Evangelism, or enthusiastic preaching of the Christian gospel, has always played an important role in U.S. Protestantism, as in the Great Awakening of colonial days or the Methodist camp meetings on the frontier in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, evangelism often took the form of elaborate crusades organized by such preachers as Billy Sunday (1862–1935; see entry under 1900s—The Way We Lived in volume 1), Oral Roberts (1918–), or Billy Graham (1918–), or, later, in the multimedia productions of "televangelists" like Pat Robertson (1930–) with his 700 Club, Jim Bakker (1940–) and his wife, Tammy Faye Bakker (1942–), with their PTL Network, and Jerry Falwell (1933–) with his Moral Majority.

While all Christians, including mainstream Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox believers, affirm baptism as a prerequisite for church membership, many evangelicals demand a "born-again" experience in which an already baptized Christian undergoes a personal experience with Jesus Christ. To these believers, evangelism involves...