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.

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

What’s not working?

The authors ask:

Why Aren’t Our Efforts Producing Anything Other than More Work?

Think about all the evangelism training, all the conferences, new ideas, new books, new resources that have been offered in the last few years.

Pate looks at the statistics from his own denomination and notices no noticeable change in baptism statistics (which is a marker of growth in their Baptist tradition).

Of their 2100 Baptisms in 2003

• 12% were Christ-followers not previously immersed.
• 54% were children or grandchildren of members
• 34% were individuals with no prior church connection.

Numerical statistics from their association note that their membership in relationship to their county decreased in its percentage from 4.3% to 1.9%

The church was not reaching people for Christ, in spite of all their efforts in evangelism training, programming, and lots of resources.

Church outreach programs, age-grouped bible studies, church-wide evangelism emphases and events have produced current results.

As a consultant earning a living from evangelism training, this bothered him.  Why is there no noticeable change even after all time and effort to do training and provide resources?

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.

The key argument is:

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

It is relational evangelism to the core.

How is this different from other relational evangelism material?

Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community is different in that it seeks to figure out how relational evangelism can work in context a local congregation.  It’s not a curriculum, but a philosophy that can shape the culture of your church.

A lot of relational evangelism training curriculum is focused on individual — helping you develop relationship and then skills in sharing the gospel.  The authors refer to several, such as Just Walk Across the Room (or Just Walk Across the Room Video Curriculum)

Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community focuses on the implication of relational evangelism in the church DNA.

What happens to your programming?  What happens when your calendar is too full to spend time with unchurched people?

Example:

Let me share an example from my own life.

I’ve been asked via email to conduct an evangelism training program for a local church.

The coordinator has asked to meet with me, so

FOR 5 MONTHS

we have been trying to arrange an in-person meeting time.

We have had at least 10 appointments set, and every time, this coordinator has canceled on me.

Every time — “something came up at the church”  “I have to be at the church” and so on.

He’s left me hanging.

No-shows, and canceled appointments.

I’m frayed.

I am unable to meet him at his church because of distance.

We keep trying common meeting points, half-way, but each one keeps being canceled.

The point is — the church calendar is so full with surprise meetings or other meetings, that even the evangelism coordinator doesn’t have time to meet with me unless I make it to the church to catch him between meetings.

His church calendar is so busy — can he spend time with unchurched people building relationships?

Pastors and Leadership

Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community is aimed at church leadership to help think through these hard questions.

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.

They present a relational evangelism philosophy that will seriously impact your church’s DNA.

Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community isn’t really aimed at individuals, but pastors and leaders seeking to answer the question: How can our church connect with the community?

This goes beyond servant evangelism (doing random acts of kindness in Jesus name) and beyond scripts, to deploying members to meeting community needs.

• How to improve your first impressions ministry for first time church visitors
• What to say to a first time visitor.
• How to train church greeters.

Do you want to retain more of your church visitors?

That process starts with a great first impression.

A first impression leads to a second visit.

A second visit leads to a third.

Additional visits help assimilate your visitor.

It all starts with great first impressions.

Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Time: 3:00pm Eastern US Time

(Adjust for your time zone)

Register on line :

************REGISTRATION HAS PASSED *************************

In this FREE online webinar, evangelism trainer and church consultant Chris Walker will share practical steps to

* How to improve your greeting of first time visitors to your church
* How you can organize a church greeting team
* What you can say to church visitors
* Six words you never want to say to a first time church visitor.
* Why church hospitality is not evangelism.

Chris Walker, of www.Evangelismcoach.org will offer valuable insight into helping you improve your ministry of first impressions.

*** No product pitches or sales (with exception of book mentions), but donations towards the cost of the webinar can be made after the webinar. ****

After the event, a PDF handout will be made available to participants.

Date doesn’t work for you?

To be automatically informed as to our next webinar, signup for our Free Evangelism Newsletter.

You’re email will not be sold or shared. Ever.

No Spam either.

How does your church connect with the community?

Is your church over programmed but not developing mature Christians?

Is your church known in your community for it’s service?

Would the community notice if your church closed its doors?

Are your members leveraging their community service for as times to share their faith?

This webinar has passed

In this FREE online webinar, evangelism trainer and church consultant Stephen Pate will share practical steps to

• Get church members beyond the walls of over programmed churches
• Help pastors to grasp this philosophy of community service for evangelism
• Cast a vision for community based servant evangelism
• Find active ways to serve your community in Jesus name.
• Experience the transformational growth and watch your church grow.

