Evangelism Coach

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Bill Tenny-Brittain wrote an article entitled “The Stewardship of Friends” published in May/June 08 of NetResults.org magazine. 

It is excerpted from his book Hitchhiker’s Guide to Evangelism, available from Chalice Press in fall 2008. 

I had the chance to read Bill’s book prior to publishing and am glad to recommend this book to you.

The essential point in Bill’s article states:

“One of the saddest admissions I regularly hear from churched Christians is that they don’t really have any unchurched friends. Now, the key word there is friend.”

When I do a teaching exercise as part of the evangelism workshops that I give, I find the same thing.  I ask people to give me the names of 3 people they are close to who do not go to church and who do not have a relationship with Jesus as best they can tell.

I get lots of blank stares and empty faces. 

The answer is often zero.

So how to do develop those new relationships?  Bill asks five practical questions / steps to help you think through this.

1. Pull out your calendar. On what two tasks or chores have you spent the most time over the past two months? How does that make you feel:  satisfied, justified, horrified, embarrassed, happy, sad?

2. How much time have you spent with an unchurched person? With unchurched people?

3. Who do you know that you could “get to know better” over the next two months? List at least three people. (Note: you may not yet know their names.)

4. List five things you can do to get to better know at least one of the above-listed people. Make sure you include appropriate ways both to meet them more formally and to move past casual introductions.

5. Grab your calendar again and calendar a deadline for meeting and doing something with (or for) this person.

Dr. Bill Tenny-Brittain is the Senior Editor of Net Results and a Senior Consultant with Easum, Bandy, & Associates.

He is the author of a number of books on aspects of spirituality, evangelism, and church growth. In addition, Bill spends much of his time helping congregations navigate their way through the maze of the changing North American culture. He lives in Missouri with his wife Kris.

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www.EvangelismBookstore.com.

• Churches are buying their entire curriculum for the season.
• Students are ordering their textbooks.
• Small group leaders are buying in bulk.

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Do you like digital reading?

Try

I’ve been reading reviews of the product.  I’d love to get one of my own.   I regularly by 5-7 books at a time and the thought of carrying them in my suitcase doesn’t excite me.   I’m also running out of shelving. 

I’ve chatted with a few users that love this little device. 

Advantages: Light weight, no bookshelves needed, purchase books from anywhere, and most books appear to be cheaper than print versions.

Personal Evangelism Book

Many of us know people who seem to have a simple time sharing their faith. 

When we think of the successful evangelists we know, many seem like

• easy and out going extroverts,
• who have no problem talking to strangers,
• or causally talking about faith with everyone at the family reunion. 

No fear in them at all. 

However, many of us can be paralyzed by our Evangelism Fears.  There are different Fears of Evangelism

Introvert Evangelism

But what about those who are more introverted?  How do we share our faith?

This is the question that Evangelism for the Rest of Us: Sharing Christ within Your Personality Style, Mike Bechtle, seeks to address.

“God designed us with a specific purpose in mind.

The reason?

So we could do what He wants us to do, in the unique way that nobody else could do it.

Why should we try to do it differently? … When introverts spend time trying to function like extroverts, they’re doing more than just wasting time.

They’re actually robbing themselves of the very tools God gave them to do his work.”

However, most programs designed to teach evangelism assume that a person is outgoing and confident in situations like talking to complete strangers in a public setting.

“I’ve found that when I try to share my faith in unnatural ways, my fear gets larger and tends to stop me from sharing. That kind of fear almost always signals that I’m sharing out of guilt instead of compassion.

But when I share in ways that fit with God’s design for me, a creative tension compels me to look for new ways to move forward.

Compassion drives me to look for unique, appropriate ways to make a spiritual connection.”

Bechtle really seeks to develop a way that those of us are a little more on the introverted side can still feel pretty natural in sharing our faith. 

The book doesn’t really go into the mechanics of sharing your faith (your Personal Testimony, God’s story, any gospel scripts illustrations).

Rather, he seeks to show introverts conversational settings where they can feel comfortable in talking about their faith.

He does seek to show biblical methods of evangelism, and conversational skills that are matched to your personality.

Over all a good read and one that is worthy of your dime.

Order your copy of Evangelism for the Rest of Us: Sharing Christ within Your Personality Style, Mike Bechtle from Amazon and EvangelismBookstore.com

I finished reading

Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church.

This book is sure to be on the top of the list for Visitor Assimilation texts. 

Note: I read Beyond the First Visit: The Complete Guide to Connecting Guests to Your Church, Gary McIntosh (see my review at Assimilating Church Visitors- Beyond the First Visit). 

To make a comparison between the two books is like comparing a Ferrari to a Escort. 

There are several key elements to Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church that have made their visitor retention rate so astronomical. 

I write about one idea for Survey First Time Visitors.

The entire process is laid out simply in their book (along with lots of shameless plugs for Searcy’s other materials).  

Visitors are gifts from God

His beginning point is to recognize that in God’s sovereignty, every visitor is a Gift to your church.  They didn’t show up by chance.  But rather, as a gift, and “first time gifts full of unparalleled potential.” 

