Years ago, I was standing in the lunch line at the seminary cafeteria.  A classmate and I were discussing themes in our evangelism class when a fellow student from another class interrupted:

“Are you talking about the E-word?  In our class, we were talking about evangelism and its connections to American Imperialism.”

Huh?

Another time, in the conversational small talk prior to an evangelism workshop, one person mentioned that their session had just spent six months studying evangelism.

I inquired, “What answer did the session come up with?”

She replied “It’s finding the Presbyterians in our neighborhood.”

Great discussion question

Gather 40 people in a room, and you’re likely to find 40 different understandings of evangelism.

Some evangelism definitions are so wide to cover anything and everything related to growing a church.

Some evangelism definitions are so narrowly focused to a scripted outline to a stranger that needs to be humbled.

Some definitions of evangelism are somewhere in between.

Whenever I do workshops, I always get different answers to the question “What is evangelism?”

Such as

• sharing my faith,
• getting people to come to church
• building a home (as in a mission project for the poor)
• after school tutoring
• hosting the homeless for a night.

In fact, I wrote a evangelism definition discussion guide that you can ask me for.

The definition of Evangelism that I use

Since I’m a Presbyterian pastor, I choose to use an excellent definition of evangelism, as adopted by the General Assembly (1990).

Joyfully sharing the good news of the sovereign love of God, and calling people to repentance, to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to active membership in the church, and to obedient service in the world.

I use this definition for many reasons.

• It’s theologically rich.
• It includes the emotion of sharing, the activity of sharing, the content of the sovereign love of God, and a fourfold call to commitment.
• It goes beyond the “say-a-prayer” as a destination, and sees the fruit of evangelism as integration into a church and outworking as a disciple.

I’ve written about this definition before.  See these articles:

• Joyfully – The Emotion of Evangelism
• Sharing – The Activity of Evangelism
• The Good News – the Content of Evangelism
• The Invitation – the Call of Evangelism

Check out those links to get a further idea on what I’m talking about.

Over at http://www.ChurchHospitalityTraining.com, I’ve released video Number3.

In today’s video, I address one of the biggest barriers that churches put up to visitors who do come back for several weeks in a row.

I once  attended a local fellowship for nearly 6 months and still had no friends.   It was a fellowship with about 100 people at the service we attended.

In fact, not one person made an effort to talk with us.  This church had all the right hospitality systems:

• Visitor Table
• Contact Cards
• Ushers
• Greeters

They were doing all the right things, but there was not a single person who said hello to us.  Even the pastor remained a stranger to us during this time.

That’s unacceptable.

Today I’m releasing video #3 at

http://www.ChurchHospitalityTraining.com

It’s called “Can’t Get in!”

I give some lessons I’ve learned as a result of this, and two ways that I’ve seen churches try to address it.

The fourth video will be out in a few days.

You should be able to straight to the video by clicking the link.  If you can’t get it, simply provide your email address, click on the confirmation link and you’ll get the most current video.

These videos will be up only for a short time, so be sure to get them.  They run about 10 minutes each.

A big hospitality barrier for many churches is a malfunctioning greeter ministry.  Greeters don’t show up on time, do a half-baked job, rarely make eye contact, and seem don’t they don’t really care.

I saw this on my twitter feed not too long ago:

 Church Greeters who scowl when they are told good morning really need to evaluate their spiritual gifts.

Perhaps you have experienced poor greeting when you’ve visited other churches.

Perhaps you realize that your own greeters lack the vision for ministry.

Perhaps you realize that your greeters make unintentional mistakes that leave a negative impression, rather than the awesome first impression your church desires to make.

Greeters are an important aspect of the overall guest experience of your church.  Helping greeters take their welcome up a notch can remove some of those barriers.

I’ve put together a free video for you at www.churchhospitalitytraining.com where I propose 3 quick fixes for your greeter ministry.

Earlier this year, a church hospitality committee leader called me up to have chat about how to restart their hospitality ministries.

Perhaps you have the same challenge they had:

People come for the first time, but they don’t come back.
What can we do to fix that?

This church began looking for solutions

• by evaluating their hospitality systems.
• by talking with me as an outsider and independent consultant.
• by starting to read related books on hospitality ministry.

