EvangelismCoach.org

by Leave a Comment

Church Planting Book Review: Church in the Making by Ben Arment

Church in the Making, Ben ArnettChurch planting is not easy work.

Ben Arment shares some lessons he has learned out of his church planting experiences in his book,

Church in the Making: What Makes or Breaks a New Church Before it Starts

In the introduction, Arment writes for church planters who struggle.

How did church planting become such a spiritual crapshoot?  Why is it that some churches fail why others succeed?  How is it that prayerful, hardworking men and women who are called by God and filled with faith could fall flat on their faces?

Pulling from his own experiences in church planting, both from one that struggled to get going and one that he is currently in, he takes this angle:

  • Understand the spiritual receptivity of the community where you are planting.

He writes:

This book attempts to uncover the mystery of church planting.  . . Church planting, it turns out, is remarkably organic.

Part 1 is called Good Ground – where Arment shares about spiritual receptivity at the level of local community.  I write about spiritual receptivity a lot, but focused on the one-to one conversation level.  Arment brings the wisdom of doing that work in the community.

Part 2 is called “Rolling Rocks.”  Arment looks at momentum and suggest some was to capture that social momentum.

Part 3 is called “Deep Roots.”  Arment looks at how a new church development springs out of the the roots of it’s community, rather than a vision being imported from another community.  Church planters will have a deep connection to their local community, some that will take the time to build.

“Planting a church in a spiritually infertile community can be done, but it’s like walking up an escalator that’s going down.”

Church Planting Challenges

I’ve got the church planting bruises and blessings.

I know that church planting is not easy work from my first hand experiences.

I spent 5 years on the team to start a church for immigrants that still is up and running with it’s founding pastor.

I spent 7 years on the team to start a second church for immigrants that continues to this day with it’s founding pastor.

Seven months ago, we’ve gotten our family involved in a third immigrant oriented church that will look forward to starting public services in October 2015.

My role has always been a support role and never the lead pastor.  That is consistent with God’s calling on my life.

But that doesn’t mean I’ve not seen the ups and downs of launching a new church.

Bruises from disappointments when people walk away.

Blessings of seeing people discover faith in Jesus Christ.

Bruises from early co-leaders who abandon the original vision and bail out.

Blessings from new believers who are so excited about Jesus they keep bringing their friends.

If you are planting a church, you’ll like this book

Other books to church planting take a look at leadership and theology of church planting.  This book adds a sociological layer, focused on momentum and social networks.

For my take, the core of this book is knowing the spiritual receptivity of the community where you will plant your church.

Some might call this

As I look to participating in my 3rd church plant in a brand new community where I have zero roots, this book points out some of the challenges that will be ahead of me.

Arment uses the parable of the soil types in Matthew 13:3-9 to apply to church planting along with examples from his own experience.

Not only is your ability to share the gospel dependent on a person’s heart condition, but your ability to plant a church successfully is dependent upon your community’s spiritual fertility as well. . . It never dawns on most church planters that their target community already has an established degree of spiritual fertility (page 20).

Arment then unpacks

  • the spiritual fertility of the “soil” in which the church is planted,
  • methods of cultivation,
  • tapping into social networks, and
  • creating and sustaining momentum.

To see how they all fit together, you’ll need to pick up your copy of Church in the Making: What Makes or Breaks a New Church Before it Starts, by Ben Arment

When I have taught churches that want to do a door to door evangelism campaign, I invite them to not only think about how to share the gospel, but also to learn about the spiritual thirst of the community as one of the 5 outcomes of door to door work.  I believe that noticing spiritual thirst will open good conversational doors.

You might do the community exegesis of visiting with local officials to learn about the community.

The church you want to plant is not a fortress, but are the people of God on the mission of God.   Brainstorm ways the church can bless its community and ask the question “How can we be the best church for the neighborhood?”

In the process, you’ll learn the spiritual receptivity of the neighborhood.

Quotes I liked:

  • When a new church struggles year after year to see fruit from its activity, we should assume it’s not quite time to plant. Instead, there is tilling, watering, and cultivating to be done.
  • It doesn’t matter how good your service, your worship, or your preaching, your church is ultimately judged by social network.
  • There are two activities for church planters: cultivating and planting. If you do the right thing in the wrong season, you get zero results.
  • But if people are leaving because they don’t like our vision, we should celebrate. Their exodus verifies that our purpose is being lived out. Vision is affirmed not only by the kind of people we attract but also by the kind of people who leave.
  • Not everyone in your church can help you further the movement. Nor should they be made to feel guilty if they don’t. But fueling a movement is about identifying your connectors and enabling them to reach even more people. This is what Jesus did by investing in twelve disciples to keep the movement going from his time until ours.
  • People aren’t inspired by spreadsheets. They’re inspired by changed lives.
  • After seven years of planting a church, it became clear that our most committed colaborers were the people who had found Jesus through our ministry.
  • Paul made a groundbreaking statement to the church of Corinth that ought to forever change how we view our churches: “We have the hope that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel to the regions beyond you” (2 Cor. 10:15–16).
  • Planting a church in a spiritually infertile community can be done, but it’s like walking up an escalator that’s going down.