How can we turn them into developing members? 

“By sending that guest to you, God is giving you the privilege of cooperating with Him to move someone forward in their journey toward Jesus.”

What visitor retention rate do I need to reach?

Searcy leads us on a practical exercise.  If you are reading this, think about your church.  To help you bench mark, statistics suggest that each year a church needs to keep

• 3 guests /100 attenders to maintain itself
• 5 guests / 100 attenders to steadily grow
• 7 guests or more / 100 attenders to rapidly grow

Considering your church, how many guests do you need to keep each year?

How well do you retain church visitors now?

What is your retention ratio?  More specifically, here are 6 facts to dig up for your church

• Average attendance per month 2 years ago.
• Average attendance same month 1 year ago.
• What is your annual growth?  Hopefully, the second number is higher than the 1st.
• How many first time guests did you have during the past year?
• Divide your growth / the total number of first timers.

How many visitor you keep?

Assimilation Process

The basic assimilation system that is presented in Fusion is a simple (in overview anyway). 

1. Turn a first time guest into a second time guest.
2. Turn a second time guest into a regular attender.
3. Turn a regular attender into a fully developing member.

The entire rest of the book explores this process and system as it has developed at The Journey church.

The temptation will be to simply buy the book and implement the process as if the process is the key that will solve all your visitor retention problems.  That is systems thinking and treating this system as the next big thing.   Searcy concedes “the church is not a business,” yet in the same sentence adds “[but] we would be smart to take some cues from the consumer-conscious service world.”   This is a solid “nuts and bolts” resource for congregations and ministries alike.

You will need to tweak it for your local context.  For example, their process is very dependent upon email and it is of utmost priority to capture email addresses from their visitors.  Their system depends on it.  Yet some of you may have churches in areas and with people who still don’t use email.  How will you adjust the system to your context?

There are so many variables in visitor retention, including the system.  Others include the friendliness of the congregation, presentation of the facilities, and more.  This book is not the magic happy pill to solve your visitor retention problems, but rather provides a step by step system to at least help with the data gathering and processing to help you “process” visitors.  Of the books I have read on visitor retention, this one presents the best system I have seen.

Order your copy of Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church direct from Amazon.

If you would like live training or consulting about evaluating your hospitality, check out our articles on hospitality and feel free to give us a call at 804-335-1445.  Send an email to and I will send you a hospitality audit form.

What kind of impression do visitors get when they come into your church for the first time?  Every church thinks it’s friendly. 

But I and many others have experienced the fear factor of walking into an unknown place and knowing immediately that we don’t fit and are not really welcome to remain.  (Download: Avoiding First Time Visitor Nightmares.)

During my last book buying binge (to add to the six overloaded bookshelves on evangelism), I picked up two specifically on assimilating visitors, or how to welcome and help visitors join your church community.

The first one I have already finished.  Gary McIntosh’s Beyond the First Visit: The Complete Guide to Connecting Guests to Your Church.  (Click image or link to order yours direct from Amazon).

The cover promises to offer the reader a complete guide to church hospitality, and is written by well know church growth scholar Gary McIntosh.

Get Visitors To Church

If you have NEVER picked up a book on welcoming visitors, this can be a helpful introduction. 

This book does have some strengths in looking at the visitor flow of your church. 

1. Attracting Visitors — Getting them to come.
2. Welcoming Visitors — The art of Hospitality, dealing with first impressions and service.

But there are better books on the market (a preview of what I’m reading now — I’m really jazzed about it). 

How do YOU welcome a visitor

McIntosth begins with reminder of how important it is for churches to welcome the visitors that come. 

He asks: How do you react differently between a guest and a visitor? 

A guest is invited, expected, and thus you make sure the house is clean and in order. 

A visitor shows up unexpectedly, uninvited, and typically when you’re doing laundry or dressed in your painting clothes.

McIntosh encourages the church to think through how it welcomes guests, to review what it thinks about guests, and to encourage churches to see themselves through the eyes of a guest.

In the 2nd chapter, he reminds of how to be a great host.  Welcoming guests doesn’t happen accidentally, but on purpose with some careful planning and attention to the process (which is where a consultant can help you). 

He cites research from the 80s that churches need to keep 25 to 30 percent of their first time visitors to grow rapidly, while churches that only keep 5 to 8 percent will decline. 

Assuming those numbers are still current, let’s settle on a average of 16%.  How many visitors does your church need to grow?

See what the visitor sees

What is the first impression of your parking lot, your building. 

Signage?  Check out these church signs I found of churches — what do they communicate?

Upkeep of the Building?  What does this communicate?

First impressions — Do visitors have a positive interaction with the people in the church?

Disappointments

Though McIntosh offers some excellent advice, most of it is clearly dated, and most of the supporting research is from the early 1990s.  Most all the footnotes cite citations before the year 1995, the majority of which stretch all the way back to the 70s.  I kept feeling like I was reading late 1980s church growth stuff all over again. 

Our society may have changed, but this book doesn’t have any current research to make sure those conclusions are still valid. 

