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evangelism committee

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10 Roles an Evangelism Committee Can Have in The Church

Why does your evangelism committee exist at your church?

Is it just another meeting?

Does it really fulfill the role of helping the church do the work of evangelism?

Recently I’ve been asked to comment on the role of an evangelism committee or evangelism ministry in the local church.  What are the functions of a church evangelism committee?

I want to give you ten roles that an evangelism committee can play in a healthy congregation.

[Read more…] about 10 Roles an Evangelism Committee Can Have in The Church

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Personal Evangelism Substitute #2: Hospitality

Today is part two of a series on four substitutes for Evangelism.

This may sound funny coming from me, because I write so much on this topic (and even sell two ebooks).  But as I’ve consulted with churches, I run into this substitute regularly.

#2: Church Hospitality Ministry.

In many churches, we have substituted evangelism for the nicety of saying “Hello” at a church on Sunday and we call that evangelism.

Many churches have an “Evangelism Committee” that is focused on the church coffee hour and assimilation of newcomers.

Some committees are expanded to include church marketing efforts.

(By the way, What does an Evangelism Committee do?)

But Christian hospitality on a Sunday morning is not personal evangelism.

Your hospitality ministries support the evangelistic work of the church, but it is not evangelism.

Rather, your hospitality creates the space where evangelism can occur, much like Starbucks has created the third space for life conversations to occur.

Read more about how I define evangelism

The Definition of Church Hospitality

I define church hospitality as

Taking the initiative to welcome others and

inviting others to share in our community life.

This extends beyond our group gatherings for worship but a welcome in:

  • our small groups
  • our families
  • our home
  • our lives

This definition is much broader than evangelism.

It speaks to

  • Our small group life,
  • Our corporate worship life
  • How we treat other people in general
  • How connected we feel to the local church body
  • How we get along as members of the body of Christ,
  • The potential depths of our relationship with one another.

Two different goals.

In my ebook on hospitality (How to Welcome Church Visitors) I write:

Evangelism seeks conversion and repentance and deals with salvation and faith.

Hospitality seeks a repeat visit and to help the person connect to the fellowship.

The focus of evangelism is a changed life, while the focus of hospitality is to create a first impression.

These are entirely different goals.  They’re mutually supportive, but they’re not a substitute one for the other.

The place for Church Hospitality Committees

Churches should have hospitality committees that oversee the various welcoming functions of the church, but this work is not personal evangelism.

The art of welcoming church visitors is a key component in helping a church fulfill its evangelistic partnership with its members.

Your church members should be confident that their invitees will be warmly welcomed in the midst of a group of strangers.

Your members should be so proud of the welcome that your church gives that it naturally fosters personal invitations.

A hospitality team will oversee all that: reception, greeters and tweaking the system to leave your guests feeling like that they’ve had a great visit.

Your hospitality committee should do at least a quarterly review of your church hospitality systems.

Let me ask you this?

What is the actual role of your church’s evangelism committee?

How can your committee take a more active role in encouraging personal evangelism in the church?

Watch for updates

Each week, I send out new articles to help you grow your your skills in personal evangelism.  I include other articles as well on hospitality ministry, greeter ministry and refreshing your vision for church hospitality.

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Evangelism Substitutes: Which one does your church commit?

Since many people are afraid of personal evangelism, many church leaders have allowed other programming to replace the work of personal evangelism and called it evangelism.

As I do seminars across the country, heads nod in agreement as I lay this out.  You might see your own church in here.

Today’s substitute: [Read more…] about Evangelism Substitutes: Which one does your church commit?

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Effective Evangelism Teams

How does one develop an evangelism team or an effective evangelism group in the local church?

In the denominational circles I run in (Presbyterian Church USA), this has been relegated to

  • the Evangelism Committee, or
  • the Witness and Service Committe, or
  • New Member Committee, or the
  • “Make up another name just to have a name that is not Evangelism” committee.

