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

The authors do make progress in developing their thesis in the remainder part of the book.

Chapter 3: Place

In my take, Chapter 3 serves as the crux of the entire book, even before the authors get to defining what they mean by community based servant evangelism.

They do an analysis of the idea of “the third place.” I think Starbucks is famous for that term.

I remember reading Pour Your Heart Into It, about the founding of Starbucks.  Founder Howard Schultz does not conceal his passion for good coffee or for his company. His initial goals were to introduce Americans to really fine coffee, provide people with a “third place” to gather and treat his employees well.

In an attempt to make Starbucks a “home away from home”, the café section of the store is often outfitted with comfortable chairs, as well as the usual tables and hard-backed chairs found in cafés. Free electricity outlets are provided for patrons, and many branches also have wireless Internet access.  Many larger retail stores also host “mini-concerts” for local musicians (Wikipedia)

Other stores have followed suite, such as bookstores.

Wikipedia describes the third place as: “Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.”

To Wilkes and Pate,

Place is a prioritized period of time which an individual is forced, feels obligated, or chooses to invest who they are. [Emphasis mine] (46).

Best use of Place?

The question they ask, and the brilliant one that struck me:

What place is the local church for most people?

What place should it be?  First, second, third, or farther down the list?  . . As the local church goes after first, second, or third place, with whom will they do battle?  . . .

Why do churches add places instead of leveraging the places that are already central to people’s lives?

As the foundational premise for their community based servant evangelism, Wilkes and Pate argue that church members should be out in the community as the “third place” serving the community in ways that utilize their passion and gifts.

To those far from God, the church is likely not even in the top 10.  To those who even are close to God, I would argue it’s not even 3rd for many of us.

Family, work, school activities, typically fulfill first, second, and third in a person’s life.  Followed in no particular order with personal or family interests, sports, music lessons, recreational activity, leisure activity, community activities and religion activities.

Where is the church to fit when it has to compete for all these “spaces” in the lives of those who haven’t made space for it yet?  People will make space for what they deem valuable.  Marketers know that.

If we think of all the person hours it takes to run the church, have we left our parishioners with enough space to build relationships with unchurched people?

Helping our members in the 3rd Place

The key question for Wilkes and Pate is this:

Why can’t the church support its members when they are involved in their third, forth, and fifth place activities?

Why can’t the local church encourage members to serve in secular and civic organizations instead of only serving church programs?

Our churches can re-engage it’s culture by actively serving in schools, community, and civic organizations at a higher place (51).

Serving in the community as the third place will provide for lots of natural opportunities for people to share their faith and meet the needs of the community.

They provide several examples about coaching volleyball, helping neighbors find jobs, counseling for teen pregnancies, homeless shelters.  These community service activities are more than just good works, but provide conversational connection points where church members can share their faith and influence the world.

This can help your church members get beyond the “I don’t know any non Christians” (See Do you have any non-Christian Friendships?).

By giving your church members

• permission and encouragement to serve in the community
• training on how to talk about their faith

you can help the people build relationships with those who are outside the church.   This sets up Chapter 4 and the rest of the book.

Chapter 4: Defining Community Based Servant Evangelism

Community based servant evangelism (which they dub CBSE) is more than doing random acts of kindness in Jesus name.  It’s intentional evangelism.

It’s a philosophy of ministry and strategy of organizing the church that will influence ministry, events, and programs of the local church and specifically, the community (55).

Pate and Wilkes spend the next several pages defining each word and how they are using it.

The end result is picture of empowering individuals and small groups to find a need in the community that fits their passion and gifts and then creatively find ways to meet that need.

The resultant relational connections built on the foundation of service and meeting mutual needs establish opportunities for spiritual growth and evangelism.  Instead of always recruiting church members for program needs of the church, this permission giving approach empowers your members to get out and serve.

As people serve, relationships naturally form.  The evangelism portion of this model is for your members to be intentional in looking for opportunities to talk about their own spiritual walk with Christ.

