Vision; Mission; Strategy; Process

Partnering with my event sponsors -
congregations and judicatories -
to encourage their members
to help overcome spiritual
poverty in our world.

 

            My Vision, Summary:

●          To help mainline Christians re-learn how to invite non-believers to move from the bleak "forsakenness" of Psalm 22 to the "fear no evil" of Psalm 23, connecting with Jesus as both the guide and the goal.

 

            My Vision Statement:

●          Context: For centuries, churches assumed that non-churched persons knew the bible, were familiar with church who/what/why, and would attend. Evangelism meant: 1. Present the Christian message to them; 2. Invite them to decide; 3. Welcome those who decide positively. Membership meant ‘learning the rules’.

My Vision: is to help churches move from this model to embrace the ‘Celtic’ model, which assumes: the people we are trying to reach probably do not think like we do, and they don’t necessarily have any interest in attending church. Then, evangelism will mean: 1. We first establish hospitality by actively inviting non-churched people into our community; 2. Within our fellowship, we engage them in conversation, ministry, education, mission, prayer, and worship; 3. As they learn about the faith and discover that they believe, we invite them to commit. Membership will involve fellowship, community, spiritual growth, and personal connections.

 

            My Vision Statement, Background:

●          For centuries, we have relied on the "Roman" model which assumes that the people we are trying to reach think much as we do, are familiar with church who/what/why, and would attend by choice. This model functioned in three steps: 1. Present the Christian message to them; 2. Invite them to decide; 3. Welcome those who decide positively. The problem is that this model is concerned with making sure people know the ‘right’ answers to certain questions, with membership ‘rules’, and with structure. And it assumes that people come to the church with some basic understanding of the Bible, God, Jesus, Lord’s Prayer, etc.

However, today, a significant (perhaps as high as 40%) proportion of the people around us don’t know the Lord’s Prayer, don’t own a Bible, and haven’t been to church or Sunday School. So we need to ‘graduate’ to what is sometimes referred to as the "Celtic" model which assumes that the people we are trying to reach do not think as we do, and don’t necessarily have any interest in attending church. It follows these three steps: 1. We first establish hospitality by actively inviting non-churched people into our community; 2. Within our fellowship, we engage them in conversation, ministry, education, mission, prayer, and worship; 3. As they learn about the faith and discover that they believe, we invite them to commit. Membership will involve fellowship, community, spiritual growth, and personal connections.

To me, the latter model reflects the original condition and mission of the earliest ‘church’. It also represents why I do this ministry, and the content I have been presenting since I began. But I am grateful to Rev. Byron Leasure for having given me the basis and inspiration to document my vision more precisely and effectively than I had previously. (Click here for his text).

 

            Mission:

●          Provide an event affordable to judicatories and congregations small and large so that the greatest number of participants may attend. (See fee schedules on the Support/ Services/ Fees Page).

●          Invite each participant to embrace Jesus' inviting, generous model of evangelism.

●          Call on all participants to take part in joyful creative new ministries, not shoulder more "tasks" or "jobs"; to explore opportunities and leave aside the old "shoulds, musts and oughts".

●          Provoke open discussion and positive critiquing of the "what-is", not negative criticism and judging of the "what-isn’t", both between me and participants, and between themselves in the Saturday workgroups.

●          Encourage the spiritual development of all participants, especially the skeptics, as they learn to implement these programs.

●          Help participants to understand how intimidating joining a new church can be for visitors, by providing real examples of the physical, cultural and language barriers we so often erect between ourselves and newcomers.

●          Provide authentic stories and "hands-on", down-to-earth examples of how they can eliminate or diminish these hurdles, while understanding that our common goal is to make Christianity more accessible, not more “acceptable”.

●          Send participants back to their churches with proven, do-able action plans and projects - many of which can be started immediately and at very modest cost, respecting and consistent with their denominational liturgical traditions and congregational cultural and geographic realities.

 

            Strategy:

●          To base "Walk With Me" evangelism on the "invitational generosity" Jesus embodied as he reached out to the curious, the skeptics and non-believers.

●          To provide a non-confrontational approach that mainline Christians can embrace, because it dispels their oft-held prejudices that evangelism is or must be a coercive and judgmental effort to "convert" or "sell" others. I offer them a sound, and culturally and theologically acceptable alternative.

 

            Process:

●          Invite participants into my faith journey.

●          Offer them as much of my knowledge and experience about new member ministry as time permits.

●          Present gender balanced, age, ability and racially inclusive PowerPointXP visuals (all text, photos and graphics in color, of course), to involve the skeptics, engage the curious and inspire those already active.

●          Furnish workable solutions to universal problems, in sessions which are spiritually grounded, inspiring and fun.

●          Provide each participant additional spiritual “fuel” and practical examples to begin or augment their church evangelism endeavors.

●          Actively encourage participants to openly discuss their concerns and experiences, both positive and negative.

●          Provide breaks and use lunchtime to give each participant opportunities to connect with other inquiring and committed Christians.

●          Structure the small group sessions so that all participants are from different congregations, thus providing "lateral" encouragement and fostering new local connections for each one of them.

Thank you for visiting.