Outflow

The main metaphor in Outflow is the concentric circles of a multi-tiered fountain, that parallels the concentric circles of influence seen in Acts (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth).

Outflow’s target audience seems to be those who have a fear of any kind of conversational evangelism, which in my experience includes a large number of people.

Even more so, Outflow seems aimed at those who have many negative images of evangelism.  Servant evangelism gives the reader a way to express their faith.

Outflow isn’t so much about sharing the faith in words as it is demonstrating the faith in love, and maybe talking about your faith when asked.

The Layout of Outflow

Each story filled chapter in Outflow is a reading for a week day, followed up by

• reflection questions
• an exercise for homework

Each week’s reading ends with a group project and includes some debriefing questions.

These practical suggestions are what caught my eye.

Instead of simply leaving it to the group to brainstorm all the time, these practical exercises suggested one particular action step that would be easy to implement.  Groups that implement the action steps will make a big impact in the community around them.

Two Ends of the Evangelism Spectrum

At one end of the spectrum, you have word based evangelism styles, like the way of the master stuff, tract distribution and other forms of gospel presentations.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have the deed based evangelism style, like servant evangelism.

The former focuses on communicating the truth through a scripted monologue to lead to a decision to accept or reject Christ.

Demonstrate truth first.

The later focuses on demonstrating acts of love, answering the occasional question, and planting the seeds for future conversation.

Demonstrate love first.

For many believers who find the former model of evangelism too negative and intimidating, the later model gives them plenty of room to express their faith.

However, for those that believe that the former model is high priority, Outflow will frustrate them as it doesn’t talk at all about how to actually talk about your personal faith.  The one chapter that comes close is about planting seeds for future conversation.

A Broader Appeal

Outflow will have a much broader appeal to small groups that want to express their faith in tangible ways, rather than memorize a scripted monologue to present to strangers.

For small groups that want to add some kind of missional component to their purpose, a study through Outflow could help provide that expression (though I don’t recall the word “missional” being used).

The practical exercises in Outflow can help a group find some practical ways to express God’s love in the community in which they were planted.

One missing ingredient

If I were leading an Outflow group, I would add a practical part in how to actually talk about what your faith means to you.

Servant evangelism as presented in Outflow is an awesome tool to express God’s love and plant seeds for future conversation.

However, Outflow to miss helping a person grow comfortable talking about your own faith in the process and what is the gospel.

Outflow is all about seed planting, and not really about how to water or harvest a seed that’s been planted.

I would add sections about

• how to recognize spiritual thirst,
• how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit,
• how to talk about your own faith in Jesus, and
• how to listen for receptivity to the call to surrender your life to Jesus.

These additional pieces are beyond the scope of the book, but I think they remain vital core training to anyone doing a servant evangelism project.

You might very well encounter someone who has been prepared by God for that moment, like the Ethiopian eunuch was in Acts 8.  Your Outflow Group members would need some idea of what to do.

As a leader of the group, I would use these ideas in the exercise debriefings each week to help group members grow comfortable not only in random acts of kindness, but talking about their faith more frequently while doing random acts of kindness.

Order Outflow from Amazon (affiliate link)

“Evangelism doesn’t just happen.  You’ve got to do it.”

I was asking him how he grew his church from scratch in a few months (I no longer remember the exact numbers).

His answer was:

“We do intentional outreaches every week.  Evangelism doesn’t just happen.  You’ve got to do it.”

So this brings us to the last part of this series on Coaching Congregational Evangelism,:

Key # 5.  Schedule Evangelistic Outreaches

Number 4 on the list focuses on the “Come and See” of attracting people to church.  That still play an important role in congregational evangelism.

Here, the focus in on engaging the community outside the church.

I see two different approaches to this.

1.  Acts of Community Service

Churches will do social projects that serve the community.

For example:

• Health screening
• Community clean up day
• Free dental clinic for a day.
• Job fair for the community
• Tutoring or after school programs
• Transportation for senior citizens
• Fundraising walk/run for disease research
• Clean up the overgrown yard of an elderly shut-in

You might already think you have evangelistic outreaches, but ask yourself:

• Are our outreaches simply community service no different other community service groups?
• Do the leave the recipients of our community service to guess what we are wordlessly saying?

Many foundations and charities do good social work.  How do the recipients of our community service know that we Christians are any different?

I ask the same question Is Community Service Evangelism?

There, read of the story of Olympic Gold Medalist and his shoes.

See how a nation misinterpreted the color of shoes.

See what insight that gives about your community service.

