How To Plan Evangelistic Concerts

Many, many years ago, the pastor of a Singapore mega-church was invited to be the featured speaker at an evangelistic concert organized by a small church. Just before the start of the evangelistic concert the local pastor said, "Let's pray for a mighty harvest!"

The mega-church pastor asked him "How many non-Christians are there in the audience?"

"I looked, and I think there are at least two…"

"The rest of the audience are already members of your church?"

"Yes…"

"Then why go through all this work and effort to run the concert? You can just invite those two non-Christians to have dinner with me and I can just talk with them over the meal, right?"

[loud silence follows]

That pastor shared with us that story in the debrief after a series of evangelistic concerts that were initiated, organized and executed by the youth ministry of his church. What impressed him was the fact that besides putting effort to have a good show (or why call it a concert?) we put in tons of effort to bring in the non-Christians to hear the message.

Those efforts paid off. We had, on average, 50-60 salvations per show. Not bad considering that at least 90% of it was run by students who had to juggle studying for exams with practising for the concert!

All this came to mind recently when a student of mine approached me to help for her church evangelistic concert. She asked me about how to find musicians, and I offered to help find them. But I needed to know what type of concert it was going to be, so I could find the appropriate musicians. And that was when she admitted that she didn't know and haven't yet planned what type of concert it was going to be.

Here's my advice to her (and anyone else planning evangelistic concerts)

If you want to do something big worth doing, you need the specific plan. When Moses was given the assignment to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, God gave him specific plans, blueprints and details. You need that kind of plan first before you even ask God about how to get the resources you need.

So if you say you want to do a concert ...

1) Who is it for? English-speaking? Chinese or dialect-speaking? Or others? What demographic do they belong to? Youth, working adults, male, female, families with kids... who?

You need to be focused on this, because in this day and age people have a lot of demands on their time. They won't turn up for something just because posters were put up or things like that. If you know WHO you are targeting, you can then formulate a plan to invite them for the concert.

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but if you live in a city like Singapore, the days of organizing an evangelistic rally with a famous speaker and having hordes of non-Christians, young, old and in-between, lining up to attend it, are long gone. People have separated themselves into their demographics (working adults, families with kids, elderly with health challenges, grandparents actively involved with their grandchildren, entrepreneurs, and so on). There is no more one-size-fits-all approach to reaching and connecting with them!

To know more about how social dynamics have changed in many parts of the world, head over to http://jvworship.blogspot.com/2010/10/introduction-to-marketing.html, I give a brief overview there.

2) What do they want?
This is the plan for inviting them to the concert- you have to show them that they should sacrifice 1-2 hours of their time to be at your concert. If you don't know what they want, you cannot persuade them.

Moreover, when you give them the reasons, you have to speak to them in THEIR language. As Paul said, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I may save some." (1 Cor 9:22). Many Christians are lazy when communicating with non-Christians; they make no effort to hear them before they start speaking down to them. It's like saying "Jesus is the answer!" but not stopping to ask them first what is their question.

Very shoddy. Any businessman who takes this kind of attitude towards getting customers for his business DESERVES to have his business fail… Are we less serious about an evangelistic concert than a businessman is over growing his business?

3) How can you give it to them?
If they want entertainment, you have to be more entertaining than what people get from TV, because otherwise they can stay at home and watch TV. If they want interaction, you need to offer them interaction that is better than joining their colleagues at the pub or the karaoke lounge. If they want information, you have to make sure the information you present them really adds value to their lives. What do they want?

The Problem is...
Many people plan evangelistic concerts based on what they feel other people OUGHT to want, rather than what they really do want. It's a very self-centred way of doing things, and it puts off the non-Christians. Evangelism is about connecting with people and then connecting them with God. And if you want to do an evangelistic concert, you'd better have evangelists on your team. And listen to what they say.

Many of the serious worship leaders and musicians I know have a prophetic inclination. They find spending extended periods of time praying and praising God something very natural, but are less developed in their people skills. That is why few of them can teach or evangelize. I suspect many Christian singers and musicians who have an evangelistic gifting end up in the secular world and connect well with non-Christians. But if they are left alone and without genuine fellowship and discipleship from fellow believers, they easily end up compromising their testimony, like salt that has lost its taste.

You may think that the hours you spend in prayer and worship makes you more spiritual than them. And maybe, just maybe, you are. But if you have no evangelistic gifting, you NEED their wisdom, advice and help to make an evangelistic concert work. God made us such that we need each other in the Body of Christ in order to come to the fullness of the measure of Christ (Eph 4:15-16).

In the end…

… After you have looked at all these questions and waited upon God, you may find that an evangelistic concert may not be the best thing to do after all. You may plan some other outreach event instead, and it may not even involve music. We musicians tend to look for ways to drag music into every church activity we are involved in. But that may not be necessary or wise all the time.

Don't do what I have seen too many pastors and leaders do – get started doing something and THEN ask God to guide them. That's wrong. The better way is to wait upon God for his instructions FIRST and then move from there. It can be difficult, because the flesh usually swings between rationalized laziness and frantic activity to try and please God. And as I am fond of saying, the fruit (results) don't lie!

So if you are planning for an evangelistic concert, I hope you will find my thoughts and opinions helpful. Be blessed!