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)

This really is a philosophy of ministry.  In this chapter, the authors give lots of examples of how this has played out in their experience and what it means for this to become part of the DNA of a congregation.

Learn more

Part III (final Part) comes tomorrow — Grab my feed to have it delivered to you automatically.  See Part I of Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part I

Learn more about this philosophy of ministry direct from the author, Stephen Pate.

Register for the Community Based Servant Evangelism Webinar this coming Thursday.

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.

Charles Arn has surveyed thousands of people: (Source: 3 Questions for Charles Arn)

In your research, have you found that there’s one specific reason that visitors come to church?

The friendship factor.

We’ve asked more than 50,000 people over the last 10 years why they came to church, and between 75 and 90 percent of respondents say, “I began attending because someone invited me.”

Those friends and relatives are critical to the growth of churches. They far outweigh factors like the facilities, music, preaching, or children’s ministry—people may stay because of these things, but they come because someone they knew invited them.

I’m glad to see that there is some recent research done in the area of getting first time visitors.

If you want to know how to get your church to invite people, it starts with personal relationships with non-church goers.

In my notes about how visitors come to church, I have these stats from 1987. It is still in print from Amazon (Source:The Inviting Church, 1987 p. 44):

• 2% by Advertisement
• 6% by the Pastoral Invitation
• 6% by organized evangelism campaign
• 86% by friends or relatives

Your personal Network

Lifeway research released in 2009 indicated that most people are still open to a invitation to a church from a friend.  See: Statistics on Invitations to Church

Who can you invite to church?

How is your personal network growing?

Do you have unchurched and non-Christian friends to invite?

Check out our series on Building New Relationships to start examining your existing network of friends to invite.

This example comes from Bill Tenny-Brittian, Hitchhiker’s Guide To Evangelism

Several years ago we moved into a planned subdivision that hosts over 5,000 homes.

I was a church planter launching a church in a nearby town and so I was “too busy” to get to know my neighbors.

However, that didn’t stop me from encouraging my flock that they should be busy inviting their friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, and coworkers. And I personally spent a good bit of time in the area near the church doing the same.

But after living in my neighborhood almost two years, the Lord convicted me that I had a nodding acquaintance with only one neighbor and didn’t know the names of any of my neighbors.

I also knew that in my section of the nation there was about a 97 percent chance that each of my neighbors were unchurched. I decided it was well past time to do something.

And so I started praying for opportunities to meet them and I began to make appearances at timely intervals in order to meet those who lived around me.

He goes on to discuss how he connected with one of his neighbors.

(Note: Join us for some practical faith sharing ideas at our upcoming free Webinar with Bill Tenny-Brittian March 26.  Bill’s book Hitchhiker’s Guide To Evangelism is full of more practical relationship building ideas.)

Getting to know my neighbors

From my own life, we began praying for all the families on our cul-de-sac during the 5 years we lived in one subdivision.

By the time we moved, we had made friendships with nearly every couple there

• Opening our house for Bring your own side dish – grilling events.
• Parties around the Superbowl, Christmas, Memorial and Labor Day.
• Talking with the neighbors while doing exterior work around the property (mowing the yard, raking leaves, etc).

Eventually, those kinds of friendships opened up to more personal discussions on life and eventually spiritual matters.

At the end of 5 years, no one had come to faith directly as a result of our efforts.

However, within 2 years after we had moved, 3 of the households found faith and started attending church somewhere.

We attribute that to the hours of prayer, hours of relationship building, and hours of deep conversation that occurred while pausing our leaf raking. . .

Getting to know my new neighbors

Now we live in a condo tower.

30 condos.

We have lived here for over 18 months.

The turnover in rentals in the building keeps changing the make up of the residents.

Over the past 6 months, we have gotten to know the family we share a floor with.

We’ve been praying for them, for their needs, and doing life with them.  Going to the beach as families, celebrating birthdays, kids playing together.    Simply doing life together.

