EvangelismCoach

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Workshop – Upgrade Your Hospitality – Richmond VA

Do your church visitors come back a second time?

Here in July, it is the summer slump in programming for churches.

Most churches slow down their programming during these months and prepare themselves for a fall launch of a new sermon series and launch of many new programs.

Now is the time to

  • Review your church hospitality systems
  • Recast new vision for welcoming the first time church visitor.
  • Improve the process of welcoming first time guests
  • Evaluate systems and fix what is broken.
  • Look for new ideas to improve your current systems.
  • Help your church welcome new visitors this fall.

All as you prepare your fall activities to launch your new programming.

Prepare your teams for the September welcome.

In this 2 hour workshop, among other things you’ll learn:

  • How welcoming guests helps your church fulfill or fail the great commission.
  • What you need to know about your guests before they arrive so you can serve them well
  • No manuals necessary – how to have awesome hospitality ministry in unforeseen moments
  • 8 necessary traits of a church hospitality volunteer who blesses your guests

EvangelismCoachEvery now and then, church hospitality teams need Rev. Chris Walker of EvangelismCoach.org to lead your team in a time of vision casting for your church’s hospitality ministry.

Join us July 26, 2012 for a free workshop for your church hospitality and welcome teams, at Crestwood Presbyterian Church – West Campus, Midlothian VA where Chris Walker, of https://www.evangelismcoach.org, is the featured speaker.

He is fittingly known as Evangelism Coach because of his extensive work with churches in the US and Latin America in the areas of evangelism and church growth. Chris is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). His website has over 900 articles on personal evangelism, congregational evangelism, and hospitality, as well as a podcast feed, all for free.

He’s written two ebooks, and recorded 2 CDs on church hospitality issues, authored 1 DVD for training greeters, and a 3 DVD set on Breaking Unseen Barriers that keep your visitors from coming back.

I feel rejuvenated in learning to pray after the Salvation Army Quest ministry workshops in Michigan.
Chris is very passionate and on fire for what he speaks about. Keep up the good work!

Dean Groendal
Muskegon Corps, Salvation Army

Come to learn some of the practical ways Chris has discovered to grow your church out of his research, study, and first hand real life experience from serving as a local pastor, planting two churches and doing evangelism work cross culturally in 9 different countries.

Register online for free.

You’ll receive reminders as the conference draws near.

We encourage you to bring your ministry leadership team to this event.

Help us get the word out by using the sharing features to post on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere.

Registration information will be shared with EvangelismCoach.org.

Event is open to the public and other churches are invited to register and attend.

Chris is a highly accessible speaker who brings a passion and energy to his workshops that is contagious.

Geoff McClean, Pastor

Details:

Where:

Crestwood Presbyterian Church, West Campus
1200 Charter Colony Parkway, Midlothian, VA 23114-4360

When:

July 26, 7:00-9:00pm

Cost:

A free will offering will be collected to advance the Latin American ministry of EvangelismCoach.org

 

Notes:

  • A love offering will be received.
  • Chris will have additional audio CD resources for sale.
  • Online registrations with email will be added to the EvangelismCoach newsletter list.  You can unsubscribe at anytime.

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Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part III

evangelism where you liveI’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.

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

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

This final section of Chapters 5 – 8 gets into the nuts and bolts of what this might look like in the local church.

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)

Chapter 5: Salt and Light Servants

The majority of current discipleship material seems to be focused on information, not so much on experiential transformation.  The idea was that better information and accumulated information would lead to spiritual transformation.

The authors have seen this descend into matters of personal preference, rallies around the latest Christian bestseller, and rabbit trails into the most effectively marketed latest trend .

However, they see a shift from information to experience.

A method that fosters experience to help shape a person’s spiritual formation.

Educational materials are connected with service in the community “as the context to live out the expression of a life in relationship to Christ.”

I have often noted and taught that I learn by doing.

In other businesses, I could study, study, study, but until I was actually doing, the study didn’t make sense.  Study lead to hypothesizing, thinking about 1000 what ifs.

But not until I got into people’s lives and talking with them 1-1 about their spiritual journey did any of the studies seems to start finding a purpose.

Perhaps a quote from Randy Pope captures this better in this illustration:

Much in the way that eating creates no appetite for exercise, so too, I have found that Bible study and prayer alone do not create mission oriented Christians.  But, just as exercise creates a desire for food and drink, mission related activities create an insatiable thirst and hunger to feed on God’s word (89).

The idea is deploy your church members to serve their community and that kind of relational context will spur personal growth.