They were a large church that had several systems in place, but still visitors were not coming back.

Perhaps you’ve read hospitality books, but they seem

• to be written for churches 10 times larger than yours.
• to require more volunteers than the total number of attendees in your church

They talk about systems and processes that just seem out of reach for your church.

Where can you begin?

If you are asking the same question, I’ve put together a free video series for you

http://www.ChurchHospitalityTraining.com

It’s called 9 reasons your visitors don’t come back and what you can do change some of those.
There is a free download available at the end of the video to give you a practical starting point.

I want to send these videos to you over the next 10 days, but only if you are interested,
which is why I’m asking for your email address again before sending you the first one.

The second video will be released by email on Monday, and it’ll focus on three quick fixes to your greeter ministry

You can get the videos only by signing up for them at

http://www.ChurchHospitalityTraining.com

Every weekend, we challenge our church members to invite someone to the next sermon series.

Each week, we call our church members to invite someone to small group.

You probably do it to.

In fact, many people would rather give a church invitation than personally share the gospel.

Have you seen that happen?

I have.

Does an invitation to church equal evangelism?

A recent conversation I’ve been participating in is

Yes or No: Does an invitation to church equal evangelism?

If one is holding to a technical definition of evangelism as proclamation of the gospel, then a church invitation is not evangelism.

The definition of evangelism usually involves the announcement of our sinful condition before God and God’s remedy in Christ.

An invitation to church has nothing to do with the proclamation of the gospel.

Sure, it’s a triggering event to hear the gospel, but in and of itself, the invitation is not evangelism.

Is a church invitation an evangelistic activity?

I consider evangelism as the entire process

• of a person awakening to their spiritual restlessness
• seeking answers to that restlessness
• hearing how Jesus is the way God satisfies that thirst.
• hearing about our sinful condition before God.
• hearing the proclamation of Jesus as Lord and our need to repent
• the call to place faith in Christ and live as a follower of Jesus.

If one considers evangelism as a process or journey that has many elements to it, than an invitation to church is one element.

It’s an evangelistic element.

It’s a link in the chain of the evangelistic journey, so to speak. (See this video about links in the evangelism chain)

Every conversation about faith, every rumination in the late night hours, every invitation to church, every sermon heard, every bible verse read, every small group conversation all become “seeds” that that the Lord uses in the drawing process.

John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

An invitation to church can be part of the drawing process.

It’s an evangelistic activity.

When two of John’s disciples overheard John say, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” they followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and asked, “What are you looking for?”

They responded, “”Rabbi where are you staying?”

Jesus said, “Come and see.” “They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day.” John 1:35-39 (NRSV)

Even the disciples were invited to spend time in the presence of Jesus.

Then Andrew turned to his brother and invited him: “Come and see.”

Different levels of evangelistic activity

As I mention in this post in Growing from Witness to Evangelist, there are different levels of evangelistic activity.

I have found this little tool helpful to offer to people in my seminars.  Here is how to use it:

Take a moment and place yourself on that scale.

1. Where are you most comfortable?
2. What can you do in the next 6 months to move to the next level?

Then offer a sharing time and have people set a goal for their personal growth in evangelism.

(Image Credit)

Jesus also said,

“This is what the kingdom of God is like.

A man scatters seed on the ground.

Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

(Mark 4:26-29)

If we think of evangelism in terms of process of a  journey to the Christian faith, what might that have been like for the Apostle Paul?

Allow me to speculate a little.

The Seeds of Faith

First, here are some background events and influences that shaped his journey faith:

• Jewish scholar (likely with lots of discussions about meanings of texts).
• Pharisee of Pharisee (Acts 23:6)
• Of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews (Phil 3.5)
• Studied under Gamaliel (Acts 22.3).

The Lord uses our our background to shape the spiritual awakening.

One could compare that to lots of seeds that the Holy Spirit can use to awaken faith.

A seed doesn’t bloom to harvest instantly.

There is no “on-off” switch.

The seed needs time to germinate, grow, and mature through a natural organic progression.

Our job as a witness to watch for markers of the journey that our friends are on to faith in Christ and nurture them along into the next phase of growth.  We can look for the seeds that are already there.

