Why Are Young Adults Leaving Church? A Comprehensive Answer
There has been a mass exodus of young adults from Christian churches (including but not limited to Churches of Christ) over the last few decades. As I mentioned a few posts ago, there is a flurry of debate in blogs, facebook, etc on why young people are leaving the church in their early 20s. What […]
“Witness”…Making Personal Things Public
“My religion is a personal thing, deeply personal, but it’s not private.” – J. Mack Stiles in Speaking of Jesus, p.13 There is a belief out there that deeply personal beliefs should be kept private. The thought is, they should be kept private because deeply personal beliefs often have a lot of strings attached. When […]
The Other Side of Evangelism: The Importance of Receiving Those God Sends Our Way
The biggest and most discussed component of evangelism is us going out to lost people. Jesus commanded that we do that (Matt 28:19). There is another, smaller, dimension of impacting lost people and that is the importance of receiving those God sends our way. I know that sounds passive but it isn’t. I am not […]
List of Resources on Evangelism
Here are a few really good resources on evangelism that range from the theory/theology of evangelism all the way toward practical evangelism. One random thought…If you are considering teaching a class on evangelism, it is important to determine your purpose…There is a big difference in teaching a class about evangelism and actually having people evangelize. […]
Two Questions that Are Essential For Discipleship
Last year we created an evangelistic study of Mark called Jesus 101. The study is designed to be used with seekers so that they can discover who Jesus is by studying Mark. Mark is the perfect book for that because it is a little bit of a mystery until chapter 8. At that point in […]
Q & A on “Church Steps” Outreach (Part 2)
Here are some questions a friend of mine asked about how to implement “Church Steps” at the congregation he ministers at. These questions were from those in the congregation who are interested in implementing this approach: Question: Do they use a questionnaire to find out what people are willing to do? Answer: We introduced Church […]
Heaven’s Star by Jim Woodell
A while back I received a book from Jim Woodell called, “Heaven’s Star: Check this Ancient GPS“. This book came to me at a time when I was looking into more resources on how people were evangelizing and what seemed to be working. One reason I was interested in Jim’s perspective on evangelism is because […]
Church Steps: How People Move Through the Steps
One of the most important elements of Church Steps is gathering and organizing information. First, you have to understand the structure to our organization. Some time back a few of us got together to talk about how this was going to work. We had just read Andy Stanley’s book Seven Practices of Effective ministry and […]
Q & A on “Church Steps” Outreach
I asked my friend Philip Cunningham for some feedback and what questions he had so far about our “Church Steps” Outreach we have started at Northwest. Here are Philip’s questions and my answers: Philip: What is the age range of your outreach group? Also- the median age? Our ministry is representative of the congregation. The […]
Summary of Our Church Steps Outreach Ministry
In case you have missed some of the posts over the last few months let me get you up to speed. We started an approach to outreach at Northwest we are calling “Church Steps”. About two years ago our leadership had a discussion about being more evangelistic. A few of us got together and came […]