Evangelism-Church Growth

The following post is made up of thoughts from a recent email I sent out about evangelism.

Relationship Building
Relationships produce the most results. Statistics are clear that friends reaching friends is the most effective way to reach people. We are about to start a 7 week campaign using Elmer Towns Friend Day Program. I have used it twice and more than doubled our attendance both times. This campaign provides many new prospects to follow-up on. Awana is another great evangelism ministry that helps in building relationships. We really work on visiting our Awana kid’s families-this is one of the best methods I have been involved in. Special events like Harvest Fest, Christmas banquets, Day Camps, and Bible Schools all prove to work in the relationship building arena. The follow-up obviously being the key! Most of the individuals that have been saved and baptized in the last few months at Temple started attending our church because a friend invited them.

Other Tools & Methods
We are about to have another tool-Jerry Smith will be with us August 12th to make a DVD about our church which will also include me sharing the gospel. This is a great tool that anyone in the church can pass out.
I have recently started walking people through the first few pages in the gospel of John (http://www.pocketpower.org/).

Programs
Any program is an elementary training process for people that have never shared their faith. Programs get churches started in evangelism. The ultimate goal should be that evangelism becomes a lifestyle, and not a program. My personal opinion is that if the majority of the church members are living the lifestyle of evangelism the program is needed especially to follow-up on ALL the prospects. Frequent preaching on evangelism, Heaven, and Hell seem to keep people motivated in the area of evangelism.

Door Knocking Still Works
The door to door method does not produce as many results as other methods, but seeds are planted and occasionally people are saved. The Jehovah’s Witness and Mormons seem to like this method! They have more results because they do more of it-like every day. I have recently visited one man (5) times. The first time he closed the door in 2 seconds. The second time-1 minute, third time-5 minutes, fourth time-10 minutes, 5th time-30 minutes and I shared the gospel with him. He was a hair away from trusting Christ, but I didn’t push him. I am praying for him and believe he will be one of the next soul winners in our church. There is another aspect of this method that I have experienced, but don’t understand. I guess it goes back to the GROW principles. Immediately when we began our evangelism ministry floods of visitors started attending our church. To God be the Glory!

Prayer
This past Sunday evening after I preached our church was in the altar praying for specific names of people who are lost. Multiple individuals prayed at different times, then I closed our prayer time. I believe we all left more excited about sharing our faith. I felt like I was in a “book of Acts” church service!

Follow-Up
Having good tools for follow-up is important. We printed a special invitation that includes a simple Salvation presentation, a What’s Next? section that talks about the new life as a believer and next steps, and a schedule of our services. Scheduling a Bible study at the moment someone trusts Christ is the soul winner’s responsibility. Project One Generation is a great tool for discipleship (Faith Bible Institute offers this material at no cost if I’m not mistaking).

My greatest desire is to become a more concerned soul winner.