Eating has never created in us a desire to exercise, but preparing to run 26.2 miles in about 4 hours definitely creates not only a desire, but a need to eat (89).

In the same way, service may very well be the missing factor in developing fully devoted followers of Christ.  Transformation happens in combination with information and experience.

Chapter 6: Connection Points

The subtitle focuses the chapter on Evangelism Training.  The authors have given lots of evangelism training over the years, from memorizing gospel scripts, to relational evangelism seminars, yet not seeing any statistical evidence of new believers.  The rare church had more than 5 new believers in a year after the seminar.

Church’s are beginning to ask “Why is training people on how to share their faith not resulting in new Christ followers?”

The authors claim that intentional community service is the missing ingredient.  The chief issue is that our church members have lost touch with genuine relationships with people far from God.

To fulfill the front half of the Great Commission the process will always begin with a Christ-follower connecting with someone far from God.  To lead someone into a personal relationship with Christ has little to do with whether someone has attended training and learned a model presentation to the Gospel (95).

Connecting Points

The chapter lays out how to find connection points with the local community, beginning with an inventory from Becoming a Contagious Christian, Hybels and Mittleberg:

  • People we know
  • People we used to know
  • People we would like to know.

I use a similar idea with Spheres of Influence.

The key for churches is to assist members in creating a context for connection, but it remains up to the individual member to connect.

The third group, people we would like to know, is where the role of community service comes into play.  Relationships develop best around a need the mutual relationship can meet.

Where is your church member passionate?  Where is their burden? Examples:

  • Single Moms?
  • Fatherless kids?
  • Teachers?
  • Firefighters?
  • Undercover FBI agents?
  • Little League?

Where are their gifts?  Administratively gifted folks can organize events or run leagues.  Mercy gifted folks can visit people.

We have come to realize that not assisting our church members to develop a connection point into an authentic relationship is simply not providing good leadership.

Chapter 7 and 8: Implementing CBSE

Chapter 7 and 8 map out how to make such philosophical changes in implementing Community Based servant evangelism.  The authors note that there are several books about systemically changing a congregation, and they note that their system works when followed.

The process is organic and leadership driven.

First four steps are for the pastor, the next two are are for the leadership, and the last 5 are how to make it public.

  • Pray and read the Bible
  • Church leadership must own the mission of “Love God and Love Others”
  • Must be totally supported by the Senior Pastor and or Lead Pastor
  • Enlist top / key church influencers
  • Enlist a CBSE champion
  • Enlist a CBSE leadership team
  • Design a plan
  • Provide training
  • Cast the vision to your church
  • Implement the plan
  • Evaluate all aspects and correct

This list may seem generic in terms of changing systems, but the chapters tease them out more fully.

A Pastor’s Personal Prayer life

It strikes me how a pastor’s personal relationship with God is the root of this change, not only the pastors, but so also the rest of the leadership.

In a 2007 review of surveys of pastors,

two hundred seventy (270 or 26%) of pastors said they regularly had personal devotions and felt they were adequately fed spirituality.

Seven hundred fifty-six (756 or 72%) of the pastors we surveyed stated that they only studied the Bible when they were preparing for sermons or lessons.

If the root of systemic change in a church is found in a pastor’s personal relationship with God, then how can churches give their pastors time to nurture that relationship?    From another study in the same report:

We found that 90% of pastors work more than 50 hours a week. One out of three pastors state that being in the ministry is clearly hazardous for their families. One out of three pastors felt totally burned out within the first five years of ministry.

Research from Crandall (see 5 phases of renewal from Turnaround and Beyond: A Hopeful Future for the Small Membership Church) indicates that personal renewal is the number one factor in successful turnaround in churches.

Research from Martha Gay Reese (Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Real Life Evangelism Series) elevates the importance of prayer for a congregation to pick up and maintain an evangelistic passion.

Order your copy

Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community from Amazon

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Drifting Away from the World

In They like Jesus, but not the Church, even Dan Kimball confesses that he made the same discovery at one point– no non-Christian relationships. 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. Solitary Rowboat in Digby, NS 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?

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.

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?

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Pray First then Watch

Prayer_Before_EvangelismI truly believe that prayer opens conversational doors.

One of the principles that I put forth in my Fear Free Evangelism Seminar  is that when you pray, evangelism stuff happens.

Conversations appear.  You don’t have to force a conversation.  Conversations about faith simply show up.

The challenge is then how to listen to their spiritual thirst and listen to the work of the Holy Spirit to help the other person discover their next step towards faith.

