Declare His Glory – Evangelism

Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous works among all the peoples!
1 Chronicles 16:24

Evangelism

• 100 pts for each intentional invitation to either a first time commitment to Christ or rededication to Christ. 
• Hold an Evangelism Workshop—this can be in the four-fold program or a one-time focus group program. Can be open to congregation, sponsored by women’s ministries. 300 pts
• 300 points per woman registered to attend the National Seminar in Evangelism for 2017 or 2018. In lieu of attending, if your corps or division uses the “Walk Across the Room” in a training, corps may receive points for attendance per person.
• Start or revive a hospitality team 300 pts
• Conduct a six week Bible Study *. If you conduct multiple Bible Studies, each receives 300 points for 6 sessions completed.   

Conduct an Evangelism Workshop

The hope behind this promotional effort is to help equip our women to be able to Declare God’s Glory without fear, knowing God is with them and only the Holy Spirit can change the hearts of people. But we can be a part of sharing the Good News and our testimony.
This can be held within the four-fold program or a one-time focus group program. It can be open to congregation, sponsored by women’s ministries.
When planning it maybe helpful to:

• Contact your divisional program secretary for guidance in finding a special guest that can lead a workshop in evangelism. They may recommend someone local, another corps officer or someone from THQ or they themselves maybe the right teacher for this workshop.
• Resources from Rightnow Media which can be watched as a video workshop if no one can teach in person, View these videos and design the workshop yourself: :

https://www.rightnow.org/Training/Post/View/75260/299020
https://www.rightnow.org/Content/VideoElement/128147
Printable Salvation Cards: Click HERE

Learning your own story and testimony

It’s difficult to tell your story and testimony when you’re not even sure you could tell yourself. We’ve found a few resources that a women’s group could do together to help become more comfortable sharing their life and faith experience.
Learning your own story and testimony
The following exercise can help Christians at any stage in their faith describe their testimony. This could be adapted into sessions for a focus group or fourfold program.
Before I Accepted Christ (or gave Him complete control)

1. What was my life like that will relate most to the non-Christian?

 
 

2. What did my life revolve around the most?  What did I get my security or happiness from?  (The non-Christian is relying on something external to give him happiness)

 
 

3. How did those areas begin to let me down?

 
How I Received Christ (or gave Him complete control)

1. When was the first time I heard the gospel? (Or when was I exposed to dynamic Christianity)

 

2. What were my initial reactions?

 
3.When did my attitude begin to turn around?  Why?
 
 

4. What were the final struggles that went through my mind just before I accepted Christ?

 

5. Why did I go ahead and accept Christ?

 
After I Accepted Christ (or gave Him complete control)

1. Specific changes and illustrations about the changes Christ has made:

 

2. Why am I motivated differently?

Helpful Hints

1. Write the way you speak; make the testimony yours.
2. Practice this over and over until it becomes natural.

Shoot for short — 3 minutes. At that length, it’s easily something you can put into a conversation without it becoming a monologue.
 
An example: Look at Paul’s testimony as you consider how to tell your story. His life before (Acts 22:1-5)

• Paul describes what he thought and did before he became a believer.
• Your goal: to give specific, yet appropriate, examples of what your life was like (attitudes, needs, problems) before Christ.
• Remember that examples you give will establish you as a credible witness in the minds of non-Christians. However, avoid a religious focus. (You want to make it about Jesus and your need for Him.) Don’t spend a great amount of time talking about church activities or denominations before your life began to change. Likewise, avoid being explicit and sensational in speaking of drugs, immorality, crime or drunkenness.

 
How (Acts 22:6-11)

• Paul explained how he became a believer.
• Your goal: to allow the listener to walk away with a clear understanding of how you became a Christian and how he or she can trust Christ as the payment for their sins.

Be careful not to use clichés and church language. Talk in terms they’ll understand.
 
After (Acts 22:12-21)

• Paul explained how becoming a believer changed his life.
• Your goal: to explain specific ways Christ has changed your life — to show that having Christ in your life really does make a difference!
• Avoid using general statements such as “I have so much peace now.” Be specific. It is the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to draw someone to Christ, but you want to communicate your story in such a way to show the listener that your life is different and more meaningful with Christ.

This resource is from:
https://www.cru.org/train-and-grow/how-to-tell-your-story-worksheet.html

300 points per woman registered to attend the National Seminar in Evangelism for 2017 or 2018

Receive hands on, intentional experience in all things evangelism! Send your corps members to the Salvation Army National Seminar on Evangelism!
Get credit for sending delegates this year, and start planning to send delegates next year! Read the reasons to go to the right and visit their website: www.sausn.org

Start (or revive) a Hospitality Team

We understand that a number of items shared in this section crossover into other corps ministries, for example, Community Care. This goal can be achieved by women’s ministries taking an achieve role in the hospitality team. For example, being in charge of greeting at the door (women’s ministries members themselves performing the task or in charge or recruiting helps for the task), creating a welcome station where handouts about corps programs are available and follow-up postcards—for example.
The following are ideas and insights to the power of hospitality at church for your inspiration as you plan.
According to www.evangelismcoaching.com, here are the key components to hospitality at a church:

1. The welcome experience for church visitors
2. Help returning church visitors connect
3. Welcome functions at special church events (think, at Block Party Type Outreach and then the first Sunday or Wednesday after a Block Party Outreach)
4. Member care (Sometimes outreach is continued reaching within the congregation!)

On the website www.evangelismcoach.com, here is what they are looking for at a first time visit:
“First Time Church Visitor Checklist”:
How does your corps do when faced with these questions?

