Over the past 50 years, the percentage of Americans who self-identify as Christian has declined from 90% to 64% , according to a recent Pew Research Center study. In addition, less than half of Americans claim active membership in a house of worship.

The decline of American religious practice is mirrored by a startling rise of people who profess no religious preference, also known as “nones.” This rise is most prevalent among younger Americans , who are far less likely than older generations to profess a belief in God or the necessity of religious practice. If current demographic trends hold, Christians will comprise less than half of the United States population in the coming decades for the first time in its history.

For most modern American evangelists, maintaining demographic majorities for the sake of cultural power is not the primary concern — most have come to terms with the end of Christianity’s predominance in modern culture, as well as the hostile targeting Christianity attracts from the nation’s major cultural institutions. Instead, the stark decline is understood foremost in spiritual terms. The reality of the Gospel — that God became man, suffered death, and rose from the dead in order to repair the spiritual estrangement caused by sin — is of an order of magnitude greater than politics. Christ, they believe, is not a symbolic figurehead of an earthly tribe, but the very real son of the living God who is in pursuit of very real souls. The mission of evangelists in any age is to spread the Gospel to every corner of the earth, no matter how hostile the terrain and without regard for personal risk.

In the 21st century, America has rapidly transformed from being a vibrant Christian stronghold to missionary territory. In addition to the spiritual calamity produced by this shift, the practical results have been disastrous. Americans now self-report being more angry, depressed, addicted, and alienated from one another than ever before. They boast a lifestyle of convenience and abundance unknown to the kings and queens of history, and yet they derive increasingly little satisfaction from life. The utopian promises of post-religious, postmodern secularism have rendered America a psychic and spiritual wasteland.

And yet, despite these unfavorable conditions, there are some rays of sunshine busting through for the American Christian church thanks to certain evangelists who have made enormous efforts to spread the Gospel and draw the public back into the fold (each would quickly correct me and give all credit to God).

I’ve spoken to a number of them in recent months in order to discover their methods and shine a light upon the success of their ministries. My aspiration for this Restoring America series, entitled "Great American Evangelists," is to create a repository of best practices for evangelization from across the Christian landscape and to counteract the deluge of negative headlines about American church participation.

When Mike Housholder took the helm as senior pastor at Lutheran Church of Hope in Des Moines, Iowa on All Saints' Day in 1994, the church had 15 members. Despite his every effort, they just couldn’t seem to gain traction in the community. This gave rise to a proverbial “come to Jesus” moment for Housholder that convinced him to rely less upon his own efforts and more on God’s. The guiding question of the church changed from “What can we do?” to “What can God do through us?”

For one, it became clear that Housholder and his flock needed to “get out of God’s way” and simply meet the needs of the Des Moines community at that moment in time. Later that year, when their city experienced a terrible flood, Housholder and his tiny flock set to laying sandbags with other workers and volunteers from the community. The incident was a catalyst for decades of service work, which would eventually involve partnering with local and international organizations to serve the downtrodden.

“We've had a heart for service since the beginning," Housholder told the Washington Examiner. "We've been put here to reflect the light of God's love to the world around us, to make Des Moines a better place to reside and live. And that starts with standing alongside the people hurting the most, who are broken.”

Three decades of ministry later, despite emerging in an era of cataclysmic declines in church affiliation and attendance, Lutheran Church of Hope has grown from 15 members to approximately 10,000, a figure that doesn’t include the thousands of others who participate in church services online each Sunday. According to Outreach100.com , Lutheran Church of Hope is currently the fastest-growing church in America. After speaking with Housholder and viewing their available media, it’s easy to see why: They’ve clearly and prayerfully thought things through, and they aren’t shy about rolling up their sleeves.

"We focus on mission,” Housholder told me, “because most people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. We give people a chance to activate their faith in service. We aren’t just here to ‘consume faith’ but to make a difference in the world."

In addition to their mission work, Lutheran Church of Hope instructs its members in the intellectual aspects of the faith with equal intensity. They are currently submerged in a “Bible in a year” program that Housholder hopes will connect the dots between the Old and New Testaments and deepen his congregation’s relationship to the truth of the Gospel. They also offer a wide variety of classes on theology and spirituality online and in person, the details of which are easily accessible through their sleek and user-friendly website.

“There are a lot of people who believe in Jesus,” Housholder told me, “but who have no idea how deep scripture goes. How much reason we have for belief.”

Housholder seemed particularly concerned with the tension between the poles of service work and theological formation and worship. Each taken separate from the other, he believes, can steer a church into a ditch. Without strong formation and vibrant worship, the church becomes just another charitable organization, indistinguishable from any number of NGOs. Meanwhile, a purely spiritualistic approach denies the responsibility of the people of God to lift up the lowly and spread hope.

Housholder likes to use an analogy to remind his congregation of the need to remain attuned to the Holy Spirit in order to determine which course the church should take at a given moment:

“If the church is a big sailboat and the whole congregation is on the boat and we say, OK, in order to get this moving on the count of three, we are all going to blow as hard as we can into the sails, even if we coordinate perfectly and push as much breath as we can through our lungs, we aren't going to get to sailboat to move much. But if we learn to set the sails to the wind of God’s spirit, that ship is gonna take off.”

In the case of Lutheran Church of Hope, it sure has.

Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner and the founder of Crush the College Essay. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, the National Catholic Register, and the American Spectator.