The friendship is deep now, and the struggles of life are beginning to be shared.  We have liberty to share what God is doing in our life, how we are aware of God’s presence in our midst, and how God is providing for our needs.

While we have not prayed with them for their needs, we certainly are praying for them.  With each passing week, more relational bonds are built between our families.

Our faith has been on display: praying for our kids during birthday celebrations, grace at meals, inviting our neighbors to church, our small group.  Their son occasionally comes with us, and even attended a vacation Bible school with our kids.

He talks with my son about who is the Lord and why are we living where we do.

The curiosity of our family practices begins to raise questions and provide opportunity to talk about the relevance of our faith to our daily life.

• Why do we invest our time in church?
• What does the Bible say about parenting?
• What does “Honor thy father and mother” look like?
• How to we still have peace in our heart when life hurts?
• Why do your kids have such a servant’s heart that my kids don’t?

These are natural conversations that are occurring and give us ample opportunity to demonstrate the relevance of our faith to life.

Our neighbors are on a journey towards Christ.   We walk this path with them because we took the time to get to know them.

Coaching Corner

With whom do you live?

Not just your immediate family members, but consider your neighbors.

Who might the Lord be calling you to be praying for and get to know better?

Take 5 minutes today and in quiet prayer, simply ask the Lord to underline someone for you.

What next steps will you take?

• Part 1:  Do you have any non-Christian Friendships?

• Part 2: Drifting Away from the World that eventually isolates us from the world and surrounds us with only Christian friends.

Are we called to isolate ourselves?

One reaction to the culture is to isolate ourselves:

• Christian social networks,
• Christian business,
• see only Christian movies,
• listen to Christian radio, and
• attend the local coffee house when a Christian band is playing.

That’s intentional isolation.

There is also accidental isolation via the Christian treadmill.

It’s pretty easy to do over the course of time.

We are busy with activities in our highly programmed church, attending Bible studies, choir practice, and if we are in leadership, there are all the preparatory meetings for these events on top of the event themselves.

Our social calendars fill up by default, with good things to do, but the accidental result is

All our friends are in our church.

Looking at your spheres of influence

Instead of trying to ditch everything and form new social connections, perhaps you already have some that you may not be aware.

These are connections that are already part of your life, but may not come to mind immediately.

The goal is not to add another layer of work for you to do to get out of the bubble, but to start seeing the organic relationships you may already have.

I picked up a concept from a presentation years ago that has stuck with me.

These relationships may not be deep, but you already have regular contact with these individuals.

Consider these three spheres of influence:

1.  Where you live.

Consider the natural relationships you may have with

• Members of your own household (Kids, parents, siblings).
• Extended family members with whom you are regularly in contact
• Immediate neighbors and their families or households.

2.  Where you work.

Consider the natural relationships you may have with

• co-workers in your office.
• people you regularly share a work-meal with.
• People from other divisions you regularly meet every few months.

I think of some networking meetings after hours where conversation did get more personal and off topic from work.

I remember seeing people at such meetings once every two months at dinner when I worked for a global corporation.  These were natural conversations where spiritual subjects did come up.

You may have work place rules about sharing of personal faith stories and conversations.  You may also have some deepening friendships with co-workers that blend personal lives where you have liberty to talk about matters of faith.

3.  Where you play

Consider the natural relationships you may have with

• People you meet at your kid’s sporting events.
• People you play a sport with.
• People in your social club (e.g., knitting, reading, bridge, poker)

Coaching Corner

Take a few moments and pray through these spheres of influence.

Who does the Lord bring to mind that you need to deepen a relationship, strengthen a connection, or pray for the an opening to talk about your faith?

As I have given relational evangelism training seminars around the US and Latin America, the most common confession I hear from those who have walked with Christ for many years

I don’t have any unchurched friends.

The gradual change

For those with an adult conversion experience, they often notice that when they first come to faith, they have a lot of connections with unreached or unchurched people.