Links to Other reviews:

  • If you are a church planter or thinking about planting a church you should read this book. Don’t expect it to make you feel great about planting and pump you up to a spiritual high though. It won’t do that at all. What it will do though is make you think through some issues and consider some reasons church planters struggle. I do not agree with all of Arment’s points, but I do think he does an adequate job of painting a realistic picture of church planting.  From: http://pastortodd78.com/book-reviews/church-in-the-making-ben-arment/
  • Church in the Making is a helpful resource for church planters and other ministry leaders, particularly those who are undertaking new ventures such as beginning new programs or casting vision for renewal. I wish I would’ve read this book before launching a youth ministry from scratch five years ago. Arment provides helpful insights on contextualization, innovation, connecting and fostering relationships for the building up of the church. He also cites a number of stories of hardship and trouble that are common to ministry–experiences that are authentic, humbling, and helpful towards those that suffer from naiveté or lack of ministry experience.  (http://benjaminasimpson.com/blog/2011/1/13/book-review-ben-arment-church-in-the-making.html, also found on Twitter at @bsimpson
  • Church in the Making by Ben Arment doesn’t mince any words, and it has the tone of a soldier who has fought the good fight and won, but at a high personal cost, with the sense that the battles could have been easier with better intelligence, and mourning the soldier-friends who he has seen fall around him.  http://therooftopblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/book-review-church-in-the-making-by-ben-arment-terrific-and-not-just-on-church-planting/, also found on Twitter at @JamesWJewell

Related Church Planting books

All links will connect you with the book on Amazon.  Any purchase made will earn me a small commission.  I’ve read each of these and can recommend them to the discussion.

Ben_Arment

Connect with the Author

Order your copy

Order your copy of Church in the Making: What Makes or Breaks a New Church Before it Starts, by Ben Arment  from Amazon.  I will receive a small commission.

Escalator photo credit: Going up via (license)

by Leave a Comment

Book Review: That’s a Great Question

Thats A Great Question Book CoverMy unsaved friend had a few questions for me about the New Testament.

He had been reading articles on the Internet about objections to the credibility of the New Testament

  • Conspiracy theories of the church suppressing information
  • Edits to the text that introduce conformity to the established doctrine.
  • The search for the historical Jesus.
  • Secret gospels that the church suppressed.

How would I answer such questions?  How could I help my unsaved friend evaluate such evidence?

How would you approach your friend who tossed similar questions at you.

That’s a Great Question

One evangelism fear that people have is being caught without an answer to questions like this.  My friend has given me  a specific example of an “I don’t know what to say” moment.

This is where a book like That’s a Great Question: What to Say When Your Faith Is Questioned, by Glenn Pearson, can be a helpful tool for you.

The book is focused on helping you analyze objections that are commonly found to the New Testament, specifically claims against the reliability of the New Testament.

Pearson focuses on worldview filters that skeptics and believers bring to the reading of the New Testament.  I’m grateful he recognizes that he himself brings a filter that starts with the NT being reliable.

I found myself laughing at his humor, his funny stories, and his first hand adventures in talking about his faith in Christ.

It is a book on apologetics I found hard to put down.  No boring list of data facts here.

One reviewer on Amazon said:

In a manner unknown to many authors today, Glenn skillfully blends humor and intellect to produce a great work of apologetics. This book will be a valuable resource

Pearson himself writes:

The purpose of this book, then, is to demonstrate that a commitment to academic excellence and intellectual integrity is consistent with belief in the Bible. I hope to equip you with valuable perspectives and insights that will help you identify and confidently respond to filters often used by those outside the historic Christian faith. Furthermore, I will arm you with practical principles that can clarify some tough challenges to Christian beliefs.

Part 1 is an introduction to filters that skeptics bring.  Filters strain out evidence that is unwanted, or creates blindness to likely alternatives.

For example, chapter 3 is a discussion of two types of filters that add to the stories of Jesus, based on secret or suppressed documents, conspiracy theories.  This chapter made me laugh out loud a few times.

Chapter 5 tells the story of a college class and the Jesus seminar and shows about how anti-supernaturalism leads to forgone conclusions, stacking the deck with similar thinking minds that filter out other explanations or possibilities.

Skeptics have a basic problem when it comes to explaining Jesus’ message. They claim that the Jesus of the Gospels was a remarkable but mortal man whom his followers elevated to divinity. But they never seem able to explain adequately just who did the extreme image makeover or who wrote his amazing speeches.

Part 2 is applying filters that a Christian believer brings to the same objections.

Part 2 of this book presents eighteen principles that provide a solid interpretive approach to the Bible. I call these “Pearson’s Principles for Approaching Puzzling, Perplexing, and Problematic Passages.” If the principles are valid and if the Bible is reliable, this approach should address critiques colored by various filters and which question the validity of the biblical text.

Some apologetic books focus on difficult questions about particular texts (God Behaving Badly).  Other focus on learning and challenging religious worldviews (Evangelism Slightly Less Difficult, or Tactics).

Others focus on Reasoning from the evidence to the existence of God (God is not Dead).  Pearson’s approach is to expose the presuppositions that a skeptic brings to a Bible passage and how a Christian can reasonably deal with objections and still have intellectual credibility in belief.

GlennPearsonDo I have biases about the Bible?

Of course. I have concluded that it is reliable and accurate and is, in fact, God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible, and historically reliable revelation to humanity. This is not simpleminded acceptance, but an opinion backed by considerable research and study.

Are there problems with my position? Of course. I am fully aware of the intellectual challenges inherent in this theological view, but there is strong supportive evidence for my stance.

Do skeptical critics have biases? Of course. They, too, would say their positions are based on careful research, and they are correct.

