When Proselytizing Fails: An Organizational Analysis

Author(s): Reginald W. Bibby and Merlin B. Brinkerhoff

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Sociological Analysis, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 189-200
Published by: Oxford University Press
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When Proselytizing Fails:
An OrganizationalAnalysis
Reginald W. Bibby
WashingtonState University
Merlin B. Brinkerhoff
Universityof Calgary

The authors assert that an adequateunderstandingof religious proselytizingrequiresan

understandingnot only of the convertsbut also of organizationalattemptsto recruit them.
Maintaining that the proselytizingof outsidersrequirescontact, bridging, and assimilation
mechanisms,theyexaminethe evangelisticeffortsand resultsof 20 proselyte-minded Canadian
churchesover a five-year period. Theyfind little evidence in evangelisticprogramsfor the
existenceof such mechanismsforreachingoutsiders.Moreover,new convertmembersarefound
to beprimarilyfamilymembers,friends,and peoplefromotherchurches.Theyconcludethat in
spite of the apparentfailure to proselytizemany outsiders,the organizationalmechanismsmay
continue to persist becauseof the latentfunctions theyserve.

Much of the work in the Sociology of Religion relating to the subject of pro-
selytism has focused on the individual convert as the unit of analysis. Theories and
empirical studies have tried to explain proclivity to religious conversion and
affiliation in terms of the nature of converts. Thus Glock (1965) has synthesized a
long tradition in positing the forms of personal deprivation which serve as sources
of religious involvement.1 Lofland and Stark (1965) have proposed a process
theory of conversion which focuses upon the convert and the stages through
which he passes on the road to conversion. Similarly, a number of empirical
studies have examined the convert and his characteristics (Beynon, 1938; Holt,
1940; Catton, 1957; Monaghan, 1967; Robbins, 1969; Seggar and Blake, 1970;
Nelson, 1972).
While such a convert-centered approach offers insight into the social and
psychological characteristics of people who are "won over" to religious groups, it
examines only one social actor in the proselytization process-"the sheep." A
comprehensive understanding of proselytism requires a look at the other side as
well-"the shepherds," or the role of religious groups or organizations in the
conversion process. Such an emphasis, while somewhat limited in the literature,
has been present recently in the work of such people as Moberg (1962), Sobel
(1966), Lofland (1966), Gerlach and Hine (1968), Demerath and Hammond
(1969), Kunz and Brinkerhoff (1969), and Seggar and Kunz (1972), as well as in
works relating to the church-sect tradition (Niebuhr, 1929; Pope, 1942; Wilson,
1959). In this paper we report the findings of our examination of the evangelistic

'For a discussion and critique of the deprivation approach, as well as the

presentation of alternative
forms of religious involvement, see Reginald W. Bibby and Merlin B. Brinkerhoff, "Sources of
Religious Involvement: Issues for Empirical Investigation." ReviewofReligious Research,Winter, 1974.

189
190 SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

efforts2 and results of 20 proselyte-oriented churches over a five-year period,3 in

an attempt to posit a framework which will add insight into the important role
which religious organizations perform in the proselytization process.

Approach
An important component of the evangelical belief system is that anyone who has
not made "a personal commitment to Christ" is considered a "spiritual outsider."
This holds even though he is the child of a member. Yet, explicit in the strong
commitment to evangelism is the idea that the entire world should be "reached,"
and that proselytizing will only begin at home. As a result, conservative Protestant
groups have traditionally placed considerable emphasis, for example, upon send-
ing missionaries to foreign countries, as part of an attempt to fulfill the "Great
Commission" to "go into all the world and preach the gospel." Thus while the
evangelicals include children as converts, we argue that family converts may be
classified as essentially "insiders,"as contrasted to people who come into evangelical
groups from outside the evangelical community or subculture (hereafter desig-
nated "outsiders"). The primary interest in this paper concerns the attempts of
conservative churches to evangelize outsiders and the incidence of their success.
Proselytes who join conservative churches provide an instance of a broader
social phenomenon, namely, the addition of outsiders to voluntary groups. Given
that voluntary groups will commonly add new members who are transfers from
other "branches" and the children of members, it seems rather straightforward to
assert that if such groups are going to add new members, they will have to develop
mechanisms for (1) reaching out to individuals, (2) bringing them in, and (3)
keeping them in.4
Contact:ReachingOut.There clearlyhas to be a point of contact where the outsider
becomesawareof.the group. The organizationmight have mechanismsto facilitatethis
which are either group or member initiated or both. This might include personal
contact with a group member or formal advertising;they might also be initiated by
non-group and non-member sources, through the media, word-of-mouth,etc.
Bridging:Brninging In. Once contact has been made with the outsider, it is further
necessary to establish waysof "gettinghim to cross the bridge"and sit with the group.
Here the escortingpresenceof a group memberwouldseem to be almostindispensable,
although it is conceivable that in some instances the bridging device might be an
invitationor a request, for example. Unfamiliarwith the group and its members,it is
highly unlikely that the outsider would simply "comeon his own."
Assimilation: KeepingIn. The taking up of membershipin a voluntarygroup would
seem to depend heavilyupon the outsider'scoming to identifywiththe group, organiza-
tionally(e.g., goals, norms,roles, socialcontrols)and culturally.Further,his becominga
member would also seem to be dependent upon the willingnessof the members to
receive him.

