Evangelism Coach

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Check out this article from the The Presbyterian Outlook entitled An evangelistic future?

Editor Jack Haberer writes:

After three days of making friends, comparing notes, hearing testimonies, and brainstorming their dreams, might 75 Presbyterians hope to create an evangelistic future for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)?  Most of those attending the Grow the Church Deep and Wide:  Evangelism Consultation at Stony Point Center on November 10-12 hoped for that very thing.

I was at the Consultation. 

I enjoyed most of the presentations the first day. 

While I do think the second day drifted into other topics, I think Stan Ott’s and Eric Hoey’s presentations were the best.

Nothing has changed in 12 years.

Eric Hoey mentioned findings from a 1996 Presbyterian Panel survey about evangelism and discovered that not much has changed.  In  Same old, old story, Haberer summarizes Eric’s findings.  For example:

            “Presbyterians are uncomfortable with street corner or stranger evangelism.” 

            He recounted to a laughing response, “I did a workshop in Chicago Presbytery. A woman told me, ‘I don’t even believe in evangelism.’ I asked her, ‘Then why are you at a conference on evangelism?’”  She responded, “‘Because we have to learn how to do it.’”

What didn’t get shared in the article is that Eric went on to say that after a little training, this lady was looking forward to talking about her faith.

The best point that Eric made is that Presbyterian pastors have to attend all sorts of conferences on Roberts Rules, Sexual conduct, ethics, diversity training etc, but nothing mandatory about evangelism!

Evangelism’s Four Movements

Earlier in the Day, Stan Ott,  director of the Vital Churches Institute, set the theological stage for the discussions.  Haberer reports in Deep and wide: Growing via evangelism?

“The church by nature has three priorities, doxological, communal, and missional,” he said. “Our missional calling and one of its primary dimensions, evangelism, is one of the dimensions of our missional calling among the six great ends of the church.”

Having been raised in an unchurched, secular family, he was introduced to church initially by participating in Boy Scouts at a local Presbyterian church.  Only in college did he actually encounter the gospel, “a call to faith and followership, and it burned like fire within me to respond to Jesus.”

Acknowledging the diversity of opinions among today’s Presbyterians as to what evangelism is and does, Ott outlined his perspective. “I understand evangelism to happen in four movements: sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in sensitive and effective ways, calling for faith in and followership of Jesus Christ and participation in the community of believers, relying on the power and the timing of the Holy Spirit, and leaving the results to God — because only God can soften the human heart.” . . . .

In the vast majority of cases, mainline Christians today do not speak about their faith in a personal, conversational way, even when given an obvious opportunity to do it.”     

The reasons for such silence, he recounted, are numerous. 

• General ignorance of the faith leaves many feeling unprepared to share.
• The culture at large does not share even a general familiarity with the language of faith.
• Many worry that faith-sharing will be perceived as intolerance of other viewpoints.
• Too much church life is set up as one-directional in communication.
• Some signals from the culture sound resistant to even allowing religious communications — and many Christians respond by acting “as though Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world and do not interfere!’”

I’ll have to see if I can get Stan’s complete talk and get it posted here.

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.

I and one of my co-teachers just finished the The Evangelism Dunamis track in Mt. Vernon Washington, about 2 hours north of Seattle. 

One of the joys I get in my travels as an evangelism trainer is meeting new people all over the country. 

Pastors from various denominations and gifted lay ministers. 

At this conference, new initial groundwork was laid to start a new track of the Dunamis project sometime next year in multiple places in Washington state as well as perhaps just over the border from southern Western Canada.

Tierra Nueva Ministries

Prior to The Evangelism Dunamis, I had an extra day, and spent the morning with Mike Neelley (left) and Bob Ekblad of Tierra Nueva Ministries. 

Bob (right)  had returned from the southern tip of Argentina the night before, as he is an international speaker and trainer. 

Tierra Nueva (New Earth) is an ecumenical ministry located in Burlington, Washington, that seeks to share the Good News of God’s liberation in Jesus Christ with migrant farm workers, new immigrants, and permanent Hispanic residents in Western Washington.

Tierra Nueva is caught up in a vision of a shepherding ministry that seeks after lost sheep until they are found (Luke 15:4).  They have consciously structured our ministries to:

  •  seek after lost sheep until they are found–through Skagit County Jail Ministry, migrant chaplaincy, and Tierra Nueva Honduras.