Are there intellectual problems with their positions? Of course. There are enough complicated factors that neither side can claim victory based solely on the academic arguments.

The point, however, is that it is possible to be a thoughtful, well-educated, well-adjusted person and to believe that the Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant, and infallible revelation to all people in all ages.

Who is That’s a Great Question for?

I found That’s a Great Question: What to Say When Your Faith Is Questioned to be a great book for Christian believers who need to know how to analyze plausible objections to the credibility of the NT.

Young adults headed to college or already in the university will find this book helpful.  If you regularly engage non-believers in meaningful conversations about your faith, you’ll run into objections and questions that are addressed in this book.

If you are a skeptic, than this book may bother you.  Pearson politely shows you the presuppositions you bring to your own analysis.  He admits he brings his own as well.

If you are spiritually thirsty and honestly searching for how a bible believer can believe the Scriptures, you’ll find a honest assessment of the evidence and plausible explanations of alleged contradictions in the text.

Related Apologetic Book Reviews on EvangelismCoach

 

 

Order your copy

Order your copy of That’s a Great Question: What to Say When Your Faith Is Questioned from Amazon.  I will receive a small commission.

by Leave a Comment

Book Review: Offer Them Life

Dan DunnHaving read a steady diet of popular church growth books, Dan Dunn’s Offer Them Life: A Life-Based Evangelistic Vision is different academic challenge.

It is not a book to consume in one sitting, but a great book for those who want to think deeply on the biblical theme of Life.

I love Dan’s passion for evangelism and it clearly shows through the book with a mix of scholarly wrestling plus how to make such insights available in practice.  Dan’s cross cultural missions experience (a passion that I share personally) gives him tremendous insight into his study.

This book requires deep thought and this was a welcome refresher in an age of “theology lite” books I’ve read the last few years.

Reading it felt like an appropriate return to seminary.  For me, that was a timely challenge that I appreciated.

Dan has made the effort to survey the scholarship and to synthesize their thoughts plus his own surrounding the biblical metaphor of life.

I appreciated Dunn’s scholarly approach.  Rather than reduce the gospel to 3 propositional statements, Dunn looks throughout the scriptures at the theme of Life.  He takes well-developed steps to map out a comprehensive picture of this metaphor throughout Scripture to show the centrality of this message in Scripture. 

His thoughts would serve missionaries, pastors, and evangelism trainers like myself as they prepare their evangelism habits and teaching materials.

Main points of Offer Them Life

DanDunnThese are the two most important points:

1. A solid case can be made that “full, vibrant life” is the central theme of the Bible.

This is therefore what God calls us to enjoy in relationship with God, others, and creation.  It is not only eternal life, but a full and meaningful life as one lives out God’s purpose and plan for which we have been created.

2.  Portraying the full vibrant life that God intends to non-Christians is a central element of evangelism.

This what we should be inviting non-Christians toward.  Sure, the offer of salvation includes forgiveness of sin, but it also includes the offer of “abundant life” here and now.

We should not stop using other biblical/theological language, such as redemption, forgiveness, salvation.

Dunn only asks that we add full life oriented imagery and vocabulary to our theological/biblical understandings and also our evangelistic communication.

Quotes I liked:

  • Two perspectives underlie the current practice of evangelism in the U.S. American context. The first is one’s understanding of eternal life. The second is basing evangelism on the concept of kingdom.
  • Christians, therefore, must continually discern ways of thinking about and practicing evangelism that honor the strong biblical theme that God wants God’s created humanity to experience life fully (abundantly, according to John 10:10), on this earth, prior to physical death.
  • When evangelism deals with sin, for example, mutual emphasis could be given to the life-forever benefits of being forgiven through Christ (e.g., access to heaven) and to the life-now benefits of Christ’s forgiveness (e.g., freedom from bondage)
  • These examples serve to illustrate that a great deal of material has been written on the theme of the already and not-yet character of the kingdom’s fulfillment. For my purposes, the most important factor to note is how the tension between the already and not-yet dimensions of kingdom fulfillment relates to the biblical theme of life, and then consequently how this relates to the theory and practice of evangelism
  • I would now like to introduce a related yet different concept for you to consider: that we frame the relationship between life and kingdom in reference to ultimate goal or purpose, as distinct from the instruments or means that lead to that ultimate goal or purpose.
  • Thus, Jesus’s primary goal in announcing the kingdom and inviting people to respond to it was not so that they could be counted as citizens of the kingdom for the sake of the king or the kingdom, but for their own sake, because it is through submission to the rule of King Jesus that they would receive new life in him.
  • If creation of and participation in life was God’s original intention for creation, then God’s intention in Jesus is a restoration and re-creation of that same life: teeming, fertile, abundant, and good. This directly and powerfully impacts the theory and practice of evangelism, for it helps shape our understandings of what we are offering in our communication of the good news
  • Evangelism begins with God, but God also intends, invites, and desires that God’s people be active participants in the evangelization process. The Scriptures vividly portray that God’s plan for calling God’s fallen creation back to God’s self includes people as integral ministry partners in this work. From the calling of Abraham to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, to young Mary giving birth to the Son, to the early disciples leading thousands of people to Christ—the Bible makes it clear that God wants to communicate the possibility of new life in Jesus to people through people. Therefore, though evangelism begins with God and is utterly dependent on God, God also envisions a vital role for Christians. Without question, God is the sole source of new life in Christ. However, this does not automatically mean that God is the sole agent in the process that leads us to this new life. God’s sovereignty in evangelism does not cancel out God’s intention for us to be used as God’s agents in evangelism. Rather, it is in God’s sovereignty that God has chosen us as God’s agents.
  • How, therefore, can we portray (and invite persons to) an experience of full life in Jesus that appropriately calls them to center that experience in their commitment to and relationship with God?
  • The answer is, yes, there is very good news for life now, and evangelistic theory and practice must make this a primary emphasis
  • In whatever way we may choose to include the possibility of new life in Christ in our evangelistic vision and ministry, we must include references to experiencing positive benefits in this life, if we want to resonate well with non-believers
  • This is the essential point I am making in relation to creation as the starting point for an evangelistic vision grounded in the biblical theme of life. We begin with God’s good and positive intentions. This provides a more appropriate biblical and theological foundation for theology and evangelism.

