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Evangelism Strategies Podcast and Webinar Replay

In this complimentary Evangelismcoach webinar, I’ll share with you 3 major areas of evangelism training for your congregation to help you develop your evangelism strategy for 2012.

Among other things you’ll lean:

  • 3 areas of focus for congregational evangelism to start your planning
  • 6 different evangelism styles to match the right program for your congregation for personal evangelism
  • how one church implemented a personal evangelism strategy and baptized 3 new believers in 6 months.
  • Possible action steps in each of 3 areas to get started right away.
  • Find dedicated champions of evangelism to develop your team
  • how hospitality ministry can lead to new baptisms.

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Evangelism Strategy for 2012

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Book Reference:

These are some of the books I referred to in the webinar.

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Beating Dunbars Number

Several years ago, I was challenged as a youth pastor to give my leadership away  — delegate, delegate, and delegate.

The challenger warned me that I could only reach so many people, but if I delegated and empowered, I could lead larger ministries with longer reaches and greater sustainability.

The challenger mentioned that my personal limit of people I could effectively influence was likely around 120-150.

If I could influence leaders, the ministry could grow beyond my personal limits.

One blog I read (ChrisBrogan.com) shares the source behind the social limit of real relationships that a person can maintain.

There’s a theory called Dunbar’s Number that suggests there’s an upper limit to the amount of relationships we can maintain. If you’re interested in networking, this should be an issue. That number, for the record, is 150.

Source: Beating Dunbars Number | chrisbrogan.com.

Implications for pastors

I know of a church plant that started about nearly 10 years ago.  I checked in on it recently, and the pastor reports that it has plateaued about 125-135 people for the past five years and that the turnover rate is about 45% each year.

New people come in, other people leave after about a year or two.  The net effect is that the congregation has remained numerically stable.

This church is a single pastorate, and the pastor has a leadership style where his hand is in everything.

Pastor sets the direction (with a board of government), pastor runs the small groups, pastor runs the worship service and no ministry gets started without the pastor’s initiative.  Recently pastor split up the small groups into different areas, but he still maintains a pretty tight involvement with the leaders.

Pastor lovingly leads it all.  There is joy in the congregation, no complaints, and for this church this type of leadership functions.

It’s not a dictatorship and pastor is not a control freak.  He gets joy out of being involved.

Now, before you agree with me that this is

  • Not healthy, or
  • A recipe for burnout or
  • Effective in a small church, or
  • Leadership style that hinders further growth

let me connect it to the point.

1.  The church will not grow any larger.

If Dunbar’s number holds true, the limit of a single pastor who feels the need to be involved in everything will be about 150.

It seems to me that the congregation has reached the practical end of its growth unless the pastor gives and empowers leadership to raise up their own networks.

2.  Leaders leave because they can’t serve or lead.

This church leadership model does not delegate and empower leadership of other ministry.   It doesn’t effectively raise up others to lead their own network of 150.

Not having a place to serve or contribute their gifts after a while, solid believers leave for a place where they can serve.

This particular congregation is at a stage of church growth.  If it wants to continue its dream of fulfilling its particular calling, one thing that must change is the leadership style.

Implications for Church Planting

I know it’s not as simple as waving a wand to make a solution, but if you are wondering why your church isn’t growing — perhaps you’ve maxed out the social limit of your leaders?

How much leadership can you give away to trusted and respected leaders?

With regards to evangelism training in your church’s DNA, is the pastor in charge of it all, or is that delegated as well to empowered leaders?

One church planting coach that I have gotten to know uses Jethro’s advice to Moses — delegate and empower.  Put people in charges of 50s, 100s, and 1000s.

Implications for Church Visitor Retention Rates

There are practical implications here as well to keeping church visitors in your midst.

In the church I describe, the back door is as big as the front door.

People come and perhaps stay connected for a little while, but without the empowerment to lead and serve in ministries, they may likely take their gifting elsewhere where they are needed.

Your church is working hard at retaining visitors and building connections, but the leadership DNA won’t let it grow.

Coaching corner:

Could this issue — 150 people per pastor — be part of the reason?   Take a look and think about it for a while.  Add your comments below.

Want ongoing ideas delivered?

Each week, I send out new articles that might help your evangelism committee grow your church through personal evangelism, church invitations, and leading your congregation in evangelistic outreach.  You’ll usually find a gem that you can use each week  in or at least every other week.  Join our community and share your thoughts.