Here is a recent testimony from a pastor’s wife after a recent Fear Free Evangelism Seminar.

Notice that they took the initiative to pray first and then the conversations unfolded.

My husband and I attended a Christmas party on our street last evening. All of the people on the street were invited. This is a first since we have lived here.

I connected with an older woman in her 80’s. After probably 30 minutes of conversation, she said, “Is your husband a minister?”

I replied, “Yes.”

She shared about being raised in a strict Catholic home (very common in our town), but she doesn’t “practice it” anymore. She hasn’t since she was about 18.

I asked “why?”

She said it was the confession to the priest that turned her off.

I asked if she had ever tried any other church.  She said no. She never wanted to.  But, she hastened to assure me she believes in God and do it their “own way.”  She said religion has never been a real priority.

She began to make a negative comment about “these born-again Christians.”  I felt very peaceful in gently saying to her, “I’m a born-again Christian.” She apologized and I said, “Oh, no. I understand.”

About then her husband and a young woman joined us. The husband said, “I’m reading the Bible.” and the young woman said, “That’s on my list, too.”

The older woman said, “It’s too hard to understand. I tell him he’s just reading it to make him sleepy.” She and her sister had tried to read it when they were young and “there was no one to explain what it meant” to them. They couldn’t understand it.

By this time, my husband joined us. I asked the husband what version of the Bible he’s reading and he said the King James. I said, “Oh, you could read a more modern version.” I don’t think he even knew there were other versions.  I told him we could give him one and I plan to take it to their house.

We parted with hugs and the older lady invited me to come to visit them and bring my grandson.

I was amazed that my husband and I were talking with three of our neighbors about reading the Bible!! But, we did pray before we went to the party.

Now my husband wants to make a list of our neighbors and pray for them. He talked with some people that I didn’t. I’m very excited about how God may what to use us here.

This is an excellent step in growing.  The conversation was natural, and I already know that the Bible has been delivered.  That led to a follow-up conversation that may turn into an investigative Bible study.

See another testimony at: Fear Free Evangelism Case Study.

Let me ask you this?

Have you spent time asking God to whom are you going to speak with today?  Do you notice those who cross your path?

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3 Areas of Evangelism with High Risk Children

Evangelism and at Risk KidsLater in December, I will give a talk on helping churches evangelize in areas of extreme poverty, with lots of high-risk or at-risk children.

At-risk or high-risk is defined locally as children who are

  • Abused
  • Addicted
  • Abandoned
  • Children of an addicted parent.

Fourteen churches want to send their pastors and children’s workers to a day long seminar.

My wife will be teaching on using crafts from household recyclables and I will do a seminar for pastors on getting a vision to reach children.  Pray for us as we go.

Part of a Larger Problem

Can the church solve the social problems that have created such an environment?  I’ve written here on Walking with the Poor:

Bryant MyersI’ve been reading Walking with the Poor, by Bryant L. Myers.  The book looks at principles and practices of transformational development.

The book explores poverty, causes of poverty, and calls the church to action in engaging broken systems that cause poverty.

He lays forth a strong case that poverty is a “deficit, entanglement, lack of access to social power, powerlessness, and the lack of freedom to grow” (Myers 81).

Poverty is a complicated issue that involves all areas of life — physical, personal, social, cultural, and spiritual.

The gospel is relevant to people such as these.  But what difference does evangelism make in their life?  Can it lift them out of their poverty?

This is the question that Myers seeks to get at in this book.

For example, he presents a simple chart about solutions to the cause of poverty (p.81).

View of Cause, Proposed response

  • Poor are sinners –> Evangelism
  • Poor are sinned against –> Social Action and justice
  • Poor lack knowledge –> Education
  • Poor lack things  –> Relief / social welfare
  • Culture of the poor is flawed –> Become like us / ours is better
  • Social system makes them poor –> Change the system

Certainly poverty has many causes and many possible cures.  It is beyond the task of our family to challenge the system, but rather to focus on Evangelism and helping churches engage.

Evangelism calls people to personal transformation — to step up into the purposes for which the individual has been created.

Evangelism calls people to societal transformation — to participate in the work of the Kingdom of God.

My Friends Chime In About Reaching Children for Christ

There is plenty to talk about when it comes to helping churches reach high risk children.