This reviewer said it best:

Dr. Dan Dunn has done what few can do. He has written a very academic and scholarly treatise delivered in a language we all can understand. His brilliant mind, disciplined academic pursuit and passion for helping others find life in following Christ has resulted in a book every Christian worker should include in their library, not as another dusty tome, but as a pattern for their life and ministry of evangelism. Every theological school which hopes to actually equip their graduates to do the work of the ministry should include this book in their curriculum.

Dan is a personal friend of mine and I have taught with him in the seminary he has founded in Venezuela.

I have gotten to know him over the last few years as we share passions for personal evangelism and a profound love for Latin America.

Even if I didn’t know Dan personally, I’d still recommend this book for your academic reading.  Let it impact how you practice evangelism.

Order your copy

Order your copy of Offer Them Life: A Life-Based Evangelistic Vision Amazon.  I will receive a small commission.

by Leave a Comment

Hospitality Ministry Book Review: See You Next Week

During a recent church visitor assimilation webinar (available now for purchase), we discussed some excellent resources on the assimilation process.  One participant recommended a short book on hospitality ministry that was helpful to them.

See you Next Week

See You Next Week is a short text crammed full of ideas that could help your church get started in improving the welcome and integration process in your church.  If you haven’t read any books on this topic, this book might fit what you are looking for.  It can help your congregation develop it’s friendliness.

Who is this book for?

I’ve read several books on church hospitality.  I’ve written two myself.  This particular book would be aimed at the church that doesn’t have an existing hospitality committee or advocate who wants to run the ministry and needs someone to start taking charge.

See You Next Week would be a good primer and overview of the church welcome and hospitality process.

If you have already read some of the related books in this field, you won’t learn anything new.   However, See You Next Week would help you refresh your interest.  The ending section on 11 principles for your volunteers would serve any ministry leader well as a resource for their volunteer training.

In either case, you can find short and quick tips that you would need to polish your existing hospitality and welcome ministry, and quick reminders for your volunteers.

The book is not about evangelism, or even how to share the gospel along the way.  The authors know that is an important topic, but it is outside of the scope of their focus on creating a good welcome and developing your ministry of assimilation.

This book is all about integrating that newcomer into the church family as quickly as possible. This is not a book on evangelism. It is not a book on advertising. It is not a book on church programming. It is a book that focuses attention on that narrow range of activity that should help the newcomer on their way into your church community. On their part it might start with a tentative, “We should try that place out sometime.” But we want it to end with an assured, “This place is my new home!”

Overview

See You Next Week is laid out as short two page chapters, followed by a QR code and weblink to more in depth information.

The authors move through

  • The importance of being friendly.
  • First Impressions: the importance of managing it.
  • Next Steps: Plan intentional pathways
  • 11 resolutions for all hospitality volunteers.

Here is what you need to know about the flow of the book. We start together with clearing up some of the basic facts about the subject and the need to integrate newcomers. Then we move on to the attitudinal, mechanical, logistical and general organizational elements to consider. Finally, we give some practical advice for every committed church participant

I presume the promised online resources are still in development.  The preface promised additional resources via the links. I sampled a random few and didn’t find the additional resources hinted at in the preface.  Mostly, I found a page that has the text of the chapter, the audio reading of the chapter, and occasionally resource paper or additional resources.   Maybe more resources are coming as the product development continues.

The Gem of the book

The book is admittedly not about evangelism, or even about how to help people find faith in Christ. The target is to help your church members be intentional in helping newcomers feel like becoming part of the local church family. The writers say right off the bat:

“This is a book about one small slice of church life and therefore doesn’t deal with the diversity of the multiple elements that matter.”

It is full of practical tips on conversational small talk, how to relate to new comers, and various principles that volunteers should keep in mind when serving on a church’s hospitality or greeter ministry. They look at attitude, some mechanics, and some organizational elements of welcome and hospitality.

The value I found in See You Next Week was the 11 resolutions for hospitality volunteers.  These are directed at the volunteers, and you as a ministry leader could use them in your volunteer training.

Most of the books I’ve read in this field talk a lot about the mechanics of hospitality, but this set of 11 principles was written specifically for the volunteer.  It gives you specific ways you can live out a warm welcome from the relational side.

  • Show Up “I will show up for work at church.”
  • Plan “I will plan my work and I will work my plan.”
  • Be Joyful “I will lighten up.”
  • Pick a Seat “I will not sit alone.”
  • Invite “I will invite people to something.”
  • Keep in Touch “I will keep in touch.”
  • Be a Linker “I will introduce newcomers to others.”
  • Be Normal “I will be friendly but not overbearing.”
  • Be a Conversationalist “I Will Become an Excellent Conversationalist.”
  • Live by 5-10-15-Link “I will live by the 5-10-15 link rule.”
  • Reject Rejection “I will reject rejection.”