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6 Areas to Pray for Revival

Here is a list help you pray for revival in the church and the further advancement of God’s kingdom.

Paul exhorted the Christians in Ephesus to: “…pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18).”

For us this includes being in regular intercession for our world. [Read more…] about 6 Areas to Pray for Revival

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11 Steps on How to Lead a Prayer Meeting Focused on Evangelism

Leading your church to pray for their personal evangelism efforts may not be as easy as you think.    I have found that people bring their own agendas to the prayer meeting and it becomes easy for the prayer meeting to be hi-jacked.  Here,  I want to offer to you a simple guideline for an evangelistic prayer meeting.

How to Lead an Evangelistic Prayer Meeting

1. In the name of Jesus Christ invite the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer group.

We are Christian believers who pray in Jesus name.  We need to remind ourselves of this regularly.

Asking the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer group helps us from keeping our agenda from taking control.

2. Offer a time of praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

Worship is where we connect with the Father’s heart.

Praising God for his works, thanking God for making a relationship with Him possible, and declaring one to another the marvelous works of the Lord strengthens our faith and reminds us to always be watching for God’s activity in our life.

3. Lead in a time of confession and prayer ministry with one another.

This may be a time to deal with any issues in the group.

Confession of sins or burdens clears the way to receiving guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Conclude with prayers for one another, absolution and passing the peace.

4. Report on what God is doing.

Here the members of the team will briefly share any evangelism conversations they may have experienced or opportunities they may have missed.

Reflect upon and give thanks for these.

It may be that the Spirit will lead the team to pray for each one of your group and those to whom they have been given the opportunity to share the gospel.

5. Move into Intercession

The following may be helpful:

Pray according to Jesus’ commands: Pray thy Kingdom come.

In addition, pray that God the Father will send laborers. Ask God to show you specifically where His Kingdom is to come. Ask God specifically who the laborers are whom He is raising up. Be ready to be one of them!

Go through Paul’s list of ways of praying for evangelism. Linger on any of these that seem especially important for your situation.

One by one, with the whole group agreeing in prayer, lift up the names of those who have been given to the individuals in the group to be prayed into salvation. (A list should be kept by the leader of who these people are – this could be done by the whole group or in small groups.)

6. Discern open doors for the gospel.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the open doors in the community, the church, the world and in individuals for the gospel.

7. Ask God to reveal any blocks to the gospel message in these situations or people.

8. Ask the Lord what you or the team are being called to do.

9. Discern together what God is saying

God speaks to us through Scripture.  For those of us who believe in the ongoing work of Spiritual gifts and the guidance given by the holy Spirit, we may need to talk about impressions, leadings, visions, prophetic words, or by consensus of the group as part of that discernment. Keep a record of this guidance.

10. Pray for this guidance

Ask God for steps in implementation. Write these down as they are revealed for further discernment, prayer and implementation. These may later be taken to the church leadership for approval and implementation.

11. Conclude the meeting with praise and giving glory to Jesus Christ.

Note: The eleven steps above were first presented in a manual on personal evangelism through PRMI’s Phillip Endeavor.

That has been further refined and developed in the Evangelism Dunamis.

Photo Credit: I’m not sure where I got the original photo.  I’d like to give credit when I find the photo.

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Guest Article: Church Hospitality Training

ChurchGreeterTrainingThis was submitted by one of our readers and permission granted to be distributed by EvangelismCoach.org.  The writer wishes to remain anonymous.  Some slight editing for on-line reading have been made.

The writer gave this as part of their Hospitality training to their welcoming ministries team in a mid-size congregation, so some may be worded for their context.  They have chosen to use the word guest for their church visitors.

H-O-S-P-I-T-A-L-I-T-Y

 

H is for HOST

The word hospitality is defined as the relationship process between a guest and a host.

Christian hospitality flows out of our relationship with God, who has graciously shared His riches with us, resulting in our salvation and adoption into His family.

God is the host, and we experience His gracious hospitality. As recipients of God’s hospitality, we also must act as hosts as we welcome the stranger among us. (See Luke 24)

O is for OPPORTUNITY

Although it is much easier for some people than for others, we all possess some type of spiritual gift towards hospitality to others.

We need to see this as our opportunity to serve others as Christ has served us.

Romans 15:7 says, “Welcome one another therefore just as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.”

Through hospitality, we have the opportunity to imitate God’s welcome.

S is for SENSITIVITY

In order for us to effectively serve as ministers of welcome, it is important for us to understand the mind of the typical guest to church.