As their worldview changes with their new found faith, new relationships form in the church, values change, and social networks change.  It’s a natural process and one that is actually very helpful for discipleship.

It’s a drifting away from the world.

But the obvious downside is that one may forget to maintain the prior relationships and is suddenly in the cocoon of

Doing church — committee meetings, bible studies, and other volunteer activities.

Busy life transitions — various seasons of life have time commitments that minimize our ability to preserve friendships.  The constant rush from one activity to the next.  Example: young kids growing older often leads to more extra activity to keep up with sports, music, or other clubs.  Parents move to chaperone and

Isolation through Technology — using computers, cell phones, iPods and iPhones, we connect with those we want to, no longer taking the time to even notice the people around us.  I notice this more and more when I’m in American airports watching people while waiting for my next flight.

The cocoon forms.

It’s natural and happens with nearly everyone.

Pastors included

When I was pastoring a local church, I found myself spending way too much time in the office — surrounded by church people, called by church people, and calling on church people for visitation.

My time not in the office was spent in the car shuffling family members from event to event, or doing supply runs for church events.

I eventually left that routine — to get out of the Christian Bubble.

If you are a pastor – where do you connect with unchurched or unreached people on a regular basis?

If you are not a pastor — what can you do to help your pastor spend time with unchurched or unreached people?

Let me ask you this:

Did you do the exercise in the prior entry Do you have any non-Christian Friendships?

If you have found yourself in the cocoon, how did it form in your life?

What steps can you take this week to get out?

(HT: Image pslim)

“I have no non-Christian relationships” confessed one of my evangelism coaching clients (shared with permission).

“I was taking an inventory of my personal relationships and discovered that I had surrounded myself entirely with Christians.”

In the Christian Cocoon

This is a common description of many Christians who have been walking with the Lord for many years.

I once asked a church where I was preaching: Where are the new believers? They realized they didn’t have any non-Christian relationships.

I recently did a evangelism workshop on personal evangelism with nearly 80 people in attendance and all had known the Lord for at least 15 or more years.

In my experience, I could easily guess that many of these, if not all, would confess the same lack of relationships with people who do not walk with the Lord.

A Christian without an unchurched friend is like a dash of salt in the ocean: it doesn’t do anyone any good and, frankly, no one even knows it’s there. — Bill Tenny-Brittian, Hitchhiker’s Guide To Evangelism

Practical Exercise

Let’s take a moment to look at your significant relationships.   Think of people you choose to spend time with on somewhat of a regular basis.

Make a list of friends who immediately come to mind.  Try to name as many as possible in the next 60 seconds.

Write those names down.

Now look over the list.

1. Who goes to church with you? Cross them off this list.
2. Who attends another church regularly? Cross them off.
3. Who shows evidence of a relationship with Christ? Cross them off.
4. Who is left?
5. Do you have anyone left on the list?

What now?

Where you surprised by the results quick little exercise?

What will you do about it?

If you have  plenty of non-Christian and unchurched friends, what do you do to maintain those relationships?

If you have few such relationships, what will you do this week that can start to change that?

Share your responses in the comments below.

You can read 10 Practices to Welcome Church Visitors Part 1 by following that link.  Here are Common Practices 6-10.

6. “Secret Greeters”

Some churches will go beyond simply training greeters for points of entry at the church, such as the front door.  A good idea is to encourage others to be “secret greeters.”  These folks are part of the greeting team but are not in the obvious places like the front door or as an usher.

I had a fellow in my congregation who never served on a greeting team.  However, he was always in the sanctuary, taking the initiative to greet people personally and visit with them for a little bit.  He functioned as a “secret greeter.”  This someone beyond the “professional greeter” at the door or the welcome center.

If for some reason a visitor gets to the sanctuary with a greeting from someone, this person is there to continue that greeting.