Short Quotes:

  • A welcoming church where people love to join isn’t built overnight.
  • You won’t get a chance at a second impression if you don’t make a good first impression.
  • Remember, if you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you probably don’t know what you are doing
  • Nobody wants to be around sour people.
  • Don’t look for a comfortable place for yourself; look to make things convenient for others

Other neat quotes:

  • With the “See You Next Week!” system you don’t need 100% involvement. It is a good idea to ask for full participation but if you get 25% participation your church will explode with new energy. If you get 10% participation you will see a noticeable difference in the number of newcomers who decide to make your church their church home. If all you get is one key person to team up with you, you can have high impact.
  • But virtually all church attenders who have been in for very long have forgotten the negative emotions they had in anticipation of their first church experience. It is the negative anticipations that keep many people away. Some take the risk to attend for the first time; they need to be pleasantly surprised. Unchurched people don’t go to church unless something or someone gets them there for the first time.
  • Your program definitely counts for something. But not as much as it used to because newcomers behave differently today. They used to care more about your complete church life. Nowadays, from their perspective, the intended full integration of the typical newcomer into your church life, will be to show up a few Sundays a month or even a season in your main meeting.
  • Meeting people who come from other lands or cultures is especially awkward for many greeters. They hardly know where to begin. And, of course, because there are literally thousands of possible variations it is impossible to cover everything. However, opportunities abound to minister to newcomers from all nations of the world.
  • You get one chance to make a first time impression with first time guests. Your need is to know the process for taking people from a first time newcomer to a healthy, growing, serving member of the church. You should lay out these important stages or touch points along the way. If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process you probably don’t actually know what you are doing. When a church has a really good process of welcoming they can increase the ratio of new people they are keeping while recognizing they will never keep them all.

Order your copy

If you want to add a copy to your library, order yours here.  If you do, I’ll get a few nickels.

Or check out my own ebook that is available to download here.  A purchase of my ebook will also reward you with a free consulting conversation with me about your hospitality ministry, plus information on the best way to get visitor contact information.

by 3 Comments

Give This Book to Your Spiritually Thirsty Friend

One spiritual conversation is just not enough.  The Lord will use many conversations to help bring your friend to Christ.  But sometimes, you’ll want something that you can give your spiritually thirsty friend something that they can read and ponder over.

Books are good for this.  Invite your friend to read one with you and discuss the chapters over the next several weeks.

So what is a book you can recommend to your spiritually thirsty friend?

Book Witnessing Tool

[Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

5 Star Book Reviews for Church Greeter 101

I was recently asked to organize our almost nonexistent hospitality team at church. I was honored to be asked but honestly not sure where to start.

I mean you just say hello to people right?!?

Who knew there was so much more to what a greeting team actually does!  Thank you so much for this book and the wonderful information and insight it has given me.  I’m excited to do this ministry for our Lord!

Amazon Reviewer, direct link

Chris Walker's Church Greeters 101 now available in print

Written for Leaders of Church Hospitality

Church Greeter 101 was written for the leaders of a church welcome ministry.  I want to lead you forward in starting or relaunching the greeter ministry of your church by covering such topics as:

  • how to recruit church greeters,
  • ideas to train church greeters, and
  • ways to cast the vision for ongoing hospitality ministry.

Maybe:

  • You’ve been asked to recruit greeters for your church greeting ministry.
  • You’ve been asked to organize your church greeters, but aren’t quite sure where to start.
  • You’ve been asked to train your current greeters but can’t find any adequate training material available.

Maybe you are not sure of any of the requirements to be a church greeter and are asking. . .

Where do I begin? [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Book Review: Living Dangerously, Shawn Anderson

LivingDangerouslyCoverThe Great Commission calls each of us to “Go and make disciples.”  Your lifestyle plays a part in that process.  Eventually, you’ll need to talk about your faith in Christ and share the gospel, but your lifestyle and your character will play a role in your witness.

What areas of your character significantly impact another person’s journey to faith?  Are there identifiable character traits that impact your evangelism?

Shawn Anderson makes a significant contribution to answering this question in his book Living Dangerously: Seven Keys to Intentional Discipleship.   He did a national study (in the USA) of adult conversion experiences to see what were some common characteristics of a person who led someone to start following Christ.

Anderson asks adult converts to think of key influencers in their journey to faith and what characteristics played a significant role in their decision to follow Christ.

It’s not a study of new converts and their background, but what about their “key influencers” that helped lead them to faith in Christ?

The focus

In my reading so far, this is a different angle to the effective evangelism question.  Anderson’s work is not a study of evangelism techniques, as in

  • memorize this presentation,
  • develop this argument,
  • seek after the lost,
  • build relationships, etc.

There are plenty of books available on these evangelism approaches, the spiritual beliefs of unbelievers, and church growth methods about attracting people to Jesus via missional communities or attractional church methods.   Yet, Anderson saw a gap – there are not many books focused on the discipler – the person who is instrumental in helping a person find faith in Christ.

He choses that term based on the Great Commission.   Anderson intentionally makes a distinction between a discipler (all of us) and an evangelist (a particularly gifted person or office in the church).  In the context of his book, this is a helpful distinction to understand.