Most want to be welcomed, observe our church worship services, and be provided an easy opening if they choose to come again.

Most of all, they do NOT want to be pressured.

We have to be sensitive to these characteristics of the guest.

Think of a time when you, yourself, were a first-time guest in a strange place… where everyone seemed to know everyone else, except you! How did you feel? Were you uncomfortable? Self-conscious? Nervous?

Leviticus 19:33-34 commands Israel to welcome strangers because of their experience in Egypt. “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” They were not to oppress the alien because they knew how it felt when they were in Egypt.

P is for PREPARATION

We need to be sensitive to the guests needs, and must prepare ourselves for company to come.

We need to know how to identify a guest.

The most obvious way for us to figure out if someone is a guest is if we do not recognize the person or persons. But, if we don’t feel like we know all that many people who attend our church, here are a few tips on how to tell if they are newcomers:

First time guests usually arrive early. Many of them do not take the initiative to introduce themselves when in a new place. They typically stand back and observe the space and the people in that space.

For example, if a greeter sees someone walk into the [our fellowship hall], then stop to look around and read signs…the person is most likely visiting for the first time.  They usually prefer to “size-up” the church before they are recognized as a visitor…if they want to be recognized at all! So, it is important not to bombard them with too much welcoming!

Some guests are obvious – standing around, reading brochures that they pick up off of the desk, and are generally being overlooked. When they are sitting in the worship area, they often have their head down reading the bulletin.

They are often those people that we forget to extend a welcoming hand to, particularly those “invisible people” who are quieter and less conspicuous. They may differ from others in the congregation in what they wear, their skin color, or their language.

I is for INTEREST

The next thing needed in order to prepare ourselves for company coming is how to approach the guest. The main thing to understand about this is the importance of showing genuine interest in the individual (s).

When someone comes into your parking lots, buildings, or worship areas, you should approach them by saying something like, “We’re glad to have you here today! I don’t know if we’ve met. My name is …………………”

You should avoid saying, “Is this your first time at our church?”, because you might embarrass yourself or offend someone who is a regular attendee.

It is important to point out that visitors have a way of sensing if someone is genuinely interested in them or not. If phoniness or indifference is at all present in the encounter that they have with people at our church, they can usually sense it.

The first few seconds will shape their impression of the congregation. They can usually tell immediately if the church is a place of welcome, acceptance, and friendship or not.

T is for Team Effort

Being ministers of welcome is a team effort! Although welcoming guests to church SHOULD be the job of the entire congregation, we can’t assume that everyone will always seek out guests and make the effort to welcome them.

From the second someone drives into your parking lots until they get back into their automobiles to leave, you need to have a team of people whose sole purpose is being welcoming to all who come. And it takes many people to accomplish this, because one person can only be stationed at one place at a time!

A is for Acceptance

The next point I would like to make is the importance of being accepting of guests just AS they are and WHERE they are in their faith journey. No matter how they are dressed, how they smell, or how they talk…..they should be seen as God’s honored guests. They may, in fact, be sent directly by God.

Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” Angels are all around us and we never know when we will be entertaining one.

L is for LOVE

We should show Christian hospitality in all situations with genuine acceptance and love. We need to do our best to love the outsiders, to love those who have lost their way in life and remember that when we receive them with hospitality we’re doing it to Jesus.

I is for INFORM and INTRODUCE

Part of helping people to feel accepted and welcomed is by helping them to connect both by informing and introducing.

So, we all need to be familiar with things such as where our rest rooms are located and where other key areas, like nurseries and children’s Sunday school classes, are located so that we can inform our guests.

We can also introduce them to regular attendees who are close by who might be able to answer any questions that we may not have the answer to.

So that you don’t have to leave your post, introducing guests to friendly regulars could be an opportunity for the guest to meet people and have someone to sit with during worship.

T is for TIMELINESS

In order to make certain that as many guests as possible are warmly welcomed, it is important for us to all be timely to begin our various duties.

We don’t want to miss a single opportunity to meet someone in the parking lot, the fellowship area, or the worship area that may be searching for help in life and hoping that someone will care about them.

We don’t want to miss a chance to reach out to people who need the hope of Jesus in a world where few people really seem to care about them.

Y is for Yahweh

Hospitality stands at the center of biblical faith and can’t be taken lightly, because it’s how God treats every one of us.

We find in scripture, from Genesis where God provides a garden right through to Revelation where God provides a new heaven and new earth.