Possible Areas of Growth:

• Lead others to think about how to seek out faith sharing opportunities during your community service.
• Raise awareness in your volunteers to look for those moments to talk about your own faith.
• Perhaps pair your community service with an event and launch (See How Pastors Lead Congregational Evangelism #4) so that people are given a natural invitation point.
• Read Did Saint Francis of Assisi get it wrong?

Don’t just do good deeds.  Look for those kairos moments prepared by the Holy Spirit to influence a person’s journey towards Christ.

2.  Servant Evangelism approaches

I’ve written elsewhere about servant evangelism.

The basic idea is an act of generosity to your community, along with a marketing card that advertises the church.

For example,

• Give away free water bottles at a marathon,
• Gas buy-downs,
• Pass out batteries for smoke detectors,
• Food giveaways to your neighbors.

This was the approach of the church planter said me.

“Evangelism doesn’t just happen.  You’ve got to do it.”

An improvement, I think, is what Pate and Wilkes write about in their book Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community which gets beyond the event and into a lifestyle, where

a Christ follower who serves others out of his or her passion, using one’s spiritual gifts at connection points of need in the community to demonstrate the love of Jesus to others as a salt and light servant.  . . . . (73)

Johnson, in Got Style? Personality Based Evangelism, devotes a whole chapter to servant evangelism and connects it to a church’s personality.

Possible Areas of Growth

Read

• Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part 1
• Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part II
• Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part III
• The Church has left the Building
• Re-engaging the Neighborhood (how a church discovered a need)

Action:

• Look over your church calendar for the next few months.
  • What community service projects are happening?
  • How can you encourage your volunteers to look for faith sharing moments?
  • How can you prepare them to share?
  • Do you need to schedule some?
• What servant evangelism projects are happening?
  • Do you need to schedule some?
  • What are some community needs you can meet?

The questions of the day revolved around finding and meeting community needs.

A majority of church members are no longer within 5 miles of the neighborhood that has transitioned from blue collar to immigrant.  As such, there is not a lot of connection to the local community.

In transformational language, these are called island churches.

This particular one has a food pantry and financial assistance program, but no one who uses these community resources comes back for church.

• What is the missing step?
• What is the disconnect that keeps users of the food pantry from coming to the church on Sunday?

I’m sure there are plenty of factors not revealed in a one hour phone call.

But one factor was clear:

The Sunday service doesn’t meet the community need.

Turning this back into a question:

• What is a community need?
• What is an intermediate step around that need that can connect people?

How can you find out the spiritual needs of your community?

Here are some common ways that I practice and have found great fruit.

1.  Prayer walking the area.

Spending time to deliberately and regularly walk a neighborhood while praying gives me great insight into some of the spiritual needs.

Prayerwalking Resources:

• Prayer Walking Made Simple by Dr. Chris Schofield – Available from www.praync.org.   See slide show
• PrayerWalking Webinar Replay
• And the Place Was Shaken: How to Lead a Powerful Prayer Meeting, John Franklin
• The life-changing power of prayer by TW Hunt, 2001
• Prayer-Walking: Praying On-Site With Insight by Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick
• Prayer Walking: A Journey of Faith
• Follow Me: Becoming a Lifestyle Prayerwalker
• Follow Me : Lessons for Becoming a Prayer Walker

2.  Prayer booths at events.

Perhaps you do block parties, job fairs, or other open to the public events.  Or maybe you get a booth at the local farmer’s festival, arts and crafts fairs, or some other community fair.

Setup a prayer station. Read and listen to the podcast of how one church setup a prayer station.

Staff the table with people trained in prayer.

Put a bowl out or maybe a wooden large wooden cross to collect anonymous prayer requests

Have paper for people to write anonymous prayer requests.  Use pens with your church logo / contact information as give away.

Use a preprinted form (with church contact info) that asks the question: How can we pray for the community?  Give people time to write and stick it in the bowl, or on the wooden cross.

No need for a name / phone number collection unless people want to provide it.

Have your prayer team available for those who want specific prayer and personal prayer at the event.  Collect contact information for followup afterwards.

Make a list of community needs based on what people have written.

Figure out how to meet some of those needs.

3.  Asking questions of people who drop in for food or funds.

You may already have people dropping by your church outside of Sunday for food, financial assistance.

Take intentional time to sit and listen to their story.

Use questions to find out what the spiritual need is.

These are just 3 ways I’ve seen churches discover community needs.

Offer to pray with them before they leave.

