Culture of evangelism: develop a plan

Converge executive director of Church Planting Lee Stephenson shares eight components needed to create a culture of evangelism in your church in the May 2018 issue of Point magazine.

In this eight-part blog series, Stephenson expounds on each of the things he says church leaders must do to create an evangelistic environment.

Part 4: help people develop a plan

Most pastors would agree that church growth isn’t easy nor automatic. From personal experience in leading a church plant, I had to come to grips with the fact that most people in the church are comfortable with the status quo.

Defining the why behind evangelism is critical for the church to hear. Without a vision to reach the lost they will never be reached. However, many times vision stalls because there is no plan for personal implementation. Why does the vision to evangelize often stall out? Simply put, I think it’s scary.

Changing the programs of the church needs to be a part of the plan when it comes to empowering people to reach out. Most church programs grow toward becoming more introverted over time. They get oriented toward meeting the need of our people rather than those in our community.

Is your church friendly to people who don’t have a previous church experience? If not, what needs to change? Get people in the church to think this way, and you will begin to see the pendulum swing in the other direction. People have to take ownership that this call to evangelism is a mandate of every disciple, not just a program in the church.

For people to get excited about evangelism, they have to believe they can win when they share their faith. This is why it is necessary to help people form a plan of action when it comes to identifying their circle of influence. A strong action plan should include a prayer strategy, potential questions to engage a spiritual conversation and a game plan of what the next step looks like.

Teach people about the three stages of evangelism: cultivate, plant and reap. Work with people on developing a plan that engages and embraces all three stages of evangelizing. Teach people how to share their God story with the hope and prayer that it triggers a God moment with those they are sharing.

Having a strategic plan of what the church should focus on and empowering people to do this on their own will broaden the church in its overall community impact.