Possible Restlessness that Opens the Door

Then there are the event of the time when Paul first begins to appear on the scene in Acts:

• Present at Stephen’s speech and stoning (Acts 8:1)
• Trying to destroy the church, going from house to house (Acts 8:3).

One can reasonably speculate on how Paul interacted with the early Christian believers ready to suffer and die for their faith in Christ. We think highly of the witness of the persecuted church and it’s reasonable to assume that Paul saw that witness.

I can imagine him ruminating in late night hours as perhaps something bothered him about their witness.

• Maybe he heard them praying for him.
• Maybe he heard their witness to him.
• Maybe he even felt their love.

Likewise, if Paul’s teacher is the same Gamaliel of Acts 5:34-39, Paul may have observed that even his teacher may have been troubled by the genuineness of the early Christian movement.

Perhaps he knew his teach Gamaliel was puzzled as well.

This restlessness (speculation, I know) prepared Paul for his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road.

I can imagine how the Holy Spirit was using these life moments to prepare Paul.

This is the drawing process.  (Read John 6:44)

We get to participate in the evangelism process

I’m convinced that the Holy Spirit draws people to faith over time.

Sometimes we get to plant, water, or harvest.

Each story I listen to of a journey to faith had more than one key turning point in the discovery of God.

It might have been a

• Conversation
• Sermon
• Invitation to a church or event
• Life circumstances
• Late night musings over deep issues.

So much of our evangelism training focuses on the conversion, we forget to allow for the process of maturity.

We need to allow our seeking friends time

• to make their decision,
• find answers for their questions
• become willing to consider the claims of Christ
• find healing for wounds caused by Christians or other people that harm their journey.

Evangelism is often viewed only as the proclamation of the gospel.  In a technical sense – it is.

But when I think of evangelism as the process of faith awakening, there is a lot of potentially evangelistic activity.

Recently, I’ve been coaching church teams on personal evangelism over a 4 month time frame.

Their goal is to increase the number of faith sharing conversations they have throughout the week.

Here is a little test that comes out from coaching:

• If you were to look back at the last 7 days, how many times did you get to share something about your relationship with Christ with a non-believing friend?
• If your answer is zero, then what can you do to change that?

Let me share one tip with you.

The starting point for more faith conversations is prayer.

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. – 1 Samuel 3.7

As I read this a few mornings ago, I simply began to think:

• Who am I praying for to know the Lord?
• Who am I praying for God to reveal His word?

I can think of several people today in the reach of my life who do not yet know the Lord.

Many of you know that prayer precedes personal evangelism.

Yet I encounter more and more people that still feel somewhat clumsy in actually praying for people who don’t know the Lord.

Start with a prayer list

Read here on how to Make a prayer list.

It’s a great exercise as it forces us to pay attention to the number of relationships with non-Christians.

Once you have that list, then pray regularly for them by name.

Here are 10 ways to pray for them:

For example:

• Give me eyes to see their spiritual thirst.  (See What is Spiritual Thirst?)
• Give me opportunity to speak with them.
• Give them a thirst, help me to see it.
• Help them move another step closer to you.
• Reveal yourself to them in undeniable ways.

Here is a Evangelismcoach podcast that might give you another possible structure:

What about you?  Who are you praying for today?

As you pray for them by name, obey any guidance the Lord gives you:

• Is God inviting me to spend a little more time with them?
• What is the next “do” with them? Call? Coffee? Cookout?

I’ve been in the Church for so long that deep friendships with people apart from Christ have been neglected.

I’ve filled my day with work, managing the lives of my children, administrative and planning for the local church, and running an international ministry.

Recently, I’ve been having a season of reading and re-reading a bunch of books relating to personal evangelism in a more relational style.

My recent evangelism books reading list

• Holy Conversation: Talking About God in Everyday Life
• I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus
• Living Dangerously: Seven Keys to Intentional Discipleship
• Making Friends for Christ: A Practical Approach to Relational Evangelism
• Just Walk Across the Room
• Organic Outreach for Ordinary People: Sharing Good News Naturally

I’m particularly looking at intentional ways of building relationships of with people who are apart from Christ.