Examples of Discovering Community Needs

See this chart at Re-engaging the Neighborhood, and read about how a church launched a daycare as an out growth from a block party.  This church took the time to listen to a community need.

Read about this church that met a community need, but failed to connect with the community.  Evangelism that went to the dogs.

Let me ask you this?

What are some ways your church has discovered the needs of the local community?

Share them with us in the comments below.

See Part I of Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part I

See Part II of Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part II

This final section of Chapters 5 – 8 gets into the nuts and bolts of what this might look like in the local church.

CBSE involves a Christ follower who serves others out of his or her passion, using one’s spiritual gifts at connection points of need in the community to demonstrate the love of Jesus to others as a salt and light servant.  . . . .

Administratively, CBSE reduces the church’s events and ongoing programs to allow people to be deployed into their daily lives to exercise their passions and gifts. (73)

Chapter 5: Salt and Light Servants

The majority of current discipleship material seems to be focused on information, not so much on experiential transformation.  The idea was that better information and accumulated information would lead to spiritual transformation.

The authors have seen this descend into matters of personal preference, rallies around the latest Christian bestseller, and rabbit trails into the most effectively marketed latest trend .

However, they see a shift from information to experience.

A method that fosters experience to help shape a person’s spiritual formation.

Educational materials are connected with service in the community “as the context to live out the expression of a life in relationship to Christ.”

I have often noted and taught that I learn by doing.

In other businesses, I could study, study, study, but until I was actually doing, the study didn’t make sense.  Study lead to hypothesizing, thinking about 1000 what ifs.

But not until I got into people’s lives and talking with them 1-1 about their spiritual journey did any of the studies seems to start finding a purpose.

Perhaps a quote from Randy Pope captures this better in this illustration:

Much in the way that eating creates no appetite for exercise, so too, I have found that Bible study and prayer alone do not create mission oriented Christians.  But, just as exercise creates a desire for food and drink, mission related activities create an insatiable thirst and hunger to feed on God’s word (89).

The idea is deploy your church members to serve their community and that kind of relational context will spur personal growth.

Eating has never created in us a desire to exercise, but preparing to run 26.2 miles in about 4 hours definitely creates not only a desire, but a need to eat (89).

In the same way, service may very well be the missing factor in developing fully devoted followers of Christ.  Transformation happens in combination with information and experience.

Chapter 6: Connection Points

The subtitle focuses the chapter on Evangelism Training.  The authors have given lots of evangelism training over the years, from memorizing gospel scripts, to relational evangelism seminars, yet not seeing any statistical evidence of new believers.  The rare church had more than 5 new believers in a year after the seminar.

Church’s are beginning to ask “Why is training people on how to share their faith not resulting in new Christ followers?”

The authors claim that intentional community service is the missing ingredient.  The chief issue is that our church members have lost touch with genuine relationships with people far from God.

To fulfill the front half of the Great Commission the process will always begin with a Christ-follower connecting with someone far from God.  To lead someone into a personal relationship with Christ has little to do with whether someone has attended training and learned a model presentation to the Gospel (95).

Connecting Points

The chapter lays out how to find connection points with the local community, beginning with an inventory from Becoming a Contagious Christian, Hybels and Mittleberg:

• People we know
• People we used to know
• People we would like to know.

I use a similar idea with Spheres of Influence.

The key for churches is to assist members in creating a context for connection, but it remains up to the individual member to connect.

The third group, people we would like to know, is where the role of community service comes into play.  Relationships develop best around a need the mutual relationship can meet.

Where is your church member passionate?  Where is their burden? Examples:

• Single Moms?
• Fatherless kids?
• Teachers?
• Firefighters?
• Undercover FBI agents?
• Little League?

Where are their gifts?  Administratively gifted folks can organize events or run leagues.  Mercy gifted folks can visit people.

We have come to realize that not assisting our church members to develop a connection point into an authentic relationship is simply not providing good leadership.

Chapter 7 and 8: Implementing CBSE

Chapter 7 and 8 map out how to make such philosophical changes in implementing Community Based servant evangelism.  The authors note that there are several books about systemically changing a congregation, and they note that their system works when followed.

The process is organic and leadership driven.

First four steps are for the pastor, the next two are are for the leadership, and the last 5 are how to make it public.

• Pray and read the Bible
• Church leadership must own the mission of “Love God and Love Others”
• Must be totally supported by the Senior Pastor and or Lead Pastor
• Enlist top / key church influencers
• Enlist a CBSE champion
• Enlist a CBSE leadership team
• Design a plan
• Provide training
• Cast the vision to your church
• Implement the plan
• Evaluate all aspects and correct

This list may seem generic in terms of changing systems, but the chapters tease them out more fully.

