• I’m a first time church greeter: What do I do?
• What is the most important thing for a church greeter?
• What 4 actions are important for a church greeter to remember?
• What should I say to a first time church visitor?
• What can I do after the service?
• Does my role as a greeter really matter?

For more greeter videos, look for the free church greeter videos link at

Church Greeter Training Videos at ChurchGreeterTraining.com

He gave me a great reminder that the church exists to reach the lost. It was a meeting that inflamed the passion to keep helping churches reach their community.

The book offers

• solid theology of appropriate Bible passages
• specific actions steps one can take after each chapter,
• Questions for personal and group reflection.

Kevin looks at relational evangelism through the lens of a journey process, using the agricultural analogies of

• preparing the soil,
• planting the seed,
• nurturing the seed, and
• harvesting the seed.

What is “organic outreach?”

Here is how he answers that by defining his terms.

It’s organic – “living the kind of life that naturally draws people to Jesus.”  This involves speaking and revealing the presence of a loving God and loving people in a genuine way.

It is outreach – where people live and communicate their faith in a way that lets people know there is a God who loves them and sent his only Son to open the door to a restored and wonderful relationship with them.

It is for ordinary people – everyone, including those who find personal evangelism intimidating or scary.

He writes:

“My desire is that you will find this book to be hope-filled, optimistic, and practical.  I don’t spend much of my time critiquing outreach methods and programs.  . . It’s not a system or a program.  It is a collection of simple and biblical practices that Christians can incorporate into their lives.”

If you’ve been doing a lot of reading in the field of relationship evangelism, you’ll

• recognize most of the favorite passages used in the book,
• enjoy the personal illustrations of those passages
• appreciate the easy read and renewed passion you’ll feel for sharing your faith.

The book has study questions and accountability questions for use in small groups and I think this is where it’s strength is – small group material for beginners.

The One Degree Rule

I think the most important contribution he makes to the discussion on evangelism is in Chapter 4, entitled the 1 degree rule.  What is the level of passion that burns in your heart for those who don’t know Christ?

Here is a video to explain it.

He refers to a the Christian’s personal evangelistic temperature – can be hot, colde, or somewhere in between, but the Christian witness has the responsibility to keep it hot.

The purpose of the scale is to provide for self-examination:  To honestly evaluate yourself and ask “how can I raise my evangelistic temperature by one degree today?”

The issue is not the current number, but the effort you make to raise it by one degree.

Ways to Raise Your Evangelistic Temperature:

Kevin gives us three ways, which many of us will be familiar with:

1. Regular Prayer for non-believers.
2. Regular Proximity unbelievers
3. Regular Personal Testimony – stories of Changed lives.

“How much time do you spend in a normal week with people who are not yet followers of Jesus?  What can you do to increase this amount of time?”

I’ve taught a similar principle in my workshops, and have written about this area before.  It’s refreshing to see it spelled out in a book in a simple manner like what he’s done here.

Order from Amazon: Organic Outreach for Ordinary People: Sharing Good News Naturally

Becky Pippert identifies five critical elements of personal and proclamation evangelism.

“For the most effective that we can be, we need first personal evangelism training. Secondly, we need small group evangelism. Thirdly, we need proclamation evangelism.”

“What we need to call people back to is the early church that gossiped the gospel, that depended on faith, that relied on the power of the holy spirit. They were not professionals, but they knew how to live independence upon the spirit and to declare the good news of Jesus Christ. We need to have a personal approach, we need to train people in personal witness.”

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Becky Pippert Part 2

Evangelist Becky Pippert introduces her panel and her theme–the strongest, most vital and holistic evangelism occurs when believers combine personal evangelism, small group evangelism, and proclamation evangelism.

How do we motivate people? . . . theology impacts our methodology. We must begin with God. . .  He’s loving.  He’ s inviting. He’ s sending. And when you begin looking at the character of God, nothing frees them more than understanding who God is.

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• Download Video (Small MP4)
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(Feed Readers: you may need to click through to see the video).

Church Greeters and Ushers should notice people

Church Greeters don’t necessarily go off duty once the service begins.

