Evangelism is the key to building a vital church," senior pastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, Ill., said to more than 10,000 participants of the Willow Creek Association’s Leadership Summit Aug. 5-7.

Hybels stressed what many attendees, including more than 20 representatives of the Florida Conference who attended the summit at the Boca Raton satellite location, may have thought was an obvious tenet of church development. His intent, however, was to warn the leaders of the tendency to focus less on evangelism and more on taking care of current members’ needs.

He based that point on the Willow Creek church’s own experience during the early years of its ministry. According to Hybels, the Willow Creek church, which now has a weekend attendance or more than 17,000, had set a goal of focusing 20 percent of its energy and resources on evangelism initiatives and 20 percent on four other key area’s of the church’s ministry, such as worship and small group development.

What they found, Hybels said, was that the church wasn’t growing, even though they were spending an equal portion of their energies on evangelism, and that more than 20 percent of their efforts needed to be devoted to evangelism if the church was going to reach seekers.

In his introduction to "The Bishop’s Fishing Guide to Florida," Florida Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson said making disciples of Jesus Christ is "the most important task of the local church," and he has challenged conference churches to increase membership in the conference to 400,000 by May 2000. Henderson also hired a director of Operation Evangelization last February, the Rev. Dr. Roger Swanson, to help churches reach out to unchurched people in their communities.

Based on Matthew 28:19 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…," it is the mission of every Christian, and every United Methodist, to make disciples of Jesus Christ. But how many of the "people in the pews" know that is their mission, and how many churches are focusing a significant amount of their energy and resources outward?

Hybels said his church’s experience taught leaders and members that once people were brought into the life of the church, they wanted to grow and know more about Christ, use their spiritual gifts in ministry, join small groups; that all the rest followed.

"The Harvest does not self-reap," Hybels said, "but it does self- destruct."