A Pastor’s Personal Prayer life

It strikes me how a pastor’s personal relationship with God is the root of this change, not only the pastors, but so also the rest of the leadership.

In a 2007 review of surveys of pastors,

two hundred seventy (270 or 26%) of pastors said they regularly had personal devotions and felt they were adequately fed spirituality.

Seven hundred fifty-six (756 or 72%) of the pastors we surveyed stated that they only studied the Bible when they were preparing for sermons or lessons.

If the root of systemic change in a church is found in a pastor’s personal relationship with God, then how can churches give their pastors time to nurture that relationship?    From another study in the same report:

We found that 90% of pastors work more than 50 hours a week. One out of three pastors state that being in the ministry is clearly hazardous for their families. One out of three pastors felt totally burned out within the first five years of ministry.

Research from Crandall (see 5 phases of renewal from Turnaround and Beyond: A Hopeful Future for the Small Membership Church) indicates that personal renewal is the number one factor in successful turnaround in churches.

Research from Martha Gay Reese (Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Real Life Evangelism Series) elevates the importance of prayer for a congregation to pick up and maintain an evangelistic passion.

Order your copy

Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community from Amazon

I’ve been reading Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community and I think it is a must read book for pastors of churches seeking to engage its community.

Over the next few days leading up to the Community Based Servant Evangelism Webinar, I’ll be pulling out a few themes.

A philosophy of Ministry

The foundational drive of this book is to present a philosophy of ministry that should work it’s way into the DNA of a congregation.

A way of doing ministry in which Christ followers model, encourage, and equip others to be salt and light servants where they live . . . living out the great commandment and the great commission in our network of relationships in the marketplace and neighborhoods.

Chapter 1: Foundations

Pate looks at ineffective methods of church based evangelism and the relationship between personal evangelism and the local church.  The end results he points out is a lot of effort, but little results.

Programmatic changes have not led to church growth, so perhaps a systemic change needs to be made.

Ever after a lot of evangelism training, people can’t give a scripted gospel presentation, but they can answer the question: “What is God up to in your life?”

But all the emphasis on programming in the past few decades has created several barriers to this kind of relational evangelism on a church level.  Friendship evangelism models have been around for some time, but how do you mobilize the church to engage the mission field where it is planted?

Based on his own experience as a consultant and a practitioner, Pate and Wilkes put forth a philosophy of ministry that makes sense and develops this idea throughout the book:

The key argument is:

The premise of this book is simple: the key for a local church is to create natural connection points for Christ-follower to intersect the lives of people far from God through service in the community as salt and light servants. (8)

The church must purposefully deploy people into the community, become friends of sinners, if Christ-followers are to live out the Great Commission.  (15)

Their answer, using the “salt and light” images of the NT:

Churches can deploy their members according to their passions and gifts to be an irresistible influence among the people of their community. (10).

We do not offer a presentation to be memorized but a lifestyle of service that engages tangible needs wherever they occur and seizes every opportunity in that interaction to introduce the person/people served to our Rescuer and Leader, Jesus. (18)

Chapter 2: Barriers that keep us out

Pate and Wilkes give a summary of barriers that keep church individuals from connecting with the neighborhood.

Time (or perceived lack of time), program maintenance, church structures, and unawareness of passion and spiritual gifts among members of your church are primary barriers that keep your people out of the community and within the walls of your church.

The chapter unfolds this list with great detail and I think accurately reflects what I see in churches that I consult with.

Time

Many churches have far too many time consuming programs, events, and meetings each week that do not enable their church to moves even one step forward in accomplishing either the Great Commission or the Great commandment (24)

To the pastor, they provide a simple way to calculate the total number of volunteer hours it takes to sustain the current programming of the the church.  The simple question is that with all the man hours church’s ask their people to give, is there any time left over for building relationships?

Church Programs

Programs are not bad, the authors are clear to say.  But are they the tail that wags the dog?  Do your programs assist the church in fulfilling its mission, or are they stale and lifeless relics of a past era?

People far from God are not looking for more things to do.  Are we a bit off center because of the countless hours we devote to the programs at our church? (27)

The authors encourage pastors to examine their church programming to see what is hindering the mission of intentionally deploying people in the community.

Church structure and control

Essentially, how does leadership respond to new ideas and new directions.  Are policies prohibiting new directions?  Does leadership trust new ways the Holy Spirit is leading?  Are new initiatives squashed or are people given freedom to pursue them?

