwide Barna pastor's poll revealed that 86 percent of senior Protestant pastors consider relational or friendship evangelism to be very effective in bringing others to Christ. Commissioned by the American Tract Society, the study reported that 68 percent of respondents also identified lifestyle evangelism as very effective. Other methods of evangelism ranked significantly lower in the "very effective" category, including event evangelism (24 percent), door-to-door evangelism (15 percent), and tract evangelism (14 percent). Preaching as effective evangelism was identified by less than 2 percent.

We believe it. If you want to learn more about what friendship evangelism includes and how anxiety-free it can be, go to these Web sites: www.creativeministry.org/resources/FriendshipEvangelism/fe.htm; www.creativeministry.org/resources/Oneminute.htm.

Paul Richardson, Center for Creative Ministry director