2Weare using the words "evangelism"and "proselytism"interchangeablyin this paper; the former
term is the one used in conservative church circles. Both terms are meant to refer to the process
whereby religious groups seek to add converts to their ranks.
30ther major findings of the study have been reported in Reginald W. Bibby and Merlin B. Brink-
erhoff (1973).
4The three mechanisms or processes which we refer to as contacting, bridging and assimilation are
only analytically distinct; in reality, they undoubtedly tend to merge or overlap.
 WHEN PROSELYTIZING
FAILS 191

It is argued that these three factors are necessary conditions for the joining of
voluntary groups by outsiders. To the extent that proselytizing bodies such as
evangelical Protestant churches convert such people, one would expect these
three factors to be present.5

Backgroundand Methodology
In an attempt to explore the role of religious organizations in proselytism, 20
proselyte-minded churches in a Western Canadian city with a population of some
415,000 was investigated. The churches were selected from a list of 81 congrega-
tions associated with the city's Evangelical Ministerial Association.6 The random
sample included six Baptist, five Pentecostal, three Nazarene, two Missionary, two
Salvation Army, one Christian and Missionary Alliance, and one Plymouth Breth-
ren congregations. Ten of the churches were predominantly middle class while
ten were working class.7 In order that the biasing effects of "peak" years or "off'
years might be minimized, the proselytizing efforts and results were examined
over a five-year period (1966-70). Furthermore, this represented a time of alleged
conservative church membership growth in North America generally.8
Since the study was directed toward varied facets of evangelism, including
commitmentto the evangelism concept, the incidence and types of evangelism
attempts,and the number and nature of proselytes,five varied data sources were
developed and utilized:
(1) LeadershipQuestionnaire.This form was filled out by the minister and four people he
considered to be leaders in his church. Consisting of 40 items, it was intended to
provide insight into the theological posture of the church generally and its
commitment to the concept of evangelism specifically.
(2) ProgramInformation. Procured through an interview with each minister and the use
of available literature, this information pertained to the churches and their
programs, with particular attention given to their evangelistic efforts.
(3) Media and Meetings. The evangelistic attempts of the churches were investigated by
examining newspaper advertisements and through attending numerous minis-

5BryanWilson(1959:11), in his discussionof conversionistsect groups, offers an observationwhich

seemed highlyrelevantto the conservativegroupsbeingexaminedhere,and hintsat the problemsthey
will have building such points of emphasisinto their programs.Wilsonmaintainsthat such religious
groupsexperiencetensionbecauseof the contradictoryvaluesof separatenessfrom the worldand the
summonsto go out into it and preachthe gospel. He writes,"evangelismmeansexposureto the world
and the riskof alienationof the evangelizingagents.It meansalsothe willingnessto acceptinto the sect
new members... who are incompletelysocializedfrom the sect's point of view."
6We are well aware of the fact that evangelicaland evangelisticcongregationsare not necessarily
synonymous,thatthe formertermrefersto identificationwitha specificProtestanthistoricaltradition,
while the latter term describesthe attempt to proselytize.However, since evangelicalgroups have
traditionallystressedthe importanceof evangelism,using thisassociationlistseemed to providea good
startingplace for selecting the kind of sample we were seeking.
7The criteriaused in determiningthe predominantsocialclassof the congregationsincluded spatial
location within the city, general occupationallevels of the parishioners,and the type of training
received by the ministers.
8Documentationof this assertioncan be found, for example, in the annually publishedYearbook of
American Churches (NationalCouncilof Churches)for United Stateschurchesand in Tipp and Winter
(1970)for Canadianchurches.For a summaryof these divergentgrowthtrends,see Dean M. Kelley
(1972: 1-35) and Bibbyand Brinkerhoff (1973).
192 SOCIOLOGICALANALYSIS