Unawareness of Gifts and Passions

Passion determine where a person serves best, and gifts determine how.  Passion is God-given and answers the “where” of ministry.  Gifts are God-given and answers the “how” of ministry.  The authors maintain, rightfully so,

churches cannot reach their potential when those joined to the mission and vision of the church either (1) do not know their God-given passion and spiritual gift(s) or (2) if those aspects of who they are in Christ are underdeveloped.

Their main point in all of this is to explore how can the church get outside it’s walls?  How can the local church get out of the building and into the neighborhood when these barriers are in the way?

Learn more

Part II comes tomorrow — Grab my feed to have it delivered to you automatically

Learn more about this philosophy of ministry direct from the author, Stephen Pate.  Register for the Community Based Servant Evangelism Webinar this coming Thursday.

Today, I had coffee with a friend of mine who said, “I don’t believe that it is my responsibility to share the gospel.” He just wanted to live his life in such a way that people would be attracted to that example and hopefully come to Christ.

I reminded him that for a Christian, the Bible teaches that sharing the gospel is not optional. Jesus commanded us to tell others about his death, burial and resurrection.

Who is to say that your life well lived will look any different than that example of a good atheist, Buddhist, Muslim or any other religion?

St. Francis of Assisi quote:

“Preach the gospel at all times and
when necessary use words.”
St. Francis of Assisi quote
(attributed to him, I’ve not seen documentation if it really was him).

But I’ve often wondered if Francis of Assisi got it right, or if we have so misused his words to justify our lack of communicating the gospel with words.

St. Francis of Assisi may be wrong

In the comments at the original post, I wrote:

One of the things I like to say is that St. Francis got it wrong.

In our culture today, meaning is determined by the meaning maker. In other words, meaning is implied in how I interpret your actions, unless you interpret your actions for me.

If none is given (just being silent), what separates one’s actions from that of a moral kind and loving atheist?

I think of art in a museum.

I look at it but apparently I’m supposed to figure out what it means.

I wish someone would tell me what those splotchs of seemingly random color smears are supposed to mean.

I wrote about this idea at “Is your outreach the same as evangelism?”

Does your behavior stand out?

If your actions are no different than another morally upright and well behaved person, what really makes you stand out?

Of course, we are the salt the the earth, and to let our light shine.

God will make our righteousness shine like the dawn, etc.

There is something to be said about our righteousness that is attractive.

That righteousness is revealed when we are under pressure — where people face the temptation to give in and fail — our righteousness shines like the dawn.  Our kindness is evident when the world has treated someone wrong and its unexpected.

But in our day to day life — is our moral behavior any different from the person in the next cubicle?  Does that alone make us stand out?

This is where I think St. Francis’ quote is misused.  Perhaps in his day, his extreme actions spoke louder than the culture which raised the curiosity factor into Saint Francis of Assisi’s life.

Clear Communication is Necessary

One of the clearest points I got out of Becoming a Contagious Christian, was the importance of clear communication.

Without an explanation of the resurrection of Christ and it’s application to you, what are people to believe?  That one can simply be good?

Ray Comfort’s Way of the Master approach is all based on Clear Communication.  (They even have highly defined teaching on false converts if you get the wrong message communicated to you.  By their standards I’m still a false convert because it wasn’t their presentation of Law / Gospel that led me to faith in Christ.)

It is our obedience to share our faith in Christ.

It is our duty and calling to speak of our relationship with Jesus.  The gospel is important and we want people to believe in the gospel as revealed in Scripture.  We don’t need to let people guess for themselves.

Servant evangelism offers a card with their actions that explain that they are doing their service as an active demonstration of the love of Jesus Christ.  The cards given usually don’t explain the gospel, but give an invitation to the church, and provide a contextual moment for a gospel conversation to occur if the Holy spirit is opening the door.

Coaching Corner

When has a non-Christian asked you why your behavior is different?

How did you answer that question?

What can you do to make sure your life is interpreted in light of the gospel?

Steve Sjogren, in Scattering, Watering, and then…Waiting reminds us about how the role of the evangelist:

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is like the wind – he (not IT – please, never refer to the Holy Spirit as “it” – that is incredibly offensive to him) is not one who can be controlled. We see the effect of wind on the trees when the wind blows, but where it comes from or where it goes, we do not know (John 3).