I determined that I would uncover the mysteries of discipleship by asking people about their conversion process, so conducted a nationwide study to better understand how people became followers of Jesus. I hypothesized that people are led to Jesus when there is someone who takes a special interest in their salvation.

My thesis was that this person is especially influential in the lives of unbelievers when his or her life reflects Jesus, the greatest teacher of disciples. The results revealed that, indeed, individuals were influenced to commit their lives to Jesus by people who modeled Jesus in their lives.

The 7 top characteristics

Discipleship involves creating disciples out of unbelievers.  Our role is to introduce people to Jesus.  As such, Anderson identifies 7 character traits of the disciplemaker that are influential.

  1. Loving
  2. Faithful
  3. Authentic
  4. Knowledgeable
  5. Trustworthy
  6. Caring
  7. Passionate

These are the character traits of a disciple maker that had the most influence in helping an adult become a believer in Christ.

Each chapter explores these character traits in fuller detail, particularly focused on how to develop this trait a little more in your own life.  For example, in the chapter on “Knowledgeable,” Anderson writes:

“Nevertheless, unbelievers indicated that there were explicit indications of knowledgeable disciplers. They revealed that knowledgeable disciplers studied the Word of God, made the Scriptures relevant, and welcomed biblical questions . . .Some factual knowledge is essential in making disciples, but what seems to matter more to them is our ability to make the Bible relevant to their lives.” (71).

If some bible knowledge is important, then Anderson takes the step to call us into personal devotions, self-feeding, as well as consuming sermons.  We need to understand ourselves how the Bible is relevant to our life.

Lifestyle Evangelism from Paul

Anderson’s research confirms that verbal proclamation can be supported through the characteristics of our lifestyle.  The Apostle Paul’s character witness was just as a important as his verbal witness. He lives out lifestyle evangelism when we worked among the Thessalonian church.  He writes:

We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority.  Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.   Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.  You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.  For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. 1 Thessalonians 2: 6-12 (NIV)

Anderson’s research helps to identify particular characteristics that we can develop that are effective in relational evangelism.

Order your Copy

Order your copy of Living Dangerously: Seven Keys to Intentional Discipleship from Amazon today.

Do you want ongoing ideas delivered to your inbox?

Each week, I send out new articles to help you grow your church through personal evangelism, invitations, improving your greeter ministry, and refreshing your vision for church hospitality.

Sign up here.

by Leave a Comment

Book Review: Making Friends for Christ

Making-Friends-CoverI’ve often listened to personal testimony stories that have the following elements:

  • A friend of mine had been praying for me.
  • I had lots of conversations with my friend about their personal faith.
  • I was intrigued by my friends desire to serve the poor with their church
  • I was invited to church.
  • I heard about what Jesus Christ did for me.
  • It finally clicked, and I gave my life to the Lord.

Not every personal testimony has all of these experiences, but there are several points in the journey to faith where the influence of Christian friends makes a big difference.

The new believer is often excited about the difference that Jesus has made that they start telling their friends about finding God.

 

Making friends for Christ

In the book, Making Friends for Christ: A Practical Approach to Relational Evangelism,  Dr. Wayne McDill describes how effective evangelism can be, and should be, a normal, purposeful, outflow of life.

  • “You shall be my witnesses, Jesus said,
  • To Jerusalem—your own household.
  • To Judea—your neighbor.
  • To Samaria—your enemy.
  • To the remotest part of the earth—the stranger.”

I found his book extremely practical in helping people find normal ways to share their faith in the midst of their friendships, without having to go out and confront the stranger with their sin.

He doesn’t shy away from the observation that relational evangelism takes time, but balances the sense of urgency with the responsibility to respect boundaries that people setup.

He’s especially helpful in conversational and relational skills that are useful to personal evangelism:

  • Taking an inventory of friends.
  • Listening skills
  • Growing a deeper relationship
  • Earning the right to be heard and share.
  • Sharing the gospel in your home with friends
  • The three story method of personal testimony.

Some quotes:

Several years later in another seminar I had the strange feeling I had been there before. This time the subject was “soul winning.” But the approach was the same as that I had been taught for selling encyclopedias. The aim was to “get a decision.” That was the test of success, just as in the book sales. The same things were covered, from how to approach the house all the way to four or five separate “closes.”  The super soul winner who taught the course (I forget his name) promised us success if we followed his plan.

Secular people need “evangelistic pathways” in the church. They need the time to move toward a faith commitment. Evangelistic strategies can include more dialogue, question and answer, short courses, seeker meetings, and especially small groups.  Secular people do not accept the Christian view of reality. So the witness cannot assume that view when witnessing. He will often need to challenge the assumptions post-modernists take for granted and reveal their inconsistency in a good-natured way.

Much evangelism strategy today is deductive. It is based on thinking from the general to the particular. That means we begin with laws and concepts instead of with the individual person. With an inductive approach to evangelism we are interested in the “particulars” of “individual” persons as the starting point for our witness. We move from there to the “general” and “universal.” This will be clear as we approach our task

Evangelism must aim beyond decisions to disciples. We must never be satisfied to count our converts before there is evidence of transformation.

Joe Aldrich cites statistics that reveal the results of faulty evangelistic theory and methods. The relationship of a convert to the person who witnesses to him is critical, as well as the number of times he is exposed to the gospel. “More than 80 percent of those who trust Christ and remain members of a local church are led to the Lord by a friend. Furthermore, they have had over five exposures to the gospel before their conversion.