terial meetings at which, among other things, evangelisticprograms were dis-

cussed. (The latter observations,however, were limited primarilyto 1968-70).
(4) Membership Records.Seeking to determine the incidence of proselyte membership
additions to the 20 churches between 1966-70, lists of new members added
during that period were examined with the assistanceof the ministers (in two
instances with secretarialassistance).New members were classified into one of
three categories: (i) reaffiliate,recognized to be an evangelicalChristianupon
initialcontactwith the church,e.g., transfer;(ii)birth-typeconvert,convertedsince
contact with the church and having at least one evangelicalparent or guardian
convert,converted since contactwith the church
prior to age 10; (iii)Proselyte-type
and not having at least one evangelicalparent or guardian prior to age 10.
(5) ProselyteInformation.This materialwasgatheredat the time of membershipclassifica-
tion with the informantsthe same as in #4. Datapertainedto the variablesof age,
sex, maritalstatus,nationality,education,occupation,time and meansof conver-
sion, previouschurchaffiliation, and preconversionplace of residence, as wellas
specificfactorsinvolvedin conversion.Such informationpertainedto the convert
as of the time of conversion.

With regard to procedures, in the late spring of 1971 two meetings were held
less than a month apart with each of the ministers, one to explain the nature of the
study-presented as "A Study of Evangelism"-and a second to procure the data
with respect to programs, new members, and proselytes, as well as to distribute the
leadership questionnaires. The questionnaires were returned by mail and where
necessary picked up in person. This approach yielded a 100% response rate
(N= 100).

Findings
Commitmentto Evangelism
The responses of the 100 church leaders to the questionnaire items pertaining
to evangelism revealed that the "official" position of the churches was a strong
commitment to the goal of evangelism (see Table 1). The responses to the first

TABLE 1

Commitment to the Goal of Evangelism as Reflected by Responses

of Church Leaders

Item Agree Disagree Undecided N

% % %
Children born to Christian parents 1 99 0 99
are by birth Christians
Evangelism is the job of the professional 2 96 2 99
clergy, rather than the layman.
Every true Christian will try to 100 0 0 100
openly tell others about Christ.
The church should concentrate 4 94 2 98
more on social action than saving souls
The church needs to emphasize 5 94 1 98
religious education in our day,
rather than conversion
 WHEN PROSELYTIZING FAILS 193

TABLE 2
Extent to Which Churches Utilized Programs for Evangelistic Purposes,
as Reported by Ministers (N=20)*

Program Activity Hardly At all- Some Quite A Bit-

Not Much A Great Deal

Worship Services 3 11 6
Special Meetings 3 10 7
Sunday School 2 6 12
Youth Groups 5 11 4

Special Retreats 6 12 2

Camps 0 7 13
Cooperative Crusades 10 10 0
Pastoral Visitation 4 11 5

Lay Visitation 11 8 1
Mass Media 19 0 1

TOTALS 63 86 51

*Respondents were given the opportunity to cite any further evangelistic efforts; few were noted.

item reflect the belief that conversion and personal commitment are necessary if
anyone-including a Christian's offspring-is to be called "a Christian." Reactions
to the second and third items reveal the belief that "witnessing" is the job of every
Christian, while responses to items four and five suggest that evangelism is seen as
more central to a church's ministry than such emphases as social action and
religious education.
The commitment of the churches to evangelism is further reflected in the
evangelistic emphasis that the ministers claim characterized their programs be-
tween 1966-70. Asked, "To what extent would you estimate your church has used
the following as a means of evangelism between 1966-70?" and presented with a
list of 10 program activities, the ministers maintained that an evangelistic thrust
had characterized almost all facets of their church programs (see Table 2).9
During the five-year period under study, the six Baptist churches in the sample,
in addition to their independent evangelistic efforts, participated to varying
degrees in "The Crusade of the Americas," a two-year evangelistic program.
Included in such a program were training classes for church members for the
purpose of enhancing their ability to "witness to others," week-long evangelistic
services, and a concluding city-wide evangelistic rally. In addition, almost all of the
20 churches participated in other small city-wide cooperative evangelistic
crusades. Further, the media suggested other extensive evangelistic efforts. Vir-
tually all of the 20 churches made at least limited use of the media. They placed
regular Saturday ads in the church section of the city's major newspaper. The

