Frequently, people who have moved past the barriers are as unaware as rank pagans of God's radical claim upon their lives. When I teach that to secularly minded people, they think I'm from Mars. I am especially encouraged by what a number of UM local churches are doing in evangelism. They have decided they are essentially mission stations in a mission field, that finding and reaching lost people is their main business, and that the established church is renewed as a steady stream of new believers is entering its ranks. At least eight out of ten churches function out of a chaplaincy model.
Churches living out the apostolic pattern make the opposite assumptions.
Their mission is a lay movement to non-Christians, mainly in the world, producing changed lives and reformed communities. Some people are convinced that church growth is only about numbers. The real distinction should be between evangelism and mere membership recruitment. True evangelism involves incorporating new believers and seekers into the Body of Christ, and therefore involves the growth of the true Church.