Lasting conversions are wrought by the power of the Spirit, not by a slick sounding, win-the-argument approach. How many of you have won the argument but lost the battle? Lasting, deep down conversions are very rarely quick.

Don’t fret about the waiting period between scattering your seeds of generosity and what is going to take place once the Holy Spirit begins to shape people’s hearts in a large-scale fashion.

That’s God’s business. You keep on scattering your seeds – ideally with your people living a lifestyle of generosity and kindness. Sooner or later your crops will come in…as Jude writes, “Walk by love.”

Getting into the World

In The Practical to Becoming Worldly & Missional, Heath Watson gives us 10 practical tips on evangelism.  Each item on the list below is explained further at the original article.

1. Build Genuine Relationships
2. Listen
3. It’s Ok to Say I Don’t Know
4. Pray for them
5. Invite them to Church
6. Tomorrow is not promised
7. Know your role in evangelism
8. Seek to Glorify God in your conversation and attitude
9. Meditate on the gospel
10. Review Your conversion Often and Never grow too familiar with it.

Audio Resources from Together for the Gospel:

Heath Watson also gives us links from T4G, free MP3 downloads from this  years conference are already available for all of the sessions. These include the following excellent lectures by some people you may recognize.

(Right click any of the following links and save to your hard drive. )

• Ligon Duncan – Sound Doctrine – Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry (MP3)
• Thabiti Anyabwile – Bearing the Image: Identity, Work of Christ, the Church (MP3)
• John MacArthur – The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: Doctrine Absolute Inability (MP3)
• Mark Dever – Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology (MP3)
• RC Sproul – The Curse Motif of the Atonement (MP3)
• Albert Mohler – Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution (MP3)
• John Piper – How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice (MP3)
• CJ Mahaney – Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul (MP3)

Using Worldview to Share the Gospel

Blogger Glibert Kingsley writes  an article for college students about using worldview to share the gospel.  Ministries like Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org)  use this approach.  Nick Pollard’s book on Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult uses the same approach (see footnote for my reviews).  Being Fluent in worldview issues will help you compare and contrast the world views and to help you see how a Biblical world view is the best option to making sense of reality.

Another Podcast Resource:

Leonard Sweet’s podcast, “Napkin Scribbles.”  Verbal images that can be drawn on a napkin.  I wish it had the video to see the drawing.

• Nathan Eshleman at Presbyterian Thoughts raises a provocative question about how the Church and Illegal Immigrants.  Having personally been involved in the immigrant community, and where my church is unable to send a mission team overseas, this question is personal.  The Church needs to get involved in the just treatment and compassionate care for immigrants.

• Tony Jones reposts a Response to Critics about Emergent Village, by Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Spencer Burke, Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball, Andrew Jones, Chris Seay.  Downloadable as a PDF.

• Jason McNutt writes “Hot Dog’s for Jesus.“  This is a great practical idea to serve the neighborhood and build relationship with it.  Servant projects like this can provide a lot of moments for causal conversations about faith that can be part of a person’s journey to faith.

• Eric Jones compiles a list of questions about raising mission minded children.

• Here’s an article about “downsizing” the Sunday service for the sake of mission.  Reduce the time and effort that needs to be put into the Sunday service in order to allow more time for leaders to “rub shoulders” with non-Christians during the week.  (Thanks to Benjamin Sternke).

• Confessing Evangelical writes a great post about evangelism methods and techniques, with a great quote from a speaker he writes about:

“Is your life the sort of life that makes people ask questions about God, and is your conversation the sort of conversation that answers them?”

Have a great weekend!

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.
• Listen to this podcast that looks at personality styles and evangelism.

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?

The last church I was with does something similar at Christmas time. Local churches donate toys that are sold in the local low-income community. Proceeds buy more toys that morning until the funds run out.

At back to school time, there is a similar event with school supplies, and a gathering where the local principal comes and welcomes the new kids.

The story at the blog article at the Blind beggar adds a bible giveaway.

Perhaps additional “stations:”
1. Prayer Station. — a place where people wanting prayer can seek it out. Perhaps that’s a spot to give Bibles away to. People can be invited to fill out a card if they wish further follow up.

2. Church information — a display booth with promotional materials about church programs, contact information, schedule of future events etc.

No matter how its done, an important feature is to repeatedly do it, so that its something the church becomes known for in the neighborhood. No need to be disappointed if there is not an increase in attendance the next day. I’ve observed through experience that it may take a few years before people start trickling in — they’ve learned the church cares.

Let me ask you this:
Does your church regularly host an event that is geared towards serving the neighborhood?