9While clearly these ministerial estimates offer only a crude gauge of the efforts that were "actually"
expended, the fact that the question was taken for granted by these ministers and that they claimed
"some" use of almost all of these various means indicates that evangelism was regarded as a normative
part of their programs.
194 SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

extent to which the media were employed varied. Over half of the churches
advertised weekly Sunday evening "evangelistic services." Moreover, with great
regularity they utilized advertisements to announce the coming appearances of
guest speakers, evangelists, and touring music groups who would be holding
special revival or evangelistic meetings. The remaining churches were less explicit
in their advertising of evangelistic programs. Their newspaper ads noted services
and special activities, but knew little of a "hard sell" emphasis. Clearly, then, the
congregations examined had an explicit commitment to the goal of "winning
converts" and seemingly sought to see that the goal was realized; at least this was
verbally expressed.
Contact
An examination of the evangelistic programs of the 20 churches revealed that in
their formal activities these groups appeared to provide few opportunities for
contact with outsiders. Visitation, pastoral or lay, along with advertising, would
seem to have provided the key opportunities for confronting potential proselytes.
Yet, while ministers claimed to have done "some" such visiting (e.g., door to door
canvassing, meeting parents of Sunday School children), they admitted that such
efforts were not extensive (see Table 2). Further, systematic lay visitation was also
clearly limited, while the role of the media in making contact with outsiders-and
hence playing a role in evangelism-was felt to be for all intents and purposes
negligible. Indeed, the one minister who claimed his church had used the media
"quite a bit" documented his assertion by offering as examples his bi-weekly
church paper and his congregation's distribution of tracts.
Insofar as the "contact concept" was not built more explicitly into the programs
of these churches, it might be argued that contact with outsiders was carried out by
church members as they "brushed shoulders" with such people in the course of
living their everyday lives. For as the church leaders indicated unanimously, the
evangelical ideal is that "every Christian should live for Christ in a 'full-time'
sense."
Data on the precise frequency and duration of such contacts made "by the
church in the world" were extremely difficult to obtain. However, a few points
might be suggested. First, few would argue that many church members simply do
not "let their lights so shine before men." They interact with outsiders, but they
fail to communicate their alleged religious commitment and involvement. Still a
second sizable group of members are caught in the dilemma noted by Wilson
(1959:11): they are trying to be separate from the world and yet are somehow
expected to have sufficient contact to commend their faith to outsiders. Thus it
seems safe to predict that, ironically, some of the conservative members who had
sufficient religious commitment to want to "witness" would also have had too much
religious commitment to allow them to "mix with the world," Significantly, 21% of
the church leaders felt that "Christians should not have close non-Christian
friends." One female leader who argued for having such friends put the dilemma
succinctly, writing, "How else can they convert non-Christians?"
For still a third group, our contact with conservative Protestants leads us to
believe that the rationale of"separation from the world" may actually function as a
device for resolving the uneasy feeling of trying to relate to others ("the lost")
whose life-styles are uncomfortably different from that of the evangelical subcul-
 WHEN PROSELYTIZING FAILS 195

ture. Further, as Peter Berger (1970:21) points out, the believer is a member of a
"cognitive minority," holding a world-view which can only be sustained through
ongoing interaction with others who hold a similar interpretation of reality.
Minimizing contact may thus in part be the result of avoiding interaction with
those people who would most severely challenge one's "minority world-view."
The point, then, based on these empirically-grounded impressions in the ab-
sence of systematic data, is that the problem of contact was hardly eliminated
through church leaders depending on their members to promote the interests of
the group when in proximity to outsiders. It seems conservative to argue that the
pool of potential proselyte members, theoretically the city's entire non-evangelical
population, decreased considerably through the failure of contacts to be made,
apartfrom the question of reception to such contacts.

