Monday, August 25, 2014

Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust Evangelism


“Three yards and a cloud of dust” is an old way of describing a football team’s offense that concentrates on moving the ball down the field a few yards at a time. While it is considered a rather old-fashioned approach to football, I think it can describe the evangelism strategy churches can utilize today. The three yards and a cloud of dust offense desires to move the ball steadily down the field a little at a time until a touchdown is scored. The alternative is a passing game that relies on long range so-called “hail Mary” passes which attempt to score the touchdown by throwing a long pass. The “hail Mary” seldom works, but when it does, it’s spectacular.

In earlier times, the evangelism style of choice was similar to the “hail Mary” offense. Until about 1970, many evangelical churches relied on revivals, crusades, and other special worship services where a gifted speaker vigorously presented the Gospel. Many people made the decision to follow Christ that way. In the day before cable TV, the revival was the biggest show in town for the week and many non-Christians and nominal Christians attended, and some of them made major commitments. The Holy Spirit greatly used the revivals and crusades. However, as entertainment became more accessible, it became more difficult to get people who weren’t already Christians to attend revivals. Also, while revivals and crusades saw many people respond with a decision at the meeting, most of those who made decisions did not become disciples. The percentage of decisions that led to discipleship largely depended on the quality of follow-up by church members. This meant church members had to somehow make a connection with people they may not know that would allow them to help the new believers become fully devoted followers of Christ.

As revival evangelism faltered, a different kind of “hail Mary” became prevalent. New tools like “The Four Spiritual Laws”, “The Roman Road”, and “Evangelism Explosion” enabled individuals and small groups of Christians to share the Gospel and pray with folks to receive salvation. God used this approach for many years to bring people to follow Him. Often churches would train members in the use of these tools and provide opportunities for them to use them to reach their friends, neighbors and people who visited their church. Here too, follow-up was the key to turning decisions into disciples. Many times follow-up was difficult because the person who presented the Gospel and the decision-maker were strangers and may have had very little in common.

Both of these “hail Mary” methods were very effective at times. The problem was that, like the long pass in football, both these methods needed the situation to be just right. These methods were effective where the people the church hoped to reach held the Bible as sacred. It also helped if the prospect had respect for the Christian worldview.  

Most of the people the church today needs to reach are not familiar with the Bible and are ignorant, or perhaps even suspicious, of the Christian worldview. One night at a great worship service may cause them to start thinking (if you can get them to one), but getting a commitment is very difficult in that circumstance. It is the same with the old individual methods: one conversation, no matter how well thought out, guided, and backed up by scripture, seldom brings someone to Christ.

For these days we need to use a “three yards and a cloud of dust” evangelism approach. We attempt to move our friends and neighbors toward Christ with our conversations, the testimony of our lives, and lots and lots of prayer. We must work together and pray that the persons we hope to reach will meet other Christ-followers who will also move them toward Christ. Working together we can help people toward the goal, which is salvation. As we move down the field, there are opportunities for the prospect to see Christ working in our lives, to learn the Christian worldview, and the importance of the Bible. Sometimes, using the “three yards and a cloud of dust” approach, the team moves down the field toward to the goal line fairly quickly. (The goal in evangelism is our friend becoming a disciple.) And, sometimes it takes a lot of time.


Evangelism tracts and learned outlines will be handy tools along the way, so can evangelistic worship services. However, instead of either being the strategy for evangelizing our community; they are part of the strategy. The strategy is actually based on Joe and Mary Pewsitter becoming friends with people who don’t know Christ, loving them and sharing life with them. It is seldom fast, but it has a great chance of making new disciples rather than simply getting someone to make an empty decision. Follow-up is natural, because of the relationship that has been established. It is friend-helping-friend learn to follow the Lord. This strategy is not a program of the church; it is a way of life. I think it was the way of life for the New Testament Church. It doesn’t depend on a fiery evangelist or a perfected presentation. It is all about us loving them until they become part of us.

1 comment:

  1. I like it, Ray. Check out http://t4tonline.org/. Good stuff there!

    ReplyDelete