A good question, and this ties into something I've been thinking about.Josh wrote:I would daresay most conservative Anabaptists are active in evangelism. You can spend about as much free time as you want going to street meetings, cottage meetings, tract distribution, kids' clubs, or mission trips as you want to. And then there are mission-oriented church plants both within the Western world and outside of it you could move to be a part of.
There are a few select groups, like German Baptists (Old Conference) or Old Order Amish who don't do a lot of evangelical-style evangelism, or might do none at all, but that does not represent the majority of conservative Anabaptists.
A greater question is if this all this activity is particularly effective at creating disciples.
Supposedly Old Orders don't "evangelize". They try to show people a better way to live. If anyone wants to come and join them and submit to the group they can. (I don't actually have first-hand info; most of what I know about such groups comes from reports from outside them from people who left them.) Whereas Conservative Anabaptist groups have adopted revivalism, personal evangelism, etc.
But when I consider how I came to start attending CA churches, it actually looks a lot more like reading about a better way to live and wanting to come join them. Aside from purchasing produce and asking to take photographs from their property, my first interaction with CA's was by reading what they wrote about Christians and politics, the Sermon on the Mount, salvation from sin and conditional security. My first personal interactions were with Josh and ernie on this site to get info on the Beachy church I attend. My first in-person interaction with CA's about religious matters was when I showed up to that church.
Not all CA seekers are the same of course. This seems like a Cory Anderson kind of question: Are there stats on how non-Anabaptist background people find CA's? How many come from, say...
1. Personal interactions with CA's about religious matters before having an interest in Anabaptism
2. Revivalism (singing in public places and handing out tracts)
3. Seeing them "from afar" then reading about them, then coming
4. Other means
And then what does that say about the effectiveness of our evangelistic methods?