Bridging
Insofar as members and ministers succeeded in making contact with outsiders,
they received essentially responses of either interest or no interest. For these few
outsiders who showed interest, it was necessary to find a way to bring the potential
proselyte into the presence of the group.
The 20 churches provided little evidence of having developed formal bridging
mechanisms, or even to have been explicitly aware of their vital role in bringing in
outsiders. Where bridging efforts could be observed, they included the organiza-
tion of events designed to attract parents via their children (Christmas concerts,
Sunday School picnics, Father-Son and Mother-Daughter banquets), children via
children (Sunday School awards for bringing new friends), relatives via relatives
("family pews" set aside for special services), and friends via friends (common
emphasis: "Come and bring a friend"). Two of the sample churches "bussed"
children to Sunday School. Yet our contact with the ministers in meetings and
interviews leads us to assert that insofar as bridges were provided, their appear-
ance seemed to have been more the result of chance rather than conscious
evangelistic strategy. The view verbalized in meetings by many of the pastors was
to the effect, "It is our task to witness [make contact]; from there it is up to the
Holy Spirit."
At the same time, this is not to say that bridging did not take place on a more
informal, "natural" level, spontaneous and non-routinzed. Indeed, as will be
discussed shortly, it is clear from the data that some bridging was in fact occurring.
The data again do not allow a conclusion as to exactly how much
bridging was
taking place relative to the number of opportunities so provided through contacts
being made (clearly a rather formidable methodological challenge). However, in
view of the lack of explicit recognition of the role of bridging in the formal church
programs, again it appears conservative to estimate that the number of bridges
provided was considerably less than the number of "successful" contacts (where
interest was shown).
To sum up the observations to this point, apart from the question of their own
responses to the overtures being made, the pool of potential proselyte members
was reduced progressively to those (1) with whom contact had been made, and (2)
for whom bridging mechanisms were provided. The data indicate that proce-
dures for contact and bridging were poorly defined, leading us to deduce a low
level of execution. Thus, ironically, not unlike the Biblical parable in which the
196 SOCIOLOGICAI, ANALYSIS

feast is ready and all that is required is guests, the data for the 20 churches indicate
that the ministers had their evangelistic sermons ready, Sunday Schools had child
evangelists and "decision days" on the schedule, evangelists and singers had been
"booked," and youth group programs, special retreats, and camps were readied
for action. The key question was whether or not the members "had gone out to the
highways and byways and brought them [the outsiders] in." The information
gathered and examined suggests that they had not.
Assimilation
Insofar as such outsiders were there, some rejected the group while others did
not. Yet some of these latter outsiders may also have found that the group rejected
them. All of the 20 churches had important rites of passage. Following in the
Believers' Church tradition,?1 87% of the leaders agreed that "only people who
are born again should be allowed to join the church," with a majority from every
congregation concurring. Consequently, once exposed to the groups, the outsid-
ers found themselves placed under considerable pressure to "be converted."
Those who subsequently professed a conversion experience thus in effect reached
an important stage in the assimilation process.
But not all of them were received into formal church membership, which
suggests an intriguing finding. While the operational definition of conversion
differed from church to church,11 great emphasis was placed upon the necessity
of a changed life-changed in keeping with the groups' expectations concerning
the nature of such a transformation. For example, responding to the statement,
"When a person joins a church he should not be told that he cannot do certain
things (e.g., smoke, drink)," almost 60% of these leaders disagreed.In almost all of
these churches, then, only when the members were convinced of the behavioral
validity of an outsider's conversion as conceived in terms of strict personal moral-
ity was he eligible to become a formal member. That is, the outsider who "pro-
fessed faith in Christ" was regarded as a Christian but not as yet ready for
membership.
What seemed to be taking place here was a clash between the theological and the
social. Theologically, in response to the summons to "go and make disciples," the
evangelicals zealously encouraged a few people to "become Christians." But as
social groups, they were unwilling to assimilate those who were incompletely
socialized (Wilson, 1959:11). Consequently, such people, while theologically
"born again," were denied formal membership until, as adherents, they were
socialized to the point of "fitting in" with the group.12 Thus, while all 20 ministers
interviewed agreed that converts should formallyjoin with the local church, seven
did not think that their membership additions between 1966-70 were a fairly
accurate reflection of the evangelism carried out by their churches. Asked why
not, all of these ministers cited the "youth factor" (the child converts are too young