7. Pulpit recognition

Most churches that I have experienced will have the worship leader give some kind of welcome to the greeter.  Here, the advice from McIntosh is best (source: Beyond the First Visit: The Complete Guide to Connecting Guests to Your Church, Gary McIntosh, Review)

Whatever you do, take great pains not to embarrass the newcomer.  Among other things this means you should not identify new people by placing a ribbon, flower, or nametag on them.  Do not ask visitors to stand and speak before the entire congregation.  A survey of one thousand adults 18 years of age or older reported that “making a speech” was the number one event causing adults to be nervous.  It ranked first, ahead of, in order, getting married, interviewing for a job, going to the dentist, a first date, and getting a divorce. (p 110).

My wife and I recently visited a church where this wasn’t done at all.  She commented that it simply feels nice and warm when the worship leader acknowledges the presence of visitors and encourages the church to say hello.

8. Friendship Pads, Fellowship Books.

These are books that gather attendance information and provide a place for visitors to identify themselves by checking a box on the form.

The idea is that other people in the row would see check in the visitor box and take the initiative to greet.  Church multi-purpose this form for attendance tracking.

However, I have been in churches where I check the box, and still no one greets our family.  This practice seems to be falling out of favor because the pads become a doodle bin, the pencils are hard to keep sharp and it’s becoming an administrative nightmare.

There are other ways of getting visitor contact information, particularly the response card system mentioned in Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church (which I think is the best Assimilation book available right now).  They use a Connection card that is distributed with the bulletin and every one (members, attenders, and visitors) fill it out as part of the service.  This information is used in their assimilation process, described in detail in their book.

9. Quality Snacks and Beverages.

The basic idea is a informal reception area where people can gather after the service.  For some, this is the lobby area (some call that a narthex).  For others, it could be in the fellowship hall or auditorium.

As our evangelism training ministry takes us to churches throughout the Americas, many American congregations provide some kind of coffee hour after the service, to allow for a social setting where people can talk one on one. (Observation: In my travels in 10 different Spanish speaking countries and countless churches, only one church practiced this idea).

Beverages:

Make the coffee fresh and of appropriate strength. It shouldn’t be reheated from last night’s fellowship event nor should it be so weak as to taste like colored water. While it doesn’t take a lot of skill to make coffee, making it right is the challenge.  Coffee drinkers know a good cup of coffee, and a bad cup will leave a bad taste.  Don’t forget to make enough – sometimes the pot gets drained before visitors have had a chance to get to the urn.

Offer alternatives such as teas, juice, ice cold water. If you choose to use bottled water, offer a recycle container for empty bottles.

Food:

Whatever snack items are offered, make sure they are fresh. Stale sweets, or frozen items (poke a little fun)  that had been thawed simply taste cheap and do not make a great first impression. Consider common food allergies and either avoid those (like nuts) or provide an appropriate sign.

In our health conscious time, provide healthy options for those that don’t want sugary cookies or sticky sweets.

Connecting:

Church members should be on the lookout for visitors again in this time. Some visitors are obvious – standing around, reading the news items on the bulletin board, and generally being overlooked. Members ought to take the initiative and start a conversation.

This can be a time to help make connections and perhaps introduce people to the pastor. Pastors should make themselves available during this time to meet and greet people, not rush off to the study and prepare for the following service.

In the international church I served, we stressed the importance of introducing our visitors to the pastors. We had been told that many people from non-American cultures consider it an honor to be introduced to the pastor.

10. Sunday School Greeters and Hosts

Some visitors will partake of the Sunday School offerings.  Many have a strong program here that attracts visitors who come for the first time.

I experienced a warm welcome in a 14,000 member mega church because of my experience in Sunday School.  I arrived early enough to pick a class.  Once I found it (a kind person in the hall pointed out where I needed to go) I was welcomed by a person and invited to a beverage and ushered to a place to sit.  The small talk was not intrusive but just enough to help me feel at ease in a strange place with total strangers (I was by myself).  When the Class was over, this person showed me to the sanctuary and took me to a usable seat.  After asking if there was anything else I might need, they left.

