Praying
Prayer Strategies – Praying for a friend or neighbor is a first step towards a gospel conversation. Whatever evangelistic strategy your church employs, consider prayer as the starting point for a verbal witness.
Prayer Cards (or a digital equivalent) help believers register their commitment to pray for people far from God:
BlessEveryHome.com – BlessEveryHome.com is a free and confidential tool to pray for, care for and share the gospel with people who live in your neighborhood. The online tool maps your home and other homes in your area so you can get to know your neighbors by name and begin to build relationships with them. Use your personal dashboard to track your progress with each neighbor. Receive optional daily reminder emails with a prayer prompt and 5 neighbors to pray for that day.
Churches can use BlessEveryHome.com to mobilize members for a neighborhood-based praying, caring and sharing effort. Regional and state associations can also assist their churches with this set of online tools. If you represent a church or an association of churches, after you sign up for a personal account, you can add an additional church or associational administrator role to your account. Bless Every Home is a ministry service of the Mapping Center for Evangelism and Church Growth.
Equipping
One Person Focus – One person 0utreach initiatives include an intentional witness training plan and build sustained churchwide DNA and evangelism focus. The objective is mobilizing as many believers as possible to live a lifestyle of sharing.
The 1×3 Outreach Initiative is a sample initiative that asks for 3 commitments:
- 1 Story – Learn to share your 1 story.
- 1 Verse – Memorize 1 verse to share the gospel.
- 1 Person – Identify and share with your 1 person.
Conversational Evangelism – Authors David and Norman Geisler share an engaging, conversational approach to evangelism as they address:
- What makes old models of witnessing ineffective in today’s culture
- Why evangelism must start with relational pre-evangelism
- How to ask questions, listen attentively and understand what someone believes
- Ways to identify the real barriers to belief in order to build a bridge to truth
- How to keep dialogue going with different personality types
- Class Outline #1 – Class Syllabus and Introduction | Evangelism & Culture
- Class Outline #2 – Chapter 1 – “The Need for Pre-Evangelism in a Postmodern World” | Chapter 2 – “Introduction to Conversational Evangelism”
- Class Outline #3 – Chapter 3 – “Learning the Role of the Musician” | Chapter 3 – “Learning the Role of the Artist”
- Class Outline #4 – Chapter 5 – “Learning the Role of the Archaelogist” | Chapter 6 – “Learning the Role of the Builder”
- Class Outline #5 – Chapter 7 – “The Art of Asking Questions of People with Different Worldviews” | Chapter 8 – “The Art of Answering Questions While Moving Forward”
- Class Outline #6 – Chapter 9 – “Countering Common Misconceptions that Affect Evangelism”
Contagious Christian – The popular “Becoming a Contagious Christian” training program has been completely updated and revised and can now be used in the classic seminar format, or as an exciting church-wide “Contagious” campaign. Watch your church grow as everyone is inspired and taught at weekend services (using suggested sermons provided in the new kit) while they’re trained in how to share their faith using the course materials in small groups or Sunday school classes. And it all culminates in a final outreach weekend service they can invite their friends to!
Evangelism Explosion – Both Everyday Evangelism (Ev2) and classic Evangelism Explosion (EE) lead believers share their faith using prayer, on-the-job training and multiplication. By learning small parts of the Gospel each week, including Bible verses and illustrations, people incrementally grasp a Gospel tool that becomes a lifelong mission. EE also partners believers with experienced trainers in real life witnessing situations.
Every Believer a Witness – Every Believer a Witness (EBAW) mobilizes the masses for evangelism. The material addresses the underlying reasons we don’t share and motivates each believer to begin sharing immediately. EBAW can be taught as a message series over a period of five or six weeks, or in a Sunday through Wednesday format. Topics addressed include: “destroying apathy,” “developing know-how,” “defeating fear,” and “appropriating divine power.”
NAMB Evangelism Resources – The North American Mission Board provides resources to share Christ, whatever the setting. The online toolbox includes apologetics, God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS), LoveLoud, evangelistic events, personal evangelism and follow-up resources.