  •  care for, defend, and protect–through the Family Support Center.

  •  gather, feed and heal–through our English and Spanish faith communities, bilingual jail services and healing services.

  •  equip and send out–through the People’s Seminary events and courses.

Mike told me of one gang member he disciples who is smoking a joint while studying the Bible.  He told me of a sex offender he meets with.  He told me of former meth addicts who are now working for the ministry trying to get their life reoriented around following Christ.

This kind of Christianity on the edges is messy as God works transformation in real life.  People on the margins.  This takes a special calling and is the prime opportunity for evangelism as broken people seek to find their purpose in life.

Bob has written two books that are now on my reading list of books to get

• Reading the Bible with the Damned
• A New Christian Manifesto: Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God

Presbytery of North Puget Sound

The executive of the Presbytery of North Puget Sound, Corey Schlosser Hall (right), organized a lunch for us. 

Some Cambodian church planters (left) joined us at lunch.  It seemed to be a divine appointment for Bob Ekblad (tallest one in the back)  to meet these church planters at lunch.  I had time to visit and talk with these men about their work among Cambodian immigrants they work with.

Leadership Coaching visit with a small rural church

That evening, I had the joy of visiting with Pastor Tom Ross of Deming Presbyterian Church and Mount Baker Presbyterian Church.  He and 3 elders for some evangelism coaching — talking about the burning questions on their mind. 

These were small rural churches in the hills of Northwest Washington, with about 15-25 in worship.   A 3rd elder was from a church of about 600, tucked in the back of a subdivision, away from the main traffic flow.

Two questions were on the minds of those gathered:

• How can we increase awareness in the neighborhood.
• How can we talk with individuals who are comfortable with their non-Christian spirituality.

We spent about 90 minutes brainstorming.  They reported to me what a blessing it was to have me lead that session and they felt energized with a new list of ideas (see Church Leadership Coaching Session).

One elder wrote (edited for spelling and clairty):

 Thank you for the wonderful evening when Chris
Walker visited.  I found his style very natural
for our little church.  We needed his calmness and
small town way about him.  I know that what he does is
truly from the heart.  He allowed us to express
ourselves and our needs.
He responded to our questions and gave us his
undivided attention.  I
believe we found in his answers some answers that were
right in front of us. 

Evangelism Training 101

The Evangelism Dunamis is focused on personal evangelism training.  (See related article: 10 Practical Ways Of Sharing Your Faith)

It began on Thursday morning and ended in celebration on Saturday afternoon where people offer their stories of what God was doing in their life during the event.  Several people from lots of different Christian traditions attended.

Much of the content for The Evangelism Dunamis is found in various pieces here on Evangelism Coach, and it is always fun to present the material live. 

This time, my co-presenter was Susan Finck Lockhart (See Guest Article: Sharing your faith in the ordinary course of life), who is part time pastor of El Calvario Presbyterian Church in Waco Texas.

We focused on some theology, including the wonder of grace, but much of the teaching time was also given over to lots of practical work, praying and sharing in small groups:

• Sharpening the focus of your testimony
• Using a Gospel Scripts.
• How To Practice A Gospel Presentation 
• Praying for those who don’t know Christ.
• Listening for God’s call to a particular region or people group.
• Sharing in small groups about your faith journey.
• Learning how to recognize Kairos moments.

Conference Follow up.

For my newest subscribers through the EvangelismCoach feed and Monthly Evangelism Tips Newsletter, here are some important links that I highlighted at the Evangelism Dunamis.

• Using a Gospel Scripts.
• Personal Testimony Questionnaire

• Evangelism As Storytelling
• The Power Of Testimony
• A 2 part Questionnaire

I will also post over the next few days, the actual slides that we used for the event since I wasn’t able to get them printed as handouts.

Feedback?

Did you attend the conference?  I’d love for you to put your words of encouragement in the comment form, or email me privately if you wish.

This afternoon, I was preparing an email about the Tampa conference for Presbyterian pastors. 

I’ve put an entire link summary here of related links, including downloadable slide shows I used for that conference.