1. A church website — can I find the church?  What does it tell me about the congregation?  I don’t use a phone book anymore.  If I can’t find the website, I try to call the church office to find out that information.
2. “Guest Parking” stalls near the front entrance.
3. Landscaping and physical appearance of the building.
4. I observe and pay attention to accessibility issues (due to a friend being in a wheelchair, I notice these things).
5. If it is a night service, is there adequate lighting in the parking lot and entrances?
6. Greeters at the door— eye contact and near entrance, or are they just holding the door open in a boring job?
7. Directional Signs — can I find what I want without feeling stupid asking for directions?
8. Greeting at the sanctuary entrance, friendliness of ushers.
9. Do ushers guide me to my seat or make me fend for myself?
10. Interactions with members — do they engage me in conversation at any point?
11. Pulpit Greeting – someone greeting visitors from the front.
12. Quality issues from bulletin, sound, smells, lighting, and cleanliness.
13. Quality and strength of sermon (as it’s still the central feature).
14. I visit the coffee reception after the service to see who engages me in conversation.

Check out https://www.evangelismcoach.org/ for great insight and tips to reevaluate your corps hospitality.

Signage! Are people lost when they come into your corps?

Restrooms this way, fellowship hall this way, nursery this way, offices this way, kitchen this way. Without signage new people feel like outsiders!
Additional items:
Some hospitality committees may include other areas of member care:

• Arrange for meals for church families when needed (birth of baby, baby shower, death of loved one, health crisis).
• Light house cleaning for shut-in members or elderly members who need assistance.
• Transportation assistance for members who can’t drive themselves to appointments.
• Gifts for Pastor / Staff appreciation days or Christmas.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/EcoachResourceDownloads/7_Secrets_to_Effective_Hospitality.pdf
Training:
Interesting tips we saw and thought it was important to pass on!

• Greeters—handshakes only if at all! You might be a hugger, but not everyone is! Saying, “I’m a hugger” does not trump the fact that someone else might not be. (A note on handshakes: firm but not powerful, this can be intimidating, that’s not what we’re trying to accomplish when welcoming a guest.)
• “Second time visitor” option on the visitors cards. Include the check off option of: We’d like to follow-up with you, if that’s ok, what’s your preference? Phone call, text, or email?
• Take time to briefly explain the purpose of visitor cards during every worship service.

Source: https://goo.gl/DgY4dj
Try using canva.com to create attractive connection/visitor cards.
There are a few theories of thought on what to include on a welcome card, check out this site’s perspective:
https://prochurchtools.com/perfect-church-connection-card-examples/
Apply the instructions below to your specific corps context, don’t get hung up on the words and phrasing that don’t typically apply to TSA corps.

1.  Get organized: Form a team.

Form a team of people according to your church’s practice.
It might be elected members, or it might be an active member of the church’s governing body with the ability to personally recruit the entire team.
As you pull the team together, consider the gift mix.  You’ll want a team of people who love to welcome church visitors and who desire to see your church grow.
The first thing to determine is your ministry focus.  For the most part, I recommend that the church hospitality committee focus on the welcome experience that people have when they visit your church the first few times.

2. Develop your vision.

Spend some of your first meeting or first few meetings answering the big question:
Why bother with church hospitality?
 
Hospitality is not evangelism — but organized friendliness.  Hospitality is welcoming the visitor and helping them experience God.
Try to get clear on the big picture of what hospitality ministry affects in your church’s growth and why your team should be spending time helping others to get that vision.
True leaders are so captured by the vision that when they share it with others, people will want to help you fulfill it.

3. Spend time reading and visiting

In your initial start-up phase, spend time reading books on church hospitality practices.
Check the Books list for some recommendations on church hospitality books.
Or read this post on 10 Influential Church Hospitality Books.
Make it your goal to learn from some of the other churches in your area by visiting them.
As you visit, take the time to reflect on your experience and that will help you develop empathy for your church visitors.

4. Implement Baby Steps along the way

Take the time to start looking at your Church Hospitality practices.
You might want to pick up a copy of How To Welcome Church visitors which will give you a diagram of visitor flow and help you start to think through significant areas of ministry.
Basically, you’ll want to do a church hospitality review and then find one area that you want to fix in your system.
You might want to tackle:

• Launch a Post Service Reception
• Take a church hospitality audit(Free Download)
• Launch a greeter ministry

· Setup a training meeting.

·

5. Dream the vision with your pastor.

In many places, the pastor may not be on the church hospitality committee.
However, it is important that the pastor regularly cast the vision for welcome in a congregation.
As such, be intentional about communicating with the pastor and seeking out their advice and wisdom.
Invite your pastor to be part of the opening meetings to help develop, cast, and share vision.  The pastor may not need to be involved in the nuts and bolts of committee activity, but connected enough around vision.

6. Develop a Bible study on Church

 Hospitality

Consider spending time as a team developing a bible study on the ministry of hospitality.
You can use this bible study

• As an email devotional for your first time volunteers
• as vision casting reminders
• as a tool to grow your own understanding

 

7. Develop your Visitor Communication Pieces

Part of helping move visitors along the process to repeat visitors, to regular involvement and then to membership involves some critical communication pieces.
Spend time developing or redeveloping:

• connection cards
• visitor welcome packet
• What are the easy low commitment next steps your visitor might take
• · Post Visit greeting letter from the pastor inviting them to take a next step.

1 8. Pick a place to start and implement

2 Most importantly, pick an area in your hospitality process and spend time developing your action plans on how to address what is not working:

1. Post Service Reception
2. Visitor Welcome Center
3. Greeter Organization
4. Building and Grounds

Instructional guide provided by www.evangelismcoach.org