Growth is the issue. 

If you are the pastor of a church the issue is not how big you are but whether or not you are growing – reaching people – impacting your community with the Gospel. The studies vary from state to state and county to county but in most years at least 65-80 % of our churches are plateaued or declining.

When I travel and talk to those pastors often I do not find a church that is throwing the “kitchen sink” at hell trying to make a difference – often I find a pastor who is content to let the church sit – as long as he has a good excuse.

If you Google the word excuse here is the first thing that comes up:

Verb - Attempt to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense); seek to defend or justify.

Noun - A reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense.

Many feel if they have a good excuse it is OK not to reach people. Lord forgive us!

Please don’t let us be content to arrive at The Judgment Seat of Christ with a good excuse instead of the souls of men!

We should not be making excuses, but should be pouring everything we have into reaching the world for Christ.

Here are three excuses I’ve heard and my response to each:

1. My people are not evangelistically minded

Right -that’s why you are there!

I’ve never heard of a pastor who went to a new church and said, “These people are wearing me out winning souls to Jesus. I’m having to tell them to stop witnessing so much so we can get them all discipled and build buildings faster.”

Of course your church is not consumed with evangelism. If they were, the last guy probably would not have left. You’ve got to lead them. Guide them. Cast vision for them. Model evangelism. You have to fan the flames of evangelism for your congregation. In 90 % of the cases the congregations evangelism fervor matches the evangelism leadership the pastor is modeling.

2. Our budget is too tight

We’ve all experienced a down-turn in our budgets in recent years. Many churches think they have evangelism as a priority but don’t have a budget line item called “Evangelism”. But, even if your budget is tight you can do evangelism. Telling people about Jesus doesn’t always take money.

You can:

• Pray for the lost by name
• Prayer walk
• Do evangelism through Sunday School
• Train the members to share their faith

That list could go on and on. And, there is more money for evangelism in your pews than you may first think. It may not all be going in the offering plate but share your passion and finances always flow to passion in the church.

3. Everyone around us goes to church

I know we live in what’s left of the Bible belt but it is just no longer true that everyone goes to church or knows Christ as Savior. There is no county in Georgia that is more churched today than it was twenty years ago. The world is lost. Your world is lost. Go to the local high-school and you will learn that fact quickly.

There are a lot more excuses we could all come up with. Let’s stop with the excuses.

Get busy.

Pastor lead your church to do evangelism and to impact your community for Christ.

A few of my favorite quotes on excuses:

“Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses.” – John Maxwell

“Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” —George Washington Carver

“People who are good at making excuses are seldom good at anything else.” —Benjamin Franklin

Stephen Covey asked the question in his famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective Churches People, “What is the one activity, if you did it consistently and did it well, would yield dramatic results in your life?”

That’s stuff we can think about, give an answer to, but few actually do – which is why we see so few results.

When it comes to evangelism, outreach, church growth or whatever you want to call it, what’s the one activity?

Before you answer I want to suggest one:

Invite people to church.

Now before the haters jump me and say “but the Bible says were are to GO!” or “it’s not a come-and-hear-gospel, it’s a go-and-tell gospel!”

I know all that. And I’m NOT suggesting in the least that we abandon training our people to do personal evangelism “off site.”

I get that.

What I am saying is that inviting people to church is  one of the most effective forms of outreach.

Plus, as a strategy, it also holds these benefits compared to many others:

• It’s easy to teach
• It requires no significant training or skill
• Opportunities to exercise the strategy are near endless

Consider this from Dr. Thom Rainer in his book, The Unchurched Next Door.

• 82% of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if invited.
• Most people come to church because of a personal invitation.

Now those two things alone ought to at least make you think.

Take a breath now and consider this:

• 7 out of 10 unchurched people have never been invited to church in their whole lives

Can you say “white fields” three times real fast?

Now, while your wheels are a-spinnin’…

I don’t recommend just lobbing a quick let’s-go-invite-someone-to-church-this-week line into your next sermon or end-of-service parting exhortations. That’s about as effective as saying “go work on getting healthy!” to help someone lose weight or lower blood pressure.

You need to give a clear plan.  Clear plans yield stronger action, thus measurable results.

So, specifically, teach this in your church:

1. Make of list of specific folks you would live to invite to church over the next two months.Pray and ask God to lay on your heart friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers and family members who live in our area whom you can invite to church. Write down those names.Pray the Lord open their hearts to the idea of visiting church, so they will be open to your invite when they get it.  Next time you go into a conversation with one of these people, get your radar up for your natural segue into a casual invite.
2. Schedule a place to land for Sunday morning breakfast in town and invite your friends via phone, Facebook or Twitter to converge there and head to church together.  For a mid-week idea, make it dinner and then let them know everyone is heading to small group afterward and everyone is invited. (Get other small group or Bible study group members in on this!)
3. Go for the easy visit. The easy visit is small group or an event, such as a women’s luncheon, wild game supper or concert. It’s less intimidating and they have less fear that anyone is going to ask for money or make them stand up awkwardly
4. If possible, invite them into your life before inviting them to church.  Asking someone to church that you’ve at least had them over for coffee increases the odds of a positive response.
5. Invite them to church outside of church.  That is, invite them to something your church is doing outside the church walls (like a barbeque or block party) and then invite them to church at that event after they’ve relaxed a little with your group.