These evangelism committees focus usually on

Important work, but not evangelism as I define it.

Some evangelism committees just meet and talk about what should be done without ever doing anything.

Quit forming committees.

Form an evangelism team that is actively doing personal evangelism.

Set up an evangelistic team with people who will hold each other accountable to sharing their faith.

How do I get on the church evangelism team?

The primary qualification is a “heart for the lost.”

A person who weeps in prayer (or labors in prayer for those who aren’t emotional) over those who have not yet found a relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is a person who doesn’t have time to serve on an evangelism committee, but wants to be out in the world, engaging the world.

Recruit like minded people and you’ve got a team.

Skip perfection. All members can sow seed now.

You don’t have to be equipped first. Just go and do it. Learn as you try.

What does the evangelism team do?

  1. Meet Regularly: A team could meet regularly to study one aspect of evangelism, encourage one another.
  2. Prayer for Personal evangelism — each team member is involved in praying for the lost, praying for the conversations that will happen, and praying for the other team members.
  3. Personal Evangelism — each team member is actively listening to the Holy Spirit for guidance as to who to talk with and how.
  4. Debrief – Report on conversations, progress of friends, and sharpen each other to improve.

This coaching group can keep evangelism temperature high and continually motivate one another to keep at the work of the gospel.

If you haven’t already heard this MP3 download, listen to this evangelism prayer strategy from our podcast feed.  Phil Taylor shares a simple 3 fold prayer structure that you can use for your devotional time.

Let me ask you this?

Do you know enough people in your church to start an evangelism team?

Coaching Corner

Grow in Personal EvangelismWhere can you start in your growth in personal evangelism?

In this 60 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.

Each of these four sections will be developed, with suggested take away growth step:

“What can I do in the next 90 days to move to the next stage.”

Now in the store as a digital download – Click MP3 Download on Evangelism Training

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The church and personal evangelism

Today I read a post at 9 Marks about the corporate role of the church and its support of personal evangelism.

The writer asks:

What is the role of the local church (i.e., corporate witness) in our personal evangelism (i.e., individual, personal witness)?

Consider the ethos of your church.

Let me give you two examples from my life, one good, another one not so good.

One Great Example:

We attended a little Spanish language church for the last 8 months that welcomed us with open arms. We were adopted quickly by that church family and it was hard to leave when we moved.

During my 8 months there, I was always telling people about my church.

Christians, non-Christians, didn’t matter.

Everybody knew where we were going to church.

I had these little invitation cards written in Spanish that I could give to people.

I knew that my church often explains the gospel as part of every service. I would give away 10 or so a week to people that I met on the street.

The church provided the invitation cards, showed us how to use them, and we used them.

The church has grown with people finding faith and joining.

The church supported our personal witness and we were proud to invite people to our church.

An Embarrassing Moment

On another occasion, I was embarrassed to invite my unchurched friends to a church I loved and served.

It was very inward focused and did its own good in its own way, but it was clearly geared towards mature Christians.

We were having a larger number of unchurched people attend our evening service. I was preaching simple biblical messages, and we were providing space for people to explore their faith. People were beginning to belong and build relationships.

Then they attended a morning service with the “normal” church.

Almost every time, the sermons were inappropriate for people seeking faith.   The sermons were for mature Christians.  The sermons were not relevant.

I can’t go into the details, but it killed every relationship that had been forming.

Every seeker from our evening service who went to the morning service never returned to our church.

 

I stopped inviting people to my church.

I also never invited my friends to retreats, because the topics were for mature Christians.

I never invited my friends to the morning service because I was never sure what Pastor would ruminate on.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  My pastor taught good stuff.

Excellent stuff, but for mature Christians.

This church didn’t have an ethos that supported my work of personal evangelism.

Work to find ways to support evangelism in your local church.

Let me ask you this?

  • Are you proud of your church?
  • Can you think of someone you could invite to your church this weekend?
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