Stephen Pate, author of Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community, will join me, Chris Walker, of www.Evangelismcoach.org in discussing this strategy as part of your evangelism outreach to your community.

*** No product pitches or sales (with exception of book mentions), but donations towards the cost of the webinar can be made after the webinar. ****

After the event, a PDF handout will be made available to participants.

Date doesn’t work for you?

To be automatically informed as to our next webinar, signup for our Free Evangelism Newsletter.

You’re email will not be sold or shared. Ever.

No Spam either.

Do you need advice to take your evangelism passion, hospitality, or  outreach strategy to the next level?

Leading your church or small group is challenging.  Brainstorming about evangelism ideas or strategies seems to have you stuck in a rut.  You need fresh answers and ideas, and you can’t wait for it.

Sometimes you just want to talk to somebody who knows.

Speak to Chris and get the answers you need right now.

One-hour coaching call – Direct, Friendly Advice

I provide your ministry with the advice and answers you need via telephone or Skype.

Examples of coaching calls you might need:

Potential Outreach Review — Consulting your outreach plans, ways to make it more effective and connect with the community.  Discussion of Follow-up plans.

Church Website Review – Consulting on your website’s impact and design and how it better serve your outreach plans.

Visitor Follow-up Review — Discuss your plans for first time visitor follow-up and suggest ways to improve your hospitality from where your church currently is.

Networking for evangelists and pastors — Discuss plans to help you maximize your time networking to launch a church.

Fruitless to Fruitful — breaking through frustrations in evangelism effectiveness.  Take one issue and coach through it.  Discover what is holding you back.  Drill down and break through it.

??? – Whatever you need, ask your burning questions in an informal, friendly chat – you are in the driving seat!

After the call you will know where you need to make improvements and will have the answers you need to increase your passion for evangelism and re-energize the outreach.

“Chris was great in helping me discover
I wasn’t focused on right thing.
He helped me refocus
and I found myself re-energized.”
— D. Watson, Church Planter.

“Chris knows this stuff inside out,
and yet is very personable.
He’s passionate about
helping you share your faith.  ”
— Joe Schlosser, Excellence Coaching Group

“You had excellent ideas
I’m really jazzed about what you shared.
I feel re-energized with new ideas”
T. Watson, Small Church Pastor

Don’t struggle on your own, talk it through with me and together we can get you making progress.

Calls are available from 10am to 8pm Eastern US time.

Get Started Now

Pay just $45 for the first call and supporting emails or PDF resources.   Following calls are charged at the reduced rate of $30 an hour. Longer term contracts are also available.

Next step? …

I look forward to speaking with you!  I’ll send you an invoice after we are done.

Over the decades, this church has acquired neighboring parcels of land in the city to expand their campus.  The end result being that there is no contiguous land parcel for one parking lot.

Instead, there are small disconnected parking lots scattered around the campus of multiple buildings.

The question we explored is how to help first time church visitors navigate the complexity of multiple parking lots when certain lots are full.

Together, we discovered two useful ideas for the Church Website:

Have a first time visitors page

This particular church did not have any section, or even the home page, designed for the first time visitor in mind.

First Time church visitors seem to have a particular set of questions in mind visiting your website before coming to your church

• Are these people like me?
• Who is the pastor?
• Where is the church?
• What are the service times?
• What are the child care arrangements?

This is anecdotal, meaning, I have no statistics or hard links to back it up.  But in the many years of talking with visitors and being a first time visitor to many churches, these are recurring questions.

A web page geared toward answering these questions should be present.  Liberally use photos of your church’s social life and good quality in-life photos (not church directory portraits) of your staff.  Show lots of maps.

Have a Web Page for Church Parking

This particular church has a unique challenge with its disjointed parking lots and one tip we discussed was a specialized page about parking.

This page should be graphic rich.

Have a sub-page with

• How to park,
• Photos of the parking lots and surroundings,
• Downloadable or printable maps of where they are in relation to the main building.
• Video

With a cheap flip-cam, one could even make a video showing the walking journey from each parking lot to the main building. The video can be on the website.

This handheld camera Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder makes it easy to grab a quick recording and upload it to an editor and then to your churches website or sites like YouTube.

I have started making small videos for online evangelism training course I’m developing.  I can go from recording to on-line in under 20 minutes (that includes some editing time to clean up the video and put in headers / trailers)

Coaching Corner

Do a review of your church’s website as if you were a first time visitor.