In addition, “More than 70 percent of those who ‘trust Christ’ and drop out of the church are led to the Lord by a stranger. These converts average a little over two exposures to the gospel before their conversion.”

Order your copy  Making Friends for Christ

Making Friends for Christ: A Practical Approach to Relational Evangelism

If you get your copy from this link, Amazon will give me a few nickles to support our work in Latin America.

Do you need help in Personal Evangelism?

Grow in Personal EvangelismStart here with this MP3 Download on Evangelism Training from the store ($10) to help you see where you need to grow.

In this 70 minute MP3 AUDIO recording on personal evangelism you will learn:

  • How church invitations are part of evangelism
  • How to discover and share your own journey to faith
  • What you can say about the gospel message.
  • How to personally lead someone to faith in Christ.

It’s a 70 minute audio file that takes just a few minutes to download, but it may help you answer the question:

What can you do in the next 90 days to grow in your evangelism skills?

by Leave a Comment

Book Review: And The Gathered and Scattered Church

Is your church looking to make first steps to re-engage its community?

Or are you caught up in the missional vs. attractional discussion?  Google “missional vs. attractional” and you’ll find a slew of blog posts, articles, and books referencing the divide between two ways of doing church.

Over the last few years, I’ve talked with several churches that realize their mistake in being solely an attractional church.  In the process of spending all their energy in a “come to us” approach, they’ve accidentally withdrawn from the community.

One church even opened a dog park as a community service, but no one from the church visits the park to get to know the people.

AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church (Exponential Series) is a book aimed at churches that want to reengage their community, or make their first steps in that direction.

The authors, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, wrote AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church (Exponential Series) to call the church past the “missional/attractional” divide that has grown over the last 5-7 years to a place where we can affirm and recognize the need both to gather and to be sent together as a community.

Halter and Smay, who previously co-authored The Tangible Kingdom, help lead the Adullam community in Denver, Colorado.

From their own experience, they see that there is a natural struggle to find a balance of scattering people into incarnational mission but that there is also a significant beauty and meaning in corporate gatherings.

Reading this book was both challenging and encouraging.  The authors are practitioners in the of ministry.  It is clear that they “get it.”

This book speaks more to the practice of missional community versus theology of missional practice.  Much of their stories reflect their own experience in developing their church.

Chapter Two  jumps right in with a key question:

how to move a church that is strongly attractional and inward focused, and help its people  understand missional living via avenues for ministry outside the walls of the church.

For me, Chapter 4 was the core of this book.  They talk about spiritual formation as a disciple.   Whereas some traditional models of discipleship focus on knowing about Jesus (or theology, or other wonderful content), these writers define spiritual formation as becoming like Jesus, rather than just knowing about Jesus.

I want people to hear the stories of as many of our people as possible because people are not drawn to mission statements anymore. They are drawn to stories like their own

They propose a four part model of spiritual formation that centers in belonging on the way to believing:

  • observance,
  • preparation,
  • participation,
  • partnership

4partFormation

In this process, churches are encouraged not to rush an assimilation process, but allow newcomers to observe first what your church is doing.  They suggest short windows of commitment to see if they want to get involved.  Another way to say this is simple next steps.

During this observance phase, there must be a time where people get to hear the story of the church, and a chance to share their own story.  It’s a time where people decide if their story matches up with your church’s story.

As I moved through this chapter, I found myself highlighting and agreeing with much of their writing.  I think you will too.

Chapter 6 is focused on how to move from Gathered to Gathered and Scattered.” It more on a theoretical level of leading a shift, rather than practice, in part because missional practice is entirely connected to the ministry context.

They focus on

  • Gifting
  • Calling
  • Capacity
  • Other Variables

Some quotes from And

  • Strife, war, brutality, and dissension rule the day, and God begins a master plan to redeem the world, setting in motion a cross-cultural community that will bring his blessing to this messed-up world. It’s a rescue plan to save sinful humanity
  • Since the days of Abraham, God’s people have been a missionary community, a people for God to “give away” to the world. And God continues that purpose in the church today.
  • Actually, church is something everyone should be a part of, but it’s different than being a faith community. Church happens when a group of people decide to go on mission with God together.
  • God’s church is a missional church, a community that is sent and given away for God’s purposes.
  • The reason all of our church forms fail to produce the fruit we see in Scripture is because we approach church as everything but a missionary community.
  • So how does a missionary get the context? We do it by becoming friends with people.
  • Being incarnational is not so much about our direction; it’s more about how we go, what we do as we go, and how we are postured in the culture God calls us to engage. Incarnation is the personality of our proclamation.
  • Engaging culture isn’t as much about doing evangelism as it is incarnating the presence of Christ in every relationship we form. If we fail at engaging well and living as Christ would live among our neighbors and friends, we fail as missionaries and the culture doesn’t see the visible beauty of the sent church.
  • My hope for this book is that it will push the church, in all forms, to find God’s balance: gathering people well AND missionally scattering them as incarnational communities.
  • The pain of providing what people want instead of what they need will eventually either kill you or cause you to ask, “Why am I doing this anyway? Is this worth all the agony? What was the Main Thing I’m trying to do again?”
  • People will naturally gravitate toward experiences that are meaningful, and the most meaningful experience a person can have in this life is to feel connected with God—to know that God is leading their lives, challenging them, interacting with them, and using them to change the world.
  • Calling people to leave their nets, to prioritize God’s mission over their own, to live by faith, to take up their cross, to deny self, and to seek first God’s kingdom and righteous life is what seekers are so desperate to hear.

