The pastor organized one of their leadership committees that were taking on some new areas of responsibility, particularly in the area of church hospitality.
Each of us had SKYPE (free software from Skype.com) installed on our computers.
Each of us had high-speed internet.
Each of us had a video cam and microphone available for use with our computers.
We connected through the free service of Skype. I saw them, they saw me.
Sometimes, we’ve simply done teleconference via a service I have.
They call in from their own phones to a conference calling number I have and we talk simply over the phone. There was no need for computers or video cameras.
Here is what we did:
For about 1 hour, we talked about issues that were on this hospitality committee’s collective mind.
It had the give and take of a conversation.
They went through a brainstorming process to find a their own solutions.
I simply facilitated a the conversation.
Along the way, I shared some of my experiences, but generally, they were developing answers to the questions I asked.
What did they get out of it?
In their process of talking out loud, they shared how they were
Re-energized to find new solutions.
Ready to implement some solutions they just thought of
Full of hope that they can make effective changes in some of their processes.
How can you get yours?
I’ll get on the phone with you or your team for up to an hour or so, and you can tell me what’s the most troubling about your church’s hospitality ministry.
I’ll then give some coaching or advice specific to your exact situation to help break through the logjam.
Since the PC USA is where I hold my ordination as pastor, these statistics are of interest to me, and I know that many of the EvangelismCoach.org subscribers are in that same tribe.
Membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) fell by 69,381 in 2008, the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) has announced in its annual statistical report, continuing a trend that began in the mid-1960s.
Total membership of the denomination is now 2,140,165.
According to the Research Services office of the General Assembly Council (GAC), the 2008 decline was the PC(USA)’s largest numerical and percentage net membership loss since Presbyterian reunion in 1983.
Almost 104,000 people joined the PC(USA) last year, but that good news was more than offset by the 34,101 Presbyterians who died, the 34,340 who were members of the 25 congregations that left the PC(USA) for other denominations, and the staggering 104,428 who were removed from the rolls by their sessions without apparently joining any other church.
Can a positive spin be put on this? The General Assembly Stated Clerk announces
Parsons insisted that “Presbyterians can be evangelists!”
“But we often stumble over the words. Can we not challenge one another to be able to answer these basic questions,” he said. “Why do I believe in God? Why do I go to church? Why do I go to that particular church?”
Fewer congregations were dissolved in 2008 than in 2007 — 65 vs. 71 the previous year. And 40 new churches were organized last year, 23 more than the previous year. The PC(USA) currently comprises 10,751 congregations.
We have been giving church hospitality workshops for over 15 years and of the 25 or more books we have used in the past, yours is by far the best contribution to the field with all it’s nuts and bolts practicality.
We’ve been photocopying the cover and telling our client churches that if they want to start improving their first impressions, they should start here with How To Welcome Church Visitors.
Bill and Gail Royster
Church Hospitality Trainers
The Welcome & Hospitality People
Houston, TX
One who claimed the bonus coaching session with me after purchase had this to say:
How To Welcome Church Visitors is a well-written, thought-provoking resource that is going to be a blessing to anyone who reads and applies it’s content to their church needs.
This book is especially important to me, as I serve on my church evangelism board and recently volunteered to manage our greeter program.
I measure the worth of a book by the number of ideas I’m able to apply to real needs. I found no fewer than 25 great ideas that I can apply immediately! I recommend this book without reservation.
Chris Walker’s coaching ability is wonderful. He’s a clear thinker with a way of cutting through the clutter and confusion surrounding a problem. He focuses on the most practical path to a resolution and effectively communicates how to reach the intended goal.
One Presbytery in the Presbyterian Church (USA) bought and gave away copies of How To Welcome Church Visitors to over 50 of their church congregations.
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.
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.
“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.
Who goes to church with you? Cross them off this list.
Who attends another church regularly? Cross them off.
Who shows evidence of a relationship with Christ? Cross them off.
Who is left?
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?
The church was experiencing some new and fresh growth with new visitors coming.
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.