Start here.  More ideas are welcome. Got any? Leave your thoughts below after you check out this incredibly funny video about how to invite someone to church…

Then she would tell me what I had heard before.

“You never know without checking… it’s the ‘silent killer,’ y’know?”

The silent killer. Yikes. Not good.

Sounds like the name of an 80′s horror flick.

The idea that something could be threatening my life and I don’t even know it might be the scariest thing (in this life) one could contemplate.

While the illustration may be a bit dramatic for my point in this post, there’s a “silent killer” of many-a-local-church visitor rate: a poor church web site.

There are 3 kinds of web sites that I have found in consulting with churches from New York to Florida to California over the past few years. I’m going to share them with you for one purpose, and that is that if you’re guilty, that you do something about it.

Here we go.

The 3 kinds of church web sites that are hindering potential visitors from taking the plunge and showing up:

1. The Non-Existent Church Web Site

One recent survey by a Monk Development offered some interesting insights into the new role that a church’s web site plays in our church prospects making a decision to visit the church.

Of people who’d been attending a church for less than a year, 27 percent had found that church online.

And 61 percent of that group said the church website had been ‘somewhat to very important’ in their decision to attend the church.

What if you could enjoy a fast 27% bump in your visitor rate just by having a site that you now don’t have?

TIP: You should be able to get something up within 1 week. That’s right. Any web company worth their salt can put up a five-page web site in less than a week. You can always tweak it later. Just get that thing up!

2. The Dated Church Web Site

If you had your web site built in 2007 and haven’t touched it since, guess what?

Your prospects can tell.

They are checking you out online and a dated web site is the same as a dated anything-else sitting around your church building. It sends a message that you’re skimpy, out-of-touch, or don’t “get it” when it comes to this new, vibrant digital age in which society now functions (every day).

That’s not the message you want to send.

3. The Stale Church Web Site

Compared to ten years ago, one of the biggest differences you will see across the web relating to web sites is that they are more frequently updated. The Internet landscape of the early 2000s was nothing more than a litany of online static brochures.

That’s all changed.

For the past few years, more and more web sites are being built on what started as blogging platforms, such as the free and open-source WordPress platform, so that users with no design or programming experience could add fresh content and updates on the fly.

If your church web site doesn’t allow you and your staff to update content easily and at-will, change it. Call your web site and ask that they rebuild the web site on WordPress and show you how to use it. If they quote you anything over 300 bucks, just remind them it’s amazing what people can and will do for five bucks.

The bottom line is exactly what I’ve been saying for a long time: Google is your new front door. But your web site is your foyer. Get this part right and start bringing in those almost-visitors that, unless you do, won’t show up.

Download: His Heart Our Hands

Exciting, because how wonderful is it that a child now has their entire lives to live for Jesus? How awesome is it that a soul born in sin has now been born again to spend eternity in heaven.

Also, anxious. Why anxious? Because if you have ever led a child to faith in Christ you struggle with knowing if they understood the decision. Although we experience that anxiety, it should not detour us from sharing the gospel with kids.

Obviously, a child can be saved – Jesus said so.

Matthew 18:3 “I assure you,” He said, “unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 19:14 Then Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this.”

Because of the trepidation we experience with leading a child to faith in Christ many people shy away from child evangelism – that is definitely not the course of action we should take. Studies routinely show that if we do not reach them when they are young we may never reach them at all. Consider this 2004 study by Barna:

Most Christians Were Young When Saved

For years, church leaders have heard the claim that nearly nine out of ten Christians accept Jesus as their savior before the age of 18. If that statistic was accurate in the past, it no longer depicts U.S. society. The current Barna study indicates that nearly half of all Americans who accept Jesus Christ as their savior do so before reaching the age of 13 (43%), and that two out of three born again Christians (64%) made that commitment to Christ before their 18th birthday. One out of eight born again people (13%) made their profession of faith while 18 to 21 years old. Less than one out of every four born again Christians (23%) embraced Christ after their twenty-first birthday. 