I learned later that this church was very intentional in their Sunday School program to welcome class visitors.  Each class had a person in charge of the beverage, the teaching, and the greeting.  I felt welcome, overcome the sense of being lost on their campus.

Next Steps

Want to learn about avoiding visitor nightmares?  Subscribe to our newsletter and a receive a link to download:

Let me ask you this?

What did I miss?  I’m sure your church might do things a little different.

What practices do you do in your church that you’d like to share?

Feel free to share with us in the comments.

If you would like more information about evaluating your hospitality, check out our articles on hospitality and feel free to give me a call at 804-335-1445.

On the opening night of our Listening Evangelism Conferences, one participant in Michigan simply said “Evangelism scares us.”

Why I hate Evangelism

From an expired link in this EvangelismCoach.org article, I found “Five Reasons Why I Hate Evangelism.”

1. It violates the golden rule – most Christians would not want to be approached by a member of another religion the way Christians approach others in evangelistic attempts
2. It calls the authenticity of relationships into question – are you my friend because you’re really my friend, or so you can convert me?
3. The moment of truth – we think we must identify a “no turning back” point where you pressure someone to make a decision, and if they don’t respond well, that jeopardizes the relationship.
4. Asking someone about the Gospel feels like making a pass at them.
5. If I like my friends, and want them to continue to be my friends, I have a major incentive NOT to try to evangelize them.

20 Evangelism Fears

These are mostly based on Emotions!

Our emotional baggage associated with “Evangelism” is probably the biggest baggage.

Try answering this question: “What do you think about when you hear the word Evangelism?” (Reese, 11)

• Door to Door
• Pushy televangelists with funky hairdos asking for money and pushing people down.
• What does “one beggar telling another where to find bread” mean?
• My friend was obnoxious year after year always telling me I needed Jesus.
• It implies other religions are wrong, that Christians are better

Other lists that I have gathered over the years include:

• Fear of Rejection
• To mess up and somebody’s eternity destiny is your fault
• Interrupting somebody’s life
• Losing a friendship
• Fear of offending
• Fear of what others will think about you.
• Stuck with unanswerable questions
• Feeling inadequate
• Being seen as arrogant
• Fear of being kicked out of your family or breaking a family relationship
• Fear of your own weakness, hypocrisies, and inadequacies
• Doubt and not being certain about your own beliefs.
• Guilt
• Fear of being a hypocrite.
• Drive-by Evangelism

Let me ask you this?

What do you think about when you hear the word Evangelism?

Feel free to give us your answers below.

Do you have a faith worth sharing?
Do you have friends to share it with?

At Every Day With Christ: Take a Look Across the Room, Charlotte Lowrie wonders about taking the time to talk with friends about Christ.

Here are some excellent questions that come to Lowrie’s mind:

1. When was the last time that you spoke of your faith in conversations with non-believers?
2. What is the boldest word you’ve spoken or action you’ve taken for Christ in the past month?
3. If a non-Christian asked you why you are so into God, can you tell him or her why? And if you can, would you deliver a long monologue, or would you hunker down for a soul-deep dialogue.
4. Can you listen carefully to the other person’s questions and relate your experiences to their questions and problems?
5. Can you talk about your faith in everyday language to non-believers?
6. Can you use contemporary words that non-believers can immediately relate to and understand?
7. In two minutes or less, can you tell a non-believer how Christ changed your life?
8. Do you ask people to come to church because you’re afraid to or uncomfortable in asking them to come to Christ?
9. Do you eagerly jump at the opportunity to say a word for God in conversations, or do you shy away for fear of being politically incorrect?
10. Do you talk about your faith as an everyday reality and necessity regardless of who’s in the audience?
11. If you knew for certain that the Lord would return next week at this time, which non-believer would you want to share your faith with immediately?
12. Can people tell that you are “different;” can they feel that an extraordinary love lives within you and that that love is directed toward them?
13. And, finally, do you think of God as being there to serve you, or do you think of yourself as you being here to serve Him?