The key point here is that some church greeters or ushers may be alert for situations like the one described in the video.

Even if your greeters and ushers are not comfortable offering to pray with people, they should be able to find someone on your church’s prayer ministry team to accomplish the same action.

Let me ask you this?

Do you think this is a good skill for greeters, or do you accomplish this same practice through other ways?

Do you think greeters and ushers should play this kind of role?

I invite your comments.

Just recently, I met via phone with an evangelism committee that was just getting started.  They were wanting to know what a church evangelism committee does.

Other churches might be at the place of wondering

• how to start or establish an evangelism committee at church
• What are the responsibilities of an evangelism committee?
• Duties of an evangelism committee
• or ideas for an evangelism committee
• What is the role of the hospitality committee at church?
• What is the role of the evangelism committee at the church?

What does an evangelism committee do?

The video I’ve included here begins to provide three areas of potential focus for evangelism committee chairpersons or members.

Some evangelism committees focus on

• church hospitality issues,
• church marketing issues, or
• visitor assimilation issues.

The direction of this video for is on personal evangelism leadership, rather than those above.

Three Areas of Focus for Church Evangelism Committees

In case you are just reading, rather than watching the video, here are the three points

1. Personal Evangelism accountability.
2. Providing training in personal evangelism for the congregation
3. Leading congregational evangelism activities as part of your regular outreaches.

Resources Mentioned in the Work of the Evangelism Committee:

Got Style?: Personality-Based Evangelism, Jeffrey Johnson

Fear Free Evangelism 5 CD Audio Course, EvangelismCoach

Podcast Version of the Work of the Evangelism Committee

I’ve also made this a podcast for the feed.

Let me ask you this?

After watching this video, what is your #1 question about how to lead an evangelism committee?  Fill out the comment form below.

PS.  If you haven’t already done so, grab your free copy of “Avoid First time Visitor Nightmares“

Every life has a story.

One listening evangelism exercise we do is to spend time praying for the strangers we might meet.

As we go out into the streets, strangers will occasionally start talking with us about their stories.  If we slow down long enough to listen, we might hear their spiritual thirst and share a little of the water of life with them.

If you are leading an evangelism training small group, how can you use this video for discussion?

Share your thoughts below.

(HT: Shawn Anderson)

Video: [Thoughts of a Church Visitor]

I found this video this morning while preparing for a workshop in Richmond VA.

It captures the private thoughts of a first time church visitor as they prepare to come to your church.

If you have a church hospitality committee or welcome committee of some kind, consider using this video in your training.

Discuss

• What can your greeters do to help this visitor feel safe?
• What can your pastor do to help this visitor feel welcome?
• What can your church members do to help this visitor feel welcome?
• What are some steps you can take to expect and meet this visitors potential need?

Share your thoughts in the comments below. . .

I’ve got a new product just released, it’s a digital download on conduction a hospitality review.

Read more at Regularly Evaluate Your Hospitalty Ministry

Read more here:

How soon do we need to share the gospel with some one?

Because we believe in the radical importance of a person’s salvation, we want them to know now.

But we don’t want to be a stubborn jerk or obnoxiously repulsive evangelist.

We want to have some kind of relational equity to freely talk about our faith and their journey.

It’s the tension between

• Patience – time to build relational trust.
• Urgency – what if they died tomorrow?

In this clip, John Piper tackles this question with an “It depends.”

I like the point he gets to:

• Is Jesus precious to you?
• Do you really believe they are separated from Christ with eternal consequences?

Utlitmately, the point to share the gospel depends on the advance working of the Holy Spirit.

• Is the Holy Spirit already at work in drawing the other person to Christ?
• Where is the Holy Spirit’s work creating spiritual thirst?
• How can you help that person make another step towards the water of life?

There is no formula as to when to share.  Your part is detecting how God is working.

The Holy Spirit is the divine agent the Father uses to draw people to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit Prepares the Way by creating spiritual thirst.  Along the way, various events and conversations form Links in the Chain of Conversion.

To help explain this concept, I’ve started using a little macaroni tool that seems to capture this in a vivid illustration that people remember.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRz4fm0kx3Y