Many years ago, I pastored a normative size church in a rural town. Once a month I shared a meal with a pastor friend from a neighboring city whom I had met at an associational meeting. I needed that friendship more than I knew at the time. We encouraged, sharpened, and challenged one another. Pastors need to have good, trustworthy pastor friends who are close by.

The Lord was doing an exciting work in the church I pastored. We were baptizing almost every week, and the church exploded with young growth. We moved out of our sanctuary and into the gym, setting up curtains and chairs every week like a church plant. That rhythm of baptisms, conversion growth, and meeting-space challenges continued for five years before God called me and my family elsewhere. It was exhilarating. And exhausting. If you’ve ever planted a church or pastored one through a season of revival, you know the feeling.

One day at lunch, my pastor friend asked, “Tony, what are you doing that’s making the church grow so quickly?” I honestly didn’t have an answer. I had only been doing the four things a mentor had advised me to do when I began the pastorate: (1) be a man of prayer, (2) preach the Word, (3) love the people, and (4) win the lost to Jesus. By the way, that’s still my whole plan today.

My friend responded by lamenting that his church facility needed updating, the congregational music needed an overhaul, and the leadership of the church needed to be more committed. Having visited his church several times and preached for him, I couldn’t disagree. He continued for 

several more minutes, attributing the lack of growth in the church he pastored to a variety of circumstances. The Holy Spirit stirred my soul in that moment, and I interrupted.

I asked, “When’s the last time you shared the gospel with someone in your community and invited him or her to respond?” He hung his head and lowered his shoulders. “I can’t even remember,” he responded. We talked for the next 30 minutes about how the best music, technology, and facilities cannot produce evangelistic growth. Only a faithful witness, together with the work of the Holy Spirit, can do that.

He texted the next week to say that he had made it a point to share the gospel with someone in the community. A few weeks later, he texted again to tell me that person had responded favorably to the gospel and would be baptized soon. The pastor found ways to plug into local sports scenes and began Bible studies with lost people. Very soon, my friend began to see conversion growth in his church, too.

Personal evangelism and healthy church growth cannot be separated. And, pastor, as it is with all things you hope to see in the people you shepherd: If you don’t, they won’t. Eighty percent of South Carolinians will not attend an evangelical church service this coming Sunday morning. By our best estimations, yesterday 121 South Carolinians died and entered eternity separated from God in hell. They were our family members, our neighbors, our coworkers, and our friends, and we lost them to the grips of sin, death, and hell. Before the sun sets today, we will lose 121 more.

Pastors and church leaders, pull up a chair to this table and let me be a friend for just a moment. The lost around you are desperate for the hope of the gospel. God has strategically placed you in their circle of influence to be a witness. They will not be saved because your church’s music is great, the technology is current, the facilities look nice, or the casserole tasted amazing. They must hear and respond favorably to the gospel of Jesus Christ. SCBaptists see a day when every life is saturated and transformed by the hope of the gospel. Who will share it with them if not you? And when will you tell them if not now?

— Tony Wolfe is executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.