10For an exposition of this concept see Max Weber (1958:144) or Donald Durnbaugh (1968).
llThe church leaders had no illusions about theological homogeneity among Protestants and, presum-
ably, evangelicals. Only 10% felt that "there are practically no important differences between what the
various Protestant churches believe."
12Significantly, such adherents are traditionally not allowed to vote or hold "high offices" in evangelical
churches, so that they are only partially associated with the group.
 WHEN PROSELYTIZING FAILS 197

for membership), while all but two also cited "stiff membership requirements."
Only one of the seven ministers suggested that reluctance to join on the part of the
converts was the problem.
It seems apparent, then, that the newly converted outsiders-young and
otherwise-had in common the fact that they were inadequately socialized into the
subcultures of the groups, with the result that their admission could have been to
the detriment of subcultural homogenity. One Baptist youth director expressed
this position graphically. Responding to the forementioned item on the relation-
ship between conversion and religious education, he added, "Need conversion
first, with religious education to follow." In summary to this point, it has been
argued that there are three mechanisms in the proselytization process (contacting,
bridging and assimilation) which operationallyhas afunneling effect. Of the "pool of
potential converts" to the evangelical denominations, few appear to be contacted,
even fewer bridged, and the number which are assimilated appear even fewer.

ProselytizationConsequences
Our analysis of membership additions revealed that between 1966 and 1970,
the 20 churches admitted a total of 1,532 members. Some 1,104 (72%) were
reaffiliates from other evangelical congregations while 284 (18%) were children
of members. Less than 9% (132) were outsiders. It is interesting to observe that,
together, the congregations thus averaged less than two (1.3) such proselyte mem-
bership additions per year per congregation.
The Outsiders
The 132 outsiders who went through the proselytization processes of contact-
ing, bridging and assimilation can be classified according to the relationship the
individual outsider had with evangelicals prior to the processes. Utilizing this
criterion for classification, 32% were either married or engaged to evangelicals,
while another 13% had evangelical siblings, children, grandparents, in-laws, etc.
Clearly, through such family ties it is conceivable that the contact was made, the
bridge provided, and even a basis for subcultural commonality became available.
Friends. Another 29% (38) of the outsiders were brought into the groups
through friends. In at least 19 of these cases, the evangelical seemed to have
played a conscious role in the process. For example, a nurse was said to have been
instrumental in the conversion of a patient; a couple brought three neighborhood
children a great distance to a Baptist Sunday School. In many of the remaining 19
cases, the linking role of the evangelical was probably less conscious. Most, for
example, seemed to have been adolescents, brought spontaneously by friends to
Sunday School and youth groups.13 The importance of the young contacting the
young is suggested in Table 3, where predominantly young evangelicals appear to
have provided the instrumental link with the churches for 24 of the 27 non-family
outsiders between the ages of 10 and 19.

"3The data are not precise with respect to how the young people got to the youth activities.
Among
churchmen it is a "taken-for-granted" that they (i) come with friends and to a lesser extent (ii) are sent
by nominally involved parents who themselves have a history of religious participation. Given these
logical possibilities, we would concur. Concerning the second point, half of these 19 young people for
whom information was available were said to have come from non-evangelical church
backgrounds.
198 SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

TABLE 3

Proselyte Categories by Age

Age Family Freinds Marginals Others TOTALS

10-19 7 24 2 1 34 (26%)
20-29 30 6 5 6 47 (35%)
30-39 14 5 8 3 30 (23%)
40-49 5 1 1 3 10 (8%)
50-59 1 2 1 1 5 (4%)
Over 59 2 0 4 0 6 (4%)

Totals 59 38 21 14 132
(45%) (29%) (16%) (10%) (100%)

