By Craig Whitney

(Note this is the second in a series. See Insight #1 for background on the research project.)
I have a personal axiom that I often communicate with potential church planters, “the habits of the founders will become the culture of the congregation.”

Do you know a church planter who is emotionally passionate and physically expressive in worship – I’ll bet the worship style of the church they started is the same. Do you know a church planter who is constantly telling a joke or laughing at one – I’ll bet the church they started does a lot of laughing. Do you know a church planter who spends most of his time with people far away from God and is regularly leading others to faith – I’ll bet the church they started is regularly reaching people far away from God and leading them to faith. Our research demonstrated this axiom to be true – at least in the case of evangelism.

One of the four characteristics the ELI measures is relational evangelism. One of the things we asked in our research was what percentage of those attending a new church were previously un-churched. We discovered that the higher the ISA score in relational evangelism the higher the percentage of un-churched people in a new church – and this relationship was statistically significant.

The data from the Initial Screening Assessment scores tell us a couple of other things as well:

• The relational evangelism score is the lowest of the four characteristics measured by the ISA. The median score is just 50%.
• 1 in 8 people who complete the ISA have never lead anyone to faith.
• 1 in 4 people who complete the ISA have never led anyone to faith that they didn’t first meet at church.

The implication is clear. In order to start more churches that reach more people far from God we need more planters who have the habit of effective relational evangelism. If you’re a potential planter who wants to start a church that reaches people far away from God, make a habit of doing life with people far away from God and learning how to lead them to faith. Your habits of relational evangelism will become the culture of an evangelistically effective church.