How exactly is it that people come to faith in Jesus? It’s something that requires a miracle of the Holy Spirit working in someone’s heart, of course, but there’s a human element which provides a context in which the Holy Spirit works. In the Western church nowadays, we tend to assume that it happens during one-to-one interactions, and so we emphasise personal evangelism and personal commitment.
In his very readable little book entitled The Bridges of God, first published in 1955, Donald McGavran asserts that people primarily come to faith in Jesus through group decisions, rather than through individual ones. The book, which is one of the most important missiology books of the 20th Century, asserts that the “mission station” approach to evangelism, which involves rescuing people out of their environment one at a time, is inferior to the “people movement” approach, in which whole groups of related people become Christians at the same time through a group decision making process.
Although the book talks primarily about cross-cultural missions work in non-Western countries, it seems to me that McGavran’s insights are highly relevant to evangelism today in Western countries. In spite of the value which we place on individualism, most people make their important decisions in life through a consultation process with other trusted people, although they are usually peers rather than family members.