Marginal Outsiders.An additional 16% (21) of the outsiders were people who
were said to have essentially "come on their own." With regard to our contact-
bridging-assimilation thesis, it appears that people in this category may have come
on their own (although not necessarily alone) primarily because they were already
familiar with church life. Perhaps the contact began through an impersonal
mechanism such as the mass media. More specifically, nine of these individuals
had been involved previously with other evangelical congregations, but had never
before "professed faith." That is, there had been earlier contacting and bridging
without complete assimilation. The other twelve people in this category all had
histories of religious involvement with Catholic and more liberal Protestant
groups; indeed, six were church members upon their arrival in evangelical
churches. These 21 people seemed to be part of the Christian community and as
such were, relative to the evangelicals, only marginal outsiders. Sociologically,
many of them were simply "switchers." Given their relative "proximity" to the
evangelicals, then perhaps bridging mechansims were not as necessary for many
of them.
Others.A further 6% (8) of the 132 proselytes had been converted at city-wide
crusades and were referred to specific evangelical churches by crusade personnel.
So contacted and in part at least bridged by fulfilling the first rite of passage, such
outsiders presented themselves to congregations for mutual appraisal. Another
4% (6) of the proselytes were initially contacted through specific clerical visits to
home and hospital.
It is thus clear from the findings that evangelism among these 20 churches took
place primarily through existent ties with family and friends, a finding consistent
with that of Gerlach and Hine (1968). By far the majority of new members were
evangelicals and their relatives.
Discussion
It is our conclusion that the major reason for the relatively low number of
proselytes is that the evangelistic programs of the 20 churches largely failed to
provide adequate mechanisms for making contact with outsiders and providing a
 WHEN PROSELYTIZING FAILS 199

bridge between the outsiders and the religious groups. As noted, where proselytes
did become members, such mechanisms were evident. Significantly, such a find-
ing suggests that regardlessof the social characteristics and psychological disposi-
tion of the potential members, many were not "brought in" because of problems
with the shepherds.Critics might argue that the problem may not have been with
the evangelicals but with the outsiders-they may simply have been unresponsive
to "faithful overtures." In other words, the problem may have been one of
receptivity rather than invitation. However from our investigation, we would
conclude that this is not the case.
Further, we certainly are not trying to maintain that contact, bridging, and
assimilation will have proselytism as the inevitable result. Obviously some people
will not be responsive to membership even when one, two, or even all three
conditions are met. Rather, we are asserting that insofar as outsiders have become
members of the churches, the conditions of contact, bridging, and acceptance
have been fulfilled. In short, we suggest these not as sufficient but rather as
necessary conditions for the occurrence of proselyte membership.
To move to a second point, given that the evangelistic programs of these
proselyte-minded churches appear to be poorly designed for the assimilation of
outsiders, one cannot help but ask the obvious question: why? If the goal is not
actually being realized, why do such congregations continue year after year to use
their particular means of outreach? Why, for example, do churches continue to
hold weekly evangelistic-type services in their buildings when few if any outsiders
are ever present?
One obvious explanation is that on the surface, such evangelistic programs do
"work." Many family members, including relatives, are responding to the
evangelistic appeals and are being "converted." Until such time as someone does
some counting-as has been attempted in this study-it is easy to believe that
evangelistic programs are being "successful." But if "success" is being measured in
terms of reaching out to people beyond one's kin, these conservative churches are
enjoying limited "success."
Part of the explanation for this "failure" to reach outsiders may well lie in a
number of important latent functions which evangelistic programs appear to have
within the evangelical community. Although the current mechanisms do not
reach the intended objective, they tend to persist and not be replaced because they
do tend to serve important organizational functions. For one thing, holding
evangelistic services even when the audience is predominantly Christian gives a
church the appearance of "preaching the gospel to the lost," allowing a member to
feel that he belongs to an "evangelistic church."
Secondly, some aspects of evangelistic programs may well serve an entertain-
ment function. Some evangelicals have indicated that on Sunday nights they go to
what they regard as "the best services in town." It is hard to escape the conclusion
that while evangelistic services are manifestly held as a means of converting
"sinners," latently they perform an important entertainment function for many.14
Finally, evangelistic programs in the churches do, among.other possibilities, serve

14Mann(1962) has suggested that for many earlier evangelical groups in Alberta who stressed personal
holiness and separation from "worldly" forms of recreation, evangelistic services functioned as an
important entertainment outlet.
200 SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

to perpetuate the evangelical subculture. Even though few outsiders may be

present, opportunities exist for the relatives and friends of the members to
experience an important "rite of passage." It may thus well be that such religious
groups are organizationally defective with respect to the explicit goal of pro-
selytism, precisely because, with respect to latent functions, it is advantageous to
be so.
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