In 2012, in Georgia, we had 76 fewer Vacation Bible Schools than we had in 2011 which resulted in over thirteen thousand fewer children attending which resulted in over 700 fewer child baptisms. I hope this is not a trend and that every GBC church will aggressively pursue an evangelistic VBS by:

• training decision counselors for VBS
• sharing the gospel corporately and in every classroom
• bringing in an evangelist for an evangelistic evening and let him give a 20 minute gospel presentation and invitation
• making sure every teacher is trained in how to share the gospel

We need to be diligent in child evangelism and also provide the tools necessary to help them grow in Christ and understand their decision.

Let me introduce you to one such resource – “Welcome to God’s Family” by Kim Harris. This booklet is a short, concise  and entertaining workbook that will help kids understand their decision and the next steps to grow in Christ. It is a 20 page study that can be a valuable resource in child evangelism.

While we do not have copies here at the GBC you can email Kim at DaKimmer @aol.com to order copies for your church, decision counselors, SS teachers, and VBS.

Today I found this one – How to Share your Faith.

The website even has video training.

Check it out and let me know what you think. If you know of another good app, leave it in the comments below.

IDEA: Show in a church service or youth service

However, there are some element for reaching people that are consistent no matter the church, environment, culture or history. Prayer is one element that remains constant. Many times praying for the lost by name is not something we regularly do. We pray for “lost” people, but praying for them by name is not as common.

I encourage Small Groups, prayer groups & Sunday School classes alike to work through a prospect list. The church should take advantage of praying people in the church to pray for and lift up lost people and a divine opportunity to share the Gospel. There might be new people to the community, church, workplace environment or the ballfield, who need Christ.

Just as each church is different in how they reach the lost, each person has different barriers that keep them from Christ. Those barriers and that person need specific prayer. As the members of that team of people come together for prayer, a good practice to begin would be praying for people by name. The group then prays for the person at the point of need. General prayers for lost are still needed, but praying for a specific person to be saved at the point of need should be the priority.

The need is universal; it’s the need for the Christ.

After the very short interview, which was fine by me, I asked Susan if she had ever visited our church.  She told me she had but probably would not be back.  I proceeded to ask her to please tell me her first impressions and don’t use names, I probably did not know them anyway.  After a long conversation about church, the bottom line was that our church was not friendly to outsiders.

As I worked the next few months I used my conversation with Susan to push me to work with the church to change the “outside” perspective on our church.  The bottom line was we were friendly to ourselves; people we knew and saw each week, but not to our guests.  It was funny in a way because as I worked through Sunday School classes and the current Greeter Ministry, they wanted to know WHO were they not friendly to and which Sunday.

Your Greeter Ministry, and a greeter for each Sunday School or Small Group, need yearly refreshers at least to remind them that each each Sunday is important.  That meeting might be used for recruitment, assigning places for people to be, budget review (you WILL need a budget for Greeter Ministry) or to say thank you to the current Greeters.  Ushers/Greeters are a must for any size church.

• The ushers/greeters help people find their way around the building
• They should assist to help people find seating if needed
• They should make sure everyone who walks on campus goes home with some sort of bullettition/ promo piece, advertisement.  Anything to take home by way of information / that has phone numbers / website on it
• Ushers/greeters should be clearly marked with identification.  Don’t hide your greeters.  Use name tags, lanyards, shirts, anything that will identify them.
• They need to be in place 20 -30 minutes before each service and about 5- 10 min following.  People might have questions about when they can come back etc.
• Some churches might need some sort of communication with a Welcome Center to make sure people find their way to the worship center or to a classroom

We need to be on the lookout for people who are our guests.  We want them to feel welcome and know God cares for them and so do we.  

by Steve Parr

The Georgia State Evangelism Conferences have expanded in recent years by virtue of what we call the 1-4-1-4 Plan.

The conferences have rotated every other year with a central gathering in odd numbered years followed by four conferences held in various regions during even numbered years.

The plan has been a great success as more pastors, staff, and church leaders have had accessibility that the rotation provides. A conference is held in every region of the state in a four year cycle. The cycle will complete in 2014 and will be followed by evaluation to consider next steps.

The 2013 Conference will be held at one location and the 2014 Conferences will move back to four locations.

We want to present to you a snapshot of the 2013 program and hope you will mark your calendar and plan to participate.

The theme for 2013 will be Re:Vision and will be held at the First Baptist Church of Douglasville on February 25^th and 26^th.

The worship leader will be Daniel Crews and he will be joined by a variety of local artists as well as the choir and music ministry of First Baptist Church under the direction of Daniel Crews.

Featured speakers will include:

• Johnny Hunt
• Vance Pitman
• Jeff Iorg
• Fred Luter
• Ken Hemphill
• Jon Reed
• Emir Caner
• Jerry Vines
• Robert Smith, Jr.

In addition, theme interpretations will be led by Georgia Pastors and Evangelists.

The below PowerPoint provides an overview and more details are forthcoming.

For now, mark your calendar and bring someone who needs to be encouraged.