A recent contribution to Building Relationships

One recent good book in this area is Eats with Sinners: Reaching Hungry People Like Jesus Did by Arron Chambers.

This pastor from Colorado shares lots of his experiences in developing relationships with people who don’t know Christ.

Arron suggests that we set up regular times to meet with people who don’t know Christ, and to share a meal with them.

They are framed in the context of characteristics that Jesus used in His recipe to reach lost people. The list is

• integrity
• accessibility
• grace
• faith
• intimacy
• tolerance
• resolve
• urgency
• mercy
• humility
• investment
•  joy
• vision.

Meal times allow for that context for authentic relationships to happen.

Over those meal times, we develop a genuine relationship, and eventually get to the place share sharing needs and concerns between us.

We’ve moved from weather, to family, to deep personal concerns.

There, we find opportunities to share our stories of what Christ has done for us, and how our lives have been changed because of this.

Where Eats with Sinners will inspire challenge or push

As you read Eats with Sinners: Reaching Hungry People Like Jesus Did, I believe you will be challenged by the intentionally that we must have to spend quality time with people who don’t yet know Christ.

In my coaching ministry, I see churches that want instant results – like baptisms within a week of a huge weekend outreach.

In a conversation with my own pastor recently, I looked at my own life and this week and realize that I’ve not made enough space to be with people outside the church.

One church I coached last year got intentional.  In 6 months, 6 new people belonged to the Lord and 3 had already taken baptism.  It was the fruit of being intentionally present with people.

Taking the time to develop true relationships will lead to stronger disciplemaking and deeper faith committments in a local church.  It increases the “stickyness factor” and relational strength to the local church.

Chambers gives different creative ways of bringing Christ into your conversations and your daily life and using it to share the Word.

Get out there and enjoy some food

Since sharing meals is the theme of Eats with Sinners: Reaching Hungry People Like Jesus Did, recipes are peppered in sidebars and call out pages.  Some of them look really good.

At the end of each chapter are questions for digging deeper. Also, there are practical suggestions throughout the book for how we can put into practice — some practical ways that we can do more to reach the lost.

You could use Eats with Sinners: Reaching Hungry People Like Jesus Did as a personal devotional book, or use it in your small group that is focused on holding one another accountable to being with people.

Note:  The publisher provided me a review copy, with perfect liberty to say what I really think.  If you buy this book from Amazon through any of the links, Amazon will send me a thank you gift.

The Institute For American Church Growth asked over 10,000 people this question: “What was responsible for your coming to Christ and this church?”

Their replies were:

• I had a special need – 3%
• I just walked in – 3%
• I liked the minister – 6%
• I visited there – 1%
• I liked the Bible classes – 5%
• I attended a gospel meeting – 0.5%
• I liked the programs – 3%
• A friend or relative invited me – 79%

Source: lost, but it’s been in files for a while.

So, who are you inviting to church this weekend?

You Want Me To Do What?

Many people find personal evangelism scary.

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

You know that Jesus commands us to go and share.

You know that your faith is meaningful.

But fear stands in the way.

Fear Free Evangelism seminars will help you overcome those natural fears and find fresh freedom in sharing your faith.

As you go through the seminar, you’ll

• Learn to recognize God given moments to talk about your faith
• Relax as you talk about your faith
• Discover evangelism can be as normal and natural as breathing.

Chris Walker, of http://www.EvangelismCoach.org, is the featured speaker at a workshop coming to our area.

He is 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 800 articles on personal evangelism, congregational evangelism, and hospitality, as well as a podcast feed, all for free.

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

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.

A resource table will be available for CDs and DVDs.

A love offering will be collected to help advance the ministry of Evangelismcoach.org

Details:

Date: May 17, 2011

Time: 7:30pm – 9:00pm

Cost: Love Offering will be received to advance the ministry of Evangelismcoach

Location: Christ Presbyterian Church, 2508 Dickens Road, Richmond VA 23221

Eventbrite is handling our registrations. . You’ll be taken there to complete your free registration.

After you complete your registration, you’ll receive email confirmation and reminders if your email was entered correctly. If you do not get your confirmation, check the registration form again.