It’s a theme that is repeated over and over. It helps us to understand God’s will for us. In Psalm 23, the psalmist tells us that in Yahweh’s tent we find protection and a gracious welcome.

This is divine hospitality, of God actually making space for us. It’s not temporary but for eternity. Even in the face of all that might be against us, Yahweh still provides a safe place for us.

Coaching Corner

Do want a discuss how to break through where you are stuck in Greeter Ministry?

I offer a coaching call where I spend time on the phone with you or your committee, up to 90 minutes, where I help you trouble shoot and develop some action plans.

Read more about that here.

How To Welcome Church Visitors

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2 Attitudes for Small Church Transformation

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series church transformation

Of all the various observations that Crandall makes in Turnaround and Beyond: A Hopeful Future for the Small Membership Church about vision casting, effective leadership and managing conflict, there were a few items that really stuck out for me in terms of what successful turnaround and transformational churches have.

1.  A concern for outsiders.

SmallChurchWhiteCountrySmall churches are a family.

I know of a small church that has been functioning with give or take 20 members, most of them related to the same family, and it has been that way for most of the church’s existence.

I’ve preached there on a few occasions when they needed an ordained pastor for communion (a requirement in my tribe).

The cemetery next door has graves for multiple generations of this family.

About 2 years ago, they called their first pastor.

I spoke with their new pastor this week and he mentioned to me that the family system is so tight, they take care of themselves.

He often learns about members in the hospital after they get out, or prayer needs from reading the bulletin that Sunday.

Even though he is their pastor, the members still haven’t let him in that system.  They have been so used to taking care of themselves, that even the pastor feels disconnected.

For a church like this to turn around and grow into a new phase of life, Crandall observes that a pastor can’t just proclaim the importance of outreach, but lead the way.

“The pastor needs to engage in personal outreach and evangelism, most naturally to those who constitute the ‘extended family’ of the members. . . . Pastors who visit, reach out, and invite open the door outward and lead the way for the congregation to follow” (69).

This might also take the form of good questions to stimulate the imagination:

  • When was the last time you invited someone to church?
  • Who are the people around us who are not involved in church?
  • Why do you suppose they do not attend?
  • What difference might it make in our community if this church was overflowing?
  • What problems exist in our community that need to be addressed?  Can we do something about them?
  • What do you think Jesus had in mind when he told us “you will be my witnesses?”

As part of that, Crandall’s study pointed out that “a little success in seeing new faces and the return of old familiar faces long absent goes a long way to change the attitude of evangelistic outreach” (p. 70)

For my pastor friend in the small country church, his challenge is helping that congregation think of other people besides themselves.

They have been self-maintaining for so long that they haven’t included their pastor, even after two years.  They may welcome a new visitor on a Sunday, but that family system remains so tight that adoption won’t happen.

This isn’t a problem with just small churches — we have attended a church of 3,000 members that doesn’t use small groups.  After 18 months, we still haven’t been adopted and still only know about 4-5 people by name.  Even my Sunday school teacher had to ask me last week what my wife’s name was.

To reach new people, there must be an expansion of the family — adoption.

2.  Reaching new people

Evangelism in a small church is people centered.  Larger churches have resources and programming that can attract and integrate people, but the small church attracts people through the personal contacts and relational warmth of its members.

Crandall’s study revealed a list of growth factors in smaller churches (p. 84).  There were 20 of them, but grouped into 3  themes.

  • Inviting persons to attend warm and exciting experiences of worship
  • Intentional outreach: ongoing effort to contact and invite people to join the pastor and members to seek God’s blessing, pay attention to God’s word, and love and serve one another.
  • Giving new persons a place in the family. Laypersons are being trained and equipped to discover the joy of reaching out, and giving leadership to the congregation.

Behind all this suggests the role of hospitality and welcoming visitors to the church.

Crandall goes on to talk about hospitality, visitation, and attractional models of church growth, but also includes a section of ministries that engage the community.  There is both an attractional and missional component to effect people reaching, even for a small church.

He is also good at pointing out that laypersons and pastors need also to look for those moments when the gospel can be verbally explained.  “When these programs were also used as contact points to talk about personal faith and invite people to church, they became important points of entry for new people looking for a place in God’s family” (96).

Effective Christian witness involves many forms of mission and ministry, but the core of our witness is still that message of salvation and hope that no other organization can offer.  The heartbeat of every Christian congregation must be reflected int he words ‘offer them Christ’ if it can call itself alive and well.

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