A healthy discussion through Twitter and on my Facebook page suggests many different ideas on why the Church should reach children:

@Final_Night wrote Pastor should have vision that is for ENTIRE church then each ministry head figures out how their ministry fulfills vision

@RexEspiritu pointed to his article meet Emerging 21stCenturyCulture needs http://tinyurl.com/5jak6v

KK Marocchini at 8:07am November 26

Because the children are the future of our church, because they grow up so fast and we only have a short time with them, and because it’s really easy for them to get lost in the shuffle.

Maria Quinones Bumper at 8:09am November 26

Children are maliable and can be shaped, they aren’t warped by society and its views yet so we can take their openness and let them absorb and put into practice the Gospel. If we can start early instilling the values and letting them be walking testimonies we are one step closer to reaching out to the world in general and are more apt to have the …  Read More

Kathy Hsu Wibberly at 10:30am November 26

Because those who had a great experience in children’s ministry are more likely to become involved in children’s ministry as they grow up. What better way to raise up future church workers!

Lindsay Van Sicklen at 12:45pm November 26

Because raising children is a partnership between the parents and the church. The church’s role is to reinforce what is taught in the home. The best children’s ministries that I’ve seen spend a significant amount of time teaching the parents too.

Geoffrey McLean at 8:05pm November 26

I actually have trouble with the future of the church concept. Children are the today of the church just as much as an adult. There the future of paying the church bills and stuff, but in Spiritual terms it is their church now. The future church is unimportant, we need to focus on the spiritual needs of all of Gods children regardless of age. I also am convinced we need more intergenerational ministry. That’s the Biblical example I believe we have.
Young and old seeing visions etc…

Kathy Hsu Wibberly at 10:39pm November 26

I’m there with that. We do intergenerational Sunday School at our church!

The focus of my presentation

While I can’t focus on curing the social ills that cause at-risk children to be at risk, I can certainly help churches with calling kids to follow Christ and allowing the Spirit of God to work a shaping and forming of their character.

1.  Training of a child.

The Bible has a lot to say about how to live, and in the case of at-risk children, I believe the church is to take on the role of partnering with parents or in some case taking over that role in shaping the moral development of children.

2.  Explaining the faith to children

As children mature, they understand faith at different levels.  Churches can work with some insights from psychology to help present the gospel and call for response at age appropriate levels.

3.  Helping parents find faith as well.

Reaching children for Christ has the potential for reaching entire households.  Kids talking with their parents about what they are learning.  Church building relationship with parents simply by ministering to kids.  Churches offering opportunity to teach on parenting and show how the Bible is relevant to practical daily life.

Your thoughts?

Add your thoughts in the comments below.  Be sure to check “Notify Me” to receive automatic follow-up emails as the conversation continues.

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Personal Evangelism Training Conference Enfield CT

Since this personal evangelism event has passed, read here about how to get the full 5 hour seminar on Audio CD to your home.

Evangelism Seminar Description:

Fears of EvangelismMany people find  personal evangelism scary.

Some would rather clean a pig sty instead of talking about Jesus to their friends.

Yet Jesus commands us to go and share.

We’ll tackle questions like:

  • Do I have to be brave?
  • How can I share my faith without being obnoxious?
  • What are some good books to help me share my faith?
  • How can sharing my faith become a natural part of my life?
  • What is the role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism?

Details:

Saturday November 8, 2008

9am to 3pm

Calvary Presbyterian Church

1518 King St

Enfield, CT 06082

A love offering will be received to further the work of EvangelismCoach.org

If you want the catered lunch, please check the box.  Lunch tickets are $10.

Recent testimonies:

The seminar dispelled the fears associated with evangelism. Both personal stories and Biblical truth provided a framework from which to proceed in making sharing my faith conversationally more a part of my lifestyle. I would highly recommend this class to anyone with a heart for becoming more verbal in their witness.  — Participant

“I didn’t know evangelism could be that simple.” — S. Massie

“You’ve got keen insight in to the hearts of people” — M Bews.

Who is Evangelism Coach?

Q: Who is Chris Walker?
Ordained Pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Chris Walker has taught on evangelism for over 15 years in the US and Latin America. Read more about EvangelismCoach.org

Q: Is there any cost?
No.  It is entirely free.  But a love offering will be received to cover our expenses and advance our ministry.  We rely upon free will gifts at events like this.

If you want the catered lunch, meal tickets are $10.  Pay at the door, but reserve a lunch on the form above.

Q: Is there a product pitch?  What are you selling?
No.  There is no sales for an expensive seminar and no product placement, just a simple of sharing of information to help you grow confident in sharing your faith.

Q: I know several people who could use this seminar.  Can I invite them?  How?
Yes.  Keep Reading.

How can you help us get the word out?

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