EENZ is a non-profit ministry organisation serving local churches for nearly thirty years, by assisting pastors and leaders to equip their members to share the gospel. EENZ is led by a National Director who works with an Auckland-based team, as well as with volunteers throughout the country. EENZ is overseen by a Board of lay and ordained Christians from several denominations who give guidance and direction to the ministry.
Mission Statement
To glorify God by equipping local churches to multiply through friendship, evangelism, discipleship and healthy growth.
Vision Statement
Every nation equipping every people group and every age group to witness to every person.
Evangelism Explosion is an international equipping ministry that trains people how to share their faith in Christ, and equips them to train others to do the same. We are a non-profit ministry organisation serving local churches, by assisting pastors and leaders to equip their members to share the gospel.
EE training can be conducted during a weekend training workshop, or in a weekly church-based small group. It utilises a variety of components including prayer, actual on-the-job training where the experienced lead the inexperienced, and the principle of spiritual multiplication.
“Multiplication” is the key component; not just winning people to the Lord one-by-one (addition), but training those won to the Lord to win, and then train, others. In the Book of Acts we read that the disciples “multiplied” and “multiplied exceedingly.” This shift from addition to spiritual multiplication offers the one real hope of sharing the Gospel with a world population that is, itself, continually multiplying.
On-the-job training is another vital ingredient. By actually going out with experienced trainers in real life witnessing situations, people learn how to share their faith. Much like learning to fly an aeroplane would be impossible without actually getting in the cockpit, evangelism is difficult without leaving the confines of a classroom.
By learning small parts of the Gospel each week, including Bible verses and illustrations, people incrementally grasp a Gospel tool that becomes a lifelong mission.
The History of EE
EE is an international, multi-denominational, non-profit missions organisation whose operations are dependent upon our Lord’s grace and the gifts of His people.
EE was started in the United States of America in 1962 by Dr D James Kennedy. As a young pastor, Jim watched all his attempts to grow his first congregation go down the tubes. His church attendance dipped. Recalling those difficult times, he said, “Extrapolation made it clear that I had two-and-a-half months of ministry left before I was preaching to only my wife—and she was threatening to go to the Baptist Church down the street!”
Jim called this time the lowest point in his ministry. It was then that friend, and pastor, Kennedy Smartt, invited Jim to assist him in, of all things, a series of evangelistic services in Scottdale, Georgia, “I who had decimated one church was being asked to ship my technique across state lines. Have plague will travel!” quipped Jim.
During those ten days of meetings, Jim simply went out with his friend and watched him engage people spiritually. By the end of the meetings, 54 people made professions of faith in Christ. Jim returned to Fort Lauderdale with the seeds that eventually became Evangelism Explosion. His church began to grow, and grow. In a brief 12-year period, church membership increased from 17 to 2,000.
Realizing that he couldn’t do this alone, he made witness-training a bedrock of his ministry, utilising on-the-job training. In 1967, his Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church was singled out as the most rapidly expanding church in America. In 1972, EE was incorporated with its own staff and Board of Directors. As it spread to other countries, EE materials were translated into other languages. By 1984 more training clinics were held overseas than were held in the US.
In early 1996 EE was planted in all nations of the world. Materials have been translated into more than 70 different languages and clinics have been held in many nations. But there is still much work yet to be done developing national leadership and establishing strong, indigenous ministries in every nation.
