Outreach Vs Evangelism

I was reading a great article in Outreach magazine. It was talking about how people use the words outreach and evangelism interchangeably. On this podcast I’ve been asking for your ideas on what you do to evangelize. Looking back, what I’ve been doing is asking for your outreach ideas.

Outreach is the Wii bowling league. Evangelism is not the prayer you do before you get started. It’s not the “movie night” you host at your church, or the regular Bible study on Wednesday night. Those actions are outreach. They are vehicles for you to bring people into your church (or other location) so they can meet you, and get to know you. You can start to build relationships through outreach. But outreach is not enough. You can feel good about paying for the person’s meal behind you in the drive through, but it’s not evangelism. It is a way to find something in common with people, and gently lead them to Christ.

Some define evangelism as “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.”

Outreach is a vital part of evangelism. We need to develop friends who are unchurched. We need to let them see that Christians are not as whacky as we are depicted on television. Outreach is a great tool for this, and it lays the groundwork for evangelism.

Without outreach, evangelism is like going up to a stranger and asking for their hand in marriage (before asking them on a date). It catches people off guard. It’s abrupt and assertive. On the other hand if you found someone you really like, you get along great, and you date for five years all of your friends will start to bug you and ask, “When are you going to get married (commitment)?. We worry about “forcing our beliefs” on someone, and end up doing outreach, outreach, outreach. It’s time to pop the question, “So what is your relationship with Jesus like?,” or “How do you feel about God?”

It’s tough pointing out to people that they are sinners and in need forgiveness. It might make them feel bad, and Satan will convince us to sit back and lay low. There is a difference between outreach and evangelism, and in the same way it makes no since to plant a garden and not harvest it, it makes no sense to perform outreach without evangelism.

Outreach Vs Evangelism is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

You rarely hear anything good about Christianity, let alone someone saying it can save someone’s life. Well Bret Hume did just this on a recent Fox news message. Now I’m sure this will set off a bunch of scoffing by the media, but it was inspiring to see someone in such a public place stand up for their faith.

The Courage to Stand Up is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

I just read a great article about using Twitter as an outreach tool. I mentioned in a previous episode about how I use twitter to share prayter concerns, and announce events (remember many people receive “tweets” on their phone).

This article talks about how using the advanced search features  you can filter by zip code to see tweets from your area. Thats is really cool. You can do this via search.twitter.com 

To read the article click here

More Uses For Twitter is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

Today I talk about some of the items that I’ve already blogged about. To be notifed when a new post comes out sign up for the newsletter (over on the left).

Can you imagine if we all write down what we’ve tried to get in touch with people outside of your church? Write odwn both the ones that worked and didn’t work, can you imagine how the people that come after us would benefit from such a list? People would read an idea and take them and tweak them into better ideas, more effective ideas, and avoid the ones that didn’t work so well. Can you imagine?

I’m already committing my 2010 to making this site better, and making sure its updated on a regular basis. I hope you will work with me to spread the word of Jesus. You can call in your comments at 888-563-3228, email me dave “at” growyourchurch show “dot” com (spelled out to avoid spam), or just leave a comment on the blog.

A Huge List of Evangelism Ideas is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

I’m not sure how I found her, but I just discovered Trish Ramos. She has an awesome site called “Fish with Trish” that has all sorts of evangelism ideas. I really like some of her short youtube videos that show you just how easy (and safe, and non threatening, etc) it is to share your faith. This video shows her “two for one” deal at the fast food drive-thru.

Great New Resource “Fish With Trish” is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

Recently I attended a small group session on evangelism. Here are a few things I learned:

1. Evangelism isn’t somethng that happens at 7 PM on Tuesday nights.

2. Evangelism has a goal of introducing people to the truth – not so much converting them to Christ (the holy spirit will take care of that).

In the session I took a survey that had all sorts of different questions about my preferences in different situations. Well my next small group meeting is in Janurary and I didn’t get the chance to evaluate my answers. The survey was out of the book “Got Style – Personality-Based Evangelism” by Jeffery Johnson.  The description at amazon.com states:

 ”Identify the evangelism style that suits your personality, learn from biblical and contemporary role models who employ the same strengths, and discover the joy in introducing family, friends, or strangers to the life of faith.”

So I bought the book, and will be reviewing it in the future. If you would like to read along with me you can order the book here (affiliate link)

Got Style Review Coming is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

So many times we think we have to memorize a bunch of scriptures to be able to talk about God with people. We contemplate the worst case scenarios and we get scared about sharing our faith. Here is something you should ponder.

Answer this question:

What is your favorite Dessert?