I’ve read widely on assimilating visitors, and if you have as well, you’ll find this book disappointing. 

It has a throw away chapter about the emergent church that feels like an attempt at being current and not really relevant to the book.  A few times I had to persevere through rabbit trails that had very little to do with welcoming visitors (for example, a whole chapter on launching new ministries).

Order yours

Gary McIntosh’s Beyond the First Visit: The Complete Guide to Connecting Guests to Your Church.  (Click image or link to order yours direct from Amazon).

Saturday, I attended Eric Hoey’s (photo to right, link goes to Eric’s Blog) workshop on Evangelism and Church growth at the Multi-Cultural Church Conference this past weekend in San Antonio. 

Among other things, Eric reminded our group about different styles of evangelism connected with your personality.  The material came from Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg.

Peter’s Confrontational Approach — Acts 2:22-41

If Peter was convinced he was right, there was almost no stopping him. He was direct, he was bold, and he was to the point. 

Many of you know Peter’s in your face approach.  Instead of complying, he defied.  Instead of being quiet, he proclaimed.  He was very direct. 

Eric told of a friend who would walk up to bikers outside a bar and say:

“Hey, How is it going?  Have you read your bible today?”

Paul’s Intellectual Approach — Acts 17:15-34

Paul was a thinker.  He wrote the awesome book of Romans.  He thought through how to present the gospel to Greeks, Jews, Romans, and others in a contextually appropriate way. 

His treatment of the Altar to the Unknown God at Athens is a testimony to one who can present a rational case, and debate philiosophers in a way that they want to know more.

CS Lewis might be a modern day example of this.  I am not.  I have a hard time reading a CS Lewis book beyond the first chapter because it is at such lofty heights that he writes.  Yet I know people who came to faith because of a little book called “Mere Christianity.”

Blind Man’s Testimonial Approach — John 9:1-15,25

This man, born blind, could only speak from his experience.  He confidently declared: “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” That’s hard to argue with, isn’t it? 

Many folk can only talk about the radical change in the life that has happened since they started following Jesus.  They may not have the boldness like Peter, or the intellect to defend the rationality of faith like Paul, but what you have is a testimony of a changed life. 

You may not know all that you believe, but your life has been transformed and it’s worth talking about.

Matthew’s Relational Approach — Luke 5:27-29

Instead of inviting people to church right off the bat, Matthew invited fellow tax collectors and sinners to his home. 

Do you enjoy having people into your home, sharing a meal, and spending time in conversation? Many people will never be reached until someone takes the time to build that kind of closeness with them.

He was allowing himself to get close first and spend time outside of “the church.”

Samaritan Women’s Invitational Approach — John 4

When Jesus encountered this woman, and transformed her life, she ran back to town and started inviting people: Come and See. 

She immediately went to her town and brought her friends to the well to hear Jesus for themselves. This simple invitation resulted in His staying in their town for two days. Many of these men and women became His followers. 

Many people are excited about what God is doing in their church, and in their own life.  Instead of feeling confident about sharing their own faith story, they are eager to invite people to their church to see what God is doing and to hear others proclaiming the news.

Come and see, is a great invitation to give.

Dorcas’ Servant approach — Acts 9.

Gifts of Hospitality, the welcoming of strangers, acts of service to those in need are all viable forms of evangelism.  Its a tangible way of expressing the love of Jesus.

Closing comments

• Mark Mittleburg published a whole chapter excerpt from NavPress. 
• Order Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg, direct from Amazon.

Eric wrapped up his session with a reminder about how to present the gospel simply using various gospel scripts, such as the bridge illustration, the moral ladder, do vs. done.

Let me ask you this?

What style do you see yourself fitting into best?

Update: Read my review here: Fusion Visitor Assimilation.  I think this is the best assimilation book available right now.  I’ve not read Sticky Church, but that is next on the list.

A new book has been released about turning Visitors into Members, also known as visitor assimilation.

Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church (Order yours from Amazon).  This was written by the founding pastor of a new church plant in New York city (The Journey Church) and the lessons they learned while getting their church off the ground. 

From Amazon’s description:

All church leaders have faced the questions that arrive with newcomers: Do they feel comfortable? Is there more we could do to serve them? Will they want to come back? Creating an environment that both embraces our newcomers and excites them enough to return does not happen by chance. We must be prepared to be effective stewards of the newcomers God brings us. And, why shouldn’t the Church be the epitome of service at its best, as modeled by the greatest server of all time? Built on The Journey Church of the City’s Assimilation Seminar, Fusion embodies a step-by-step, biblically grounded, tested and proven plan for establishing a relationship with newcomers that ultimately prompts them to become fully developing members of our congregations. This innovative, practical guide is full of how-to information, testimonials from the recently assimilated and from participating church leaders, examples of the assimilation materials used and check points to make sure the reader is on track. Engaging, informative and immediately applicable, here is help for setting newcomers on the path toward true life transformation and spiritual maturity.

Reviews of the book at Amazon have been highly favorable.  I’ll be adding this one to my list to read.

Order your copy of Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church from Amazon.