• Prayer Walking And Growing The Church
• PC USA Transformational Pastors Bibliography
• PC USA Transformation Conference Slides Part III
• PC USA Transformation Conference Part II
• PC USA Transformation Conference Part I

We were at the Tradewinds Resort at St. Pete’s beach, and it was a great place to stay.  Beautiful Sunsets. . . . .

Thanks to www.presbygrow.net, George Bullard (read: Searching for the Holy Grail of Church Transformation) for some of his insight, and my fellow presenters:

Christian Dominic Boyd  of www.celtichound.org

Ann Phillbrick of www.heartwoodcct.com

If you would like more personalized evangelism training for your congregation or region, simply give me a call at 804/335-1445 and let’s see what you can do.

Today’s guest post is from Robert Shaw, Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Winfield Indiana.  I’ve met Robert at the Evangelism Conference for the PCUSA last year, and ran into him again at the transformation pastors conference that just ended in St. Pete’s Beach in FL.

He shares with us some of the things that he does as pastor in a local church to help folks with evangelism.

___________________________________

Breathing Exercises

by the Reverend Robert Shaw¹

Sharing the gospel is as easy as breathing. But then I also find swimming just as easy.

For many mainline Christians being asked to share the good news of Jesus Christ is as scary as being thrown off the end of a pier without the benefit of swimming lessons. But like swimming, once one knows when and how to breath sharing the gospel is easy and the end of the pier becomes an a place to enjoy and dive into the water.

Blowing bubbles

I remember the lifeguard teaching my classmates and I to blow bubbles at my first swimming lesson. “Take a breath of air, put your face into the water, blow bubbles, turn your head to the side, take another breath, and repeat.” This is a lesson I mastered as a six year-old.

Similarly the first lesson when sharing the gospel is learning to blow bubbles. Take a deep breath of the Holy Spirit, then while out in the world slowly exhale. Return to the community of faith and take another deep breath of the Holy Spirit.

This lesson applies not only to sharing the gospel, but to life itself. During the week we face numerous challenges and make our share of mistakes. Some of these feel like getting punched and having your breath knocked out. Knowing where to get a refreshing and life restoring breath of the Holy Spirit helps Christians flourish from one Sunday to the next.

Practice Blowing Bubbles

To help Presbyterian congregations “provide opportunities for evangelism²,” I have, as part of morning worship, encouraged those present to talk about why they come to church in small groups. During the passing of the peace, which in my order for worship comes before the Scripture readings and the sermon, I ask those present to re-seat themselves into groups of three. I encourage people from the same household, or usual circle of friends, to sit in different groups.

After a brief introduction, as illustrated in above paragraphs, the sermon is presented as three segments. Each segment is comprised of a Scripture reading, a minute or two of exposition, then three minutes for participants to answer the related question within their triad. I have found using a verse of a hymn an effective and necessary transition between segments. Typically I have had the three questions (the section headings below) printed in the bulletin.

Time with Young Disciples

Before the introduction to the sermon, I invite all of the children to come forward for an object lesson. I hand each child a paper cup saying pretend this is your heart. Then I place a chocolate Kiss^® in each cup saying that love is like having a kiss in your heart. Then while pouring more candies from an opaque pitcher into their hands, I say, “But God’s love is heaped up, tamped down, and over flowing.” After the children finish scrambling for the chocolates that have spilled onto the floor, I tell them that with so much love they can could give one to everyone in the congregation and still have more than enough. If pressed for time, the sermon introduction could begin while the children distribute the candy.

hat is God doing in your life that excites you?

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 96.

The psalmist was excited about what God had done in creation. He wanted everyone to sing God’s praises with him. Consider the glorious creation that God has placed us in; the majestic beauty of the Grand Canyon, the scent of spring flowers, the song of a wren. Breath deeply to shout about what God is doing now!

What brings you spiritual calm when things are chaotic?

Scripture Lesson: John 20.

The disciples had retreated to the upper room following the Crucifixion. Stain glass windows help separate a congregation from the noise of life, creating a place for quiet reflection. Even the white spaces between the words of Scripture is sacred, for they help us to see the words more clearly. Teach others where to find rest from the storm, to breathe in the Spirit, and receive grace.

How do you contribute to building the Kingdom of Heaven?

Scripture lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.

The Apostle Paul recorded several ways that people contribute to being church together. In addition to teaching, preaching, and healing, we contribute to bringing God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and loose the bonds of injustice. Invite people outside the church to work alongside us so we might see God’s future together.