(answer out loud or in your head, but answer the question).

Why?

If I was to answer this question I would say “Mitchell’s home made strawberry ice cream in Lakewood Ohio. There are actual chunks of strawberry in it, is so sweet and yummy. It doesn’t taste artificial at all, and ….(you get the picture)

Yet when we go to talk about God with people we meet, we get scared.  We don’t get worried about people asking for the recipe of our favorite dessert, but we get worried that we have to have the bible memorized before we can speak about our faith.

God Gets Bigger

As you get older, things from the past get smaller (like your high school or elementary school). However, as we get older and bigger God gets bigger as we have a better understanding of our faith. His mercy is so huge we can’t comprehend. Yet it is this awesome gift that we can’t find words to tell our friends.

What if you have more passion for ice cream than Christ? Then read the word, pray, and attend church on a regular basis. You will begin to see the world through his eyes, and your walk will become closer with God. Like your best friend, the more time you spend with them the better you understand each other, and develop a closer bond.

You didn’t have your favorite dessert memorized, and you don’t have to have the bible memorized to tell your friends about Christ.

Whats Your Favorite Dessert? is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

Today we interview Debi Hullinger the connections director from The Chapel in Akron, Oh and we great some great tips and resources.

Make Your Guests Feel Welcome

First things, they are not visitors. Visitors are those people that show up unannounced. You prepare for a guest (bake a cake? clean the house? etc).  But you can make them feel special in many ways such as:

1. Give them assigned parking (then you don’t have to guess if they are a visitor or not).
2. Give them a gift (like the book Anchor for the Soul), and have them fill out a card.
3. Have people designated to greet them.
4. Have a PLAN to DO SOMETHING with that card you have them fill out.

That guest to makes a first impression in as little as seven seconds. At that point they decide if they want come back again (before a song has been sung, a sermon has been preached, etc.).

The Attitude of the Chapel

Debi explains at how its nice on Sundays when they “bring the Church inside.” During the week the congregation is the church as they are “out there.” They occasionally hold classes on evangelism using the curriculum “Just Walk Across the Room” ( I just bought this audio book from Audible and its awesome). They have a library (why not pool all your Christian related books so your congregation can have a constant stream of knowledge).

It Was Nice to Worship With You

One thing you can do (regardless of your church size) is to look around you at the end of the service and find someone you don’t know. Go to them and say, “Hi I’m ___ I don’t think I’ve met you before. It was nice worshiping with you. Then take a few minutes and chit chat. Now next week you have a new friend. Find another person you don’t know. Maybe introduce your new friend to the person you met last week.

Music

Green Bananas by the Rev. Jimmie Bratcher

I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmie in California at a podcasting convention. This song is great fun with a great message. We don’t know when Christ is coming back. It might be a year from now, it might be tomorrow, so don’t sell me no green bananas.

Coming In the Future

In future episodes I will be talking about the book Fusion, my Connection Power demo, your website, and more.

Join In the Conversation

Call our toll free number 888-563-3228
Leave a message on this site (comment)
Send an email to dave “at” growyourchurchshow “dot” com (separated to avoid spam).

This show originates from www.growyourchurchshow.com

Mega Church Insights is a post from: Grow Your Church Show

Welcome to “episode zero” of the Grow Your Church Show. This is that boring show where you learn a little about the host, what inspired the show, and what to expect. With that in mind:

Dave Jackson

I’m the host. I’m 44 and I attend the Community Baptist Church of Tallmadge. I’m interested in growing my church, so that is one of the reasons I started it. I also think that a podcast can be a great way that Christians can have a “water cooler” to share ideas of that is and is not working at your church.

Same Message – Different Formats

I was at amazon.com and I saw where you can get the movie “Gone with the Wind” in the following formats:

1. The sound track
2. As a VHS tape
3. As a DVD
4. As a special 4 DVD package
5. As a 70th Anniversary edition on Blue Ray.

It’s the same movie, but its in different formats. Why? Because some people like VHS, some people like a DVD. So the company behind Gone with the Wind is delivering it in the formats that people want.

Likewise, one of the thoughts behind the “Grow Your Church” show is that the gospel of Jesus Christ will never change. However, we need to deliver it in formats that people want to consume it. This may be via podcast, via email, via contemporary service, via traditional service. It’s all the same message in different formats.

I hope you help us by sharing what is working (or not working) via email, phone, or by commenting on this blog, or by participating in our forums. If you don’t feel like doing any of those, I ask you to pray for this podcast. My goal is to harness the power of the Internet so we can all work together to further the message of Christ.

- Dave

Same Message – Different Formats is a post from: Grow Your Church Show