What better time is there than now to consider this subject. In the light of the soon coming of the Lord and the need to re-appraise our strategies of world evangelization, it is important that we spare a time for proper analysis of the effectiveness or otherwise of crusade.

Crusade, as it is generally known, is a city wide effort to bring many people into the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is usually planned, conducted and coordinated by big time evangelists who intends to win and saturate a city with the gospel in 5 days. The evangelist and his team usually work in conjuction with local churches. Much time, energy, financial and human resources goes into the crusade. It is usually held in an open field, vacant plots of land or in a sports stadium.

It is a strategy that has been used to spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ into many cities and towns in several countries of the world. The mass appeal, publicity blitz and fever pitch excitement it generates have been used to create so much awareness for the gospel of Christ. 50, 60 years ago, crusade as a strategy was at its best. Many people came to know the Lord through the crusade efforts of many great evangelists that comes to town with great fanfare and pomp. So many churches have been planted and many souls joined churches through those wonderful and power packed crusades. Testimonies of great healings, miracles, signs and wonders often followed the crusades and there were literal revival in the lives of Christians and Churches. Many gospel ministers of today trace their conversion to these crusades of old.

However, it appears that this strategy is no longer as effective as it used to be. Today, crusade are no longer drawing the expected audience of unbelievers and sinners. Rather, almost 97% of people that attend crusades now are Christians form various cooperating churches. In Nigeria , we have had our fair share of crusades. Many have been wonderfully used of the Lord to bring many blessings to the believers and unbelievers alike. However, in the last couple of years, it has kind of do more damage than good, both to the church and the cooperating Christians.

Yes, there is merit in crusade due to the fact that it creates much awareness for the gospel in a given city. Moreover, it brings cooperation among churches and church leaders. Also, some measure of blessings will be received through the faithful declaration of the whole gospel of our Lord. Unfortunately, that is where the merits ends.

Our research has confirmed that even in the Christian populated Southern part of Nigeria , crusades have not produced the expected results. In the last 3 or 4 years, a certain world acclaim evangelist had visited many towns and cities in the Southern part of Nigeria . Many mind boggling figures have been and is still being declared as the number of people that got saved in those crusades. Yet, the reality on the ground doesn't measure up to those declared figures. For example, 2.3 million people were declared as having given their lives to Christ in the crusade that was held in Lagos , 1999. Yet, up to 98% of those who were at the crusade venue were Christians from the cooperating churches. Furthermore, I personally conducted a research to know the number of souls that joined the living churches after the crusade. Four years later, I have seen less than 100 souls in the churches. Yet, several millions of dollars were spent in the effort.

At Ibadan , another city where the great crusade were held, 1.4 million souls were declared to have given their lives to Christ. But the truth is that the venue that was used for the crusade cannot conveniently hold a crowd of 400,00 people at once, and 98% of those who were at the crusade were believers from cooperating churches.

In Kaduna and Kano , in the Northern part of Nigeria , the crusade led to riots by Muslims that result in many innocent lives being lost. In actual fact, crusade doesn't lead to conversion of muslims in a Muslim dominated territory. It is an open secret that any Muslim that wants to get saved will never signify in an open crusade ground due to the fear of being hunted, persecuted and in many cases, killed because he is seen to have put Islam into open shame. In the Northern part of Nigeria , open air crusade does more damage than good. It enables the Muslim fanatics to identify those who are Christians for later round of attack. Muslim converts who declare openly for Christ have simply sign their death warrant and ostracitization from their family and relatives.

Throwing further light on crusade will reveal that sinners of today don't respond to impersonal invitation. This is the reason why many of them are not found in crusade ground anymore unlike 50, 60, 30 and even 10 years ago. Even those who gets born - again in the crusades have a hard time settling down into the local church. It appears he is physiologically not ready to submit to the local church authority because his decision to get born-again in an interdenominational meeting does not include submission to a local church. So, many of those who eventually got born-again in a crusade meeting ended up becoming ‘mobile Christians' - those who move from one church to the other.

The local church always seem to be the loser in this regard. The big time evangelist comes around with his team, seek and obtain the cooperation of the local churches, throws a lot of money around to facilitate the smooth organization of the crusade, but nothing is planned for the aftermath of the meeting. What usually happen is that after the big meetings, the evangelist and his team will leave for another venue, leaving the ill - prepared local churches to do the work of follow up of the converts. In 8 out of 10 times, the converts are as good as lost. The local churches are not viable, vibrant and dynamic enough to follow up, assimilate and integrate the army of those who make decisions for Christ on the crusade ground.

In addition, the money the evangelist distributed or gave to the pastors usually causes more commotion that leads to disunity, fighting and quarreling among the cooperating ministers which don't heal in time. In the light of these facts and insights about crusade, does it mean we should consign it to the dustbin of history? Absolutely No. There are adjustments and changes that should be carried out for the benefit of world evangelization. Even though too much energy, human and material resources are expended on crusades with little or minute result as the outcome, yet we can still rethink and readjust it for maximum effectiveness.

The strategy of open our crusade can only be successful and help the growth of the local church if it is planned, led and coordinated by a local assembly of saints. It has more potential of successfully winning souls and integrating them into the life of the local church, if from the onset, it is declared that a local church is responsible. It must be carefully, meticulously planned and prayer soaked. The local pastor must be the one doing the preaching and ministration. The assimilation and integration of the new converts must start from the second day of the crusade. Those who got born-again the first night and subsequent days must be taught the basics of the Christian faith right from the crusade ground. It must be stressed to them clearly that their decision to follow Christ is also inclusive of joining the local church that conducted the crusade.

Before the crusade finishes, they must be taught, assimilated and grounded in the word of God regarding the decision they have taken. They will therefore be able to flow easily from the crusade around to the life of the local church. Because the pastor that preach, pray and minister to them in the crusade ground is the one they are going to meet in the local church. They have therefore been sub-consciously prepared to join and become a responsible member of the local church where they can grow in their new found faith.

Without rethinking and reworking our crusade efforts in this regard, they will always meet with abysmal failure in terms of souls won and assimilated into the life of the local church. Crusades must not be held only for gospel awareness, but for salvation of souls and growth of the local church. Conversion of souls and conservation of the fruits must be the goal of every crusade. If this is true, then a local church crusade is more viable than interdenominational one. Rethinking and realigning our crusade efforts in the light of these facts will extend the frontiers of the Kingdom of God to more hears and places.

Dr. Francis Bola Akin - John
C. E. O.
Church Growth Services Inc.
Lagos, Nigeria.