Martha Reese

December 29, 2007 by EvangelismCoach Leave a Comment

Evangelism Workshop on Martha Reese’s Unbinding the Gospel

I attended Martha Reese’s workshop (author of Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Real Life Evangelism Series) at the Evangelism Conference in Nashville.

I was going to do my own write up, but the Presbyterian News Service beat me to it.

You can read it here:

PC(USA) – Presbyterian News Service – The ‘E-word,’ God and the unchurched

Quote:

Reese, who interviewed 600-700 pastors, said key leaders in churches doing good evangelism are holding their members to a sharp focus on their growing relationships with Christ and sharing their faith with others.
“What the great churches are doing, that are really doing all different kinds of evangelism, they’re sharing their own faith stories,” Reese said.
“They’re saying to people ‘Let me pray for you.’”

What I appreciated about the workshop was that we had the chance to pray with other folks around the table.

We didn’t just stay strangers during the workshop, but instead got to pray with two or three others about God’s activity in their life and to pray together about some personal needs.

Reese constantly stressed that folks need to be comfortable talking about the activity of God in their life and then gave us the space to share with the person sitting next to us.

Let me ask you this:

Are you comfortable talking about what God is doing in your life today that makes the gospel good news?
What can you do in your small group to help members talk about their faith?
How comfortable are you in asking “Can I pray for you” and doing it on the spot if given permission?

September 11, 2007 by EvangelismCoach 2 Comments

From the bookshelf: Unbinding the Gospel

I’ve soaked up reading Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Real Life Evangelism Series) by Martha Reese.

I met her in Nashville and spent some time interacting with her on the research. The full research can be seen here at GraceNet.info

She did a survey study of over 1000 mainline churches to observe what churches were doing in evangelism.

It covered the full range of theological perspectives from conservative to progressive to outright liberal (self definitions, I guess).

She used evangelism quite broadly defined: “Anything you do to help another person move close to a relationship with God, or into a Christian community.”

That can be interpreted in several different ways from just adding members, or generating conversions.

I’m sure that there are some churches that simply help people join — irrespective of a relationship with Christ. I’ve not had the opportunity to drive down into the definition.

However, what I found most compelling in her story is this: “Our most important discovery is that a vivid relationships with God lies at the heart of real evangelism.”

To me, that’s a no brainer, and perhaps to Ms. Reese it was to0. The research she did supported that.

“People in evangelistic churches can tell you what difference being a Christan makes in their own lives” (p.5)
“People who share their faith love God and believe that other people’s lives would be better if they were in a relationship with God too.” (p.4)

Let me ask you this:
Using a question direct from the book (p. 15): “If your faith is already vibrant and alive, can you talk about it?”

(According to Reese, many mainliners do not know how to talk about their faith, and the research shows it. They love God and love the church, but are fearful when it comes to talking about faith).