Effective Evangelistic Content

By Todd Janssen

I have been praying about what the most effective content will be for reaching out to people through the newer forms of media. 

I have concluded that the most effective content will be content that is relentlessly pro-Jesus and stay completely away from any content that is anti-something.  In western culture, we have come to be defined by what we stand against, we are anti-communists or anti-fascists.  Especially within our politics, we are being motivated by the politicians and powers that be to stand against those people by voting for me.  

We in the church have succumbed to fighting right alongside everyone else, preaching hate against our brothers and sisters.  Encouraging sons and daughters to hate their parents, teaching parents to hate their sons and daughters. We often care more about winning the culture war than bringing the life-saving transformation of Jesus Christ into someone's life.  We despise people we see as leading immoral sinful lives, preaching hate and contempt.  I see all over digital media testimonies of how Christians have hated their children, coworkers, and random strangers on the street.  We are currently known for our hatred of others that we deem sinners and not for our love for them.  

Recently I read the following verse in my quiet time with God:

“It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.”

Luke‬ ‭6:41-42‬ ‭MSG‬‬

It has been weeks, and I can’t stop thinking about the verse and what it means for me and my life.  How often have I interacted with those I love with a contemptuous sneer on my face?  How often have I been judging others by the way they treat me and how I feel about them?  How often have I been falling short of sharing the love of Jesus and making my actions about sharing the change Jesus has brought into my life? I sadly fall into reading and listening about the culture war as well, I get focused on all the wrong things. I know deep in my heart my mission is to love others and be the hands and feet of Christ in the world rather than being the voice of judgment in the world.  

So I come back to my original prayer and meditation and what will be the most effective evangelistic content that we can create in the world. My conclusion is that we need to continuously share the stories of how Christ has changed us and how he is changing us each day. Not only that but the content needs to be coming from just about every imaginable person within our organizations. 

Does your organization want to reach out to Generation Z? Have multiple gen Z people producing content.

If you want to reach out to prisoners or those just released from jail, find those that have lived inside prison to produce content. 

For every segment of people, you would like to reach have a person with that lived experience producing something to reach out to them and walk beside them. 

“All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-5‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Your organization is full of amazing people who have lived experiences that others can relate to. Enable them to share their life-changing stories and experiences with others who are going through similar things. In addition to your own individual teams, there is an entire ecosystem of Christian content creators hearing from God and creating content beyond the content that is on their broadcast tower. Finding and building out your own network of content relationships is the biggest opportunity for our digital footprint to grow. Content creators across all of the digital media have all figured out that cross-channel collaboration is one of the most effective ways for content to find new people. We all need to be participating in collaboration with each other.