• Does the home page answer the questions listed above?

Do a Internet search for churches in your neighborhood.

• Think as if you were searching for a church to attend this weekend.
• Pick one that you have not visited
• Pay attention to the questions you are asking of the website (where is this church, what time are services, etc)
• Could you find answers to your questions?
• How easy was it to find what you are looking for?
• Can you answer the same question on your church’s website?

Talk with your church web designer to fix what you have discovered.

P.S. If you would like your own consultaiton for a church website review, I can help you with that.   Here is how -> Individual Consulting Call

PPS.  Looking for more tips on first impressions?  Buy my instant download book at www.welcomechurchvisitors.com

• After school tutoring
• Shut in or Prisoner Visitation
• Habitat for Humanity work projects
• Medical outreaches for the community
• Participating in Crop Walks for Hunger Relief
• Food pantries, clinics, shelters for the homeless

These are just examples, and I am sure you can add hundreds more from your local community.

The questions I ask and we kick around in friendly discussion:

• Is that outreach?
• Is that evangelism?
• Is that home missions?
• Is that simply good deeds?
• Is that missional outreach?
• Is that marketing in disguise?
• Is that a demonstration of God’s love?

A cup of cold water

What is clear is that we have blurred the line between evangelism and outreach.  Discussions I’ve had bounce all over the map.

In some corners of the church, this is evangelism because it demonstrates the gospel.  No explanation needed.

Other corners argue this not evangelism because the gospel is not verbally shared.  It’s simply social action.

Depends on how you define your terms.

Acts of Christian service and charity, social outreach to your community are good and noble efforts.  Many are propelled theologically by the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), giving a cup of cold water to the least of these.

Yet what is it that separates your Christian service from that of the local Rotary club?

What makes your acts of compassion different from my atheist friend who does community service through the Peace Corps?

How does the recipient know the difference?

How do the recipients of your outreach interpret or give meaning to your outreach?

Meaning is not always clear

My friends in Panama tell me this story.

Panama Olympian Irving Saladino won the first ever gold medal for this country during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing.

The last medal won was 60 years ago and it was bronze.  Irving Saladino won the gold in the Long Jump competition.

During his jumps, nationally televised in Panama around 6.30 am,  the nation was at a virtual standstill.  People were watching it in groups at friend’s houses.  Taxi drivers had pulled over to side of the road to listen to the radio.  Everyone it seemed, went to work late.

On his two or three jumps, he wore one red shoe and one blue shoe, reflecting the national team colors.  However, on his next to last jump, he changed his shoes to a gold color.

The commentators and “man on the street” interviews all got excited:

• “He’s going for the gold”
• “He’s put on his lucky shoes”
• “He’s telling us this will be the gold medal jump.”

They were applying meaning to the color change of shoes.

That jump turned out to be the gold medal winning jump.

The country erupted in celebration.  Facebook photos from my friends show lots of celebrations, cheering, and national happiness.  People on the street celebrated by blowing their car horns in celebration.  Crowds formed spontaneously on the street.  National productivity of the workforce shut down for the day as Panama won its first ever gold medal.

The meaning of the shoes?

When asked by a reporter about what he was trying to communicate with his shoes, Saladino mentioned

that the laces in his red and blue pair got tangled up and he didn’t have the time to fix it.

He put on his gold colored backup shoes so he wouldn’t be disqualified for being late to the starting line.

Very different meaning than what the nation watching on live television thought.

People gave it meaning based on their hopes, dreams, and worldview.

Meaning is given if not provided

Bring that back to your church’s outreach.

What might your recipients think about your outreach?

How can they tell that it is a “Cup of Cold Water given in My Name?”

In a post Wrestling with the Definition of Evangelism I mention:

Just this week, the dental assistant told me that it feels good to help people.

I asked her “Why?”  No immediate answer, but enough to have her reflect.

She’s unchurched. She didn’t know why people had black spots on their heads last Wednesday [for Ash Wednesday].

She could serve the poor, work for the Peace Corp, or any of the national volunteer mobilization organizations.  She simply feels good.  that altruistic motive propels many people.

But to the recipient, what separates her good service from that of the church?  How does the recipient know it is “In My Name?”

In my experience, meaning is naturally given if not supplied by the giver.

Outreach in partnership with Evangelism

John Stott asks the question in Christian Mission in the Modern World.

