The Secret to Getting Nonbelievers to Check Out Your Church
LifeWay Research recently polled thousands of nonbelievers about what it would take to get them inside a church. When I thought about it, the results made perfect sense, but most church leaders never consider these possibilities. Read More
Interesting link. Very attractive picture of seemingly productive evangelism. Still. I wonder about a couple of things: My first observation is that this methodology seems to have no relation at all with how evangelism proceeded in the Book of Acts; people came together because they were convinced, or at least intrigued and excited, about the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. My second observation is that, if you emphasize the activities that have a higher likelihood of worldly success, I suspect that your church is much more likely to change its focus than that the newcomers will change theirs. But, and I mean this sincerely, perhaps I'm wrong.
Evangelism proceeds in Acts in a number of different ways. These ways do not always involve people coming together “because they were convinced, or at least intrigued and excited, about the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.” What they do involve is the apostle Paul and other gospel workers establishing points of contact with non-believers. These points of contact varied—a local synagogue, a gathering place outside the city wall where Jewish women met to pray, a market place, and a public meeting place where those with free time on their hands gathered to discuss the latest ideas. The outreach ideas discussed in the article follows this pattern. They use the interests of non-believers to establish points of contact with them. They create opportunities for believers to meet unbelievers, form relationships with them, and eventually to have spiritual conversations with them.
A non-believer is more likely to accept an invitation to a worship gathering from a friend than from a stranger. Unbelievers vary in receptivity. Having positive relationships with believers often has a positive effect upon an unbeliever’s receptivity.
Employing these outreach ideas is not going to change the focus of a church if their use is a part of a deliberate strategy to reach and engage non-believers, lead them to Christ, and disciple them as followers of Christ.
A useful tool for planning a church’s ministry around Christ’s mission is Peter Bolt’s Mission Minded (Matthias Media, 1992). I also recommend Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s Simple Church (B & H Publishing Group, 2006).
2 comments:
Interesting link.
Very attractive picture of seemingly productive evangelism.
Still. I wonder about a couple of things:
My first observation is that this methodology seems to have no relation at all with how evangelism proceeded in the Book of Acts; people came together because they were convinced, or at least intrigued and excited, about the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.
My second observation is that, if you emphasize the activities that have a higher likelihood of worldly success, I suspect that your church is much more likely to change its focus than that the newcomers will change theirs.
But, and I mean this sincerely, perhaps I'm wrong.
Evangelism proceeds in Acts in a number of different ways. These ways do not always involve people coming together “because they were convinced, or at least intrigued and excited, about the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.” What they do involve is the apostle Paul and other gospel workers establishing points of contact with non-believers. These points of contact varied—a local synagogue, a gathering place outside the city wall where Jewish women met to pray, a market place, and a public meeting place where those with free time on their hands gathered to discuss the latest ideas. The outreach ideas discussed in the article follows this pattern. They use the interests of non-believers to establish points of contact with them. They create opportunities for believers to meet unbelievers, form relationships with them, and eventually to have spiritual conversations with them.
A non-believer is more likely to accept an invitation to a worship gathering from a friend than from a stranger. Unbelievers vary in receptivity. Having positive relationships with believers often has a positive effect upon an unbeliever’s receptivity.
Employing these outreach ideas is not going to change the focus of a church if their use is a part of a deliberate strategy to reach and engage non-believers, lead them to Christ, and disciple them as followers of Christ.
A useful tool for planning a church’s ministry around Christ’s mission is Peter Bolt’s Mission Minded (Matthias Media, 1992). I also recommend Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s Simple Church (B & H Publishing Group, 2006).
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