Concluding Remarks

While gathering joys and concerns in preparation for the Pastoral Prayer, following the Sermon, I ask people to name one thing heard in their triad, that someone outside the church should know.

Before the charge and benediction I ask if participants had enough time to discuss each question. I have always received a resounding “NO!” Then I charge everyone to continue the conversation during the coffee hour with people from other groups, over lunch with family, and during the week with co-workers and neighbors.

________________________________________________

1  Robert Shaw received a Masters in Divinity from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has served as the chair of church development committees for the Synod of Trinity and for the Synod of Lincoln Trails.

Currently he is the Designated Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church, Winfield, Indiana, which is in the midst of a Transformation project. This article is refined by experiences with six congregations including rural, suburban, and urban settings.

2 The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): Part II, The Book of Order, G-10.0102a.

I’ve had the joy of being with about 65 pastors these last few days, conducting Evangelism Training for the Presbyterian Church (USA).

As promised, here is part I of the slide shows.  

If you choose to link to the slides for your church website or newsletter, please use this link: http://www.evangelismcoach.org/2008/09/church_transformation_part_1.  

Some of the images in the presentation are licensed.

I write this sitting at the airport (Thanks for free wireless!), way too early in the morning. 

I’m headed to Tampa for the Transformation Pastor’s Conference, where I will be speaking a couple of sessions on on the role of personal evangelism and evangelism training in transforming a church.

What exactly is Church Transformation?

I’ve spent the last month talking with pastors around the US about church transformation.   A few are in really difficult situations (Leaving Egypt and Not Liking it).

From those discussions, it seems that a common idea is to help move a church that is stuck or in serious decline, and lead them into a new vision of what God has for them, thus launching a new life cycle of growth.

Stetzer calls them Comeback Churches.  I’ve seen other various titles, like Boomerang church, Redevelopment, Revitalization.  Seems the common word now is Transformational.

Moving from Attractional to Missional

Simply based on my conversations and reading, a common thread these pastors were sharing was working with congregations to shift from exclusive focus on attractional tweaks to becoming more missional and engaging their community.

Attractional ministry focused on quality programs, excellent hospitality, and marketing to get people in the door.  This was sometimes called a “magnetic” church.

As I’ve looked at Evangelism Committee reports, church information forms, and mission studies, a lot of churches still think that making small process adjustments to their parking lot, greeting process, or welcoming will help them reach out to the neighborhood.

Attractional ministry is based on the idea that visitors are coming to your church already, and that if you do enough marketing, you can get more foot traffic in your door.  Your hospitality will help the newcomers “stick” (see www.stickychurch.com), and your church will grow.  It’s a variant of “if you build it they will come.”

Missional however moves to help the church re-engage its neighborhood. 

Some pastors are in island churches, meaning their church is mostly commuters who used to live in that neighborhood.  The culture around the church has changed (demographically, socio-economically), but the church has not adjusted accordingly, thus being a cultural island.

Missional helps the church get out of hoping people will visit them to actively engaging the needs and people of the community, and in the process both demonstrating and sharing the faith in Jesus as Lord.

Many of the pastors I spoke with this past month are trying to move congregations in this direction.  They still seek to improve their attractional ministries, but now realize that churches have to be connected to the neighhborhood.

It’s a journey process, and some have moved further along than others. 

Block Party to Pre-School

Ten years ago, an island church invited me to do some Evangelism Consulting with them about launching a new worship service.  The average age was 60, and no young families in the neighborhood.  They were in survival mode and needed something to get new people.

The pastor wanted a new worship service, but the congregational elders didn’t. 

Instead, I lead them into a brainstorming process, and out of that process they decided to do a block party.

The congregation organized the block party.  Food, games, inflatables, and so on.  Members hung door hangers around the neighborhood and invited the local community to come.

As a result of that block party 10 years ago (and its continued annual repeats) this church has discerned the neighborhood needs and launched several new ministries to reconnect with the neighbors:

• Preschool (now with an annual budget larger than the churches).
• Meals on Wheels.
• Neighborhood Watch
• And other ministries.

This church has become much more missional in it’s mindset and has lots of new vitality and energy to serve. 

Now they are being more intentional about actively sharing their faith along with serving the area and that is where more intentional evangelism training will come into play.