From 1726 until after the Revolutionary War, Americans experiecned a phenomenon known ad the Great Awakening. During
this period a seried of revivals spread from town to town until over 150 communities had seen
people coming to Christ in great numbers. the impetus for this series of revivals was preaching for
conversion which aroused a deep consciousness fo sin and an anxiety for salvation. The emphasis
upon experienced religion as opposed to perfuntory church membership. Many had come into
churches through a "half-way covenant" which alloed membership to children of believers regardless
of their perosnal religious experience. The new emotional appeal reached out to many who had, until
then, been indifferent to religion. The revial centered its emphasis upon an emotional experience.
Revival meetings were accompanied by weping, wailing, the holy laugh, and dancing, as well as by
such things as barking like a dog, treeing the devil, jerking and falling to the ground in a dead faint. In
revival the preacher must appeal to the emotions as well as to the inteliect. A purely intellectual
sermon misses the heart. Some emotional
sermons may be exciting while failing to provide a sound grounding in God's
Word. Experience is not enough. the experience must be of God.
Some of the revivals had the effect of producing dissent and schism. Some
people felt too cultured or too educated to become involved in such
emotional religion. they called it uncouth, ignorant, awkward and poor.  On
the other hand, the revivalist saw the established churches as cold and as
out of touch with the Holy Spirit.
the Great Awakening affected all the major denominations, including the
Baptists. It provided a great stimulus for evangelism. 
Since it found much of its impetus in spirit filled, emotional preaching, it
is worth pausing to look at two great Baptist preachers. One was british and
a product of the 19th century. the other was Amecican and the procduct of
the 20th century. Most people woulod have to pause if asked their
denomination. Yet each was a Baptist.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon grew up in Colchester England. At age 15 he
stopped in a chapel to escape a snow storm. Only a dozen people stopped
for worship that Sunday morning. The pastor's text was "Look unto me and
be saved all the ends of the earth." During that hour, Spurgeon looked to
Christ and found him as Savior and Lord. Having been converted in a
Methodist chapel this young man was, five months later, baptized into a
Baptist church. His paretns were congregationalist. His mother once said, "I
often prayed that you might be converted, but I never asked that you might
be a Baptists." Three years later Spurgeon heard the call to preach. He
began preaching to a congregation of twenty. In two years that congregation
grew to 400. He was called to pastor a church in London. that congregation
soon had to build a new facility, the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle. For
37 years the seats of the 5,000 seat church will filled each time Spurgeon
preached. 
the secrets of his pulpit ministry were passion of heart, love of sinners,
and a flaming desire to win people to Christ. He preached to be
understood, using the language of the comon folk. this caused other
preachers to question his learning. They preferred to use long words to
show off their training Spurgeon's church became a center of spiritual power
touching hearts around the world.
Billy Graham was born November 7, 1918. He was raised in a Southern
Presbyterian church. In 1936 evangelis Mordecai Ham came to Charlotte
N.C. Graham scoffed at the efforts the evangelist made to win the people of
his home town. Still, before the crusade was over, Billy Graham had walked
down the aisle to receive Christ as his Savior. He felt the urge to preach.
Even while fininshing High School he preached  in missions and churches
near his home. Then he went to Bible School and college. After graduation
he became a pastor but soon went to work for youth for Christ
International. Along the way he became a Baptist. In 1939, he was ordained
by a Southern Baptist Church. though a Bpatist, Graham had a heart to
reach all people. In 1943 he became the pastor of the First Baptist Chruch
of Western Springs, IL. He quickly convined the membership to rename the
church the Villiage Chrch. his wife, Ruth, the daughter of a Presbyterian
missionary, refused baptism by immersion and remained a Presbyterian. 
By 1946 Graham had become president of Northwestern College in
Minneapolis. At the sdame time he accepted that task he also formed an
evangelistic team. He and the team began leading revivals in many towns.
Time after time, his campaigns were the largest that particular town had
ever seen. 
In 1949 Graham was invited by an organization to do its annual
evangelistic campaign in Los Angeles. Eight weeks later, as that campaign
ended Graham had become a world famous evangelist. He had receied
coverage in major national magazines. Still, the secret to that early success,
and to continued success has been, "Not I, but Christ."
Successful evangelism cannot be left to preacher. Dr. Graham has always
insisted on a year or more of preparation for cursades. He knows, and so
should we, that the secrets of success in evanfgelism are prayer and personal
work. No matter how great the preacher, no one will be converted unless
those in need are brought to hear him. We, as Christians, need to reach out
to others and to pray for them that they might come to know Jesus.
At one time, the American Baptists had an emphasis on evangelism that
used the motto, "each one, reach one." The Southern Baptists, at aobut the
same time published a book on evangelism titled, Every Christian's Job. In
that book, the author pointed out that in 1957, it took 22 Southern Baptists
to win one soul to Chirst. think about this for a moment. the great growth
fo the Southern Bapsits took place with an average of only one baptism for
each 22 members. It's worth pausing to think about how our own church is
doing. how mamy member did it take to win one soul to Christ in the past
year? At that rate, how long would it take to win the world?
Another Baptist emphasis on evangelism took place in the 1970s. 150
organizatins joined together in 1973 under the banner of "Key 73." Among
them were seven Baptist conventions. Baptists, along with other Christians
made a concerted effort to renew the outreach of God's church. Out of htis
emphasis grew a program in the American Baptist Chruches csalled the
"Evangelistic LifeStyle." the thrust here was that you must shoe Christ in
both word and deed. Again it is repeated that the job of every Christian in
to make Christ known. When your actions detract from that task, a new life
style must be adopted. When your words fail to carry the message then you
need to learn to be more comfortable talking about Christ.
During that period a ministry grew in the Baptists which was copied form
others. Otehrs called it the "Lay Witness Mission." American Baptists called
it "Macedonia Ministries." It was a weekend devoted simply to helping
church mmebers become more comfortable sharing their faith.
19890 brought a new flurry of evanglistic ferver in the ABC/USA. At that
time, Emmett Johnson was hired to lead the denomination's work in
evangelism. Others who took on the role included David Laubauch and
Duncan McIntosh. We have seen how Emmett Johnson and Duncan
McIntosh have been chairmen of the National Council of Churches'
Commisison on Worship and Evangelism. During that 1980s there were
many efforts made to expand the evangelistic work of ABC churches. these
efforts carried into the 90s.