Is social action (thanks to Timmy Brister for summary)

• A Means to evangelism
• A Manifestation of evangelism
• A Partner of Evangelism

Mark Dever has an interesting piece in Christianity Today, also points out what  “What Evangelism Isn’t.”  (adapted from his book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism).  Evangelism is not social action or public involvement (”They commend the gospel, but they share it with no one.”)

In What is Evangelism? – Part 3, which focuses on the “sharing” part of our Evangelism Definition, I mention:

During a health outreach our church did for its neighborhood, one unchurched person commented, “I don’t like to listen to sermons, today I saw one.”

Our service to the community was interpreted as we wanted – a tangible demonstration of the love of Christ that we have for our neighborhood.

It’s a witness to the world thru actions.

Yet that interpretation came about because we gathered all the volunteers at the beginning and I explained to them why we as a church are doing this outreach.

We are serving because God first loved us and we want to demonstrate that to the community.

Good works demonstrate our faith.

Yet without any overt or clear explanation that our actions are propelled by God’s grace, what makes our good deed any different than what the local Lions club does or what good corporate citizens provide through their charitable foundations?

It’s not an either/or proposition for me.  Both social action and explanation via words are necessary forms of sharing.

Deeds are love demonstrated, but a further explanation of the gospel is necessary to give meaning to our actions.  Otherwise, our actions are ripe for misinterpretation.

Practically what does this mean?

Many churches are actively engaged in good works in their community.

Yet can their members explain their personal faith along the way?

Can churches train their members to grow comfortable talking about their faith with the people they are serving?

What if, as part of the planning for outreach events, the church provided a training opportunity about talking about your faith?

What if, as part of praying for the outreaches, the church also prayed that conversations about Jesus would happen?

What if, as part of serving the community, the people were able to provide meaning of their service by talking about their personal relationship with Christ?

Let me ask you this?

Think about your church’s outreach.

In what ways can your church provide meaning to the recipients through the verbal sharing of your faith?

I invite your comments and reflections below.

Welcoming

I’ve recently had the joy of connecting with a Spanish speaking small church. It’s a small church, bouncing from 15-40 in attendance.

Our first visit was sometime last year, maybe October.  I’m clearly an American, so I stuck out. (When I visited a 700 member Spanish church in Panama, people welcomed me in English — my visit was a novelty).

We were welcomed, greeted, introduced to the Pastor, invited for coffee.

The welcome we received overcame all the clumsy portions of the service: feedback in the microphone, words misspelled in the songs, slides missing, laptop projector not working 100%, musicians starting music in different rhythms.

If one was into nitpicking quality, this church could be a case study.

But,

their hospitality overcame all those potential drawbacks.

The second time we visited, we were warmly received again, and invited to a home for Thanksgiving dinner.

Belonging

Now its 7 months later. We go every Sunday night.

We’ve been invited to homes, and in one case called 4 times by different people to make sure we were going to attend a cookout.

We feel loved and accepted, even when I don’t understand everything spoken to me.

In fact, there is one brother that I can’t understand at all. I need his heavily accented Spanish translated into Spanish so I can understand him. But they have the patience to repeat themselves and to make sure I understand.

We will miss this little church when we leave. They have already scheduled a cookout / farewell reception (two of them, actually) for us.

We have moved from visiting to belonging.

So what?

The hospitality of this little church overcame lots of possible quality issues that could drive visitors away. A church that focuses only on quality but doesn’t welcome the visitor is focused on the wrong issue.

When we were simply visitors, we weren’t ready to connect. Rather, this little church took the initiative to reach out to us, connect to us, and welcome us into their world. It was a one way street for a while.

Their hospitality has helped us to emotionally connect to this congregation.

We belong.

The Support Work

Hospitality in a church sets a good environment for hearing the gospel proclaimed. Hospitality itself is not evangelism — rather it’s an environmental factor that allows the gospel to be heard without distraction.Churches that I consult with are very interested in hospitality — the nuts and bolts of welcoming the visitor, making a good impression with a clean building, typo-less bulletins, clean and bright nurseries for children. But let’s not be confused — hospitality is not evangelism.

Rather, it is a leg that supports the evangelism work of the church.

Let me ask you this?

Think of the time when you first connected to your current church.

How important was the church’s hosptality to your decision to connect?

Now how do you personally welcome the stranger in your midst?

Other related posts:
How not to welcome a visitor
Hospitality is a piece of evangelism
No One Said Hello
I can’t silence the pain.
I want to feel Jesus

This story is one of the many stories in my book.  In the book, I elaborate more as to why evangelism is not hospitality