What is the Church doing in the community?

The Ellison Group just released interesting survey results about church evangelism.

Click here to see it yourself with all the charts and the like.

Its got some good news and some not so good news. I encourage you to read it directly.

The nationwide survey was focused on measuring the level of involvement in evangelistic activities and in community outreach programs among Protestant churches.

The good news:

97 percent of all churches report doing something specifically for the purpose of evangelism over the past year.

Methods for church evangelism include

• Vacation Bible School (VBS),
• literature or tract distribution,
• events such as block parties or “Fall Festivals,” and
• musical events or concerts.

At least churches are trying.

The Not So Good News

Here is the headline:

Four out of ten pastors lack strong interest in increasing community outreach.

The article explains how

• “they would rather focus on their own congregation than on the community,
• they would rather focus on spiritual needs than on physical needs,
• it’s not a major priority for their church,
• their community has no major needs,
• other organizations do these things better than they do, or
• their congregation or community really aren’t interested in community outreach.

This is consistent across all major denominational groups, as well as between evangelical and mainline churches.”

As an evangelism trainer, I want to change that statistic.

I want to help pastors and churches get a heart for their communities.

I want to see churches effectively impact the communities they serve.

Pastor, find the burden.

It starts with prayer.

Prayer for your community.

And soliciting prayer from your community.

Invite your elders, officers, and ministry leaders to pray for the community.

You’ll begin to see the need, and you’ll begin to get a heart for what God will have you do there.