From the Publisher

AND, by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, asks and provides an answer for one of the most important questions for church leaders today: What is happening to the church in America?

By all appearances, it looks like we are ‘doing’ church better than we ever have. In the past thirty years the number of mega-churches has increased from under 100 to over 7,500. In the past ten years the number of multi-site churches has increased from under 100 to over 2,000. By the numbers, these church movements enjoy the national platform, the national voice, and the resources to profoundly impact the Kingdom.

In spite of the rapid growth of these prevailing church movements, why is the Western church still in massive decline?

Numerous books have been written documenting the flight of members from the institutional church. This is not another book about how to do church better or how to just get people back into the pews.

AND helps you—-whether you are a mega-church, traditional, contemporary, or organic church leader—-focus on the vast majority of unchurched Christians and non-believers who are not moving toward any form of church.

You will learn how to value existing church forms—-attracting people to a physical church and releasing people into hands-on ministry … bringing together the very best of the attractional and missional models for church ministry.

AND will equip you and all church leaders to value existing church forms while catalyzing a missional movement of incarnational people into the world for Jesus Christ.

AND is the second book in the Exponential Series—-a partnership between Exponential Network, Leadership Network, and Zondervan featuring several signature books each year to tell the reproducing church story, celebrate the diversity of models and approaches God is using to reproduce healthy congregations, and highlight the innovative practices of healthy reproducing churches.

Order your copy: AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church (Exponential Series) (Amazon Affiliate Link)

by Leave a Comment

Review: CoffeeHouse Theology

coffeehousetheosmallThis past summer I got to read CoffeeHouse Theology: Reflecting God in Everyday Life.

I even did a webinar (See CoffeeHouse Theology Webinar Replay) with Ed Cyzewski to download the MP3 or view online.

Some of Ed’s insights are pretty profound.

  • Is theology important in personal evangelism?
  • What role does theology play in how we do personal evangelism?
  • How does our culture shape our theology and vice versa?
  • How does our theology shape our mission?
  • Can you do theology without being a post-modern philosopher?
  • How do you think we should rate the importance of Scripture, culture, tradition, church, when it comes to shaping our theology?

My take on Ed’s Book

This book (Ed gave me one prior to the webinar) is not simply a primer on postmodernism – but rather, how do we do theology in light of our current post modern culture?

Ed looks at the intersection between

  • How we read the Bible as an authoritative source
  • How useful church tradition keeps us grounded
  • How the global church gives us global perspective.

This last point is what I think the greatest contribution to the discussion.

Maybe instead of reviewing the book contents, I simply give an example of some of these intersections.

In order for Christian theology to thrive in a postmodern age, we desperately need to interact with Christians all across the world (p. 193)

Listening to the global church

For example, I had someone trying to tell me not to say the word “kid” to describe my children because of a King James use of the word “kid” for goat in the parable of the sheep and goats.

She says, “Kids are cursed of the Father, and therefore, use the word children.  Don’t curse your children”

This well meaning woman was doing theology, but based on a misinterpretation of an English word.

This doesn’t work in Spanish and it was quite the novel teaching.

If we listen to the tradition of the church, as well as wonder how is that same passage or teaching is viewed through the global Christian Culture, this woman would see how silly her argument is.

On a different note, those who are convinced that the King James is the only inspired version seem to ignore all the other languages that the Bible has been translated in for the other languages of the earth.

Any interaction with the global church will reveal some of the silliness of their argument.

Theology with Cross Cultural Experience

Likewise, I think of some of the movements of American Christianity that blends patriotism with faith.

What do immigrants to this county think of American patriotism mixed with Christianity?

Likewise, what do ex-pats who choose to live in another country do when they no longer live in America.

In a global village, is it wise to mix patriotism with Christian faith?  I don’t have an answer, but I raise it myself since I live and minister in two cultures.

I also think of some evangelical clichés that glibly talk about prosperity:

“God’s will done God’s way will get God’s supply.”

For example, I think of third world evangelists laboring in some of the poorest slums, planting churches that have people who are just trying to survive.  No resources, no volunteers, no children’s ministry, no time, and no money.

They labor for the gospel, yet maybe get an offering of lemons.

How can the gospel make a difference among the poor when resources are not visible?

What would the kingdom of God look like in the town that lives on the landfill in Managua Nicaragua?

Extreme poverty, yet the kingdom of God is preached.

Souls are saved, but there is not much change in poverty.

Missionaries work for medical teams, clean water, literacy, as do irreligious corporate foundations.

Can culture be changed by the gospel? Sure we can point to William Booth or the Great Awakening, but what can we do to encourage the evangelist laboring in any slum in any nation where corruption rules the government?

Seeing evangelical clichés through the light of my own work in developing nations is informing my theology and challenging some of the assumptions I bring to the table.

Order your Copy

Order your copy of Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life (NavPress), an introduction to contextual theology for lay readers that explained the roles of context, God, scripture, tradition, and global Christians in the forming of theology.

As with all books I link to on Amazon, I get a tip from Amazon if you place an order.

(c) 2007-2015, EvangelismCoach.org, 1391 NW St Lucie West Blvd #383, Port Saint Lucie FL 34986

Send this to friend