A Growing Interest in Evangelism

A few years ago, a fellow minister remarked that he had been observing an increasing interest in evangelism within the OPC, something I had also noticed. Indeed, it seems that in the last five to ten years, the Lord has been kindling a growing desire in Reformed churches in general, and the OPC in particular, to reach the unchurched and unconverted—to see our local churches growing, not just through transfers but also through gathering in the lost. This has certainly been the case in the Presbytery of New Jersey and Puerto Rico, and it is exciting.

Growth at Grace OPC in Westfield, NJ

I’m Chris Byrd, regional home evangelist for the Presbytery of New Jersey and Puerto Rico. A burden for evangelism was placed on my heart when I first served as an intern at the Boardwalk Chapel in 2014. Speaking every day with people from all over the northeast about Christ, I realized that our churches are surrounded by people who have never heard the gospel clearly articulated.

In early 2018, I came to our presbytery’s Home Missions Committee and explained my desire to serve an existing church alongside another pastor with a focus on reaching people outside the church. At the same time, Rev. Timothy Ferguson, pastor of Grace OPC in Westfield, New Jersey, was thinking along the same lines. When he was installed in 2015, the congregation had only eighteen active members. By 2018, the Lord had grown that number to fifty-five. With the increased pastoral load, Tim no longer had time for the degree of evangelistic outreach he had been engaged in, and he desired a second minister to help lead the work of evangelism. The committee connected us, and I was installed as evangelist at Grace in 2020, where I served until last spring.

The Lord greatly blessed and continues to bless the outward growth of Grace. From 2018–2024, Grace received forty-five people by profession of faith! There are several factors, I believe, that the Lord has used in this growth. First, the Lord has used preaching. The division of labor allowed Tim to focus more on preaching that speaks to and instructs the saints but is also intelligible to the unchurched, and that always includes an explicit gospel proclamation and call. A common testimony in session interviews of those preparing to publicly profess faith was that God used the preaching at Grace to help them understand the gospel and their need for Christ.

Another important factor is the evangelistic culture that has developed in the congregation. Most new professions of faith were made by people who had been invited by a friend or relative to worship. People at Grace regularly think about, talk about, and pray for those they want to see come to Christ, which naturally flows into speaking to friends about the Lord and inviting them to “come and see.”

A Burden for the Church

During my time at Grace, I realized more clearly that my burden for evangelism was in part a burden for the church—a desire to see the church become more evangelistic. This eventually led to being called last year as our presbytery’s regional home evangelist. In this role, my mission is to assist existing churches and future church plants in outward growth through evangelism and promoting a culture of prayer and witness.

Part of this call involves serving as a full-time “evangelist in residence” each spring at one of our presbytery’s congregations. In 2025, I completed my first residence at Providence OPC in Mantua, New Jersey. While there, I taught a twelve-week Sunday School series on evangelism, preached on passages related to the evangelistic mission of the church, engaged in evangelistic work, served as a partner to the session, labored in prayer for the lost, and worked to encourage the congregation in prayer and witness. The Lord has certainly been blessing the preaching and witness of Providence and answering prayers in wonderful ways. Among those blessings is a man in his twenties, soon to be baptized, and another man, a father of two with no church background, being discipled in the gospel.

Watch the Sunday school class video below about Chris’ ministry.

The Boardwalk Chapel

My call also involves serving as director of evangelism at the Boardwalk Chapel in Wildwood, New Jersey. Established in 1945 by our presbytery as an evangelistic preaching station on Wildwood’s famous boardwalk, a modern-day “Vanity Fair” that millions of people visit every summer, the Boardwalk Chapel has developed in recent years into an evangelism and lay apologetics training ground.

Up to forty-five students and adults serve on staff each summer, and each week, churches from all over the United States send groups for an intensive evangelism training and missions experience. There I have the privilege of training staff and church groups, teaching on prayer and evangelism, overseeing several evangelism conferences, mentoring seminarian interns, and engaging in daily evangelism.

In the last three summers alone, ninety thousand gospel tracts have been handed out, and over four thousand people have had the gospel personally shared with them, with more than seven hundred Bibles and gospels of John given to those who show particular interest in knowing more about Christ. And tens of thousands of people came within hearing of the gospel preached nightly from the Boardwalk Chapel.

We won’t know all the ways the Lord is using these tracts, conversations, Bibles, prayers, and this preaching, but we do know that in Christ our labor is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58). And we have been encouraged by testimonies reminding us of this.

One couple emailed us that their son had been on the boardwalk the previous summer when a Chapel staff member began to witness to him. A seed was planted that flourished over the course of the year, and the son had recently professed his faith. They wrote: “We have prayed for our son for years, and somehow that gentleman [from the Boardwalk Chapel] got through to him. Praise Jesus!”

The ministry of the Boardwalk Chapel is increasingly being used to encourage and equip Christians and churches for their evangelistic witness back home. Two young ministers now involved in evangelism or church planting recently shared that their experience at the Boardwalk Chapel several years ago is what ignited a passion for home missions. A veteran OPC minister shared that he returned home from our evangelism conference two years ago with a renewed focus on the ministry of prayer—and that the Lord has been using this to grow the congregation he serves.

Our desire is that the Boardwalk Chapel would continue to be a place where local church members and leaders from our presbytery and beyond can come for intensive evangelism training and ministry and return home with strengthened faith in the power of God through his gospel and a new or renewed vision for reaching the lost in their own communities.

Forced to Pray

A central piece of all this evangelism teaching and ministry has been prayer. I believe prayer—both prayer meetings and impromptu prayers pleading with the Lord for the Spirit’s power and work—has been a key element in the fruit we have seen in Westfield, Mantua, and Wildwood. (For more, click HERE to read Rev. Aijalon Church’s wonderful article “Forced to Pray on the Boardwalk” on OPC.org.) Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain (Ps. 127:1).

In prayer, we ask the Lord to give what we cannot produce ourselves: hunger for God, conviction of sin, spiritual sight, wisdom, and love. We pray to the God who hears and who promises great things in his Word (John 14:12–14).

Give thanks for the increasing work of evangelism in our churches. And let us pray that the Lord will continue preparing a great spiritual harvest and that he will continue shaping the church into an army of sowers and reapers so that we might all rejoice together in due time!

A Growing Interest in Evangelism